Serbian National Research Articles

Phrasing the Yugoslav Crisis: Jovan Mirić and the Constitutional Debates of the 1980s

Abstract In this article, I analyze the debate triggered in Yugoslavia in 1984 by Jovan Mirić’s book The System and the Crisis. Drawing from a wide corpus of sources, mainly from the Yugoslav press and the intellectual production of the time, I argue that the episode sheds light on many aspects of the Yugoslav crisis. First, it shows the ultimate incapacity of certain actors of the Yugoslav political and intellectual elite to accept a compromise with those who pushed for reform. Second, the episode attests to the changes introduced by the crisis on the Yugoslav political and intellectual landscape, which allowed for an intellectual with no political prominence to attain unexpected influence over party politics overnight. Finally, I also argue that the Mirić affair shows that many in the Yugoslav political and intellectual world who could not be identified as nationalists were nevertheless anxious about the way in which authorities were dealing with the Serbian question, which invites us to leave aside black-and-white notions when considering the power of Serbian nationalism and its rise during the 1980s.

RELATIVE CARITIVE CONSTRUCTIONS WITH CONJUNCTION-PREPOSITION COMPLEX ILI BEZ IN SERBIAN (WITH AN OVERVIEW OF THE SITUATION IN RUSSIAN)

The paper presents 29 relative caritive constructions identified in Serbian language thanks to a search of the Serbian National Corpus, from which they are excerpted. Detailed analysis has shown that most of the excerpted constructions consist of a preposition, noun in a certain case, conjunction-preposition complex ‘ili bez’ and, often, a noun or pronoun in genitive. The analysis has also shown that 29 types of the excerpted constructions consist of 9 different prepositions on their left side which give the information about the absens, and that inclusion and action of the absens in concrete situations are relativized. Nevertheless, there are 5 non-prepositional constructions and 2 constructions that have complex prepositional expressions ‘u suprotnosti sa’ and ‘u saglasnosti sa’ on the left side. Regular caritive constructions negate inclusion of the absens on the right part of the construction, but these (analyzed in the paper) are specific because the conjunction ‘ili’ slightly neutralizes caritive semantics of the preposition ‘bez’. It should be said that among excerpted constructions we identified 11 with anaphoric features that are discussed in the paper as well. In general, the conducted analysis showed that caritive semantics in Slavic languages (i.e. in Serbian and Russian) is not grammaticalized, which means that there are many grammatical and lexical resources for its presentation that need to be registered and described.

The Beginning of Serbian Mobilization in Kosovo and Rise of Nationalism

The Kosovo Albanian student demonstrations of 1981 have been used as an alibi for Serbian nationalism to strengthen its ranks in Kosovo. The rise of Serbian nationalism started several years ago, but its first appearance occurred at “Francuka 7” Street, in Belgrade, Republic of Serbia, where the seat of Serbia’s Writers’ League (henceforth: SWL) was located. This seat released clear instructions for the mobilizing actions of Serbs in Kosovo and further. The construction of various ideas was supported also by the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (henceforth: SASA and by the Serbian Orthodox Church (henceforth: SOC). This would become like a three leafed flower (SWL-SASA-SOC) whose intoxicating smell affected many Serbian minds. Therefore, the paper “The beginning of Serbian mobilization in Kosovo and rise of nationalism”, aims to elaborate the factors that influenced the beginning of rise of the Serbian nationalism, its organization and escalation, and consequences deriving from it.

The Politics of Memory of the Second World War in Contemporary Serbia. Collaboration, Resistance and Retribution

<i>The Politics of Memory of the Second World War in Contemporary Serbia. Collaboration, Resistance and Retribution</i>

Kosovo 1989: The (Ab)use of the Kosovo Myth in Media and Popular Culture

AbstractThe author explores the creation of public opinion in Serbia in the late 1980s and the (ab)use of the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo on 28 June 1989. As a result of Serbian president Slobodan Milošević’s carefully planned propaganda, a negative image of Albanians as well as a positive perception of Serbian nationalism were enforced. The media and popular culture played a particularly important role in reviving the Kosovo Myth, together with the leading Serbian (academic) institutions and influential intellectuals. Thirty-some years after 1989, the Kosovo Myth is presented in the media in a largely unchanged manner, while for Serbia the Kosovo problem remains unsolved.

