Yugoslavia Research Articles

Ustav bez zemlje - nastanak Kraljevine SHS i Vidovdanski ustav u nastavi Ustavnog prava u zemljama naslednicama Jugoslavije

"The Vidovdan" Constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, rendered on 28 June 1921, one hundred years after its adoption, remains an unavoidable topic and an occasion for discussions about the reasons for the failure of the Yugoslav state. The unitarian-centralist system unanimously criticized today as an inadequate constitutional form for the functioning of a complex community such as Yugoslavia was once legitimized by the concept of national unity of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The national conception, the type of state system, and the related disagreements are part of both the political and constitutional history of the states that emerged from the disintegration of Yugoslavia. This paper analyses the content of textbooks of Constitutional Law that are in use at law schools in the successor states, which have existed continuously since the breakup of Yugoslavia until today and are used to educate the vast majority of lawyers in these states. The way in which the shared constitutional history from the first decade of Yugoslavia is presented after the collapse of the socialist paradigm (that mainly was unison) largely follows the national borders of the successor states in terms of its content and interpretation.

Soviet Church diplomacy in the SFRY in 1948-1953 in the context of the international situation of the USSR

The subject of this article is a historical and political study of the key vectors of the state-confessional policy of the USSR in the countries of "people's democracy", which received their practical embodiment within the framework of prevailing legal practices. Special attention is paid to the study of the intervention of Soviet diplomacy in state-confessional relations on the territory of socialist Yugoslavia. After the end of World War II, one of the largest religious organizations of the Yugoslav state, the Serbian Orthodox Church, faced numerous historical challenges. The course of the historical process pushed this religious organization into opposition to the political elite of Yugoslavia. Numerous external "players" sought to take advantage of this situation, including the Soviet Union, whose relations with Yugoslavia significantly worsened during the period under study. The main method used in the preparation of the article was comparative historical. The novelty of the research lies in the study of the relationship of political and ideological discourses of state-confessional relations of the mid-twentieth century with modern practices of state confessional policy of the Russian Federation. The study of the genesis and practical implementation of the main vectors of "confessional diplomacy" of the Soviet Union is primarily connected with the practical implementation of Marxist political and legal ideas, in the field of "political compromise" with the "capitalist world". The key conclusion of the article: in the international "confessional diplomacy" of the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church has historically served as its instrument and an expression of the interests of the ruling political regime in the USSR, which influenced both the international position of the ROC and its internal state.

Break-up of the Yugoslav political elite, 1962-1972

The break-up of the Yugoslav communist elite, which came about in the period 1962-1972, is considered. The break-up came about under the elite?s disappointment due to the failure to achieve economic objectives it set for itself, bringing about internal dubiety and mutual suspicion, the political system moving towards consociation also contributed to fracturing. However, this is not sufficient as explanation. Cultural elites also contributed in the same direction. Economic growth was significant, considering the entire period 1945-1991, but it was always clouded by imbalances. Certain issues and discussions were indicative of the break-up. Political unity and communism was gradually replaced as objective by ?resolving the national question?, also a legitimate Marxist concern. It can be considered that by the break-up, a normalization of elite pattern came about, comparable to elites in the greatest number of European states, although the elites kept on being ?ideocratic?. Whereas elites may have become ?normal?, the functioning of the political system became ever more difficult. The ascending national communist elites never undertook steps at the direct dissolution of the Yugoslav state, although they entered into ceaseless disputes and finally paved the way to ethnic entrepreneurs and counter-elites to implement the dissolution. By the elite break-up a relation between elite and nation similar to the one existing in the great majority of European countries was achieved.

Prodor nacionalsocijalizma - Nemci Kraljevine Jugoslavije 1941. godine

The German community of the Yugoslav Kingdom was, for the most part, concentrated in the territory of today's Vojvodina. Their centuries-long presence in this area indicates their readiness to live in a multinational environment, but also their ambition to live better than others, both in a cultural and economic sense. The attitude of this community towards the newly formed Yugoslav state was cautious, marked by concern and reserve, but it was not as negative as the one seen in the Hungarian community. The Germans intended to preserve their cultural identity through the organization of associations, and then to found a party. Their ambitions grew with the strengthening of the Third German Reich, when their political manifestation became more provocative and militant.

