SERBIAN STUDIES

JOURNAL OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR SERBIAN STUDIES

Vol. 26

2012

Nos. 12

Editors
Ljubica D. Popovich, Vanderbilt University, Co-Editor
Lilien F. Robinson, George Washington University, Co-Editor
Jelena Bogdanovi, Iowa State University, Associate Editor
Duan Danilovi, Iowa State University, Book Review Editor
Editorial Board
Radmila Jovanovi-Gorup, Columbia University
Jelena Bogdanovi, Iowa State University
Svetlana Tomi, Alfa University, Belgrade
Gojko Vukovi, Los Angeles School District
Gordana Peakovi, Argosy University
ore Jovanovi, World Bank
Marina Belovi-Hodge, Library of Congress

North American Society for Serbian Studies

N
SAS
S
Executive Committee
President: Tatjana Aleksi, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Vice President: Tomislav Longinovi, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Secretary: Danilo Tomaevi
Treasurer: Sonja Kotlica

Standing Committee
Nada Petkovi-orevi, University of Chicago
Milica Baki-Hayden, University of Pittsburgh
Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover, Monash University, Australia
Ljubica D. Popovich, Vanderbilt University
Lilien Filipovitch-Robinson, George Washington University

Past Presidents
Alex N. Dragnich, Vanderbilt University
Vasa D. Mihailovich, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
George Vid Tomashevich, New York State University, Buffalo
Biljana ljivi-imi, University of Illinois at Chicago
Dimitrije Djordjevic, University of California, Santa Barbara
Sofija kori, Toronto University
Jelisaveta Stanojevich Allen, Dumbarton Oaks
Ljubica D. Popovich, Vanderbilt University
Thomas A. Emmert, Gustavus Adolphus College
Radmila Jovanovi-Gorup, Columbia University
Julian Schuster, Hamline University
Duan Kora, Catholic University
Lilien Filipovitch-Robinson, George Washington University
Ruica Popovitch-Kreki, Mount St. Marys College
Ida Sinkevi, Lafayette College
Milica Baki-Hayden, University of Pittsburgh
Nada Petkovi-orevi, University of Chicago
Duan Danilovi, Iowa State University

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Membership in the NASSS and Subscriptions to Serbian Studies

The North American Society for Serbian Studies was founded in 1978 and has
published the Societys journal, Serbian Studies, since 1980. An interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal, it invites scholarly articles on subjects
pertaining to Serbian culture and society, past and present, and across fields
and disciplines. The journal also welcomes archival documents, source
materials, and book reviews.
Manuscripts should be submitted by e-mail to co-editors Ljubica D.
Popovich and Lilien F. Robinson at lfr@email.gwu.edu. Articles must be in
English and, in general, should not exceed 8,000 words, excluding footnotes.
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Articles submitted and all correspondence concerning editorial matters
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Rd., Bethesda, MD 20816. All articles considered to have potential for
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Book reviews should be sent to the Book Review Editor, Duan
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All communications regarding membership, subscriptions, back issues,
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The opinions expressed in the articles and book reviews published in
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Copyright 2015 by Serbian Studies: ISSN 0742-3330

Permission is granted to reprint any article in this issue, provided appropriate credit is
given and two copies of the reprinted material are sent to Serbian Studies.
Technical Editor: Jordan Hussey-Andersen
This issue was published in July 2015.

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Contents

A Note from the Editors

I. Literature
Radmila J. Gorup, Columbia University
Boundaries and Crossings in the Works of Ivo Andri .............................. 1
Radojka Vukevi, University of Belgrade
A Study of ilass Perspectives on Njegos Poet, Prince, Bishop ......... 17
Radmila J. Gorup, Columbia University
Literary Disputes of the 1950s and the
Demise of Socialist Realism .................................................................... 25

II. Politics
Vladislav Sotirovi, Mykolas Romeris University
Who are the Albanians? The Illyrian Anthroponomy and the
Ethnogenesis of the AlbaniansA Challenge to Regional Security ....... 45
Miroslav Svirevi, Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of
Sciences and Arts
Serbian Radical Party 18811903: Ideology and Its Sources .................. 81
Vladislav Sotirovi, Mykolas Romeris University
Separatism in Kosovo-Metohija and the Caucasus: Similarities and
Differences ............................................................................................. 107

III. History and Art History

Klara Volari, Central European University
Carigradski Glasnik (18951909): Celebration of 19/31 August .......... 121

Ljubica Popovich, Vanderbilt University

A Study of Actively Writing Standing Figures in Painting from
Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria .................................................................. 133

IV. Poetry
Biljana D. Obradovi
That Double 0 Seven .............................................................................. 176
The Perfect Pears .................................................................................... 177
Mirjana N. Radovanov-Matari
Novi Sad ................................................................................................. 180
The Old Mill ........................................................................................... 184
Chamomile ............................................................................................. 185
An Old Tree ............................................................................................ 187
eljka Cvjetvan Gortinski
Three Serbian Ballads from the Collection of Vuk Stefanovi
Karadi (Enclosure: CD recording) ...................................................... 189

V. Reviews
Nele Karajli, Fajront u Sarajevo
(Svetozar Posti) .................................................................................... 193
Djuro Zatezalo, Mihajlo Mikainovi od Zmijskog polja
Milos Tsernianski, Migrations
(Branko Mikasinovich) ......................................................................... 197
Ivana Milankov, Dinner with Fish and Mirrors
(Biljana D. Obradovi) ........................................................................... 201
Serbian Studies, Special Issue on Laza Lazarevi
(Dubravka Bogutovac) ........................................................................... 203

A Note from the Editors

We are deeply saddened to report the passing of our colleague Miroslav

Svirevi, whose work we have been privileged to publish in the past, and
whose last article, Serbian Radical Party 18811903: Ideology and Its
Sources, appears in this issue of Serbian Studies.
Born in Belgrade in 1970, Dr. Svirevi attended high school in Panevo
and completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at the Faculty of Law
at the University of Belgrade. There he achieved an average of 9.80 and was
awarded an internship at the prestigious Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., in
2009. His Masters thesis, The Dawn of Democracy in Westminster, and his
doctoral dissertation, Development of Local Government and the Development
of the Modern Serbian State, were published in 2001 and 2011, respectively.
Dr. Svirevis professional appointments included that of Research Associate at the Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences
and Arts, in which capacity he investigated the influence of Western European ideas on the development of legal and political institutions in Serbia and
other Balkan countries in the 19th and 20th centuries. He also pursued studies
of the development of modern libertarianism and the Austrian school of economics. A dedicated and tireless scholar, Dr. Svirevi published dozens of
scientific papers in national and international journals, as well as reviews and
articles. He was a participant in numerous winter and summer institutes, scientific symposia, and congresses on Balkanology and Libertarianism in Serbia
and abroad.
Dr. Svirevi passed away on August 10, 2014.

Serbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 26(12): vii, 2012.

Boundaries and Crossings: Bridging the Gap of

Fragmented Identity in Ivo Andrics Prose
Radmila J. Gorup
Columbia University

Dictionaries give several definitions for the words boundary and border, all
suggesting a division or margin, the other side of something: a limit. Throughout history, crucial boundaries were often created not only on geographical
maps, but also in the minds of people. These constructed boundaries shift with
time, but their symbolic significance is often hard to erase.
In his 1924 dissertation, Ivo Andri invokes such a division caused by the
Ottoman conquest of the Balkans:
So it came about that down the middle of the South Slavic lands a line
was etched. This dividing wall split in two the Serbo-Croatian racial
and linguistic complex, and its shadow, where four centuries of ghastly
history were played out, was to lie heavy on the landscape to either side
into the far distant future.1
Complex divisions run deep within the Balkans and Andris native Bosnia, but
also in the relationship between the East and the West, all results of legacies of
empires that dominated the region in the past. This fascinating area has been an
enduring inspiration for the writer and served as a setting for most of his narratives, whose underlying theme was to reveal these lines of separation and seek
to bridge the trauma caused by them.
The famed East-West opposition invoked by Andri refers to societies that
co-exist side by side but are juxtaposed in the political, religious, and cultural
senses. Bosnia, which can be seen as a microcosm of the former Yugoslavia
and perhaps the whole of the Balkans, is a place where citizens are divided by
religion: Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Islamic, and Jewish; cultural tra1

Ivo Andri, The Development of Spiritual Life in Bosnia under the Influence of Turkish Rule,
ed. and trans. elimir B. Jurii and John F. Loud (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991),
17.
Serbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 26 (12):
115, 2012.

Radmila J. Gorup

ditions: Byzantine, Ottoman, and central East European; as well as other minor
attributes.
Several frameworks have been advanced for understanding the East-West
division, the most famous being the theory of Orientalism advanced by Edward
Said, according to which the West constructed the Orient in order to define
itself against it with the intention of dominating and conquering it, both materially and spiritually.2 Milica Baki-Hayden introduced the concept of nestling Orientalisms as a structural variant of Orientalism according to which
each Balkan imagined community identified itself with the West and located its
boundaries beyond its actual physical borders.3 In her seminal work Imagining
the Balkans, Maria Todorova modifies Saids model to fit the Balkans historical and geographical realities. Not only the Orient, but also the Balkans were
constructed as Europes other, even though they were a geographical part of
it. For Todorova, the Balkan alterity, which she calls Balkanisms, is similar,
but not identical, to that of Saids Orientalisms.4
Several past colonial legacies have produced deep fissures in the territory
of the Balkans, but, according to Todorova, the 500-year Ottoman legacy is
proving to be the most enduring. This legacy can be said to have the strongest
influence on the Western perception of the region, and it has been invoked in
the creation of the most recent stereotypes about the Balkans as a region of
primitivism and barbarity in the 1990s.
Seemingly different, all these approaches treat the West as the standard according to which the others are defined. The West invented not only the Orient,
but also the other others, the Balkans and Eastern Europe, which are seen as
part of a broader Oriental other.
Tomislav Z. Longinovi adds to this discussion by questioning whether
the above models could account for the culture created by Ottoman-Balkan
juxtaposition. He points out that Saids concept of Orientalism was based on
the premise of European domination of the East, while the Balkan types of
Orientalisms were the result of a reversed situation in which an Eastern power
colonized European territory in order to dominate and restructure it.5
2

See Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage, 1997).

See Milica Baki-Hayden, Nestling Orientalisms: The Case of Former Yugoslavia, Slavic
Review 54, no. 4 (Winter 1995): 91731.
4
See Maria Todorova, Imagining the Balkans (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).
5
Tomislav Z. Longinovi, East Within the West: Bosnian Cultural Identity in the Works of Ivo
Andri, in Wayne S. Vucinich, ed., Ivo Andri Revisited: The Bridge Still Stands, Research Series (University of California, Berkeley), no. 92 (Berkeley, CA: International and Area Studies,
1995), 124.
3

Boundaries and Crossings

This idea of the borderline has been built into the creation of Andris Orientalisms first elaborated in his Ph.D. dissertation, in which he blames the Ottoman legacy for the divisions and conflicts in Bosnia as well as the regions
exclusion from the West, and sees in it the origin of the ambiguity of the Balkan
identity.
Andri depicts Bosnia on the eve of Ottoman occupation as a country going
through a process of crucial transformation, poised to join the nations of the
West. Instead, it was conquered by an
Asiatic military people whose social institutions and customs spelled
the negation of any and all Christian culture, and whose religion, be
gotten under other skies and social circumstances and quite incapable
of adaptation, shackled the life of the spirit and mind in Bosnia, dis
figuring it and molding it into an exceptional case.6
In his dissertation, Andri is extremely critical of Ottoman rule, blaming it
for Bosnias backwardness and for its lagging behind the rest of Europe cultur
ally. The Ottomans could not bring any cultural content even to those South
Slavs who accepted Islam. For their Christian subjects, the Ottoman hegemony
brutalized customs and meant a step to the rear in every respect.7 It dwarfed
their progress. Ottoman rule was an absolute evil, a negative that introduced a
set of values incompatible with Christianity and prevented Bosnia from fulfilling its natural role of linking the two peripheries of the Serbo-Croatian element.
It erected an impenetrable barrier to the Christian West. The dominant image
was dark Bosnia, locked in self-imposed isolation, walled off from Europe.
Andris dissertation was of a rather modest size. He produced it in a hurry.
It was written in less than a year, and within a month after he submitted it to the
Karl Franc University in Graz, Andri passed the obligatory oral examinations
and was granted the title Doctor of Philosophy. He originally wrote his dissertation in Serbo-Croatian, with parts in German and French, but he translated
it all into German before submitting it.
For years very little was said about Andris dissertation. This was not unusual given that the author did not speak about his works but rather let them
speak for themselves. Also, Andri might have felt that the topic of his dis
sertation was sensitive, and he never allowed it to be translated back into Serbo-Croatian. A Serbo-Croatian translation did appear in 1982, seven years after
the authors death, and several years later an English translation was published
6
7

Andri, The Development of Spiritual Life in Bosnia, 16.

Ibid., 38.

Radmila J. Gorup

as well. It is during that period that Andris dissertation garnered a great deal
of attention and sparked a prolonged debate, as its publication coincided with
pronounced political and social unrest in the country.
The question arises as to whether we can find Andri the man in his dis
sertation. Does it faithfully reflect his convictions, given that dissertations are
supposed to be based on facts? Does it help in understanding his entire opus?
These questions can be answered with both a yes and no.
It is well known that circumstances forced Andri to write his dissertation.
According to the new rules adopted at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Andris
position at the Yugoslav Consulate in Graz required a doctorate. He was temporarily dismissed but remained employed by the consulate until he fulfilled
this requirement. This prompted him to produce his dissertation quickly. He
used what was available to him: mostly material he had collected earlier and
had intended to use in his fiction writing. For some critics, Andris thesis was
a historical work.8 For others such as Ivan Lovrenovi, it is an example of
political discourse.9 For most, however, Andris dissertation reads like a narrative. Zoran Konstantinovi, who translated the dissertation into Serbo-Croatian, considers it a literary work.10 Andri himself tells us in his dissertation, in
content and basic idea the present treatment is related to other works that I have
composed in a different form and in a different occasion.11
Certain facts suggest that Andri wanted to please his two readers, one of
which, Professor Raymond Kaindle, was a velikonemac, a German nation
alist and anti-Serb. We know that Andri never quoted the history of Serbia
written by the famous Czech historian Konstantin Jireek, with whom he had
studied earlier. He avoided mentioning the Serbian character of medieval Bosnia, and while he had only praise for the cultural achievements of the Franciscan monks and the Catholic Church in Bosnia, he was generally dismissive of
the culture of the Orthodox Serbs.
Aware that his dissertation may provoke strong reactions, Andri wrote a
disclaimer that his criticism of Ottoman rule should not be taken as a criticism
of Islam, but only as a critique of the consequences of the Ottoman imperial
8
Dragan Jeremi, ovek i istorija u knjievnom delu Ive Andria, in Antonije Idakovi, ed.,
Zbornik radova o Ivi Andriu, Odeljenje jezika i knjievnosti, bk. 30 (Belgrade: Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, 1979), 142.
9
Ivan Lovrenovi, est decenija tajne, Bosna Franciscana (Sarajevo) 13, no. 23 (2005): 109
12.
10
Zoran Konstantinovi, O Andrievom doktoratu: Pogovor uz dizertaciju Ive Andria, Sveske zadubine Ive Andria (Belgrade), no. 1 (June 1982): 25976.
11
Andri, The Development of Spiritual Life in Bosnia, xiii.

Boundaries and Crossings

legacy.12 In other words, Islamic culture has its values and should be appreci
ated as long as it does not force these values on other people.
This article explores the ways in which the East-West divisions so starkly highlighted in the dissertation are treated in Andris fiction, given that the
encounter between the Ottoman East and Christian West remains the major
theme of Andris short stories as well as his novels The Bridge on the Drina,
Bosnian Chronicle, and Devils Yard. In all these works, protagonists struggle
to survive the consequences of Bosnian history, primarily the Ottoman legacy.
They find themselves between the two worlds wherein their identity is created.
The author himself deeply felt the trauma of Bosnias fractured identity, which
he blamed for recurrent Bosnian conflicts. At the same time, as we shall see,
Andri saw these ill-fated divisions as arbitrary and manmade.
In The Bridge on the Drina, written almost two decades after the disserta
tion, Andri does not stress divisions and isolation, but rather focuses on the
somewhat harmonious coexistence between the different ethnic groups in the
Bosnian town of Viegrad, where common experience bound together an eth
nically mixed community. To some extent, though it is not clearly articulated,
the author credits this harmony to the presence of the bridge on the Drina River,
a construction of rare beauty and endurance. Nonetheless, even here the lines of
separation are discernable. Christians and Muslims live in segregated communities, as each group clings to its own religion: Muslims assert their dominance
by perpetuating individual violence against the Christian serfs, while the Christians retain their identities and dream of a national rebirth.
The largely absent character of Mehmed Pasha Sokolovi, who is financing
the construction of the bridge, carries the fateful division within himself. He is
represented as a metaphor for Bosnian fractured identity. An ethnic Serb, he
was seized from his family when he was a boy, taken to Istanbul, and thrown
into the category of the alien other. While he had achieved fame and successfully appropriated another identity, his original identity did not recede but stayed
active, confounding him and causing him trauma. The Grand Vizier of the powerful empire remains both himself and the other. The pain of separation from
his origin, like a dagger, cuts through his chest and keeps him aware of the
other that is constantly part of him. Even the bridge he built to unite the place
of his origin with the place of his destiny did not alleviate his pain.
With the occupation and annexation of Bosnia by the Austro-Hungarian
Empire in 1908, another alien other intrudes on Bosnias already colorful de
mographic and religious milieu, and lines of divisions are once again redrawn.
The former lords, Slavic Muslims, now have to share the fate of Christian serfs
12

Konstantinovi, O Andrievom doktoratu, 270.