An Obstacle to Decolonising Europe

While the central aim of decolonisation is undoing colonial legacies, a major obstacle is white nationalism. A new wave of transnational anti-globalist, Islamophobic, and white-grievance tropes have hybridised with local political ideologies of right-wing politics and authoritarian populists in Europe and the United States. Here, I review the cultural characteristics of this new wave of white nationalism by focusing on its co-option of Serbian nationalist propaganda from the Yugoslav Wars and shared receptivity to narratives among far-right political groups in former colonial powers. The portrait that emerges is one of cross-cultural variations on a common theme: maintaining white supremacy and actively countering ideological challenges to it. Critically, the new wave of white nationalism expands our anthropological understanding of white supremacy but also highlights the significance of white nationalism in obstructing justice initiatives that address the race crimes of colonialism. Less consensus has been reached, however, on how to counter white nationalist networks and transnational extremist propaganda. In addition to highlighting ways to counter white nationalist propaganda, I argue that decolonising Europe and achieving its envisioned relations of sociative peace will not be fully realised unless more is done to minimise the influence of white nationalism.

Dietary Habits of Older Adults in Serbia: Findings From the National Health Survey.

Objectives: Adults aged 65 years and older comprise one fifth of the Serbian population. Many of them have multiple, often diet-related comorbidities. We aimed to investigate their dietary habits by comparing them with younger adults' and to determine the relation of the differing ones to demographic, socioeconomic and health factors.Methods: We performed a secondary analysis of 2013 Serbian National Health Survey data on 14,082 adults. Binary logistic regression was used to determine dietary habits associated with older age (≥65 years) compared to younger age (18–64 years) and to assess their independent predictors in older adults.Results: Older adults more often reported everyday breakfast (OR = 2.085, 95%CI = 1.622–2.680) and brown/wholegrain bread consumption (OR = 1.681, 95% CI = 1.537–1.839), while using margarine (OR = 0.578, 95%CI = 0.397–0.839), discretionary salt (sometimes: OR = 0.648, 95%CI = 0.596–0.705, almost always: OR = 0.522, 95%CI = 0.445–0.614) and consuming fish (two or more times a week: OR = 0.465, 95%CI = 0.383–0.566) less frequently than younger adults. This was mainly positively related to urban environment, affluence, higher education and poor health.Conclusion: Using nationally representative data, we found that older adults reported healthier dietary habits compared to younger adults, which requires timely public health action.

From the Small Serbian Monastery to the London Cathedral: Father Nicholai Velimirovich on a Mission to Great Britain in the First World War

The life and work of father Nicholai Velimirovich (1880–1956) is a limitless historical source, which has been encouraging, for the past 100 years, various researches in the Serbian, English, and other languages around the world. Velimirovich, as a person, and his numerous writings can be viewed from different aspects. This article, that is dedicated to father Nicholai Velimirovich, is an attempt to highlight his mission and role in the Great Britain during the First World War. In order to better understand the importance of his mission, we have described the establishment and operation of the Serbian Relief Fund, the Committee of the Serbian Red Cross Society, and the Scottish Women’s Hospitals in their medical and humanitarian missions for the Serbian people in the Great War. Apart from the significant role of father Nicholai Velimirovich, we remember many other great humanists and humanitarians working with and within these various medical and humanitarian missions. With their unforgettable achievements they helped treat people. and to mitigate the terrible suffering of the Serbian people during the great epidemic of typhus in Serbia, and during the great Exodus through the rugged Albanian mountains, during the exile on Corfu, at the Salonica Front, North Africa, Corsica, and France, as well as on the Russian Front, and in Dobruja and even after the Great War. As a representative of the small Serbian nation, father Nicholai Velimirovich held arousing speeches, religious sermons, and wrote numerous literary religious writings, and thereby he confirmed that in the midst of wartime conflagration it is possible for great humane achievements to appear. That is why that impressive spiritual dimension of the mission, which included father Velimirovich and his contemporaries, did not cease to continue to inspire historians, writers and other authors — in the past, present, and the future.