Delatnost albanske emigracije na zapadu prema pitanju Kosova i Metohije (1945-1969)

After the Second World War, a large number of members of the fascist regime of the Kingdom of Albania found refuge in Italy, Turkey and the countries of Western Europe, where they continued to politically act. The leading political options in exile - Balli Kombetar, Zogists and pro-Italian National Independent Bloc, decided to cooperate with each other, so they have formed the Albanian National Committee in 1946. The turning point for the Albanian extreme emigration in the West is Operation Valuable, by which the United States and Great Britain sought to overthrow the Communist regime of Enver Hoxha in Albania. Although the operation failed, strong ties were forged between US and British intelligence and Albanian nacionalist emigration, which were further intensified in the 1960s. Xhafer Deva, who was dedicated to act on the annexation of Kosovo and Metohija to Albania, immigrated to the United States in 1956 and established cooperation with the CIA. Albanian emigration in the West applied different methods in politics towards Kosovo and Metohija. Some organizations, such as Xhafer Deva's Third Prizren League, have focused on lobbying Western intelligence. The Bali Kombetar Independent, headquatered in Rome, paid particular attention to working with Albanian high school and student youth in Kosovo and Metohija. The Alliance of Kosovo, formed in 1949, was engaged in subtle methods of involving Albanian nationalists in Yugoslav state structures, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav People's Army, and educational and health institutions in Kosovo and Metohija. Albanian emigration was also involved in violent demonstrations in Kosovo and Metohija in 1968, and cooperated on this issue with the Communist regime of Enver Hoxha in Albania.

Politika i historijski revizionizam: Tokovi relativizacije kolaboracionizma i normalizacije “Ravnogorskog antifašizma”

At the end of the 20th century, the perception of peoples and states on their own past changed profoundly in the Balkans as well, with major geopolitical changes. Its processing and instrumentalization are encouraged by the complex permeation of the global relationship between national and ideological forces and local ruling interests. Every political and ideological victory, "must find its legitimate stronghold in the past." The disintegration of the ideological paradigm and the Yugoslav state union was accompanied by a balancing of the past from the outside, in accordance with the interests of the time and dominant politics, the accelerated construction of new national identities, the outbreak of a "civil war between different memories", the reversal of consciousness. These processes in the post-Yugoslav countries, in "transitional historiography", along with the new "reduction of totality", led to "retraditionalization", to the problematic waves of historical revisionism especially related to the Second World War, the correction of the so-called historical injustices, normalization of collaborationism, nationalization and relativization of the notion of anti-fascism. National historiographies in these countries have made a turn from the former glorification of the People's Liberation Movement (NOP) to its relativization, as part of the general trend of radical "re-nationalization". None of them carried out such a "thorough confrontation with the anti-fascism" of the NOP as Serbia. Numerous historians, with the participation of parascientific formations, give legitimacy to constructions of devaluing the anti-fascist legacy and rehabilitating Quisling forces. The falsification of history has also led to the relativization of their responsibility at the expense of those who have in part confirmed themselves as anti-fascists. Revanchist historiography imposes alternative truths. There is a real consensus on the definition of "good" nationalism, which for many is "elementary patriotism". Various nationalist currents are portrayed as anti-fascist. The collaborationist forces defeated in 1945 became "misunderstood victims of historical destiny." Their actions are placed in the context of their anti-communism, promoted in reasonable national politics. Derogating from anti-fascism also led to "anti-anti-fascism". He relativizes the crimes of fascists and collaborators, re-evaluates victims and executioners. It is not common practice for "historical truths" to be written in parliaments and promulgated by law, as has happened in Serbia. Courts and parliaments cannot valorize someone’s historical role. Historical science can do that. Revisionism is based on selective forgetting and the construction of a "desirable history", it is "a reworking of the past carried by clear or covert intentions to justify narrower national or political goals." The obvious expression is "political culture in a society, that is, it speaks of the dominant political value orientations in it". Judicial rehabilitation is understood as an ideological and political measure of revision of history. A distinction should be made between the individual rehabilitation of innocent victims of persecution by the authorities after 1945 and a light revision of history. The political and ideological aspects of rehabilitation, with the support of the media and the pseudo-legal mechanism, include manipulating a number of topics to delegitimize the system that changed social, economic, political and national relations after 1945 - characteristic of monarchist Yugoslavia. In revisionist historiography, communists are treated as opponents of Serbian national interests ("red devils"), intruders in national history, and the socialist revolution as an excess. With the adoption of certain laws and the application of a whole arsenal of rhetorical means and concealment of a number of historical facts, the notion of Draža Mihailović's Chetnik movement in Ravna Gora was especially reworked, neglecting and relativizing his criminal practice, to make this "new anti-fascist" side a desirable "pre-communist ancestor". "authorities. This collaborationist movement is also relieved through anti-communism, it is marked as patriotic and anti-totalitarian. His rehabilitation in Serbia has multiple meanings and consequences in its social life, but also in regional relations.