Radmila J. Gorup

as subjects of another empire. Andris representation of Slavic Muslims becomes more sympathetic now that they are no longer a ruling class and they
no longer subject the Christian rayah to various abuses. We see that clearly in
the character of Alihoda, the keeper of the bridge in The Bridge on the Drina,
whom some critics consider to be Andris voice in the novel. Alihoda is mistrustful of all the changes the new empire initiates and suffers when the railroad
is constructed and the bridge on the Drina no longer serves as a link between
East and West. Just like Mehmed Pasha, Alihoda feels stabbing pains in his
chest when the bridge is bombed. He is lost when the bridge is damaged and the
Bosnian traditional way of life is imperiled.
Deploring the Oriental backwardness and savagery of the Balkans, the
Austrians enter Bosnia with a civilizing mission to forge modernity in a region
they have already constructed as backward and violent. To do that, the enlightened Western empire resorts to a more systematic type of oppression, and in the
process, subverts the traditional way of life of the Bosnian ethnic communities,
something that the Ottomans never did. In the end, the civilizing mission of a
Western empire proves to be as violent as the Eastern one.
Critics claim that the most significant ideas on the fractured identity of
Bosnia and the divisions between its ethnic communities are to be found in
Bosnian Chronicle (Travnika hronika). While The Bridge on the Drina em
phasizes coherence of life in the town of Viegrad, Bosnian Chronicle, written
from the point of view of two Westerners, stresses hostility and divisions be
tween various ethnic groups living in the town of Travnik. These divisions reinforce the idea of mistrust, misunderstanding, isolation, and exile. The Bridge on
the Drina thus allows coexistence between the people regardless of ideology,
whereas Bosnian Chronicle emphasizes distrust and transience.
In Bosnian Chronicle, Andri constructs the perspective of the West within
a semi-Oriental milieu through his characters. The West is constructed around
the characters of two French consuls (and to some extent, the two Austrian consuls) in their interaction with Turkish viziers, the heterogeneous local populace,
and one another.
The relationship between different groups in the novel becomes more complex and divisions between them become more pronounced with the presence
of representatives from the Christian West: the first consuls from France and
Austria who come to Travnik, the administrative seat of the Bosnian pashaluk.
The seven-year stay of the consuls (1807 to 1814) in Bosnia presents an ideal
opportunity to illustrate the reaction of Westerners inside an environment already constructed as their other.
The encounter between East and West is seen primarily through the eyes of
two French consuls. From the very beginning, the perception of Bosnia and its

Boundaries and Crossings

culture by the French consul Jean Daville is entirely negative. He feels frightened and isolated in this God-forsaken Turkish province, and he experiences
physical revulsion listening to the Oriental music or smelling the Oriental aromas.13 The author quickly relativizes this negative perception of Bosnia. Des
Fosses, the new assistant consul sent to Bosnia, does not perceive it as negatively as his older colleague. He is considerably more open-minded and receptive
and tries to find the reasons for Bosnias backwardness. While Daville looks at
everything around him with scorn, Des Fosses observes it all with curiosity and
tries to learn from experience. Andri thus seems to suggest that the difference
between the two consuls responses to Bosnia comes from the nature of the observer himself. Daville is a bitter and unhappy man, so his negative comments
should not surprise the reader. The young consul is also alien to Daville, as
much as the local population.
In the end, however, both consuls look at Bosnia as an alien other. Des
Fosses, too, has problems communicating even though he was sent to Bosnia
because of his knowledge of Turkish. Neither the old consul nor the young one,
who is really trying, is able to enter the world of Bosnia. They do not distinguish between the various ethnic groups of Travnik; for them they are all Oriental. Even though to differing degrees, both consuls are constrained by their
imperial discourse, and both approach Bosnia and its culture from a perspective
of superiority.
The two consuls experience the East as a culture that cannot be understood
by foreigners, who get exhausted by constant attempts to decipher it. Moreover,
the East is seen as a disease that corrupts the foreigners rational, enlightened
identity, and in the end, destroys it. This is the classical construction of the East
by the European powers, which draw the opposing boundaries between East
and West as barbarism versus civilization or backwardness versus progress.
It is, however, not only the foreign consuls who partake in the Orientali
zation of Bosnia. The Ottoman viziers, representatives of the colonizing power,
just like the Westerners, view Travnik and its population as the other. The three
Ottoman viziers featured in Bosnian Chronicle are different, yet, just like their
French colleagues, they take a common stand toward the local population: they
view it with scorn and do not distinguish between Christians and Muslims. For
them too, Travnik is an uncivilized wasteland, a dogs country.14 Even though
they both view the Travnik population negatively, the Western consuls and Ottoman viziers cannot understand each others cultures, thus remaining alien to
each other as well. Although the Travnik ethnic groups are perceived by out13

Ivo Andri, Bosnian Chronicle, trans. Joseph Hitrec (New York: Arcade Publishing, 1993),
16.
14
Ibid., 112.

Radmila J. Gorup

siders as homogeneous, relations between them are complex and historically

loaded. Internal divisions have created a life of anxiety as people hide behind a
facade of silence, which serves as a metaphor for these divisions.
As can be seen, boundaries between groups and people in The Bridge
on the Drina are not clear-cut, black and white, but are rather nuanced. Even
though they are presented as manmade and arbitrary, the two-way division between Christianity and Islam and the three-way division between the Western
representatives, the East (i.e., the Ottomans), and Bosnias local population are
real within the groups.
All depictions of the Balkans and Yugoslavia, as well as Bosnia as its mi
crocosm, offer as their central characteristics divisions, hostilities, and a tran
sitory character. At the same time, the Balkan Peninsula also invoked the image
of a bridge.15 For Vesna Goldsworthy,
individual Balkan identities were shaped over the centuries by the idea
of a frontier existence on which they based their own sense of importance. Various Balkan nations symbolically define themselves as being
at a gate, on a bridge, or at a crossroads between different worlds.16
Bosnia, perhaps, best represents this inner alterity that tends to be demonized.
It is a perfect example of how complex the issues of boundaries and crossings-over can be. In fact, genuine crossings-over of religious and cultural
boundaries in Andri are infrequent. One example from The Bridge on the Drina is often quoted: namely, the portrayal of the Viegrad populations reaction
to the great flood that occurred at the end of the 18th century. Surprised by a
sudden flood, the leading men of different ethnic communities of Viegrad rush
to secure lodging for those displaced by the disaster. They place Muslims in
Muslim households and Christians and Jews in Christian households, and only
then did Turkish, Christian, and Jewish elders intermingle:
The force of the element and the weight of the common misfortune
brought these men together and bridged, at least for this one evening,
the gulf that divided one faith from the other and especially the rayah
from the Turks.17

15

Todorova, Inventing the Balkans, 15.

Vesna Goldsworthy, Inventing Ruritania: The Imperialism of the Imagination (New York:
Columbia University Press, 2013), 7.
17
Ivo Andri, The Bridge on the Drina, trans. George Allen (New York: McMillan, 1977), 77.
16

Boundaries and Crossings

Crises and disasters tend to reduce socio-cultural differences and change cultural practices. The existential threat by natural elements, not ideology, makes the
contact between different ethnic groups possible. However, even here the contact is temporary and the segregation of the population is thereafter maintained.
Another example in which ethnic and religious barriers are crossed is
shown within the character of a doctor. Fra Luka Dafinich, one of four Travnik
doctors featured in Chapter Twelve of the Bosnian Chronicle, is one of a few
happy characters in Andris works. Not burdened by any dogma, Fra Luka has
his own vision of the world, which stresses the interconnectedness of all things.
An atypical monk, Fra Luka is the best friend of another Travnik doctor, the
Jew Modro Atias. The local population views their friendship as a friendship
between the Old and the New Testaments. Fra Luka is freely crossing over
the ethnic and cultural barriers by treating patients of all religious denominations in Travnik.
The character of Madame Daville, devoted mother and the wife of the
French consul, successfully crosses barriers that religion and ideology erect.
Even though she is a pious Catholic, her piety is free of any bigotry. By fo
cusing on family life, she is able to bring the consulate closer to the local pop
ulation, even though it does not approve of the presence of foreigners among
them. She is admired by the local women of all religious persuasions. They
show great compassion when Madame Daville loses her child and rejoice when
her new baby arrives. In this example, what enables the contact between cultures is the humanistic attitude of the protagonist as well as the idea that no
particular ideology drives their relationships.
There are several more examples in the novel in which a member or members of a group lend assistance to members of a different group. In these situations, the action is always motivated by empathy for a suffering human being
rather than an attempt to subjugate the person or attract him to ones own side.
The relationship between the French and Austrian consuls, too, is subject
to ideology. The consuls are represented as rivals fighting for the interest of
their own countries. However, their rivalry comes to light only in their official
capacity. Whenever France and Austria are at war, the consuls break off any
contact. In times of good relations, they keep each other company and lament
the destiny that brought them to this Oriental town. Even though they are both
members of the same enlightened Western culture, what drives their relationship is not personal affinity but the political relations between their countries.
In Imagining the Balkans, Todorova argues that there are two divergent
interpretations of the Ottoman legacy in the Balkans. The first, which claims
that it was a religiously, socially, and institutionally alien imposition on Christian society, she dismisses from serious scholarship. The second one treats the

10

Radmila J. Gorup

Ottoman legacy as the complete symbiosis of two traditions, the Byzantine and
the Balkan. What Todorova suggests is that the Balkans are imagined as an incomplete self due to race and religion, which grants the region at least partial
inclusion into Europe.18
It is not difficult to agree that several centuries of Ottoman domination
had a great effect on Balkan cultural identity. However, the effect is mostly
seen in popular culture and everyday life. A frequently quoted example of the
hybridized culture is the use of colored candles in place of colored eggs by the
Bosnian Muslims during Bairam in Andri, or the celebration of St. Georges
Day described in Mea Selimovis Death and the Dervish.19 Religion did keep
different groups apart, and it was the foundation on which national identity was
constructed.
While the religious complexity made the Balkan Peninsula especially prone
to cultural hybridization, there is no culture which did not have a dialogue with
other cultures resulting in change to a lesser or greater degree. The encounter
between Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Islam produced a culture
in which certain characteristics between East and West were blurred yet never
entirely abolished. Seen from the outside, the Bosnian population presented a
unified picture, yet to themselves they remained distinct.20 According to Longinovi, the local population continued to imagine itself as part of two worlds
between which there cannot be any real contact nor the possibility of agreement.21 The Balkans and Bosnia never attained a definite otherness, and because of this, Bosnian Muslims were seen as the other by both local Christians
and Ottoman rulers.
Indeed, the geographical and cultural reality of Bosnia produced a special
kind of border identity, and being on the edge has been a constant dimension
of Bosnian cultural mentality. Because they were within imperial areasByzantine, Ottoman, Austro-HungarianBosnians felt a constant threat of being
overtaken and assimilated, which became a clear marker of their identity.

18

Todorova, Imagining the Balkans, 16465.

Ivo Andri, Razvoj duhovnog ivota u Bosni pod uticajem turske vladavine, Sveske zadubine Ive Andria, no.1 (1982): 255.
20
I have a personal comment to add here. In the late 1970s my professor at Columbia was given
a grant to travel and lecture in Yugoslavia. He did not know much about the country and asked me
to give him a short introduction. On his trip he visited all the republics except Macedonia and the
then Autonomous Region of Kosovo. Upon returning he told me: Mrs. Gorup, all the differences
you pointed out completely eluded me. He halted for a while and added: Perhaps, Sarajevo.
His outside gaze saw all the Yugoslavs alike.
21
Longinovi, East Within the West, 135.
19

Boundaries and Crossings

11

In the encounter with the East, the loss of identity is something all Andris
characters, local and foreigner alike, experience. This loss of identity results
in depersonalization. The author describes how those foreigners who come to
Bosnia to work or trade for some time, in most cases, succumb to an illness
Consul Daville calls this Oriental poison. Even a strong individual such as
the young French consul Des Fosses is affected by the Bosnian experience.
Those who stay long are completely altered, hybridized into borderline characters. They acquire from the Turks their negative and cruder characteristics and
are unable to assimilate their better and nobler qualities and habits. While they
are perhaps able to understand the two worlds, they are still unable to bridge
them or establish a line of communication between them.
The three characters in the Bosnian Chronicle whom Andri calls Levantines articulate a collective identity that cannot be traced to a singular origin.
As neither Easterners nor Westerners, they are hybrid personalities who have
translated the effects of conflicting cultural legacies. In effect, the Levantines
are a model of the tragic existence between East and West. These characters are eternally homeless, doomed to a life on the border. Andris trio
Cesar dAvenat, Nicholas Rotta, and Giovanni Mario Colognais shaped by
both East and West but does not belong to either world. The members status
is profoundly ambiguous: neither European nor Oriental, they are essentially
homeless, tortured by their in-between position. Characteristically, all three are
interpreters, individuals who rely on their language skills on a daily basis and
are expected to understand and explain foreign cultures.
The author elaborates that the Levantine is a man with no illusion and no
scruples and without a face of his ownthat is to say, a man of several faces,
forced to put on an act of humility one moment and one of boldness the next.22
Lacking a clear self-identity, the Levantines are forced to live an ambiguous
existence.
Because they do not belong to any particular community, the Levantines
represent the third world, a world which has been created in the buffer zone
between the two civilizations, a repository of the curse and damnation which
the cleaving of the earth in two worlds has left in its wake.23
The three Levantines are of mixed blood, and none had a very strong identity even before their service in the East. As was typical, all three had changed
their names. Two are rather negative characters. Cesar dAvenat, formerly Cesare Avena, now called Davna by the local population, is also one of the four
Travnik doctors (doctor without patients) and works as a translator in the
22
23

Andri, Bosnian Chronicle, 33.

Ibid., 262.

12

Radmila J. Gorup

French consulate. Nicholas Rotta, formerly Scarparotta, works in the Austrian

consulate, also as an interpreter. Both have lost their Western identity and acquired the imagined Oriental master/slave mentality: they are arrogant to the
weak and servile to the powerful. DAvenats only redeeming quality is that he
loves his son and wants to secure a bright future for him. Rotta is portrayed as
a conniving hunchback, an insolent, suspicious, compulsive, and pathological
hoarder without any noble features.
The borderline reality is most successfully formulated by the character of
Dr. Mario Cologna, the most fascinating of the three. He is a man of uncertain
age; of uncertain origin, nationality, and race; of uncertain belief and views;
and of equally uncertain knowledge and experience.24 He is consistent only in
his inconsistency. He mixes languages and speaks incessantly. He never signs
his name in the same fashion. A man of contemporary ideas, a liberated and
critical spirit free from all prejudices, he is an enthusiast of all faiths but a philosophical skeptic. Cologna lives within the rift separating two civilizations, yet
he sees the arbitrariness of their division: the people are divided by religion,
allegiance, public position, or the accident of their birth. The doctor defines his
problem in two words the third world and sees it as a curse:
Such is a fate of the man from the Levant, for he is poussire humaine,
human dust, drifting wearily between East and West, belonging to neither and pulverized by both. These are people who speak many languages but have no language of their own, who are familiar with two
religions but hold fast to neither. .They are a frontier people, bodily
and spiritually, from that black and bloody dividing line which, through
some terrible, absurd misunderstanding, has been drawn between men
and men, all creatures of God, between whom there should not and
must not be any such lines.25
Cologna is a spokesperson for the Levantine position, and he makes it his
mission to intercede between the two worlds, to be a human bridge between
them. He sees all his efforts go in vain, yet he still hopes that in the end all the
wandering people will meet and understand one another: Un jour, tout sera
bien, voil notre esprance (one day everything will be all right, thats our
hope).26 Even if things seem to be disjointed and chaotic at the moment, they

24

Ibid., 227.
Ibid., 262.
26
Ibid., 263.
25

Boundaries and Crossings

13

are nevertheless linked together and interdependent. All of us are on the right
road.
At the end of the novel, the character Jean Daville, the fiercest critic of
Bosnia, expresses a similar hope to that of Dr. Cologna. On the last night of his
stay in Travnik, Daville is no longer frightened and lonely but feels that somewhere out there the right road exists. And not only did it exist, but sooner or
later someone was bound to stumble on it and throw it open to all men.27
For Zoran Milutinovi, the character of Cologna is presented as someone
who is willing to step on the other side of a cultural divide in order to under
stand the other. That does not presuppose that he accepts uncritically all the
elements of the others culture. Instead, understanding the other presupposes
understanding oneself; the idea that one position meets the others position
without submission of ones position, what Milutinovi within a broader frame
calls the third place.28
The character of Cologna remains attractive to critics as a possible auto
biographical voice for Andri. Colognas lament captures some facts of An
dris own life and mirrors the ambiguity of the cultural identity of Bosnia and
Andris incomplete self-identity. Being of mixed background, Andri vacillated between his Serbian national identity and his Roman Catholic upbringing.29
He grew up in ethnically diverse Bosnia. He spoke the ijekavian variant of Serbo-Croatian until he moved to Belgrade. He wrote mostly about Bosnians. He
never openly chose one aspect of his identity, because, as he states, to choose
one identity over the other presupposes a loss of the other.30 To crossover from
one identity to another implies a loss; the love of one community requires hating the other. That was something that Andri could not choose. That is why he
dedicated his life to imagining safe crossings and trying to curtail the manmade differences brought in from the outside.
The merging of different cultural identities in one individual, as reflected in
Dr. Cologna, is difficult to realize. Imagined as such, this multiculturalism is an
impossible ideal for Cologna for the time being, and he cannot survive.
Just as we cannot find Andri in his dissertation, no single character in his
opus is a spokesperson for him. Cologna exposes some of the authors lament
of Bosnia being ravished by invasions and oppressions. Yet, Cologna, dottore
ilirico, as portrayed in Bosnian Chronicle, could not have been the ideal model of what Andri wished for the future of his homeland. He did sympathize
27

Ibid., 427.
Zoran Milutinovi, Getting Over Europe: The Construction of Europe in Serbian Culture
(Amsterdam; New York: Rodopi, 2011), 24960.
29
Longinovi, East Within the West, 136.
30
Ibid.
28

14

Radmila J. Gorup

with Colognas plight as someone living on the border, and his philosophy of
syncretism and unity, but Andri could not have been fond of Colognas lack of
definition. That could not have served as the foundation for the imagined community of Yugoslavia of which the author had dreamed. His overt admiration
for language reformer Vuk Karadi and the romantic poet Petar II Petrovi
Njego suggests that Andri preferred characters of clearly defined identity.
Andri understood Colognas dream of a third world as a place of mutual understanding where everything is connected, but he realized it was only a dream
for the future. The best that one could hope for is a multiethnic state in which
differences are tolerated and precarious peace is safeguarded.
Andri had worldviews consistent with a 20th-century, educated European.
He looked at the world from the point of view of the downtrodden, and the
constructed divisions between East and West in Bosnia, however arbitrary in
origin, felt just as real to him. Located between the two constructs, his native
Bosnia was something else, a hybrid that did not allow for the construction of
a stable identity.
Alongside the fusion of different languages and the mixture of ethnicities,
Andris narrative transcends individual lives and speaks for his imagined Yugoslav community. His ultimate goal is to structure a representation of a diverse
coexisting community and to show that a unique voice can be found.
Critics see the authors membership in the organization of Mlada Bosna (Young Bosnia) as a key to understanding his anti-imperial attitude. Still
a high-school student in Sarajevo in 1911, Andri became involved with this
anti-Austro-Hungarian organization, in which he fought for the liberation of
the South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and was a fierce advocate
of the Yugoslav cause. This revolutionary movement called for the abolition of
religious differences as the only way to overcome the legacy of the tragic past.
The three-way religious division and the accompanying cultural division was
brought from outside and was the result of influences from Rome, Byzantium,
and the Ottoman Empire. For Mlada Bosna, the Yugoslav perspective was the
only choice for the people of Bosnia.
Everything suggests that Andri believed that an understanding of the past
was crucial for the future of the people in former Yugoslavia. The horror of
the past is so powerfully present in his entire opus that it serves as a warning
to what may be repeated in the future. While he fought to suppress the legacy
of the Ottoman and other empires in his native land, he was acutely aware of
the unhappy past of his homeland and its discrimination against ethnic groups,
something of which he was accused in the 1990s, when Yugoslavia was falling
apart.