Discursive Historical Con­tinuities: Serbian Nationalist Discourse in the Printed Media on the Brink of the First Balkan War (1912) in Comparison with Today

This article explores the 1912 print media in Serbia in their relation to the Balkan Wars, comparing the nationalist topoi with the contemporary age and contemporary national groups. It analyzes the content of several articles printed in papers such as Illustrated War Chronicle (Ilustrovana ratna kronika) and the Serbian newspaper (Srpske novine), juxtaposing their discourse with contemporary Serbian nationalism. The primary sources from 1912 have not been discussed in scholarship, except a few mentions. It shows that after a century since the Balkan Wars has passed, the nationalist discourse has remained more than similar, using the same historical pathos of victimhood and “othering” of the Enemy

Vojnový Album: Dr. Jenő Lesskó–Belehrad 1915–1916. Ratni Album: Dr. Jenő Lesskó–Beograd 1915–1916

Vojnový Album: Dr. Jenő Lesskó–Belehrad 1915–1916. Ratni Album: Dr. Jenő Lesskó–Beograd 1915–1916

Between Political Myths, Dormant Resentments, and Redefinition of the Recent History: A Case Study of Serbian National Identity

The subject of the article concerns the issue of constructing and reconstructing national identity. The object of interest here is a sociological case study of Serbian national identity. It includes reconstruction and interpretation of in-depth interviews conducted in Serbia with the representatives of Serbian symbolic elites. The concept of symbolic elites is approached in the discussed research from Teun van Dijk’s perspective. Thus, they are individuals and groups directly involved in the production of public opinion, who have an impact on the content of publicly available knowledge, and the creation and legitimization of public discourse. The work is embedded in the methodological framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and is based on the assumptions of the Discourse‐Historical Approach (DHA). In this optics, the most important thing is the historical and social context of the studied process of the discursive construction of national identity. Therefore, the conclusions also touch upon the historical, political, and social perspective of the formation of Serbian national identity. The reflection also aims at presenting the analysis from the contemporary perspective (mainly in 2008-2020). Thus, paying attention to the political divisions in Serbia and the country’s road to democratization and European integration, the discussed research study shows the comprehensive specifics of the studied national identity.

Legal Frame of Agricultural Land Succession and Acquisition by Legal Persons in Serbia

The rules on the succession and transfer of agricultural land in Serbia may be characterised as liberalistic. There are no special inheritance regimes applicable specifically to the succession of agricultural land. There is only the possibility of an heir, engaged in agricultural production, to request that the court name him the sole heir of the agricultural land, with the obligation to compensate others. Similarly, the transfer of agricultural land by inter vivos transaction is also essentially devoid of any serious legal restrictions, either for natural persons or for legal entities. There is no cap on the acquisition of ownership, nor must the buyer prove that he or she is, in fact, engaged in agricultural production. Serbian law excludes the possibility of foreign persons or legal entities acquiring ownership of agricultural land. According to the Stabilisation and Association Agreement concluded with the European Union, it was expected that Serbia would gradually enable natural persons and legal entities from the member states of the EU to acquire ownership of agricultural land by no later than 1 September 2017 when the four-year period for the implementation of this obligation expired. Seemingly, in order to fulfil the obligation, the Serbian National Assembly amended the Law on Agricultural Land in August 2017. The amendments explicitly regulate under which conditions natural persons and legal entities from the EU may acquire ownership of agricultural land. However, even a superficial reading of the new regulation reveals that the opposite effect has been achieved. Instead of enabling natural persons and legal entities from the EU to obtain ownership of agricultural land on equal footing with domestic natural persons and legal entities, the legislature created a set of special conditions applicable only to the former but not to the latter. Moreover, the conditions are so strict that no legal entity could meet them, while natural persons only hypothetically could, if at all. Therefore, it seems that the 2017 amendments to the Law on Agricultural Land hardly aimed to implement the Stabilisation and Association Agreement.