Croatian and Serbian War Crimes, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and the Judicial Systems of Serbia and Croatia

Croatian and Serbian War Crimes, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and the Judicial Systems of Serbia and CroatiaThe war in former Yugoslavia (1991–1995) was marked by war crimes which still affect Serbian–Croatian political relations. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which operated between 1993–2017, was supposed to pass fair verdicts on those responsible for war crimes, but its verdicts have been surrounded by controversy in Post-Yugoslav states. The article analyzes Serbian and Croatian war crimes in Croatian territory between 1991–1995 as well as the verdicts passed by the ICTY against the most prominent war criminals. The actions taken by the Serbian and Croatian judicial systems are also discussed. The analysis presented in the article indicates that the verdicts delivered by the ICTY were selective and difficult to accept for both sides of the conflict. Unfortunately, Serbo-Croatian cooperation on war crimes has been developing for only a few years and has not produced the expected results. For these reasons, war crimes and war criminals still have a negative influence on political and social relations between the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Serbia. Chorwackie i serbskie zbrodnie wojenne, Międzynarodowy Trybunał Karny da Byłej Jugosławii oraz serbski i chorwacki wymiar sprawiedliwościKwestia zbrodni wojennych i obiektywnego osądzenia zbrodniarzy wojennych jest wysoce problematyczna. Bezspornie wojna w byłej Jugosławii z lat 1991-1995 była tragiczna w skutkach i naznaczona wydarzeniami, którym można nadać miano zbrodni wojennych. Międzynarodowy Trybunał Karny dla Byłej Jugosławii (MTKJ) funkcjonujący w latach 1993-2017 miał w założeniu sprawiedliwie osądzić osoby odpowiedzialne za zbrodnie wojenne. Niemniej jego działalność (orzeczone kary) wzbudza pewne kontrowersje, a co za tym idzie może być i jest krytycznie oceniana. W artykule przedstawiono syntetyczną analizę serbskich oraz chorwackich zbrodni wojennych mających miejsce na terytorium Chorwacji w latach 1991-1995. Następnie odniesiono się do kar orzeczonych przez MTKJ wobec najważniejszych zbrodniarzy wojennych. W tym też aspekcie zwrócono uwagę na aktywność serbskiego i chorwackiego wymiaru sprawiedliwości. Analiza zawarta w artykule potwierdza tezę że wydawane wyroki przez MTKJ odznaczały się selektywnością, dlatego też w niektórych przypadkach były one trudne do zaakceptowania przez obie strony konfliktu. Niestety serbsko-chorwacka współpraca w zakresie zbrodni wojennych rozwija się dopiero od kilku lat i nie przyniosła oczekiwanych rezultatów. Z tych też powodów zbrodnie wojenne i zbrodniarze wojenni nadal mają negatywny wpływ na stosunki polityczne i społeczne między Republiką Chorwacji a Republiką Serbii.

EXITitis in Europe? Yugoslavia as the First European Disunion

Yugoslavia (YU), a multinational federation, collapsed into civil war and ultimate dissolution in 1991, exactly when the European Union (EU) was coming into existence as a multinational federation. What failed in YU, and is threatened in EU, is the concept of a federation composed of nation-states in the European sense of that term, in which the nation (as ethno-religious community) is sovereign in its own state (territory plus government). If the EU remains defined as a single polity of nation-states whose sovereignty is subordinated to regulatory processes from Brussels, which nationalists can charge are damaging to the interests of their particular ethno-nation’s control over their own state, its future seems as unpromising as was Yugoslavia under socialism.

Ritual Aspects of the Youth Day Celebration in Yugoslavia

Der Artikel untersucht die rituellen Aspekte der Feier des Jugendtages, namlich der sogenannten Slets (Zusammenkunfte), in Jugoslawien von 1945 bis 1988. Die Slets werden zunachst nach dem Modell von Erika Fischer-Lichte analysiert, das die rituellen Aspekte der Olympischen Spiele definiert, dabei werden die Besonderheiten und Unterschiede dieser beiden Ereignisse berucksichtigt. Aufbauend auf fruheren historischen Interpretationen des Slet-Phanomens (Jakovljevic; Jakovina) untersucht die Autorin, wie Staatsideologie diese Veranstaltungen beeinflusste und wie dabei private und kollektive Korper gezielt geschaffen wurden, und vergleicht den Slet mit ahnlichen Sportereignissen in anderen politischen Regimen. Der Glauben an den Slet ist, folgend Susan Brownells These, als der wichtigste bestimmender Faktoren bei der Konstruktion der Slet-Rituale charakterisiert. In dieser Hinsicht und unter Bezugnahme auf die Analyse der Rituale von Arnold van Gennep und Victor Turner wird der Slet als ein uberwiegend liminales Phanomen definiert, was seine politische Natur weiter problematisiert, insbesondere in Bezug auf die dominierende kollektivistische Ideologie im jugoslawischen Staat.