Boundaries and Crossings

15

We also cannot forget that Andri wrote Bridge on the Drina and Bosnian
Chronicle during World War II, in Nazi-occupied Belgrade. Uncharacteristi
cally for him, at the end of the Bosnian Chronicle he added the date and location
of the novels completion: Finished in Belgrade in April 1942. That was the
time when the horror of history had revisited his country and Yugoslavia was
divided again by another empire along the same lines of earlier fissures, and
when segments of the population became a ruling class and oppressor of their
brothers, again through collaboration and fratricide. Thus, the possibility was
raised that the term Turk, which Andri uses to refer to the Ottomans, may
have been used metaphorically and that he was writing about oppression closer
to his time.
While national states are an invention of modernity, this concept was not
applicable to most of the Balkan people after they were left ethnically mixed
and in ruins following the eclipse of the Ottoman Empire. That is because the
Balkan nations had defined themselves in opposition to the Orient, not in op
position to one another. Andri hoped that the special make-up of this hetero
geneous mixture could produce a unique identity for Yugoslavia in the future.
This could, however, only exist if it were all-inclusive. According to Andrew
Wachtel, [t]he imagined community of Yugoslavia can exist only by the in
clusion of these competing, inimical, yet closely related groups, and it is ulti
mately the passion of their static yet ever-evolving relationships that appears in
all of Andris works.31
Andri rejected modern nationalism in favor of overcoming ethnic and
religious differences in a united state. The enduring communities that Andri
depicted in his novels are a product of persistently intermixing cultures. If
they could be freed from religious differences, as advocated by Mlada Bosna, the country the author envisioned would be possible in the future. Written
during World War II, Andris great novels The Bridge on the Drina and Bosnian Chronicle function to recreate such an imagined community. In these two
works, Andri depicts heterogeneous communities that, despite all hostilities,
coexist.

31
Andrew Wachtel, Imagining Yugoslavia: The Historical Archaeology of Ivo Andri, in
Vucinich, Ivo Andri Revisited, 98.

A Study of Milovan ilass Perspectives on Njego in

Njego: Poet, Prince, Bishop
Radojka Vukcevic
University of Belgrade

Milovan ilass study Njego: Poet, Prince, Bishop occupies a special place in
the reception of Njego in the U.S. because its publication in translation from
Serbian, (with a preface by Michael Petrovich and an introduction by William
Jovanovich) constitutes a major event in Njego studies.1 Both Petrovich and
Jovanovich point to the multitude and completeness of ilass perspectives on
Njego in his roles of writer, ruler, and religious leader. Moreover, they note
the fact that ilas was the most famous prisoner from the former Yugoslavia,
something that must have intrigued Americans at the time. Both Petrovich and
Jovanovich claim that the figure of Njego and Montenegro itself are no less
intriguing. The reasons, of course, are many! ilas had previously attracted
American audiences with his political texts, such as The New Class (1957) and
Conversations with Stalin (1962). Jovanovich points to ilass criticism of Yugoslav communist society and his brave behavior both when he was removed
from his very high political position and during his trial. What distinguishes
him from many other dissidents and from other European pro-Communist writers is the fact that he himself was a pre-WWII Communist and warrior, then
subsequently one of the most powerful men of the Communist Party, brave
enough to accept the consequence of his rebellion. Jovanovich is convinced
that later two of his books faced ilas both with himself and Njego: Land
without Justice (1985) and Montenegro (1963).
Njego had attracted American scholars with his poetic and epic works,
such as Mountain Wreath, which resulted in six translations in English. When
compared, the two authors have more that differentiates them than connects
them: Njego was a hereditary ruler, while ilas was a revolutionary ruler;
Njego was an Orthodox bishop, ilas was an atheist; Njego was an idealist in
1

See William Jovanovich, preface to Njego: Poet, Prince, Bishop, by Milovan ilas (New
York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1966), xix; and Michael Petrovich, introduction to ilas,
Njego: Poet, Prince, Bishop, xiii.
Serbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 26 (12): 1724,
2012.

18

Radojka Vukcevic

philosophy, but ilas was a representative of dialectic materialism. Nevertheless, both were in power and both were poets.
American interest in Njego and ilas is also confirmed by European authors and evidenced in Svetozar Koljevis very illuminating study Njego u
engleskoj i amerikoj kulturi (Njego in English and American Culture).2 Koljevi agrees with Michael Petrovichs statement that ilas could write about
Njego because they had much more in common than not: being himself from
Montenegro, he shared with Njego the totality of experience. However, Koljevi raises some of the contradictory questions encountered in ilass masterful
work: e.g., ilass play on and exploration of identity, nationality, and state. For
example, at that time ilas protested that he was not a Montenegrin, but rather a Yugoslav. Koljevi reminds us that what we must keep in mind is the fact
that ilas was the first translator of Miltons Paradise Lost and that this must
have influenced his preoccupation with the struggle between good and evil.3
Koljevis study traces the reception of Njego: Poet, Prince, Bishop in
American culture from the very first anonymous notice in the New York review
Kirkus in 1966 through the following three decades.4 This critique, published
before the books official publication, points out that it was the third of ilass
prison books, which, at the same time, could be his last book. The author
notices that the book has some passages full of ilass fire and some moments
capturing the elevated dignity of an unhappy country and its people. However,
it still lacks spontaneity of expression and the historical criticism necessary to
make a piece of art more than regional, concludes this unknown author.
This review illuminates many of the future contradictory perspectives on
ilass study: on the one hand, negative ones, but on the other, some very positive ones, such as that of Philip E. Leinbach (1966),5 who evaluates ilass
work, without any political insinuation, as an excellent biography of one of the
leading Balkan figures and interprets it as an intimate portrait of Njego and
his people, written in an exciting and concise style and based on rich sources,
which recommends it to be included in collections of Slavic history and literature.
Vasa D. Mihailovi, one of the most respected Slavists, also evaluated
ilass study very highly in his 1966 review as the most ambitious and inter-

Svetozar Koljevi, Njego u engleskoj i amerikoj kulturi (Podgorica: Oktoih, 1992).

Koljevi, Njego u engleskoj i amerikoj kulturi, 118.
4
Ibid., 119.
5
Philip E. Leinbach, Djilas, Milovan. Njego: Poet, Prince, Bishop, Library Journal, 15 April
1966: 2048. Cited in Koljevi, Njego u engleskoj i amerikoj kulturi, 119.
3

A Study of Milovan ilass Perspectives on Njego 19

esting book of all of his prison books.6 He views it as a complete perspective

on a great poet who was complex and mysterious.
Bogdan Raditsas review (1966) takes a political standpoint and, after criticizing both ilass and Njegos narrow Serb-Yugoslav orientation, concludes
that ilass book would contribute to a better introduction of Yugoslav literatures in English-speaking countries where such a study was necessary. He views
ilass study as a standard work about a great Montenegrin poet that represents
a contribution to Yugoslav literary criticism and national historiography.7
Dragan Milivojevis review (1968) emphasizes the detailed historical and
political aspects of the study. Milivojevi points out that the book is based on
rich documentation, but, as he says, it also shows how ilas feels Njego,
and Milivojevi illustrates this by comparing Njegos disappointment in Russia with ilass feelings after the break with the Soviet Union in 1948. In spite
of a style that is too illustrative, the book is a very successful subjective interpretation of one of the greatest Yugoslav writers (Njego), according to this
critic.8
Charles Dollen, in his 1966 review, offers the most critical discussion of the
book from the perspective of religion. He negates any possibility of ilas, an
atheist and a Communist, being able to understand Njego in all his complexity
within the sphere of religion itself. Although he states that ilas did a lot for the
West by the very fact of pointing out the greatness of the Montenegrin national
poet, Dollen does, in the end, conclude that ilas failed to actually illuminate
the great genius of Njego as a poet, ruler, and bishop because he had neither
poetic vision nor any understanding of religion to map Njegos horizons.9
Koljevi mentions one more sharp and negative review of Njego: Poet,
Prince, Bishop from 1966 by an anonymous writer who simply asserts that
ilass study is not good enough to be read seriously in the U.S.10
However, this is not the end of the critical reception of ilass study of
Njego in the U.S. These reviews only paved the way for some more critiques
in 1966, such as Elizabeth Ponds text Montenegros Flash of Lightning
in the Christian Science Monitor.11 Ponds makes a strong distinction between
6
Vasa D. Mihailovich, Milovan Djilas. Njego: Poet, Prince, Bishop, Books Abroad, no. 40
(1966): 459. Quoted in Koljevi, Njego u engleskoj i amerikoj kulturi, 120.
7
Koljevi, Njego u engleskoj i amerikoj kulturi, 12021.
8
Dragan Milivojevi, Milovan Djilas. Njego: Poet, Prince, Bishop, Slavic and East European Journal, no. 12 (1968): 86. Cited in Koljevi, Njego u engleskoj i amerikoj kulturi, 121.
9
Charles Dollen, Djilas, Milovan, Njego, Best Sellers, 1 May 1966, 42. Cited in Koljevi,
Njego u engleskoj i amerikoj kulturi, 123.
10
Koljevi, Njego u engleskoj i amerikoj kulturi, 124.
11
Ibid.

20

Radojka Vukcevic

Montenegrin and American culture and points out that ilas did not succeed
in presenting what matters for Western culture: issues such as Njegos figure,
his personality, and his differing roles in his impoverished society and his very
rural culture. In conclusion, she claims that ilas was successful in presenting
what was less important: his own political views.
However, this is not the end of the conflicting critiques in the U.S. Another
scholar, John Simon, in his text The Shepherd Prince (1966), says that ilas,
though the best political figure in communist Yugoslavia, is not a good historian, biographer, or critic. His style is not refined, while his Marxist ideology,
combined with his rural wisdom, produced poor literary results.
Koljevi interprets most of the negative criticism in the light of cultural
misunderstandings. This is the case with the text The Case for Headhunting,
authored by Anthony West, an Irish writer, and published in The New Yorker
in 1966. West discusses both Njego and ilass Njego: Poet, Prince, Bishop
from the position of liberal humanism, notes Koljevi, which led West to condemn both ilas and Njego as war criminals because, as he says, both of them
justified the idea of the Inquisition of the Turkicized.
ilass study continued to attract the attention of scholars after 1995, the
year by which Koljevi concludes his research. Unfortunately, not much of
American literary criticism on ilass study can be found since 1995, or even
in the period between 1968 and 1995, the year which Koljevi takes as key for
the latest reception of Njego in Britain and the U.S.
Further research of this reception since 1995 demonstrates that, in a way,
the reception of ilass Njego: Poet, Prince, Bishop in the U.S. paralleled
the weakening of the reception of Njegos works in general. As in the case of
the reception of Njegos works, the focus of criticism shifted from the literary to the political and cultural. In the period since 1995, the focus was again
placed on ilass political texts due to the 199192 war and the disintegration
of Yugoslavia (Dennis Reinhartz, The Nationalism of Milovan ilas; C. L.
Sulzberger, Paradise Regained: Memoir of a Rebel12).13 Apart from the strong
reception of ilass political texts in Europe, especially in Germany, where a
great deal of academic research deals with his political studies, it is worth mentioning the latest study by the Chinese author Zuo Tao Xiang, Evolution of the
Political Thought of Milovan ilas (published in Peking in Chinese in 2012).
Aleksa ilas, the author of ilass Chronology and Selected Bibliography,
12

Dennis Reinhartz, The Nationalism of Milovan ilas, Modern Age, July 1985, 23342; and
C. L. Sulzberger, Paradise Regained: Memoir of a Rebel (New York: Praeger, 1989).
13
This part of research is based on Milovan ilass selected bibliography, published in Milovan
Djilas, Milovan ilas, ed. Miro Vuksanovi, Deset vekova srpske knjievnosti, vol. 67 (Novi
Sad: Matica srpska, 2013), 46465.

A Study of Milovan ilass Perspectives on Njego 21

also presents a number of Masters theses and doctoral dissertations written in

the U.S., all dealing with ilass political texts.14
This was not the case at home in Serbia and Montenegro, where the reception of both ilass literary and non-literary texts since 1990 has been increasingly stronger. After a gap of almost 40 years (lanci, 194146; Legenda
o Njegou, 1952), many of his literary texts were collected and either published for the first time or reprinted, as for example Njego: Pjesnik, vladar,
vladika (1988); Izgubljene bitke (1994); Lov na ljude (1990); Gubavac i druge
prie (1989); Crna Gora (1994); Ljubav i druge prie (1990); Svetovi i mostovi
(1997); Rane pripovetke (2000); Najlepe pripovetke Milovana ilasa (2003);
Besudna zemlja (memoari) (2005); and Problemi nae knjievnosti i drugi
meuratni lanci (2009). New studies of his works have been written as well:
ivko urkovi, ilas i Njego (2008); Ilija Pavievi, ilasova umjetnika
proza (2005); Branislav Kovaevi, ilas,heroj-antiheroj (2006); Momilo
Cemovi, ilasovi odgovori (1997); Veselin Pavlievi, ilas i lanci; Milo
Miliki Mido, Ratnim stazama Milovana ilasa; Veselin Pavlievi, Lijeve
greke Milovana ilasa ili partijski silogizam, to mention only a few. The
latest biography by Borislav Lali, Milovan ilas: Vernik, buntovnik, muenik
(2011), is worth mentioning. Moreover, conferences on ilas have been held
and proceedings published, e.g., Djelo Milovana ilasa (2003) and Zbornik radova o ilasu (1996).15 ilas seems to have become a cottage industry! Many
of these studies reveal some new perspectives on ilass Njego: Poet, Prince,
Bishop, offering a fresh perception of this pivotal study for the understanding of
Njego in the English language. Among many, we have singled out urkovis
comparative study ilas i Njego to discuss more thoroughly.
ivko urkovi, in his ilas i Njego, follows the genesis of the varied
perspectives on ilas and points out the fact that ilas wrote his first text on
Njego from the new Marxist position, with the purpose of opposing bourgeois ways of interpreting Njegos poetry (after he became a Communist and
served a sentence of three years in prison) and getting the young Communists
interested in Njego.16 His interest in Njego never stopped, and during 1952,
while fighting with the well-known Serbian writer Isidora Sekuli about the
ways to interpret Njego, he published these polemical texts in his book of es14
Ibid., 465. These include Vera P. Gathright, Milovan ilas: A Political Biography (George
Washington University, 1980); and John J. McKay, The Party Career of Milovan ilas (University of Washington, 1992).
15
Djilas, Milovan ilas, 46266.
16
ivko urkovi, ilas i Njego (Podgorica: Crnogorska akademija nauka i umjetnosti, 2008)
179.

22

Radojka Vukcevic

says A Legend about Njego (Legenda o Njegou).17 ilas took the position of
historical materialism, reminds urkovi, trying to show the superiority of the
Marxist approach, even in studying Njego and his works.18 Still, this did not
prevent him from becoming a Njegoologist (Njego specialist) as his studies
could not be overlooked among many others written in the 20th century, says
urkovi. urkovi introduced these two terms in Serbian: Njegoolog (Njego
scholar) and Njegoologist. As a matter of fact, it was ilass very comprehensive study, Njego: Poet, Prince, Bishop, which he wrote in Sremska Mitrovica
prison from 1957 to 1959, that earned him this place in Njegoology (Njego
scholarship), according to urkovi.19 In his analyses, urkovi focuses on
the three lines ilas followed while writing his study: historical background,
Njegos biography, and his works, with an emphasis on The Ray of the Microcosm, The Mountain Wreath, and The False Tsar: Stephen the Little. He claims
that ilas wrote about Njego from a lot of perspectives while applying historical, biographical, and aesthetic approaches, covering both Njegos personality and his complete opus, and especially the three aspects of Njegos public
functionsthose of a poet, ruler, and bishop.
This study came as ilass ideological reaction to the previously mentioned A Legend about Njego, explains urkovi. This time ilas approached
Njegos works not from the position of class relations and class struggle but
interdisciplinarily, taking into account history, sociology, ethnology, anthropology, psychology, and many other disciplines, which enabled him to provide
a very comprehensive insight into Njegos works. Still, urkovi identifies
some digressions, contradictions, and rash statements in ilass key study,
which nonetheless do not negate its high value for literary criticism, but establish for ilas a rightful place in Njegoology. However, there is something
more that urkovi posits: ilas is not a Njegoologist (NjegoologNjego
17

See Milovan ilas, Legenda o Njegou (Belgrade: Kultura, 1952); and Isidora Sekuli,
Njegou: Knjiga duboke odanosti (Belgrade: Ethos, 2009).
18
See ilas, Legenda o Njegou. The following collection of documents is worth consulting:
Branka Dokni, Mili F. Petrovi, and Ivan Hofman, eds., Kulturna politika Jugoslavije (1945
1952): Zbornik dokumenata, bk. 1 (Belgrade: Arhiv Jugoslavije, 2009). In the introduction the
editors discuss the role of Milovan ilas in the policy of Yugoslav culture, the role of Petar
Lubarda and his exhibition, and the role of journals Delo and Savremenik in the liberalization
of culture. Dr. Julian Huxley, a general director of the United Nations for culture and education,
played an important role in the cooperation between Yugoslavia and the UN. The most important
moment for the liberalization of culture in this period was the contract between Yugoslavia and
the U.S. in 1952 which enabled the import of films, music, etc. (ibid., 37).
19
ilass conflict with the party leaders of the state because of his supporting the development
of social democracy in Yugoslavia at that time ended in January 1954, when he was released
from all his functions and positions. He was sentenced several times later on because of his texts
against the existing system and some sensitive political issues, published abroad (ibid., 180).

