In the early ‘90s Serbs have encountered an amazing phenomenon: they turned to be a monster-nation. They grew no fangs and no claws and no outward changes in their appearance could be observed. It was the attitude of the neighbor nations and the whole world towards them that has changed. Serbs have long been used to regard themselves as noble victims. They suffered from Turks, they suffered from the Austrians, they suffered from Germans and the whole world was sympathizing with them. After the WWII they challenged Stalin himself and once again the world was on their side. All of a sudden all that age-old halo of victimhood disappeared and the intellectuals of Europe and America were calling them the worse villains on Earth. And at the same time, the aura of the innocent victims was promptly bestowed upon their faithful foes, their arch-friends and the closest relatives of Serbs: Bosnians and Croatians. It would not suffice to describe the feelings of Serbs as shock. They were successful with Turks, Austrians, Hitler and Stalin, they have earned global honor and respect and here they were now in the midst of a terrible inner crisis.
The authors of the articles in this collection are allocating guilt and are reasoning out what is to be done. Their train of though is so painfully familiar – our own score at the end of the 20th century has placed us among the losers, while we were often aspiring for the victorious palms. Nevertheless, Serbs are at a greater disadvantage for in our own folklore after the lamentations of «The Song of Igor's Campaign» comes the victorious "Zadonshina", whereas Serbs only have the tales of the heroic defeat at the Kosovo field, which incidentally has now been lost. Their defeat is heavier this time: once again – just as it happened in the beginning of the 20th century – this nation is divided between three states. Montenegro is again menacing with separation, Kosovo is about to gain independence not just de-facto but also de-jure. How did it come to this? Why did the countries that were part of the Warsaw pact, once they brought down the Communist regimes headed for the European integration, while Serbs – who declared their independence of Moscow on more than one occasion – have remained on the backyard of Europe? Was it precisely this nonalignment that caused the trouble? Unlike Poland and Czechoslovakia where there have always been a strong underground opposition to the Communist regime, in Serbia the party and the intellectuals were very close together and no real opposition to the ruling elite was ever created.
This is just one of the many intriguing conclusions the authors of the book come to in the course of analyzing their own history. In fact they are not sparing themselves the blame and are ruthlessly dealing with the legends on which the Serbian self-awareness is based. For example, take the notorious 500 years of Turkish yoke. No matter how you twist the facts the checksum does not match. What you get is a maximum of 419 years with the most generous of allowances but not 500, no way. In reality it only lasted for 345 years: from the fall of Smerdovo fortress in 1459 to the date of liberation from the Turkish rule in 1804. Another misapprehension – which is addressed in his article by the author of the compilation, Miroslav Jovanovich – has to do with the friendship between Russia and Serbia. It is pointless to shout that together with Russia we are 200 millions. Russia has always pursued only its own aims and would only defend the Serbian interests when such would coincide with its own. Such has been the case in the 19th century, such is the case now. Of course this is true. One can come up with only one objection: we should not forget the fact that Serbs themselves are reminded of their «elder brothers» only when things get hot for them in the Balkan oven. Why would they bother now at all! In any case we should congratulate «Evropa» publishing house with this extremely apposite release the success of which is especially noticeable on the backdrop of the primitive propaganda brochures that are all so often found amongst the publishing house’s production.
The collection includes articles from different years in a way that allows tracing the development of the way the Serbs would view their own country in the course of ten years starting from early ’90 and ending with our days. Some of the grim forecasts were true, other – thank God – were not. Check it out and perhaps learn something.
"Knizhnoe obozrenie" issue 14 (2076)