BANOVINAS – ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS OF KING ALEXANDER I KARAĐORĐEVIĆ AND HIS PERSONAL REGIME

One of the main consequences of the King Alexander I Karađorđević’s personal regime was an administrative rearrangement of the state that formed new administrative units called banovinas. Historiography to date has not shed much light on the circumstances under which the banovinas were formed. Studies show that this issue occupied much of the attention of the king and his court, and that the best experts were engaged. At the beginning of the dictatorship, banovinas and their bans were used as a means through which the proclaimed ideology of Yugoslavism would come into being in the form of a single Yugoslav nation. The starting point was to remove national and historical borders between Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which were regarded as the culprits behind divisions within the population. Presenting federalization as derived through banovinas as administrative units served to conceal their true function in the process of building a unified state. Following the death of King Alexander I Karađorđević, there was an abundance of support for the idea of banovinas as administrative units and as part of the foundation of the Yugoslav state. After only ten years, the borders of the banovinas, as defined by the September constitution, were changed due to the creation of the Banovina of Croatia. This act annulled all the principles of the 1929 administrative rearrangement. The further fate of the banovinas was determined by the Second World War, in which the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as a state disappeared. Based on an analysis of available archival material, periodicals, memoirs of contemporaries and historiographical publications, the intention of this study is to show how the banovinas, as new administrative units, were used to serve the king’s personal dictatorship. Opinions of the Banovinas as parts of the administrative system are mostly negative. However, in a broader context, they brought progress and prosperity to certain areas of the state.

Od jugoslovanstva do jugoslovanstva: Komunistična partija Jugoslavije in njen odnos do nacionalnega vprašanja v prvih desetletjih obstoja

Communist Party of Yugoslavia was an all-Yugoslav political party. In the year 1922/23 the debate between the Left and Right current of the Party on their stand toward the national started. Because of the changed domestic and international political position, the CPY gradually changed their stand toward the Yugoslav state and the national question until the mid-1920s. The Author argues, that in the mentioned period the CPY, as well as other European Communist parties, started using and misusing national symbols and speaking the "language of the nation". With the outbreak of the Second World War the Croatian and Slovenian communists gave an emphasis to the national question over the socialist promises in the early stages of the war. Only when, in years 1942/43, the constellation of international events in year 1942/43 made it clear that the Allies will allow only the renovation of Yugoslavia, the CPY again started to actively promote Yugoslavism.

Politični položaj na Slovenskem leta 1919

For Slovenes in the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes the year 1919 represented the final step to a new political beginning. With the end of the united all-Slovene liberal party organisation and the formation of separate liberal parties, the political party life faced a new era. Similar development was showing also in the Marxist camp. The Catholic camp was united. For the first time, Slovenes from all political camps took part in the state government politics and parliament work. They faced the diminishing of the independence, which was gained in the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, and the mutual fight for its preservation or abolition. This was the beginning of national-political separations in the later Yugoslav state. The year 1919 was characterized also by the establishment of the Slovene university and early occurrences of social discontent. A declaration about the new historical phenomenon – Bolshevism, had to be made. While the region of Prekmurje was integrated to the new state, the questions of the Western border and the situation with Carinthia were not resolved. For the Slovene history, the year 1919 presents a multi-transitional year.

Shifting Resources, Shifting Forms. Spontaneous Solidarity, Virtual Voluntarism and the Legacy of Radne Akcije in Postsocialist Serbia

AbstractVoluntarism is typically understood as action taken by individuals who voluntarily join collectives or take action to contribute in some way to social welfare. Voluntaristic forms vary widely depending on social context; however, a theme in recent sociological work is the possible withering away of voluntary practices in the forms that have previously existed. In this article, the author considers how the legacy of radne akcije, the working campaigns once coordinated by the Yugoslav state, is used to frame recent episodes of voluntarism, including the efforts of volunteers during the 2014 floods in Serbia, and charitable donations via SMS. She argues that previous forms of voluntaristic praxis have been fundamentally transformed following a shift in the fiscal and social resources of the state. However, while novel forms of voluntaristic practice and organization reflect the state’s present neoliberal ethos, participants remain wedded to a rhetoric echoing the past socialist collective dynamic.