A Study of Milovan ilass Perspectives on Njego 23

scholar) only, but a Njegosian (NjegoevacNjego exemplar) as well. He is a

Njegosian because Njego showed the way to ilas: he was his destiny. ilas
accepted him as his ideal and role model, concludes urkovi, and he even
called him universally human, the most tragic and the most moral personality
of our entire history and raised him to the mythical heights and spaces.20
As demonstrated, the perspectives on Njego and Milovan ilas are many,
no matter how different they are and from where they come! Nevertheless,
there is one perspective on Njego that many of the authors might agree with,
and it should be singled out. It is expressed by British scholar Edward Dennis
Goy in his most illuminating study on Njego, The Sabre and the Song. Here
Goy defends Njego from the critics who accuse his Mountain Wreath of being a work which triggered hatred and caused genocide in former Yugoslavia
during the 199192 war. He simply says that The Mountain Wreath is not just
a work of animated ideas, but rather a poetic expression of man in the general
system of nature through the portrayal of an event and the attendant suffering
and contradiction which it entails.21 It is by no means a political affirmation
of nationalistic fervor, for if it were, nobody would be interested in reading it.
On the contrary, says Goy, if one ignores the specific historical background,
then it belongs very much to our present time and the modern view of man and
his existence that still represents the latest attempt to examine our real position
in life, before the pseudo-scientific evasions and crass jargon of some later
school.22
Among many perspectives on ilas, there is one more to be agreed with
and singled out: Albert Lords perspective on ilass study23 as expressed in
his review Father of Serbian Literature (1966). According to Lord, ilass
book is extraordinary: it is the first critical treatise on a major Yugoslav author
published in the United States for the general audience. The most important
thing, notes Lord, is the fact that ilas is both a Montenegrin and a Serb, as was
Njego. ilass study on Njego is exceptional, although it underplays the role
of the folk epic in the development of Njegos poetry and minimizes the roles
of the Cetinje monastery and the Tropovi school in the Bay of Kotor. Still,
ilas has captured the very essence and the telling details of the period and
region and has made them dramatically alive.24 Lord further emphasizes that
ilass analyses are pertinent and reveal not Njegos artistic and philosoph20

Ibid., 181.
Edward Dennis Goy, The Sabre and the Song: Njego, The Mountain Wreath (Belgrade:
Serbian P.E.N. Publications, 1995), 78.
22
Ibid., 8.
23
Ibid., 126.
24
Albert Bates Lord, Father of Serbian Literature, Saturday Review, 30 April 1966, 30.
21

24

Radojka Vukcevic

ical creed, but ilass own,25 and he concludes that the book is an event for
those in the English-speaking world who believe that Yugoslav literature and
literary figures should be better known.26
Finally, instead of further presenting the glimpses of different perspectives
on both Njego and ilas and their poetics, which would be an endless task,
let us in conclusion return this time to Milovan ilas and Edward Dennis Goy
and bring them back together, only in order to agree with Goys conclusion and
his quotation from ilas in, as he says, his excellent book on Njego: The
Mountain Wreath shall be and must be constantly rediscovered and re-experienced in ever new ways, as long as the Serbian nation and tongue exist.27
As briefly shown here, the perspectives on Njego and his works, ilass perspectives on Njego and his works, and perspectives on ilass Njego: Poet,
Prince, Bishop have been many. The complexity of Njego, the different roles
he had to play, the time and place in which he lived, as well as the complexity
of ilass most comprehensive study on Njego (first published in the U.S.)
will hopefully inspire more and more new perspectives. What must be kept in
mind are the complexities and controversies of the times that we live in and the
positions from which we can and should study Njego in the future, while new
critical approaches continue to be developed. The last word on the possible
perspectives on both Njego and ilas has obviously yet to be said.
vukcevicradojka@gmail.com

25

Ibid., 30.
Ibid., 31.
27
ilas, Njego: Poet, Prince, Bishop, 372. Quoted in Goy, The Sabre and the Song, 9.
26

Literary Disputes of the 1950s and the Demise of

Socialist Realism
Radmila J. Gorup
Columbia University

This article focuses on the literary debates between the modernists and the
realists which inaugurated the transition from the socialist realism of the late
1940s to the new wave of modernism in Serbian and Yugoslav literature in the
mid-1950s and beyond. According to the critic Sveta Luki, the literary debates
of the early 1950s were the battle cry in the fight for normal cultural relations
between Yugoslavia and the world, and for stylistic and critical freedom, as
well as the broader question of political democratization in socialism.1
In his 1994 book Prolost i poluprolost (Past and Half-Past), Predrag
Proti states that three distinct orientations characterize Serbian spiritual life
and define the relationship of the Serbian cultural elite to the civilized world.
The first is a feeling of self-contentment, i.e., the idea that every departure
from tradition unavoidably works against the vital interest not only of the
national culture, but of the nation as a whole. It is therefore imperative to stay
within the parameters left to the nation by ancestors. The second is the diametrically opposed idea that Serbian culture must turn to foreign sources. Namely,
during the long Ottoman occupation, Serbian culture was excluded from the
main currents of Western civilization. To make up for that loss, Serbia has to
follow the same or similar path of other nations in order to reach the same level
of accomplishment. The third, a compromise orientation, acknowledges that
while Serbian culture may lag behind some other cultures, it has something
authentic and unique to offer to the rest of the world as an equal partner in
cultural dialogues with others.2

Sveta Luki, Contemporary Yugoslav Literature: A Sociopolitical Approach (Savremena

jugoslovenska literatura), ed. Gertrude Joch Robinson, trans. Pola Triandis (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1972), 17.

Predrag Proti, Prolost i poluprolost, Nove knjige domaih pisaca: Esejistika (Belgrade:
BIGZ, 1994), 194.
Serbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 26 (12): 25
43, 2012.

26

Radmila J. Gorup

This three-way orientation is usually collapsed into a two-way division,

namely, an opposition between traditionalists, or nationalists, that is,
those content with their own identity, who do not readily welcome changes
from abroad, and the internationalists, or mondialists, who are more open
to the new, primarily Western currents. While there are other terms used to
name this opposition, none represents a perfect fit because historical conditions change and, with them, the composition of the opposing camps.3
This binary pattern can be followed throughout Serbian cultural history.
The national movements of the 19th century took two major forms in Eastern
Europe: nations that did not have established states yet fought against their oppressors and nations that had already achieved their statehoodSerbs among
themattempted to strengthen their cultural identity. Both forms of nationalism were hostile to cosmopolitanism and tended to look inward. The national
myths they created in order to forge their cultural identity continue to influence cultural trends to this day.
The opposition of traditionalists and modernists was the crossroads
at which Serbs halted periodically while their leading intellectuals debated
passionately which direction their culture should take. With time this opposition acquired different forms. In the 19th century it reflected the gap between
the primarily patriarchal Serbs and their more cosmopolitan co-nationals who
grew up outside of Serbia and who were exposed to foreign cultures. Preani,
i.e., Serbs living in Austria-Hungary, many of whom were educated abroad,
found themselves in a rather difficult position as their ideas and practices were
seen as alien by the Serbs south of the Sava and Danube, who treated them
with mistrust and resentment.
The opposition between nationalists and internationalists was firmly
established in the post-Ottoman period of Serbian culture and was reflected in
the positions and personalities of the two key figures of the Serbian national
rebirth: Dositej Obradovi (17421811), who was an Austrian Serb, and Vuk
Stefanovi Karadi (17871864), who was born in the Ottoman Serbia south
of the Sava and Danube.4 Even though there was an overlap in the interests of
the two men, Obradovi is generally seen in hindsight as the champion of a
3

This is not limited to Serbia and the Balkans. Scholars throughout modern history recognized the distinction between global and local in the context of political and cultural affairs.
They acknowledged the oppositional forces between these two notions also known as cosmopolitanism or internationalism versus nationalism or modernism versus traditionalism. The
former member of the pair seeks to engage with other cultures, while the latter opposes that
and tends to turn inward. Cosmopolitanism, or internationalism, assumes a relation to plurality and diversity in contrast to nationalist uniformity.
4

The first internationalist in modern Serbian history, Dimitrije Obradovi, known as Dositej,
was a proponent of the philosophy of rationalism. His work was of crucial importance for the

Literary Disputes of the 1950s and the Demise of Socialist Realism

27

pro-Western cultural orientationa man who encouraged his nation to borrow freely from the cultural pool of more developed nations. Conversely, and
even paradoxically given his major role in the introduction of Serbian culture
to Europe, Karadi is seen more as a traditionalist who was confident of the
cultural accomplishments of his people and who offered them to others. The
leading Serbian critic at the beginning of the 20th century, Jovan Skerli, also
believed that Serbian material civilization and general culture lagged behind
the most developed countries of Europe and that Serbs should turn to the West
and adopt its new forms of culture.
The dilemma of which cultural orientation the country should adopt was
based on ideology and politics; those who favored the status quo in culture
had the upper hand in politics and opposed those who were more open to
changeusually that of the new modern trends coming from Western Europe
and America and striving for legitimacy within the native culture.
The two different orientations toward culture were contested in several
key periods, culminating in celebrated literary debates, such as the polemic
between Karadi and his opponents in the first half of the 19th century,5 the
emergence of modern Serbian culture as well as the formation of the Serbian national consciousness.
The philosophy of rationalism implied the total reevaluation of culture by advocating
a break with tradition, in particular, by distancing education and culture from the stifling
influence of the church, seen as an impediment to progress. The reforms of Emperor Joseph
(178090) to modernize his empire were met with mixed feelings among the Austrian Serbs
in Vojvodina. While the affluent middle class enthusiastically embraced the reforms, the Serbian Orthodox Church came out against them. To give the reforms any chance of success,
a powerful figure was necessary, someone who would promote the reforms but at the same
time expose himself to the ire of the church. Educated in a monastery and a former monk,
Dositej was singularly equipped for this mission. He respected diversity and desired to bring
his countrymen to the Western European tradition and away from the culture and literature
rooted primarily in folklore and the church. He criticized the abuses of monasteries and clergy
and showed, by his own example, how deficient the monastic education was. Dositejs work
paved the way for the great Serbian language reformer Vuk Stefanovi Karadi. For more on
Dositej, see Radmila J. Gorup, Dositej Obradovi and Serbian Cultural Rebirth, Serbian
Studies 6, no. 1 (1991): 3556.
5

The first literary polemic in modern Serbian history involved Vuk Stefanovi Karadi. To
standardize the Serbian literary language, Vuk chose a revolutionary path. He rejected every
written tradition. Instead, he chose as the basis of the standard language the dialect of the
Herzegovina region spoken by ordinary peasants, who were uneducated but had a rich oral
tradition. He rejected any form of etymological orthography and insisted on consistent phonetic spelling. The principal opponents of Vuks language reforms were the Serbian Orthodox
Church and the educated Serbs living in Vojvodina, who had a written literature and preferred
the etymological orthography. However, their linguistic situation was complicated and rather chaotic, and they themselves needed linguistic reforms but preferred an entirely different

28

Radmila J. Gorup

Conflict on the Yugoslav Left of the 1930s,6 the disputes of the 1950s, which
are the topic of this article, the controversy following the publication of the
novel A Tomb for Boris Davidovich (1976) by modernist Danilo Ki (1935-89)
and the resulting scandal,7 and the literary debate of the 1990s between traditionalists and postmodernists, played out in Knjievne novine (The Literary
direction from the one Vuk chose. They wanted to preserve their cherished Slavonic past and
insisted that the standard language be based on the language of educated people.
The first shot in what later became known as the War for the Serbian Language was
fired when Karadi wrote a very negative review of a novel by Milovan Vidakovi (1780
1841), the most popular prose writer among the Serbs in Vojvodina at the time. Vidakovi
responded in kind, and a polemic ensued from which he never recovered. The war continued
throughout the 1830s and the 1840s. Karadis new opponent was Jovan Hadi (17991861),
the secretary of the literary association Matica srpska and one of the best educated men in Vojvodina. An advocate of etymological spelling, Hadi called Vuk an imposter and denied him
any achievement. The dispute between Karadi and Hadi ended when a young collaborator
of Karadis, uro Danii, a trained philologist, wrote an elaborate essay entitled War for
the Serbian Language and Orthography in which he successfully defended Vuks linguistic
ideas. This signaled the victory of Karadis language reforms. To read more on this, see
Thomas Butler, The Origins of the War for a Serbian Language and Orthography, in Horace
Lunt and Wiktor Weintraub, eds., Harvard Slavic Studies, vol. 5 (Camrbidge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1970), 180.
6

The Conflict on the Yugoslav Left refers to a prolonged polemic Croatian Yugoslav writer Miroslav Krlea (18931981) held with his opponents in the 1920s and 1930s. Krlea, by
then considered an outstanding writer, was attacked both from the right and the left. The
monarchists harassed him because of his leftist orientation and his battle against bourgeois
mentality, and fellow Communists criticized him for not being zealous enough. In 1933 the
clashes on the left intensified when Krlea wrote a forward to a book of drawings by Croatian
painter Krsto Hegedui (Podravski motivi Scenes from the Drava Region). In the forward
that amounted to his artistic credo, Krlea railed against the social function of literature and
the method of social realism. This provoked a strong reaction from the leftist camp, and in a
number of articles they tried to discredit Krlea. He responded in kind, publishing a vitriolic
criticism of orthodox realist writers, including Milovan ilas and Radovan Zogovi, which
set the stage for further clashes that lasted until the outbreak of WWII. Krlea was practically
expelled from the Communist Party as Josip Broz Tito felt it necessary to stop the debate. For
more on this, see Ralph Bogert, The Writer as Naysayer: Miroslav Krlea and the Aesthetic of
Interwar Europe (Columbus, OH: Slavica Publishers, 1990).
7

Even though the plot of Kis novel does not take place in Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav Communists were very alarmed when the novel was published because its author criticized every
ideology and by implication even the Yugoslav brand of socialism. The Party had to find a way
to discredit the author. Ki was accused of plagiarism because in his work he used the material
of other writers. This attack was the cause of one of the fiercest debates ever. On one side was
Ki and other Yugoslav writers of modernist orientation and on the other the anti-Ki camp, including well-known novelists Miodrag Bulatovi (193091) and Branimir epanovi (1937),
the university professor Dragan Jeremi (192586), and the journalist Dragoljub Golubovi
Pion. Golubovi started the attack on Ki, calling him a reproductive writer who uses the
material of other writers without acknowledgement.

Literary Disputes of the 1950s and the Demise of Socialist Realism

29

Gazette) and other literary journals. These literary debates acquired political
importance because of the historical contexts in which they occurred.
Postwar literary movements cannot be explained without considering
their historical and social contexts. After the Second World War, the second
Yugoslavia was reconstituted on the principle of brotherhood and unity.
Cultural activities were resumed, but in the initial period (194548), they were
fully subservient to political ideology. They were under the federal ideological
commission known as Agitprop. The Communist ideologues espoused social
realism in literature as the practice befitting the new socialist man and his reality. From their perspective, the modernism between wars was an expression
of bourgeois decadence, and thus, incompatible with revolutionary views of
society. In the words of Sveta Luki, Realism was declared to be the very
essence of art. That which could not be included in this category was judged
to be worthless, damaging, and reactionary, and, in the last line of attack, as
the work of the enemy.8 Serbian and Yugoslav writers emulated the model
advocated by the doctrine of socialist realism, which demanded from the writers a realistic description of reality. In practice this meant that they were
expected to extol the struggles of the working class and the hard-won victory
over Nazism while disparaging everything that was connected with the previous order. Literary works began to be written with a technique that portrayed
everything in black and white, where the superhuman qualities of Titos partisans were stressed as much as the negative characteristics of their opponents.9
When Tito broke away from the Eastern Bloc in the early 1950s, the Soviet influence started to fade quickly. Politically, Yugoslavia stood between
the Eastern and Western Bloc. As Yugoslav culture opened up to modern influences, and with this overture to the West, the attitude toward art changed.
Artists were no longer expected to present in their works the idealized revolutionary reality.
Ki responded harshly. He accused Golubovi of acting on orders from powerful individuals who wanted to remain anonymous, and called him and his patrons ignoramuses,
uninformed of the new literary techniques. Others joined in to denounce Ki and his staunch
defenders Nikola Miloevi and Predrag Matvejevi. Golubovi sued Ki for slander, but the
judge dismissed all the charges against Ki. The dispute ended when the novel received the
Goran Literary Award and Ki published his theoretical tour de force as anatomije (The
Anatomy Lesson) in 1978. Ki was victorious, but the affair opened deep wounds, and he decided to leave the country. For detailed coverage of the affair, see Vasa D. Mihailovich, Faction or Fiction in A Tomb for Boris Davidovich: A Literary Affair, Review of Contemporary
Fiction 14, no. 1 (1994): 16973.
8

Luki, Contemporary Yugoslav Literature, 13.

For more on the period of socialist realism in Serbia, see Ljubodrag Dimi, Agitprop kultura
(Belgrade: Rad, 1988); and Radovan Popovi, Pisci u slubi naroda (Belgrade: Politika, 1991).