Attitudes toward Bosniak Muslims and Kosovar Albanians and historical revisionism in the Serbian media

For this paper, we monitored three daily newspapers in Serbia, Politika, Novosti and Informer, for issues of direct relevance to the lives of Balkan Muslims. We identified three dominant topics: 1. Undermining the statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina and (re)affirming the expansionist politics of Serbian nationalism; 2. “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia” and (Kosovar) Albanians are consequently an existential threat; and 3. Ideological treatment of the politics of remembrance and historical revisionism of crimes committed by Serb forces during the 1990s in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo in order to reaffirm the Greater Serbia project.

1989 Yılı Anayasal Değişiklikler ve Kosova’nın Ekonomik Açısına Yapılan Darbe

The 1980s marked the beginning of the economic downturn for Kosovo. In those years, nationalist movements began to proclaim secession from the federation following the death of Yugoslav leader Tito. While the Socialist Republic of Serbia had claims to subjugate or bring under its hegemony most of the units of the Federation. This Serbian nationalist policy, with its oppressive regime and ethnic cleansing, began in Kosovo. The years 1989-1990 represent a very difficult period for Kosovo in terms of political, cultural, educational and economic developments. The 1989 constitutional amendments hit Kosovo’s economic prospects, which clearly show Serbia’s intentions to deepen economic dependence and increase political violence in the country. The manifestations of the political and economic crisis during the 90s changed not only the history of Kosovo, but also of Yugoslavia.

Saintsavaism(s) and Nationalism: An Overview of the Development of the Serbian Orthodox Phenomenon of Saintsavaism, with a Special Focus on the Contribution of Justin Popovic (1894–1979)

Abstract This article provides a reflection on a relatively controversial phenomenon in the Serbian Orthodox Church, namely saintsavaism (serb. svetosavlje). The controversy accompanying the term is related to its association with the Serbian nationalism that erupted during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990’s. This article aims to demonstrate that this particular interpretation of saintsavaism is, in fact, only one of at least four distinct understandings of the notion. Moreover, this article will argue that the author who contributed most significantly to the development of saintsavaism as the guiding principle of the Serbian Church to this day, namely, Justin Popovic (1894–1979), envisioned saintsavaism as, indeed, a totalizing worldview, and recognized its national significance, without, however, reducing it to simple ‘nationalism’. In order to make this case clear, the article will analyze in detail Popovic’s seminal work on saintsavaism (available only in Serbian), Saintsavaism as a Philosophy of Life (1953).

Serbian nationalism with the disintergration of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991

Nationalism is one of the basic and decisive factors that led to the disintegration of the multinational Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991. In the lines of nationalism tied to the ethnic groups in this country, Serbian nationalism is the main flow affecting the formation, development and disintegration of Yugoslavia. Studying Serbian nationalism regarding those characteristics of formation context, goals, development process contributes to clarify not only the over-7 decades’ historical existence of this multinational country of Yugoslavia in the fields of politics, society, culture, but also the cause and nature of its disintegration in the 1990s through the blood ethnic wars. Therefore, Serbian nationalism is associated with the history of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, typically via its disintegration in 1991.

Comparative Study of Anthropometric Measurement and Body Composition Between Elite Handball and Volleyball Players from the Serbian National League

Comparative Study of Anthropometric Measurement and Body Composition Between Elite Handball and Volleyball Players from the Serbian National League