A History of Yugoslavia, written by Marie-Janine Calic

A History of Yugoslavia, written by Marie-Janine Calic

Poslušnik karađorđevićevskoga režima Franjo Urbany

Preustroj zagrebačkoga redarstva i njegovo stavljanje pod izravni nadzor beogradskih centara moći za nove je vlastodršce, čini se, bio jedan od važnijih ciljeva nakon uspostave Kraljevstva Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca. Pogodnim za provođenje preustroja prepoznat je i odabran prijeratni zagrebački upravno-policijski službenik Franjo Urbany. U prilogu se raspravlja o njegovu profesionalnom i privatnom životu, s posebnim osvrtom na ključne događaje koji su ga obilježili. To se osobito odnosi na Urbanyjeve svjetonazorsko-ideološke mijene poput sudjelovanja u spaljivanju mađarske zastave 1895. te progona negdanjega sudruga iz toga pothvata Stjepana Radića nedugo nakon uspostave nove državne zajednice. Posebna je pozornost posvećena i ulozi Urbanyja u reorganizaciji zagrebačke policije te razlozima napuštanja mjesta ravnatelja Kraljevskoga redarstvenog ravnateljstva.

On the Image of Yugoslavia Projected in Articles of German Der Spiegel Weekly News Magazine – a Linguistic Discourse Analysis

Review of: Vujcic, Nikola (2019), Das Konzept Jugoslawien in SPIEGEL-Artikeln: Bildung und Wandel - Eine bennenungsfokussierte Diskursanalyse , Hamburg: Verlag Dr. Kovac.

The League of Nations between Scientific Knowledge and Political Dependence

The League of Nations sets strict professional frameworks that are subordinate to scientific knowledge and international law and respect, without any differences between small and big powers. The first chairman, Eric Drummond, who headed up to 1934, established a huge international prestige of the organization and achieved a number of successes in peace building. The League’s policy in the Balkans is revealed mainly through its relations with Albania and Bulgaria, which both joined the League in December 1920. The two countries rely on the international organization for the peaceful resolution of their political, minority and social problems. Under the supervision of the League of Nations, a number of agreements for voluntary and mutual exchange of people between Greece and Bulgaria are being concluded, which aims to soothe the Macedonian problem in Aegean Macedonia. Under her patronage are the agreements between Greece and Albania regulating the protection of Greek minorities and schools, as well as settling the border dispute between the Serb-Croat-Slovene Kingdom and Albania in 1921. The rapid intervention of the United Nations suspended the Greek aggression on Bulgarian territory in the autumn of 1925 and prevented a possible new war. Dimitar Shalev's petitions from Skopje to the United Nations aim to achieve the Yugoslav state's humane treatment towards Bulgarian minorities within its borders, but political dependencies and overlapping contradictions are an obstacle to peaceful and sustainable political outcomes. In the second half of the 1930s, the League lost its initial prestige, and in the course of the emerging new global conflict it fell into political dependence, marking its collapse. Unresolved issues and contradictions, along with the harsh political post-war realities, quickly bury the League’s noble impetus.

Edo Marković (1885. – 1939.)

U radu se na temelju arhivske građe, tiska, historiografske i memoarske literature rekonstruiraju biografski detalji iz života Ede Markovića, agronoma, bankara, javnoga radnika, člana Narodnoga vijeća Slovenaca, Hrvata i Srba te rotarijanskoga aktivista i generalnoga direktora državnoga monopolskog poduzeća za otkup i izvoz poljoprivrednih proizvoda. Posebna pozornost posvećena je „beogradskoj fazi” njegova života, profesionalnom angažmanu, međunarodnim aktivnostima i mjestu u poslovnim i političkim krugovima Kraljevine Jugoslavije te mogućim motivima njegova ubojstva, koje je počinila jugoslavenska policija 1939., a u tadašnjoj javnosti predstavljeno je kao „nesretan slučaj”.

The transition of Croatian and Slovenian economic elites into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

The article discusses the transition of Croatian and Slovene economic elites to the new Yugoslav state after 1918. After an extensive presentation of the broader economic and social context and moments of change with the new state, the authors analyzes the characteristics of the transition on a wide sample of successful entrepreneurs from both countries. The criteria for selecting cases were wealth, business performance, social positioning and reputation. The comparison shows that the transition did not significantly change the economic and social position of the economic elites in the new Yugoslav environment. The exception were members of the nobility, whose economic and social position changed due to agrarian reform, falling agricultural prices and political stigmatization. In the Slovenian environment, the national question was more important than in Croatia. This brought some more risk in the first year of transition for the partial expropriation of members of the economic elites who were considered to be of the German identification. However, in the long run they did maintain their economic and social position in the new country as well.

A history of Yugoslavia

A history of Yugoslavia