30

Radmila J. Gorup

Luckily for Serbian culture, the period of highly dogmatic literature did
not last long enough to take deep root. Following the historical dispute between Tito and Stalin in 1948, the literary scene in the country was transformed. As the country abandoned the Soviet model and established contacts
with the West, Yugoslav literature was opened to modernist trends. Belgrade
became a neutral capital, and Yugoslavia developed as an interesting buffer
country from which to observe the Cold War.
The modernist trends in the 1950s represent a continuation of the prewar
modernism and avant-garde practices. The Yugoslav prewar avant-garde era
consisted of several radical movements in visual arts and literature that surfaced among the South Slavs between 1918 and 1935. From an ideological
point of view, the Yugoslav avant-garde was leftist. The surrealist movement
was centered in Belgrade. The Serbian writer Marko Risti was a friend of
Andr Breton, and Bretons Le manifeste du surralisme was published in
Belgrade only three weeks after it appeared in Paris in 1924. Even though
the young Serbian surrealists recognized earlier modernists such as Milo
Crnjanski and Rastko Petrovi as their literary models, they mostly emulated French surrealism. The Belgrade surrealist movement flourished in the
1920s and 1930s in a number of avant-garde journals, such as Svedoanstva
(Testimonies, 192425) and Putevi (Paths, 192224). However, as the war approached, the writers began to introduce social context into their previously
largely formal preoccupation.
After the war, the Serbian prewar surrealists who became devoted Communists were expected to adapt to and adopt the realistic method, which, over
time, produced curious results. The older writers continued to publish works
begun before the war, thus avoiding political dogma. Veljko Petrovi, Isidora
Sekuli, Ivo Andri, Vladan Desnica, and others produced works of lasting
value, thus continuing, to some extent, the traditions of prewar prose. Young
modernists of the early 1950sVasko Popa, Miodrag Pavlovi, Radomir Konstantinovi, and the critic Zoran Miibegan to write three decades after
the surrealist movement was imported from France. They experimented with
new subject matter and modes of expression as the prewar surrealists became
their mentors.
The link between the prewar surrealists and the postwar modernists is
very important for the development of Serbian and Yugoslav literatures in
the 1950s. The two generations of writers had a common interest: they both
wanted to secure and expand artistic freedom. Certain prewar surrealists, such
as Duan Mati, Oskar Davio, and Marko Risti, survived the war and took
up high positions in the postwar literary establishment, and thus were instrumental in determining literary policy; they helped to rehabilitate the prewar
avant-garde and establish modernist trends while at the same time disman-

Literary Disputes of the 1950s and the Demise of Socialist Realism

31

tling social realism. To a great extent, this link resulted in Serbian and other
Yugoslav literatures not experiencing a revolutionary break with their past
traditions. The political repression that marked other spheres of postwar life
in Yugoslavia bypassed the arts, and as a result, social realism never took root
as deeply in Yugoslavia as in other East European countries.
Whereas in the second half of the 1940s the literary scene was relatively
unified and without major literary debates, the partial liberation of Yugoslav
society and culture from dogmatism that took place between 1950 and 1955
took the form of a polemic against socialist realism.
Literary polemics of the 1950s were the natural continuation of the Conflict on the Yugoslav Left in the 1920s and 1930s, when Miroslav Krlea led
a debate on traditional versus experimental literary aesthetics. The major
difference now was that the Communist Party was in power. With ideology
and culture as two closely related phenomena, the clash between the two orientations toward literature was expected to reflect political friction, and the
literary disputes between the realists and modernists in the 1950s implied
very strong ideological and political beliefs. A curious reversal of roles was
in play. Once the revolutionary Communist Party fully established its power,
it assumed the role of the traditionalist. It fought to preserve the status quo,
defending socialist realism, while the champions of modernist trends fought to
reconnect with the prewar tradition.
Political polemics against Stalinism were transferred to the literary arena in 1950. Once the ideological constraints were loosened, literary disputes,
suppressed during the previous few years, resurfaced. Criticism of the Soviet
model in art and literature was first sanctioned by politicians and only then
voiced by writers. Already during the Second Congress of the Yugoslav Writers Union, held in December 1949, delegates criticized Soviet literature for
idealizing reality and for the godlike portrayal of its heroes, demanding that
truth be the criterion for literature. While this in no way meant a break from
socialist realism, it nonetheless acknowledged that there existed more than one
orientation toward literature.
Following the congress, discussions on literature were initiated by the literary journals, which suggested a degree of democratization in the contemporary discussion on literature. Critics began to discuss the interwar writers, perhaps not those still active, such as Oskar Davio, Marko Risti, Duan Mati,
and Aleksandar Vuo, but those who were suppressed and marginalized after
the war, such as Crnjanski, Petrovi, Momilo Nastasijevi, and others. There
emerged a paradox: the ideological commission Agitprop first approved these
liberal periodicals only to subsequently ban them. At the time, the country
needed proof of freedom of expression in literature and culture to garner favor with the West and against the Soviet Union more than it needed to secure

32

Radmila J. Gorup

genuine freedom for Yugoslav culture. Literature became richer with the first
modernist works by Davio, Ranko Marinkovi, Edvard Kocbek, and Vladan
Desnica and realists who were abandoning the black-and-white technique of
socialist realism, for example, Dobrica osi, Mihailo Lali, and others.
Soon, two groups of writers were formed, one which continued to follow
the realistic model in literature and a second that wanted to reconnect with the
prewar avant-garde and welcomed the literary trends coming from Western
Europe. In this first phase, the debate of realists versus modernists unfolded between the literary journal Knjievne novine, whose editorial board
advocated the realistic approach to literature, and the journal Mladost (Youth),
which espoused modernist trends.
The liberation of art was initially felt in the visual arts and poetry, and
only later in fiction. Paintings by Petar Lubarda and Mia Popovi opened
Serbian art to abstract forms. Two types of poetry were written in the early
1950s: socially engaged poetry, which reached such a low level of quality that
it resembled a verse transcription of the daily press, and more intimate poetry,
which nurtured small things, love, and intimate feelings, and which marked
a return to individuality. While poetry of the latter sort did not enjoy popular
support at that time, it nonetheless foregrounded the questions of aesthetics
and freedom of expression. When the prewar critic Duan Mati wrote an essay proposing that poetry is either an instrument of freedom or it is nothing,
young Yugoslav poets saw this as the green light to turn to experimentation.10
In 1951, the journal Mladost published poems by 15 contemporary Yugoslav poets, including Vasko Popa. This compilation elicited harsh criticism
from Milan Bogdanovi, an editor and critic associated with Knjievne novine,
who called it poetry of senselessness and nonsense.11 He criticized, in particular, the poem Konj (The Horse) by Popa, in which the horse is said to
have eight legs:
Usually
He has eight legs
Between his jaws
Man came to live
From his four corners of earth
Then he bit his lips to blood
He wanted

10

Duan Mati, Poezija je neprekidna sveina sveta, Knjievne novine, 26 December 1950.

11

Milan Bogdanovi, Mladost (poezija bez smisla), Knjievne novine, 23 December 1951.

Literary Disputes of the 1950s and the Demise of Socialist Realism

33

To chew through that maize stock

It was long ago
In his lovely eyes
Sorrow has closed
Into a circle
For the road has no ending
And he must drag behind him
The whole world.12
This and other poems published in 1953 in the collection Kora (Bark) represent radically innovative works that deviate in spirit, content, and form from
the norm dictated by the official literary doctrine. Popa introduced subject
matter that was previously deemed unworthy of a poets attention. In Popas
poems, the privileged place is occupied not by humans but by animals, plants,
objects, and notions. The constant of Popas work is the depersonalized nature
of his poetry, so different from the confessional nature prevalent in postwar
literature.
The familiar and everyday is always defamiliarized in Popas poetry.
In this poem, instead of four legs, the horse usually has eight legs. It is this
striking image, with which the poem starts, that Popas critic, Bogdanovi,
objected to as bizarre and arbitrary, seeing it as a continuation of the prewar
decadent trends.
The sense of threat is perhaps the first association the poem Konj evokes
in the reader, something not surprising for Popas generation, which experienced the atrocities of WWII. The horse is endangered by humans who encroach on his living space from four corners of earth and perpetuate violence against him. He rebels, but his rebellion is short-lived. All that remains
is the sorrow in his lovely eyes. This and other poems by Popa are written
in free verse.
Bogdanovi and another editor of Knjievne novine, Skender Kulenovi,
declared war on journals that advocated modernist trends, claiming that it
was their solemn duty to protect culture from the onslaught of senseless poetry written by untalented poets who looked down on national values. The
young critic Zoran Mii passionately defended abstract poetry on the pages
of Mladost.13 As a result, the abstract poetry of Vasko Popa and Miodrag Pav12

Vasko Popa, Collected Poems, trans. Anne Pennington, rev. Francis Jones (London: Anvil
Press Poetry, 1997), 22.
13

Zoran Mii. O smislu i besmislu, o lirici mekog i nenog timunga, o jednoj enji i
jednom govoru na svim jezicima sveta, Mladost, nos. 23, 1952: 11328. Cited in Pekovi,
Ni rat ni mir, 105.

34

Radmila J. Gorup

lovi became a point of debate, a topic of direct confrontation between writers

and critics, further reinforcing the acrimony between the two camps.
At the same time, while modernist poetry was being denigrated, a battle was being waged to revitalize the realistic narrative as prewar narrative
techniques were applied to themes from the war period. The epic heroism of
postwar prose gave way to different modes of representation. The attitude
toward both hero and plot changed, and the black-and-white technique was
abandoned. As a result, literature became more profound and more meaningful. The transformation could already be seen in Mihailo Lalis Svadba
(Wedding, 1949). Daleko je sunce (Far Away is the Sun, 1951), a novel by
Dobrica osi, which is considered the best portrayal of the resistance in Yugoslavia, appeared a year later. Novels by osi and Lali further solidified
realistic prose and broke with socialist realist literature by describing the partisans both as positive and negative heroes.
Changes in culture coincided with changes in Yugoslav society. Experimentation in the visual arts and poetry spilled over to the domain of politics
as the country was trying to chart its own way through socialism, independent
of the USSR. When the Communist Party, at its plenum in 1951, declared that
it would no longer play an active role in decisions regarding the creative arts,
Yugoslav literature opened up to the influences of the West.14 Works by Ernest
Hemingway, Thomas Mann, Albert Camus, Edgar Alan Poe, Arthur Rimbaud, Jean-Paul Sartre, Arthur Miller, and others were translated, and a new
literary taste was established. Nevertheless, aesthetic arguments were often
replaced by ideological and political ones.
This state of affairs produced a paradox. The process of democratization
in culture was firmly on its way. However, while literature and culture were no
longer subordinated to politics, and while criticism of dogmatism and bureaucracy was allowed in principle, such criticism, at times, was dealt with swiftly
by the ideological establishment. In other words, while the Soviet model was
revised to allow for freedom of expression, the ties with Marxist ideology
were not severed.
The year 1952 is seen by critics as the turning point in the struggle of
Serbian and Yugoslav writers to establish criteria on which to judge literary
works.15 Passionate discussions regarding the poetry of Popa and Pavlovi
14

See Ratko Pekovi, Ni rat ni mir: Panorama knjievnih polemika 19451965 (Belgrade:
Filip Vinji, 1986), 94.
15

Sveta Luki (Contemporary Yugoslav Literature, 1972), Nikolaj Timoenko (Knjievnost

i dogma: Godina 1952 u srpskoj knjevnosti [Belgrade: Srpska knjievna zadruga, 2006]),
and Ratko Pekovi (Ni rat ni mir, 1986) consider 1952 the turning point in Serbian literature.
Duan Bokovi (Stanovita u sporu [Belgrade: IICS, 1981]) regards 1949 as the key year. Still
other critics consider 1953 the turning-point year.

Literary Disputes of the 1950s and the Demise of Socialist Realism

35

helped to further crystallize the two conceptions of literature. The year was
marked with constant skirmishes between the realist and the modernist
camps. The year 1952 saw the first significant literary debate after the war
when a controversy flared up between a group of young writers and critics
allied with the conservative Knjievne novine and more liberal Mladost. In the
first issue of the new series of Mladost appeared a modernist manifesto entitled Nae nunosti (Our Necessities), later found to be authored by modernist writer Radomir Konstantinovi.16 With this manifesto, the editorial board
of the journal announced a break with old, petrified ideas about art and called
for new literature, free of all constraints. Preference was given to irrational
elements in the poetic process, and writers were encouraged to reconnect with
earlier poetic schools. According to Ratko Pekovi, this programmatic text
had far-reaching consequences for the development of literature and was a
true challenge to the ruling literary sensibility. It pointed poetry and literature
in a different direction and called for experimentation.17
Reaction to this manifesto was quick: a number of articles appeared in
Knjievne novine to protest against modernist poetry, reminding critic Dragan
Jeremi of the worn-out models of Jean-Paul Sartres existentialism.18 The two
groups of writers representing the two dominant movements in literature became entrenched in their positions. Realists were seen by modernists as dogmatists, folklorists, and advocates of literary concepts belonging to the past
century. To their enemies, the modernists were sterile, creatively impotent
pofrancueni.19 Passions became so enflamed that political consequences
were anticipated.
Most likely banned due to its perceived decadent attitudes and its criticism of realistic literature, Mladost ceased publication with its double February-March issue in 1952. The dispute was transferred to a new journal, Svedoanstva, inaugurated by the prewar surrealists Marko Risti, Aleksandar
Vuo, Duan Mati, Milan Dedinac, and others. By choosing to revive the
name of the prewar surrealist journal, the editors wanted to underscore the
progressive role they hoped their journal would play. The editors of Svedoanstva criticized the regional orientation of Knjievne novine, stating that the aim
of their journal was to follow the development of cultural life both at home and
abroad and to cultivate the spirit of dialogue. Thus, while Knjievne novine
16

[Radomir Konstantinovi], Nae nunosti, Mladost, no. 1, 1952: 29. Cited in Pekovi,
Ni rat ni mir, 112.

17

Pekovi, Ni rat ni mir, 112.

18

Ibid., 113.

19

Pofrancueni can be loosely translated as blindly following French decadent trends.

36

Radmila J. Gorup

advocated national values and a clear direction, Svedoanstva looked to the

world and became a platform for an opposing, international point of view. At
the same time, both camps affirmed their allegiance to socialism as well as
their opposition to decadence. Often, the polemics between the two camps
were more concerned with politics than aesthetics. As before, the conflict was
also motivated by personal prejudices and a desire for individual prestige.
The establishment of Svedoanstva and the large number of writers associated with modernist literature clearly demonstrated that there were many
writers who did not follow the realistic or socialist realist models preferred by
the state. Realization grew that socialist realism was not the only or the obligatory method to follow, and that the artist is free to choose his own model of
artistic expression, so long as he does not betray the ideological essence and
message of his work. In 1952, the modernist novels Pesma (Poem) by Oskar
Davio and Prolom (Breakthrough) by Branko opi were published alongside a volume of essays on French literature by Duan Mati and poems by
Popa, Pavlovi, Stevan Raikovi, Stanislav Vinaver, and others.
Two important books were published in 1952 that contributed to the further liberalization of art. The publishing house Prosveta printed Knjievna
politika (Literary Policy), a collection of essays by Marko Risti, some of
which dated from before the war. The introduction, a modernist manifesto,
was also written by the prewar surrealist. The book received a mixed reception; some praised it, while others attacked it. The critic Borislav Mihajlovi
Mihiz wrote in the weekly NIN, which started to appear in 1951, that manifestoes are worthless and that literary works instead establish literary trends.20
In this sense, another book published that year was much more significant:
Miodrag Pavlovis first collection of poems, entitled 87 Poems. Even though
it was fiercely attacked in Knjievne novine and even in Letopis Matice srpske,
a journal that did not often engage in literary polemics, the collection by Pavlovi won the award from the Association of the Writers of Serbia, a sure sign
that modernist poetry had earned its place in the literary canon.
All of Belgrade was familiar with the collection 87 Poems, and Popa and
Pavlovi became significant symbols of modern art in Yugoslavia. Just like
Popas work, Pavlovis poems were concise and hermetic, written in free
verse. The poem Na smrt jedne koke (Death of a Hen) is quoted below:
A tethered hen
Hangs by a leg from the cloud
Headless

20

Borislav Mihajlovi Mihiz, lanak i malo pamfleta, NIN, no. 67 (13 April 1952).

Literary Disputes of the 1950s and the Demise of Socialist Realism

37

Blood in the toilet bowl

Hand in hand two knives
Are playing piano.21
The content of the poem is dehumanized and completely outside the political
arena. It contains a single stark image that produces a vivid impression on the
reader. As in Popas poem earlier, violence is perpetrated by humans against
an innocent creature.
The conflict between realists and modernists relegated other discussions about literature to the background and, in the words of Mihiz, became
counterproductive, more a journalistic than a literary discussion. By the end of
1952, their animosity reached its peak, and in fact, both Knjievne novine and
Svedoanstva ceased publication.22
Undoubtedly, the most important event in 1952 was the Third Congress of
the Yugoslav Writers Union. In the fall of 1952, both the Party Congress and
the Congress of the Writers of Yugoslavia took place. The Sixth Party Congress, which raised the question of the state of Yugoslav culture, declared that
while Yugoslav culture should not follow the Zhdanov line of socialist realism,
neither should it accept without criticism the monster hybrids coming from
the West.23 The Congress of Writers that followed was held in October in Ljubljana. In the famous talk O slobodi kulture (On the Freedom of Culture),
Yugoslav Croatian writer and influential cultural figure Miroslav Krlea defended lart pour lart and attacked the basic postulate of socialist realism that
the duty of writers was to truthfully describe reality, saying that writing cannot be equated with description since, if that were the case, every clerk would
be a poet.24 Reiterating what was said at the Party Congress, Krlea said that
Yugoslavia should develop its own socialist literature, avoiding both Zhdanovs model and decadent experiments of Western abstract art and literature.
21

Vasa D. Mihailovich, ed., Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 147, South Slavic Writers
before World War II (Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1995), 227.
22

In other Yugoslav republics, similar controversies flared up in literary theory and practice
between the realists and modernists. In Zagreb, Croatia, the main exponents of anti-dogmatism were the editors and collaborators of the periodical Krugovi, Vlatko Pavleti, Nikola
Milievi, Josip Barkovi, and others. In Ljubljana, Slovenia, the progressive young writers
Janko Kos, Taras Kermanuer, Dvornik Smole, Dane Zajc, and others rallied around the periodical Beseda. In Sarajevo, fighting on the side of modernist tendencies were Slavko Leovac, Vuk Krnjevi, and others. In Macedonia, the modernists and the realists were organized
around the periodicals Sovremenost and Razgledi.
23
24

Pekovi, Ni rat ni mir, 145.