Reception of the Karl Kraus’ work among Serbian intellectuals

The paper explores relations of both Serbian nationalist and antinationalist intellectuals towards Karl Kraus? work. Analysis of the ?Last days of mankind? shows that Kraus wrote satires against ruling circles of the Habsburg Monarchy, demanded its reorganization, and even its destruction. He mostly ridiculed the top circles of the Habsburg Monarchy and German Reich, and unmasked their war plans against Serbia. He ridiculed warmongering Wiennese press, intellectuals, who betrayed their vocation by supporting German nationalism and Habsburg imperialism. Whereas some of the most distinctive Croatian Yugoslav-oriented intellectuals in the aftermath of WWI highly respected Karl Kraus, Serbian intellectuals have almost utterly neglected this talented nonconformist, who sympathised with Serbian and Yugoslav tendences despite their unpopularity in his own surroundings. Furthermore, interest for Kraus is much more visible in today?s Croatia than in Serbia. The paper?s goal is to offer an explanation of lack of interest for Kraus among Serbian intellectuals. In the twilight of socialism, majority of them showed nationalist parochialism, and a part of them expressed even unbridled warlike attitude, which contributed to thorough neglect of Kraus? voluminous, intellectually demanded and uncompromising pacifistic work. At the same time, anti-nationalist and pacifistic intellectuals were prepared to pay attention only for such aspects of the Kraus work, while they have neglected other aspects such as his criticism of pan-German imperialist tendences recognizable throughout the short 20th century.

Diplomatic Victory of the Kosovo Liberation Army

In the dissolution of Yugoslavia, Serbian nationalism played a crucial role with the project of creating a greater Serbia, using military violence to achieve the goal of this project. The northern republics such as Slovenes, Croats and Kosovo Albanians had the strongest reaction against this project, since after the first pluralist elections in Yugoslavia, political parties seeking independence from Belgrade came to the helm of these republics. The actions of national movements of the Slovenians, Croats, Bosnians, Kosovo Albanians, Macedonians and Montenegrins for independence, have been a reaction to the project of Serbian nationalism for the creation of a greater Serbia. In these new circumstances created in the Yugoslav federation, Kosovo Albanians profiled the demands for a sovereign and independent state of Kosovo, legitimizing it with the referendum held under conditions of occupation and with a sovereign vote for the independence of Kosovo. Despite the creation of some parallel institutions such as education and the obedience of Western diplomacy for a peaceful solution to the Kosovo issue. This was not achieved until an armed resistance from Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) started in Kosovo, that the Kosovo issue was imposed on the diplomacies with international influence to start taking important decisions towards the solution to the Kosovo issue. Due to the KLA war, the contact group took the historical decision to organize an international conference in Rambouillet of France, with a concrete peaceful plan for Kosovo. Rambouillet’s decisions were rejected by the Yugoslav government, thus forcing NATO military intervention to stop crimes against Albanian civilians by Serb forces. The efforts of the Kosovo Albanians to get out of the Serbian occupation had been imposed, even though as such they were insufficient to achieve success for nearly a century, but due to the international diplomacy and the sacrifice of the Albanian national movement, Kosovo Freedom was achieved.

Identitetske teme u delima srpskih likovnih stvaralaca na Kosovu i Metohiji do devedesetih godina prošlog veka

The paper discusses the issue of identity themes in the work of contemporary Serbian artists in Kosovo and Metohija, until the 1990s. Among Serbian artists were those who nurtured themes related to the Serbian cultural identity of the 1970s and 1980s. The painter Vlada Radovic' expressed this through the works of "The Patriarchate of Peć", "The Forest of Dečani with a view of the Visoki Dečan Monastery and "The Holy Virgin Ljeviška". After him, Sava Rakočevic', in his creative beginnings, also sought and found inspiration in the Kosovo pledge and in Kosovo as a space woven into Serbian cultural identity. His painting "Monument to the Kosovo Heroes" is a representative example. Trajko Stojanovic Kosovac also drew inspiration from Kosovo-pledge inspiration in even more difficult times. His aquatint and graphics cycle is dedicated to Dečani - the treasury of Serbian spirituality and culture. In Trajko Kosovac's studio, Zoran Furunovic had been working on copying murals before enrolling basic studies, where we recognize his interest in topics related to Serbian cultural identity. Initiated by the entire situation in the entire Kosmet area, where everything is directed against the people of Serbian nationality, the painter Petar Đuza with a direct response and through the paint "Heroics of Myth Grows Into Tragic Reality" provides the observer with an overview of unpleasant events. In the 1970s and 1980s, Svetomir Arsić Basara, as the leading Serbian sculptor in the Province, began to show through sculpture the impossibility of reconciling with the threat to Serbian national and cultural identity.