Miroslav Krlea, Eseji, vol. 6, Sabrana dela Miroslava Krlee, bk. 24 (Zagreb: Zora, 1967),
14.

38

Radmila J. Gorup

In an attempt to answer the question of whether socialist literature should

be formalistic or realistic, Krlea, whose own work was grounded in engaged
expressionism, foresaw the possibility of a symbiosis between art and ideology. Even though he admitted that the fate of literature unavoidably depends on
ideology and politics, he expressed his faith that under the shadow of ideology
literature, nonetheless, would find its independent way. In trying to reconcile the opposition between aestheticism and revolutionary engagement, he
stressed that the creative act must have complete freedom. While he denied
that the task of socialist literature should be to serve as propaganda for achieving political goals, Krlea saw that socialist literature, as artistic propaganda
directed at other countries (which do not have the faintest idea about our literature), should demonstrate through a series of its works that we have always
fought for free artistic creation, for the plurality of styles, for the principle of
free expression of our thoughts in line with our independent moral and political convictions. Once our writers subjectively express the objective motifs
of our leftist reality, our own literature should be born.25
The significance of this speech was not so much in what was said but who
said it. Krlea was a great authority, both in the Party and in culture, and also
a personal friend of Tito; his talk at the Congress of Writers represented a seal
of approval. Krlea qualified his statements by saying that the socialist idea
of liberty cannot be turned into anarchy and that the creative act has to be in
accordance with political practices.
A temporary truce between the two literary camps was established in
1953 when a new journal, Nova misao (The New Thought), was launched.
The journal grew out of an attempt to reconcile the opposing views, which in
1952 were expressed in virulent conflict between Knjievne novine and Svedoanstva, a conflict which ended in the suppression of both journals. Making
no distinction between the two camps, Nova misao began publishing not only
works by realists, but also by Popa and other modernists. Milovan ilas also
contributed several articles in which he criticized the Party and saw the formation of a new class as an obstacle to the further development of society. With
this the journal was doomed.
The 1953 truce was short-lived. The old conflict was rekindled when Knjievne novine resumed publication, and with it, attacks on decadence and the
pessimism of the modernists, pointing to the lack of accomplishments in modernist prose. After 1954, the battle line between modernists and realists
was more clearly defined.
Literature was discussed again during the Third Congress of the Communist Party of Serbia when Edvard Kardelj, Titos second in command, defend25

Ibid., 55.

Literary Disputes of the 1950s and the Demise of Socialist Realism

39

ed freedom of expression, which he saw as inherently linked to the struggle

of the people working to build socialism. At the same time, Kardelj expressed
his opposition to antisocialist tendencies which can sneak into such writing.
This was one of the self-neutralizing statements in which Yugoslav leaders
advocated freedom of expression as long as it went along with the ideological
dictum.26 The special Congress of the Writers of Yugoslavia again discussed
the function of art. At the congress, Krlea attacked modernist literature,
stressing that art could not be divorced from society. Thus, literature was still
evaluated by the extent to which it served society and ideological criteria: in
other words, fuzzy and badly defined assumptions were still in force.
While 1952 was seen as the turning point in the struggle for freedom of
expression in literature, the year 1954 was very important for postwar modernism. During 1954 three important novels were published: Prokleta avlija
(The Devils Yard) by Ivo Andri, Proljea Ivana Galeba (Springtimes of Ivan
Galeb) by Vladan Desnica, and Daj nam danas (Give Us Today) by Radomir
Konstantinovi. While the novels by the two established writers Andri and
Desnica displayed modernist tendencies, Daj nam danas was the first modernist novel of the postwar period. With this book which abandoned traditional novelistic techniques, Konstantinovi affirmed the modernist poetics
which became dominant in the 1960s. He did not pay attention to the plot or
characterization and introduced numerous fragments with seemingly little or
no connection. Because of its unusual poetics and stylistic deviations from
realism, Daj nam danas was not well received. However, Konstantinovis
prose, inspired by contemporary world literature which was being translated
and published in Yugoslavia, influenced the younger writers, who were in a
hurry to catch up with the narrative skepticism of the French nouveau roman and the theater of the absurd of Samuel Becket. In the second half of the
1950s, modernist experimentation was pursued by Pavle Ugrinov in his novel
Odlazak u zoru (Departure at Dawn, 1957) and a book of short stories Kopno
(The Land, 1959), and by Bora osi, who wrote three modernist novels: Kua
lopova (House of Thieves, 1956), Svi smrtni (All are Mortal, 1958), and Aneo
je doao po svoje (The Angel Came for His Own, 1959).
The debate between the realists and modernists continued in two new
journals launched at the beginning of 1955Savremenik (The Contemporary)
and Delo (The Deed). The League of Communists was the initiator in founding these journals. Seeing that the process of modernization could no longer
be stopped, they hoped that it could at least be slowed down or controlled to
some extent. Furthermore, the existence of the varied points of view was used
by the Party as proof that Yugoslav society was becoming more liberal. Again,
26

Pekovi, Ni rat ni mir, 191.

40

Radmila J. Gorup

cultural questions were by-products of the foreign affairs that Yugoslavia was
primarily concerned with.
The confrontation of Delo and Savremenik represented a new phase of
realist versus modernist debate. An article by Marko Risti entitled O modernom i modernizmu, opet (On Modern and Modernism, Again) in the first
issue of Delo compared the contemporary situation with that of the 1920s
and directed blame at the petit-bourgeois understanding of tradition.27 True,
the discussions of 1955 debating the link of art and literature to social reality
were reminiscent of those which had taken place both in the 1920s and 1952.
However, the present discussion unfolded under different circumstances since
both camps had somewhat revised their positions. The realist camp was no
longer fighting for socialist realism or even prewar realism, but rather, for a
broader political and moral engagement in literature. The modernists, on the
other hand, acknowledged that modernism did not automatically deny realism.
The circle of Yugoslav prewar modernists including Oskar Davio, Marko
Risti, Aleksandar Vuo, and Duan Mati collaborated with the progressive
journal Delo in 195556. They were joined by their younger colleagues Zoran
Mii, Vasko Popa, Miodrag Pavlovi, and Radomir Konstantinovi, as well
as by writers who grew up in the revolution, such as Dobrica osi and Antonije Isakovi. Other young writers who earlier had published in the student
journal Vidici joined Delo, for example, Petar Dadi, Borislav Radovi, Jovan Hristi, Bora osi, Svetlana Velmar-Jankovi, Miodrag Bulatovi, and
others. What held this heterogeneous group together for several years? Critics
believe that it was the struggle for modern expression in literature in which
all the above-mentioned writers played a part. Members of the Delo group
deserve credit for the most original and creative works in postwar Yugoslav
literature. They also greatly influenced future writers by widening their horizons and awakening their interest in modern literature.
After the disputes of the early 1950s, both the modernist and realist
schools changed. A new model, characterized by aestheticism, formalism,
and avant-gardism, was created, which was distinctly different from previous
literary aesthetics. This model, created between 1950 and 1955, found inspiration in the expressionism and surrealism of the 1920s, as well as contemporary trends. The prewar surrealists who were devoted Communists, though
expected to adopt the realistic method, produced works in which a curious
mixture of surrealism and realism prevailed. After the novel Pesma (1952),
Davio wrote Beton i svici (Concrete and Fireflies, 1956), and Vuo wrote the
novels Raspust (Break, 1954) and Mrtve javke (Dead Passwords, 1957). The
critics Predrag Palavestra and Sveta Luki saw this prose as a paradox, both
27

Marko Risti, O modernom i modernizmu, opet, Delo, no. 1, 1955: 53.

Literary Disputes of the 1950s and the Demise of Socialist Realism

41

as a contrast and a pendant to socialist realism, and called it socialist aestheticism. This trend, the result of a special literary climate which emphasized
both a realistic approach and free exploration of different expressive molds in
which literature became art for arts sake, would come to shape the genre of
the partisan novel in the 1950s.28
From 1952 until 1956, Yugoslav and Serbian literatures made great progress. After 1955, the Party interfered very little in literary questions as long as
they were purely literary. While the ideological threat no longer existed, the
pressure was still present. Many issues debated in the literary journals were
now less relevant, and with this the polemic between Savremenik and Delo
ceased. After 1956, modernist works received as many, if not more, literary
awards as the works of realistic orientation. Young writers no longer felt a
pressing need to engage in literary experimentation, and some even spoke
against the terror of experimentation of the 1950s.29 According to Pekovi, a
balance was established; if, perhaps, Delo emerged from the conflict as victor,
Savremenik was not defeated.30
The confrontation between Savremenik and Delo represents the final
phase in the struggle against socialist realism in support of modern trends in
literature. Writers were victorious in their fight for freedom of expression, and
literary works began to be judged primarily on their artistic merits.
The literature of the 1950s brought to an end the earlier literary disputes
between the modernists and the traditionalists. Together with the young writers adopting modernist trends stood the prewar surrealists, who held the most
important place in literature and cultural life in general. After a break of over
20 years, the prewar surrealists finally realized the plans of their youth: Davio published his poetry and all his novels, Vuo his novels, Risti his essays,
and Rade Drainac his seminal work. Prewar social writers such as Branko
opi and Mihailo Lali matured during this time and turned from stories
to novels. Vladan Desnica and Mea Selimovi wrote their first books. The
period of renewed modernism demonstrated that, after a period of searching,
Serbian literature had stabilized and matured. Genre differentiation also became evident, and writers wrote either poetry or prose, not both. The prewar
surrealists who earlier wrote mostly poetry now wrote novels.
The victory won by the modernists remained somewhat incomplete because literature was still in the shadow of ideology. Yet, its magnitude was
felt by all those engaged in the battle of Yugoslav literary aesthetics and was
evident when cultural life in Yugoslavia was compared with that of other so28

See Luki, Contemporary Yugoslav Literature.

29

Pekovi, Ni rat ni mir, 274.

30

Ibid., 278

42

Radmila J. Gorup

cialist countries of Eastern Europe. For a brief period, a balance was achieved
between politics and artistic practice. In literature, various kinds of literary
styles and currents, from avant-garde to popular, were on equal footing. This
period of relative peace would be followed by a tumultuous period in the
1960s, when politics and ideology would intervene in cultural affairs in ways
reminiscent of the early 1950s.
In conclusion, the canonization of socialist realism as the poetics of a new
revolutionary era in Yugoslavia and its demise as a poetics alien to the essence
of art lasted no longer than a decade. Ultimately, political reasons more so
than aesthetic reasons made postwar modernism possible. Searching for its
own independent way to socialism and interpreting the ideology of Marxism-Leninism more freely, the Yugoslav Communist Party created an alliance
with the intellectual elite. Questioning the ideas of socialist realism, however, was only plausible when the ruling party allowed it. In addition, socialist
realism was criticized only from the point of view of Marxist ideology and
not any other philosophy; writers had to reconcile as much as possible their
aesthetic principles to the ideological views of the Party. According to Luki,
while Soviet dogmatism directly orders the artists to create in a certain way,
in Yugoslavia, society, through its politicians, ideologues, and official artists,
reached an agreement on what not to do.31
By reaffirming the autonomy of art, Yugoslav writers were attempting to
lessen the effects of ideology in cultural life and create a haven in which ideology would not be a factor. They turned away from the present, which allowed
them to steer off the sensitive issues. The hard-won freedom of expression,
elusive as it was, allowed them certain freedom; the modernists could continue to experiment, creating new forms as long as they were ideologically
neutral and did not openly criticize the political system. They could assert the
poetics of contemporary Western writers, for example, Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Jean-Paul Sartre, and others, as long as the content of
their works was abstract and aestheticized. The more traditional writers were
allowed to reconnect with the past and discuss writers from the past as long
as they did not question in their works the ruling ideology of the day. Thus,
freedom of expression exhausted itself in form, while the content was selectively controlled. Criticism of socialist realism and Stalinism did not signify
a complete liberation from Marxism and Leninism and the Communist war
mythology. Diluted, it remained in force until 1990.
Both the Party and the culture profited from this policy. According to
Luki, proclaiming freedom in art and literature after the break with Stalin
was a way for Yugoslav Communists to consolidate power. As a result, the
31

Luki, Contemporary Yugoslav Literature, 106.

Literary Disputes of the 1950s and the Demise of Socialist Realism

43

Party was able to find a less painful way to affirm revolutionary ideology
and simultaneously control cultural life.32 The benefits for the development
of Serbian and Yugoslav arts and literature were enormous. The broader and
richer cultural life that came into being in the 1950s prepared the ground for
the great progress Serbian and Yugoslav literatures were to make in succeeding decades.
rjg26@columbia edu

32

Ibid., 163.

Who are the Albanians? The Illyrian Anthroponymy and the

Ethnogenesis of the Albanians A Challenge to Regional Security
Vladislav B. Sotirovi
Mykolas Romeris University

Introduction
The main research problem addressed in this article is Albanian ethnogenesis
and national identity framed by the Illyrian theory of Albanian ethnic and
cultural origin and the regional consequences to political security implicated
by the implementation of this theory, which was accepted by the Rilindja (the
renaissance)the Albanian national awakening movement in 18781913.
The methodology used to solve the problem is the analysis and comparison of
different historical sources, scientific literature, and ideological propaganda
works with opposing views by authors from different ethnic and educational
backgrounds.
First, we must be clear on the meaning of Albanian autochthony, anthroponymy, and ethnogenesis. Actually, the question is, have the Albanians lived
without interruption in the present-day ethnic territories of the Albanians
(i.e., Albania, eastern Montenegro, Kosovo and Metohija, southern central
Serbia, western Macedonia, and Northern Epirus in Greece) since ancient
Greek and Roman times? In other words, are the Albanians really the
indigenous people of the Balkans, as they claim, or just newcomers to their
present-day ethnic territories? It is true, however, that the question of the
Illyrian ethnic and cultural background of present-day Albanians (i.e., the
ethnogenesis of the Albanians) has been politicized subsequent to the Second
World War. The question is related both to the ancient history of the
Albanians and to the pre-history of their language.
For some German and Austrian 19th-century linguists and historians, it
was evident that the Albanians had been an autochthonous population in Albania since pre-Greco-Roman times. These scholars accepted the theory that
the 19th-century Albanian nation represented a direct ethnic continuity of the
autochthonous Balkan peoplethe ancient Illyrians. For Albanian scientists,
it is incontestable that not only cultural but also ethnic continuity extends
Serbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 26(12): 4576, 2012.

46

Vladislav Sotirovi

from the ancient Illyrians to present-day Albanians. Many 20th-century

scholars, especially after the Second World War, however, held the opposite
opinion, i.e., that the theory of the Illyrian origin of the Albanians is not supported by a single historical source! They claimed that the Albanians are not a
native Balkan population but newcomers to present-day Albania from more or
less distant regions.
The two main arguments for the second anti-Illyrian hypothesis or theory are (1) the Dacian-Albanian-Romanian linguistic connections (but not the
Illyrian-Albanian one) and (2) place names in Albania, which indicate a lack
of Illyrian-Albanian continuity. Nevertheless, the second approach to the
question of Albanian ethnogenesis, i.e., that Albanians are the newcomers to
the Balkan Peninsula compared to all Albanian neighbors, is backed by
several historical sources.
The Albanians believe themselves to be the last pure and direct descendants of the ancient Illyrians, the Balkan people who lived on the peninsula in
antiquity. Many scholars consider the Albanians the offspring population of
the ancient inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula, either the Pelasgians or the
Illyrians, i.e., the population residing in this part of Europe before the Middle
Ages. During the mid-19th century, and especially after the establishment of
the Albanian national political organization the First League of Prizren in
1878, the Romanticist understanding of nationhood based on the linguistic
principle prevailed among Albanian intellectuals, particularly among those
living as emigrants in Italy (the Arabresh, as the Italo-Albanians called
themselves).1
The Albanian national movement Rilindja assumed an anti-South-Slavic
(mostly anti-Serbian) and anti-Greek politico-ideological orientation, which,
in any case, cannot be considered anti-Christian. Albanian national identity is
derived from confrontation with and differences relative to their neighbors.
The majority of Albanian political activists from the time of the Rilindja accepted the German Romanticist principle of linguistic nationhood, and they
created the notion of the designation of Albanians as an ethnic group as their
mother tongue was the Albanian language.2 However, referring to the linguistic evidence, some scholars defend the thesis that the Albanians are descendants of the ancient Dacians who inhabited the lands south of the Danube River
(the Roman provinces of Moesia Superior and Moesia Inferior) and migrated
1

On political ideas in the Romantic Age in Europe, see Isaiah Berlin, Political Ideas in the
Romantic Age: Their Rise and Influence on Modern Thought (Vintage Digital, 2012).
2
On the Albanian renaissance in political thought, see Lea Ypi, The Albanian Renaissance in
Political Thought: Between the Enlightenment and Romanticism, East European Politics and
Societies 21, no. 4 (2007): 66180.

Who Are the Albanians? A Challenge to Regional Security

47

southwest to the territory of present-day Albania. There are some serious indications that point to Albanian ethnic origin in Dacian-Moesian roots. This is
supported by the fact that Albanians name for themselvesShqiptarsis a
word of Dacian-Moesian origin which means highlanders in Bulgarian.
However, the proponents of the Illyrian theory of Albanian ethnogenesis
connected the modern international name for the Albanians with Albanoi,
which was the name of the Illyrian tribe living in present-day north Albania,
mentioned for the first time in the works of the Greek geographer Ptolemy in
the 2nd century AD.
The ideology and efforts of the Albanian national movement from 1878 to
1913 to unify the entire Albanian Balkan population living in compact masses
in a single independent, ethnically homogenous Albanian state jeopardized
the territorial integrity of Serbian, Montenegrin, and Greek national states.
Since the Second World War, that situation has been replaced with various
projects to re-create the 194145 Greater Albania.
As would be expected, various historical developments have brought
about numerous transformations among the Albanians that produced an alteration of their real (Caucasian) ethnic identity. There are no pure peoples
(nations) in the world, and the Albanians are not pure either. There is an
ethnic substratum that is present in all Balkan peoples (nations). However, it
is evident that Albanians have retained some of the Illyrian elements in their
ethnic makeup, and for the following reason: they were settled in Illyrian
territory in 1043. On the other hand, all peoples (nations) who today live in
the western and central Balkans possess Illyrian traits.3 Yet, in the other
regions of the western and central Balkans, the Slavic element is predominant.
Among Albanians the Latinized Illyrian elements are strong, especially with
respect to language. Nevertheless, this fact cannot be utilized to claim that
Albanian historical and ethnic rights to certain Balkan territories are stronger
and older than Slavic or Greek ones. In making this point, the Illyrian-Albanian cultural, ethnic continuation could gain a new political dimension with
the existing interethnic conflicts in the Balkans, as a Greater Albania has
been in the process of re-creation since 1999. The first Balkan province
already de facto incorporated into the united national state of the IllyroAlbanians is Kosovo and Metohija, with the capital in Tirana.

On ancient Illyrians, see Aleksandar Stipevi, The Illyrians: History and Culture, trans.
Stojana uli Burton (Park Ridge, NJ: Noyes Press, 1977); John Wilkes, The Illyrians (Oxford/
Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1995); and Arthur Evans, Ancient Illyria: An
Archaeological Exploration (London: I. B. Tauris, 2007).

48

Vladislav Sotirovi

The Science of Albanology and Political Claims

The interest of European scholars, primarily German and Austrian, in research
on Albanian ethnic origin rose gradually during the second half of the 19th
century.4 Their interest in Albanian and Balkan studies came later in comparison with the study of other ethnic groups and regions in Europe. The reason
for this was that the Eurocentrism of the late 19th and early 20th century defined the Balkans and its nations as the territory and peoples of obscure identity. In contrast to the real Europe, the Balkans was seen as the Orient, not

The question of Albanian ethnogenesis was first examined by Johann Thunmann (174678)
in 1774 (Untersuchungen ber die Geschichte der stlichen Europischen Vlker [Research on
the History of the East European Peoples], Leipzig) and Johann Georg von Hahn (181169) in
1854 (Albanesische Studien [Albanian Studies], Jena). Both were of the opinion, but not based
on any source, that the Albanians lived in the territories of the ancient Illyrians and were
natives, and therefore Illyrian in essence. Von Hahn thought that ancient names like Dalmatia,
Ulcinium, Dardania, etc., were of Illyrian-Albanian origin. This hypothesis is fully accepted by
modern Albanian linguists. For example, Eqrem abej writes, The name of Ragusium
(present-day Dubrovnik), which in the mouth of the Albanians was Rush Rush, shows that the
Adriatic coast was part of the territory inhabited by the ancestors of the Albanians, beyond the
present ethnic borders. The adoption of this name by the Albanians belongs to the time since
614 BC. I conclude that there is a continuity of the Albanians in their present territories since
ancient times. The old place names in their present form indicate that this population has
continuously inhabited the coasts of the Adriatic from that time until today (Problemi i
autoktonis s shqiptarve n dritn e emrave t vendeve [The problem of the autochthony of
Albanians in the light of place names], Buletini i Universitetit Shtetror t Tirans, no. 2
[1958]: 5462). This standpoint is usually unquestionably recognized as the truth by Albanian
and German researchers like Peter Bartl in his book Albanian. Vom Mittelalter bis zur
Gegenwart (Regensburg: Verlag Friedrich Pustet, 1995; Serbian language edition: Peter Bartl,
Albanci od srednjeg veka do danas [Belgrade: CLIO, 2001], 15).
However, the Illyrian theory of Albanian origin, according to which Albanians are
considered the oldest European people, was created by German and Austrian scholars for the
very political purpose of uniting all ethnic Albanians around the central political ideology and
national consciousness. See Duan T. Batakovi, Kosovo i Metohija: Istorija i ideologija, 2nd
ed. (Belgrade: igoja tampa, 2007), 6667; and Milorad Ekmei, Stvaranje Jugoslavije
17901918, vol. 2 (Belgrade: Prosveta, 1989), 45055. At that time, like today, the ethnic
Albanians were divided into three antagonistic confessions (Islam, Roman Catholicism, and
Orthodoxy) and many hostile clans based on tribal origin. In fact, the German scholars invented
for the Albanians both an artificial tradition and artificial imagined community in order to be
scientifically stronger in their territorial claims against the Serbs, Montenegrins, and Greeks. In
this context, we cannot forget that the first Albanian state was created and supported precisely
by Austria-Hungary and Germany in 191213. In other words, the Albanians have been the
Balkan clients of German political expansionism in the region.

Who Are the Albanians? A Challenge to Regional Security

49

part of Europe at all, and above all, it was considered an uncivilized part of
the world.5
Nonetheless, when the studies of the Albanians began, the research was
focused on the relationship of the Albanian language to other European languages. However, the first hypothesis with respect to Albanian ethnic origins
was quite indistinct and very soon discarded by the majority of scholars. According to a nebulous hypothesis proposed by August Schleicher, Albanians
originated from the Pelasgians, who were supposed to be the most indigenous
Balkan population and who not only settled on the entire territory of the Balkan Peninsula, but also inhabited a major portion of the Mediterranean Basin
in pre-historic times.6 Moreover, it was erroneously believed that IndoEuropean languages such as Greek, Latin, and ancient Albanian (i.e., the
Illyrian language) were derived from the ancient Pelasgian language. Some
Albanian scholars at present still believe that this hypothesis has real scientific
foundations, regardless of the fact that later 19th-century linguists and researchers in comparative philology undermined the Pelasgian hypothesis
and finally, at the beginning of the 20th century, overturned it.7
The German linguist Franz Bopp was first to claim (in 1854) that the Albanian language had to be considered a separate branch of the Indo-European
family of languages. The scientific foundation of the hypothesis that Albanians derive their ethnic origin from the Balkan Illyrians, based on language
criteria, was laid out by the late-19th-century Austrian philologist Gustav
Meyer. Meyer, a professor at Graz University from 1880 to 1896, wrote several works in which he opposed Schleichers Pelasgian theory of Albanian
origin. He claimed in his works (Albanesischen Studien, 1883; Kurzgefasste
albanesische Grammatik, 1888; and Etymologische Wrterbuch der Albanesischen Schprache, 1891) that the Albanian language was nothing more than a
dialect of the ancient Illyrian language8 and that it represented the last phase
of the evolution of this ancient language.9 His claims initially were based on
5

Diana Mishkova, Symbolic Geographies and Visions of Identity: A Balkan Perspective,

European Journal of Social Theory 11, no. 2 (2008): 23756.
6
On ancient Balkan Pelasgians as Greek tribes, see Gregory Zorzos, Greek Pelasgian Tribes
Textbook, Greek edition (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2009).
7
However, even today there are many non-Albanian scholars who believe in a theory of
Albanian Balkan origin that places Albania as one of the oldest European nations. See, for
instance, Edwin E. Jacques, The Albanians: An Ethnic History from Prehistoric Times to the
Present (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2009).
8
Batakovi, Kosovo i Metohija, 66.
9
Regarding contemporary scientific results on this question, see Eric P. Hamp, The Position
of Albanian, in Henrik Birnbaum and Jaan Puhvel, eds., Ancient Indo-European Dialects:
Proceedings of the Conference on Indo-European Linguistics Held at the University of

50

Vladislav Sotirovi

the results of the analysis of a few hundred basic Albanian words, traceable to
their Indo-European origin. Later, Albanian national workers transformed
Meyers hypothesis into the Illyrian theory of the Albanian ethnic background. Meyers hypothesis was based on the results of his linguistic investigations and comparisons of the ancient Illyrian language to contemporary
Albanian. However, the critical problem with Meyers methodology was the
fact that we do not have any evidence of the ancient Illyrian language as the
Illyrians were illiterate. The reconstruction of this ancient language is a matter
of the science of fantasy.
Meyers hypothetical claims were taken up by mostly Albanian authors,
primarily from Italy, who made use of them for propaganda directed toward
the realization of Albanian territorial claims, especially by the Albanian
nationalist movement in the coming decades. The final aim of this propagandist work was to prove, using the evidence derived from scholarly research, that Albanians were not members of ethnic Turk, Greek, or South
Slavic populations, but rather, members of a totally different ethnic group,
which had its own language. In other words, they fought for international
recognition of the existence of separate Albanian nationhood, which had
certain national rights, including the basic right to create its own national independent (Albanian) state. Such a state would embrace all Albanian populations of the Balkan Peninsula. For instance, on 30 May 1878 the Albanian
Constantinople Committee proclaimed its desire for peaceful coexistence between the Albanians and their Slavic and Greek neighbors, but only under the
condition that the Albanian ethnographic lands be included in a unified
Albanian national state.
The so-called Italo-Albanians, or Arbereshi, whose predecessors emigrated from Albania after the death of Scanderbeg in 1468 to the southern
Italian provinces of Puglia, Calabria, and Sicily, formulated this political program for the unification of Albanians into a united, or Greater, Albania. The
program emphasized that the achievement of national unity and the liberation
of the Albanians required their territorial unification, joint economy, joint
standardized language, and a pervasive spirit of patriotism and mutual solidarity. The Albanian national leader from the end of the 19th century, Nam
Frashri (18461900), described what it meant to be Albanian: All of us are
only a single tribe, a single family; we are of one blood and one language.10
It is obvious that on the question of national unification at the turn of the 20th
California, Los Angeles, April 2527, 1963 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press,
1966), 97122.
10
Christian Gut, Groupe de Travail sur lEurope Centrale et Orientale, Bulletin
dInformation (Paris), no. 2 (June 1878): 40.

Who Are the Albanians? A Challenge to Regional Security

51

century Albanian workers would seek an Albanian ethnic and cultural identity
primarily in common language since in the Albanian case religion was a divisive rather than unifying factor. Additionally, and for the same purpose of national unification, they demanded that Albanian be written in the Latin alphabet in order to distinguish themselves from the neighboring Greeks, Serbs,
Montenegrins, and Ottoman lords. This was totally irrelevant to the overwhelming majority of Albanians, who were illiterate.11 However, the national
unification of Albanian people on the basis of language was not completely
successful, and even today it is still difficult for the Gheg Albanians to fully
understand the Tosk Albanian dialect.12
The Illyrian Theory of Albanian Ethnic Origin
The so-called Illyrian theory of the ethnic origin of Albanians (created by
German and Austrian scholars) is the most popular theory of the Albanian
nations derivation among the majority of 19th- and 20th-century Albanian
scholars, politicians, and intellectuals.13 The crucial and concluding point of
this theory (in fact, it is actually a non-provable hypothesis) is that the Albanians are an authentic nation (ethnolinguistic group) of the Balkans, the oldest
11

The international political aspect of the Albanian struggle for a pan-Albanian national
unification into a Greater Albania is evidenced by the fact that Albanian national workers tried
to obtain the support of Western Europeans by claiming that Greater Albania would be the
crucial bulwark against Russian penetration into the Balkans via Russian client (Orthodox)
nations and statesthe Serbs, Montenegrins, and Greeks. For instance, Montenegro was
presented by the Albanians as the Russian outpost at the Adriatic Sea. The Albanian Sami
Frashri published an article in the Istanbul newspaper Tercman-i ark on 27 September 1878
in which the borders of Greater Albania were defined by the borders of four Albanian
provinces (vilayets) of the Ottoman EmpireScodra, Bitola, Ioanina, and Kosovo. These four
provinces would be united into the so-called Albanian Vilayet (see Fig. 1). The First Prizren
League, as the first organized Albanian political organization, accepted this concept in autumn
of 1879 as the program of the organization (Bartl, Albanci od srednjeg veka do danas, 96,
100101).
12
Eric J. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 52, 115. About the language basis of
(non)identification among Albanians from the beginning of the 20th century, see Edith
Durham, High Albania (London: Edward Arnold, 1909), 17. On Albanian modern history, see
Miranda Vickers, The Albanians: A Modern History (London/New York: I. B. Tauris, 2006).
13
See, for example, Ramadan Marmullaku, Albania and Albanians (London: Hurst, 1975), 5
9; Zef Mirdita, Iliri i etnogeneza Albanaca, in Drutvo istoriara Srbije [Historical Society of
Serbia], ed., Iz istorije Albanaca: Zbornik predavanja. Prirunik za nastavnike (Belgrade:
Zavod za izdavanje udbenika Socijalistike Republike Srbije, 1969), 613; and Selim Islami,
Kristo Frashri, and Aleks Buda, eds., Historia e popullit Shqiptar, vol. 1 (Prishtina: Enti i
botimeve shkollare i Republiks Socialiste t Serbis, 1969), 155161.

52

Vladislav Sotirovi

aboriginal and autochthonous one in this part of Europe. As a result, the Albanians South Slavic neighbors (the Serbs, Montenegrins,14 and Macedonian
Slavs), in contrast to the indigenous Albanians, are just newcomers to the
Balkans. Their ethnicity and nationality are much more recent than that of the
Albanians.15 Subsequently, the historical rights of the Balkan autochthonous
Albanian population to certain disputed Balkan territories (between the Albanians and the South Slavs) are stronger, more justifiable, and historically more
deeply rooted than the historical rights of the Serbs, Montenegrins, or
Macedonian Slavs.16
According to the theory of Illyrian-Albanian ethnolinguistic continuity,
Albanians are descendants of the ancient Balkan populationthe Illyrians.
The national name of the Albanians comes from the name of one Illyrian
tribethe Albanoi. Furthermore, the tribal name Albanoi was the designation
applied to the entire number of Illyrian tribes around the Ionian Sea.17 The
14

The Montenegrins should be considered, from a cultural, religious, and ethnolinguistic

point of view, as the Serbs from Montenegro. Milisav Glomazi, Etniko i nacionalno bie
Crnogoraca (Belgrade: TRZ Panpublik, 1988). Historical, political, religious, economic, and
cultural relations between the Serbs from Montenegro (the Montenegrins) and the Serbs from
Serbia are similar to those of the Germans from Austria (the Austrians) and the Germans from
Germany. However, today 60% of the citizens of Montenegro claim that they are ethnolinguistic Montenegrins, different from the Serbs. On this problem, see more in Dragana
Lazarevi, Inventing Balkan Identities: Finding the Founding Fathers and Myths of Origin
The Montenegrin Case, Serbian Studies 25, no. 2, 2011 (2014): 17197.
15
However, the Albanian national identity was created by Austro-Hungarian authorities in the
late 19th century and the very beginning of the 20th century. Bulgarian scholar Teodora
Todorova Toleva, in her book on the creation of Albanian national identity, published in 2012,
cites unpublished documents from the Austrian State Archives (Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv)
in Vienna that demonstrate that the Austro-Hungarian authorities had a crucial influence on the
creation of Albanian nationality in the years from 1896 to 1908 (Vliianieto na Avstro-Ungariia
za szdavaneto na albanskata naciia, 18961908 [The influence of Austria-Hungary on the
creation of the Albanian nation, 18961908] [Sofia: CIELA, 2012]). This book is based on her
Ph.D dissertation, defended at Barcelona University on 16 September 2008. See also Hanns
Dieter Schanderl, Die Albanienpolitik sterreich-Ungarns und Italiens, 18771908,
Albanische Forschungen, no. 9 (Wiesbaden: Otto Harassovitz, 1971).
16
About the problem of relations between national identification and border identities, see
Thomas M. Wilson and Hastings Donnan, eds., Border Identities: Nation and State at
International Frontiers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
17
However, contemporary German historiography does not mention the Illyrian tribal name
Albanoi. The territory of Albania in Greco-Roman times was populated only by one Illyrian
tribe, the Taulantii. In addition, neighboring present-day Greek territories were settled by the
Illyrian tribe Dassaretii, while in ancient Macedonia, by the Paeones and Dardanes, and in
Kosovo and Metohija, by the Scirtones. Hans Erich Stier et al., eds., Westermann Groer Atlas
zur Weltgeschichte (Braunschweig: Westermann, 1985), 3839.

Who Are the Albanians? A Challenge to Regional Security

53

proponents of the Illyrian theory of Albanian origin build their hypothesis

mostly on the speculation that the modern Albanian language is directly descended from the ancient Illyrian one. Both of them belong to the same IndoEuropean language group.18 Nevertheless, this claim is disputed by contemporary linguistic science. The fact is that Albanian as a spoken language of the
inhabitants of present-day Albania was not mentioned in historical sources
until 1285, in the manuscripts from Dubrovnik, in which the language was referred to as lingua albanesesca. The name for the landAlbanon (the territory in which Albanian-language speakers live)is derived from the name of
the language. This term for Albania, according to the supporters of this theory, appears in several 13th-century Latin dictionaries, as well as in some
Byzantine historical sources. The same Byzantine sources referred to the
region between Lake Skadar and the Drim River as Arbanon (or Arber).
According to the 2nd-century Greek geographer Ptolemy, this territory was
settled by the Albanoi tribe, which was Illyrian in origin.19
18

The Illyrian linguistic theories of Albanian and South Slavic ethnogenesis have certain
similarities with the Thracian linguistic theory of the ethnic origin of the Lithuanian nation
that was championed by the 19th-century Lithuanian linguist and national worker Jonas
Basanaviius. The theory was the result of Basanaviiuss linguistic research of ethnogenesis of
the 19th-century Lithuanian nation. In his book Lietuvikai trakikos studijos, Basanaviius
developed the theory that part of the ancient Thracians emigrated from their Balkan homeland
and ultimately settled in the eastern littoral of the Baltic Sea. Basanaviius claimed that these
Thracian migrants from the Balkans were the predecessors of the modern Lithuanian nation.
This theory was based on the fact that the ancient Thracian language was similar to the 19thcentury Lithuanian language. Both of these languages belong to the Indo-European family of
languages. Basanaviius was working for years in Bulgaria and, in order to prove his theory,
collected documents with Thracian personal names, toponyms, and names for different kinds of
drinks and then compared them to those of the Lithuanians. He claimed, for example, that the
Lithuanian name Getas comes from the Thracian tribal name Getai (Lietuvikai trakikos
studijos [Shenandoah, PA, 1898], 815; and Alfred Erich Seen, Jonas Basanaviius: The
Patriarch of the Lithuanian National Renaissance [Newtonville, MA: Oriental Research
Partners, 1980]). According to Basanaviius, the name for the medieval Lithuanian capital
Trakai was derived from the Greek name for the ancient Thracians, while some of the Polish
names for the settlements (for instance, Kalisz in the region of Poznan) were not originally
Polish: they were of Lithuanian-Thracian origin. Basanaviius concluded that the ancient
Thracians were of the same ethnicity as the Lithuanians (Lietuvikai trakikos studijos, 2174).
19
Before the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans, the population of Albania called themselves
Arbrsh/Arbnesh and their country Arbn/Arbr. The South Slavic name for the people from
Albania was Arbanas. Arnauts (Arnautai) was the term for Islamized, and later Albanized,
Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija who still did not forget their original ethnicity. Jovan Cviji,
Osnove za geografiju i geologiju Makedonije i Stare Srbije, vol. 3, Posebna izdanja (Srpska
kraljevska akademija) [Special edition (Serbian Royal Academy)], vol. 19 (Belgrade: Dravna
tamparija Kraljevine Srbije, 1911), 116266. However, during the period of the Albanian
national revival movement in the late 19th century, the Albanians called themselves Shqiptar

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Vladislav Sotirovi

The partisans of the Illyrian theory of Albanian origin speak in support of

the school of thought on the origin and evolution of the Illyrians which claims
that the ancient Illyrians did not migrate to the Balkans. Instead, they were an
autochthonous people in this part of Europe and even one of the oldest settlers
in Europe. It has been suggested that the Albanians, as the direct ethnic,
political, and cultural offspring of the ancient Illyrians, are the original and indigenous inhabitants of the Balkans, even more aboriginal than the ancient
Greeks since the ancient Greeks migrated to the Balkans in two great migration waves: first, around 2000 BC, and secondly (Dorians), around 1200 BC.20
Clearly, Albanian historical rights are much stronger, justifiable, and historically more deeply rooted in comparison to those of the Serbs, Montenegrins,
Greeks, Macedonian Slavs, or Bulgarians, with respect to several Balkan
territories of doubtful authenticity. In other words, the Albanians are the
hosts, while all their neighbors are guests in the Balkan Peninsula.21
American medievalist John V. A. Fine simplified the crucial point of the theory of Illyrian-Albanian ethnic, cultural, and political continuity, noting that
if the Illyrians were the ancestors of the Albanians, then the Albanians, as
original inhabitants, have some historic right to that region and possibly rights
to other regions which had been settled by Illyrians. And their Illyrian
ancestry has been very important in Albanian nation-building myths.22
The pivotal aspect (from a historical, political point of view) of the Illyrian theory is the claim that the Illyrian-Albanian tribes withdrew from the vast
and the country Shqiptaria. The name is most probably derived from the word shqipe, which
means eagle, referring to the mountainous settlers of the highlands of Albania. However, this
word probably comes from the ancient Dacian-Moesian language adopted by the Bulgarians
who settled the Roman province of Moesia Inferior in 680/681. In the Bulgarian language,
Shqiptars means the highlanders. The popular nickname for the Albanians is the Sons of the
Eagle, and for Albania, the Land of the Eagle. Two of the most important and powerful
Albanian tribal units around 1900 were the Ghegs (the Roman Catholics) in northern Albania
and the Tosks in southern Albania. The Albanian population was (and is) divided with respect
to religion. There are Muslims (the majority of Albanians), Roman Catholics, and the Eastern
Orthodox (the minority of Albanians). The last group occupies southeastern Albania, around
the cities of Kor and Gjirokastr (Argyrus). For more details, see John Cam Hobhouse (Lord
Broughton), Travels in Albania and Other Provinces of Turkey in 1808 and 1810, 2 vols.
(London: Murray, 1858); Stavro Skendi, Religion in Albania during the Ottoman Rule,
Sdost Forschungen (Munich), no. 15 (1956); and Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since
1780, 70.
20
Oxford Dictionary of World History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 253.
21
For instance, see Marmullaku, Albania and Albanians, 6; and Mirdita, Iliri i etnogeneza
Albanaca, 9.
22
John Van Antwerp Fine, The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth
Century to the Late Twelfth Century (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1994), 10.

Who Are the Albanians? A Challenge to Regional Security

55

areas of the Balkans, settling in Balkan coastal towns and in the mountains of
present-day Albania, Epirus, Macedonia, and Montenegro during the Slavic
invasion and occupation of the Balkans in the 6th and 7th centuries. However,
according to this theory, Kosovo and Metohija were the only fertile lowlands
in the entire Balkan Peninsula that were somehow not abandoned by Romanized Illyrian Albanians. As a result, the Albanians of Illyrian ethnic origin
were considered an autochthonous population of Kosovo and Metohija, while
the Slavic Serbs and Montenegrins were looked upon as newcomers and occupiers in the region of Kosovo and Metohija. Shortly, the Illyrian-Albanian
historical and ethnic rights to Kosovo and Metohijaa land claimed by both
the Albanians and their neighborsare 15 centuries older than the Slavic
Serbian and Montenegrin historical and ethnic claims to the same territories,
according to the theory of Illyrian-Albanian ethnogenesis.23
This theory emphasizes that in present-day northern Albania an extensive
settlement of old inhabitants emerged after the occupation of the Balkans by
the more powerful South Slavic tribes.24 There was particular emphasis on
this part of the Illyrian theory during the Balkan Wars of 191213 as a way of
refuting Serbias claims on the territory of north Albania. Furthermore, the Illyrian-Albanian population from the lowlands of Kosovo and Metohija began
to come under Slavic political, cultural influence, while the Illyrian-Albanian
mountainous tribes from the Albanian highlands, who had less contact with
the Slavs, succeeded in maintaining their social system and cultural inheritance without alteration. The defenders of this theory claim that the Byzantine province of Theme Dyrrhachium (which was established around 809 and
covered the entirety of Albanias territory, part of Northern Epirus, western
Macedonia, and the main part of the Montenegrin Littoral with the area of
Lake Skadar) was inhabited by Albanians, who caused the region to develop
a special (Albanian) character.25 Charles I of Naples (122785) established
23
See, for instance, Noel Malcolm, Kosovo: A Short History (New York: New York University
Press, 1999), 2240.
24
This opinion is also shared by some Serbian scholars. For instance, Boidar Ferjani,
Albanija do XII veka, in Iz istorije Albanaca, 29. The champions of the Illyrian theory
frequently cited the words of Milovan ilas, one of the leading Yugoslav Communists after the
Second World War (and a war criminal), from Montenegro, who wrote, The Albanians are the
most ancient Balkan peopleolder than the Slavs, and even the ancient Greeks (quoted in
Nicholas J. Costa, Albania: A European Enigma [Boulder: East European Monographs; New
York: Distributed by Columbia University Press, 1995], 1)or French scholar Andre Malraux,
who wrote that Athens was, alas, no more than an Albanian village (Anti-Memoirs [New
York: Holt, 1968], 33).
25
Marmullaku, Albania and Albanians, 8; and Jadran Ferluga, Sur la date de la cration du
thme de Dyrrhachium, in Yugoslav Committee of Byzantine Studies, ed., Actes du XII

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Vladislav Sotirovi

his own feudal domain under the name of the Regnum Albaniae (Kingdom of
Albania), which is considered in Albanian historiography the first Albanian
national state, located on the territory of the Byzantine theme of Dyrrhachium.
Its capital became the city of Dyrrhachium (Durazo/Durs/Dra).
According to the Illyrian theory, the Albanians, as one of the oldest European peoples, who had lived on the same territory since the early period of
antiquity, deserved to be taken into account as one of the original inhabitants
of Europe. They were descended from the Illyrians, i.e., from a special branch
of Indo-European peoples, just like the Greeks or Armenians. Moreover, the
Albanians have a language that reflects the quality, intensity, and period of
important pre-Indo-European and Mediterranean (i.e., Pelasgian) influences.
Their culture is different from neighboring ones in terms of religious tolerance, a common history of permanent resistance against any foreign power
and subjugation, a partial (medieval) experience in independent statehood, a
culture which is an amalgamation of Illyrian-Balkan origins and both Eastern
and Western European elements, a very old and distinctive folk culture, and
ultimately, a certain kind of individualist toughness which, all together,
singles the Albanians out of their immediate surroundings.26
In accordance with this theory, since in historical and ethnic terms the
following territories in southeastern Europe were inhabited by the Balkan
Illyro-Albanians, they should be defined as the territory of a united (Greater)
Albania, as the national state of all Albanians, in the future: the area of Lake
Skadar in Montenegro in the north, to the Bay of Ambrazio in Greece in the
south, and from the Adriatic Sea in the west to the Treska River in Macedonia, and Preevo, Medvea, Bujanovac, and Lebane districts in Serbia in the
east.27 That was and is, in the eyes of supporters of the Illyrian theory of
Congrs International des Etudes Byzantines, vol. 2 (Belgrade: Nauno delo, 1964), 8392.
Regarding the borders of the Byzantine theme of Dyrrhachium, see Josef Engel, ed., Groer
Historischer Weltatlas, vol. 2, Mittelalter (Munich: Bayerischer Schulbuch-Verlag, 1979), 14.
26
Rexhep Ismaili, Albanians and South-Eastern Europe (Aspects of Identity), in Duan
Janji and Shkelzen Maliqi, eds., Conflict or Dialogue. Serbian-Albanian Relations and
Integration of the Balkans. Studies and Essays (Subotica: Open University, European Civic
Centre for Conflict Resolution, 1994), 269.
27
For example, Protest of the Population of Shkodra, Podgorica, Shpuza, Zhabjak, Tivar,
Ulqin, Gruda, Kelmend, Hot, and Kastrat Addressed to the Ambassador of France in Istanbul
against the Annexation of Albanian Lands by Montenegro, 8 May 1878, Archives du Ministre
des Affaires trangres [Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs], Paris, Fund of the French
Embassy at the Sublime Porte, Turkey, vol. 417, pp. 5154 (supplement to report no. 96;
original in French). English translation in Stefanaq Pollo and Selami Pulaha, eds., Akte te
Rilindjes Kombtare Shqiptare, 18781912: Memorandume, vendime, protesta, thirrje [Acts of
the Albanian national renaissance, 18781912: Memoranda, decisions, protests, appeals]
(Tirana: Akademia e Shkencave t RPS t Shqipris, Instituti i Historis, 1978), 1213;

Who Are the Albanians? A Challenge to Regional Security

57

Albanian ethnogenesis, the exact territory of the Illyro-Albanians, who have a

2,000-year-old history and culture.28 The aim of the Albanian national
movement Rilindja (18781913) was Albanian liberation from Ottoman rule
and the creation of a national Albanian state whose borders would encompass
all of the territories cited above. The political arm of the movement, the First
League of Prizren (187881),29 established its own organizational structure in
all of the territories considered to be parts of a united ethnic state of all
Albanians.30 The league launched the motto feja e shqyptarit asht shqyptaria
(the religion of the Albanians is Albanianism) for the sake of ovecoming
Contents of the Coded Telegram sent by Dervish Pasha from Shkodra, 27 December 1880,
Basbakanlik Arsivi [Archives of the Prime Ministry], Istanbul, Fund of Jilldiz esas evraki, 14
88/16 88 12. Original in Turkish. See Fig. 2. For the Albanian scholars, of course, any project
of creation of a Greater Albania is only a myth (see Paulin Kola, The Myth of Greater Albania
[New York: New York University Press, 2003]).
28
However, several written historical sources from different cultural environments (Byzantine,
Arab, and others) clearly say that the Albanians arrived in the Balkans in 1043 from eastern
Sicily and that their original home was in Caucasian Albania, which is mentioned in several
ancient sources as an independent state with its own rulers. The Caucasian Albania was
neighboring the Caspian Sea, Media, Iberia, Armenia, and Sarmatia Asiatica (see Fig 4). The
most important source that mentions that the Balkan Albanians came from eastern Sicily in
1043 is Byzantine historian Michael Ataliotas Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantine (Corpus
of Byzantine Historians) (Bonn: Weber, 1853; 18). This historical fact is also recognized by
some Albanian historians, like Stefang Pollo and Arben Puto (The History of Albania [LondonBoston-Hebley: Routledge & Kegan, 1981], 37).
29
The League of Prizren (Lidhja e Prizrenit) was established in the town of Prizren in Metohija
for the very political purpose of claiming that this old Serbian town is in fact Albanian.
However, the population of Prizren at that time was 70% Serbian and 30% Albanian. The town
was the capital of Serbia in the 14th century (called by Serbs the Imperial City). It was the
location of the royal imperial court and the Orthodox cathedral (saborna crkva) built in 1307.
Today, only several Serbian houses remain in the town of Prizren. Metohija is a term of Greek
origin (metochi). It refers to the land owned by the Orthodox Church. As the Serbian medieval
rulers granted huge portions of land between the towns of Pe, Prizren, Mitrovica, and Pritina
to the Serbian Orthodox Church, the western part of Kosovo came to be called Metohija (Duan
T. Batakovi, Kosovo i Metohija u srpsko-arbanakim odnosima, 2nd rev. edition [Belgrade:
igoja tampa, 2006], 10). This province is called Kosovo and Metohija by the Serbs, while the
Albanians purposely refer to it only as Kosova/Kosov. However, the word Kosovo/Kosova/
Kosov is of Slavic origin (kos is a type of eagle), not of Albanian, which means that Albanians
do not even have their own (Albanian) name for Kosovo. The Albanians, of course, do not
mention Metohija at all.
30
For example, The Activity of the Albanian League of Prizren in the Vilayet of Kosova, 10
May 1880, Consul-General Blunt to the Marquis of Salisbury, Public Record Office, Foreign
Affairs, London, no. 195/1323; the British Museum, London, Fund of Accounts and Papers
(43), 1880, vol. 82, no. 82, pp. 7778. The document is published in Sknder Rizaj, Lidhja
Shqiptare e Prizrenit n dokumente Angleze, 18781881 [The Albanian League of Prizren in
British documents, 18781881] (Prishtina: Arkivi i Kosovs, 1978), 27980.

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Vladislav Sotirovi

Albanian religious diversity and separation. This movement has been the
crucial united force of the Albanians and the pivotal point for defining the
national identity and development of the Albanians.
The Illyrians Autochthonous Balkan People
It is true that every story about the Balkan Peninsula begins with the ancient
Illyrians.31 Historians believe that this Indo-European people were one of the
largest European populations to inhabit the western portion of the Balkans
from the coasts of the Ionian Sea and the Adriatic to the Alps about 1000 BC.
Their eastern neighbors were also Indo-European peoplesthe Thracians.
The demarcation line between their settlements and their cultural and political
influence was the Morava River in present-day Serbia (in Latin, the Margus,
located in the Roman province of Moesia Superior) and the Vardar River in
present-day Macedonia. In the north, on the shores of the Sava and Danube
rivers, their neighbors were the Celts, while in the south the Pindus Mountains
separated the Illyrians from the ancient Macedonians and the Greeks.32 The
Illyrians lived on the eastern littoral of the Adriatic Sea around 500 BC,
according to Greek geographer Hecatei (Hecateus) from the city of Miletus in
Asia Minor. According to the early Byzantine historian Pseudo-Scilac, who
lived 150 years later, the Illyrian settlements in the Balkans in the south ex31

Aleksandar Stipevi, do tregim pr Ballkanin fillon me ilirt [Every story about the
Balkans begins with the Illyrians], Bota e re (Prishtina), 1985: 45; and Aleks Buda, Ilirt e
Jugut si problem i historiografis [The southern Illyrians as a problem of historiography], in
Shkrime historike [Historical writings], vol. 1 (Tirana: 8 Nntori, 1986), 1315. During the last
few decades, many scholars have claimed that the Balkan Illyrians (and Thracians) were
nothing else but ethnolinguistic Serbs (Jovo Baji, Blaeni Jeronim, Solinska crkva i
Srbo/Dalmati [abac: Beli aneo, 2003]; Jovan I. Dereti, Dragoljub P. Anti, and Slobodan
M. Jarevi, eds., Izmiljeno doseljavanje Srba [Belgrade: Sardonija, 2009]; Miodrag
Milanovi, Istorijsko poreklo Srba [Belgrade: Admiral Books, 2011]; and Borislav VlajiZemljaniki, Srbi starosedeoci Balkana i Panonije u vojnim i civilnim dogaajima sa
Rimljanima i Helenima od I do X veka [Belgrade: Struna knjiga, 1999]). In other words, they
claim that the Serbs, not the Albanians, are the only autochthonous people (nation) on the
Balkan Peninsula, according to the historical sources of the time.
32
Selim Islami, Sknder Anamali, Muzafer Korkuti, and Frano Prendi, Les Illyriens (Tirana:
Acadmie des sciences de la RPS dAlbanie, 1985), 5; Sknder Anamali, The Illyrians and the
Albanians, in Kristaq Prifti et al., eds., The Truth on Kosova (Tirana: Encyclopaedia
Publishing House, 1993), 5; and Pierre Cabanes, Les Illyriens de Bardylis Genthios, IVII
sicles avant J.-C (Paris: SEDES, 1988), 17. The borders of geographical distribution of the
Illyrian population in the Balkans of antiquity are primarily reconstructed according to the
writings of the Greek historians Herodotus, who lived in the 5th century BC and wrote
Historiae, and Appianus, who lived in the 2nd century AD and wrote Illyrica.

Who Are the Albanians? A Challenge to Regional Security

59

tended to the southern Albanian port of Valona (Vlor).33 Among the ancient
and early medieval historians and geographers, the most reliable information
on the geographic dispersion of the Illyrians and the demography of the
Illyrian territory appears in the writings of Herodotus, Livy, Pliny, Ptolemy,
Appianus, Strabo, Procopius of Caesarea, Synecdemos of Hierocles, Isidorus
Hispaniensis, and Euagrius.
When the Celts came to the Balkans in the 3rd century BC, some of the
Illyrian tribes mixed with them. In the same century, the Illyrian king Agron
from the Ardaei tribe organized the first Illyrian state. At the time of greatest
expansion, its borders extended to the Neretva River in Dalmatia, to Bosnia
and Herzegovina, the Vjos River in southern Albania, and Lake Ohrid in
Macedonia. Some of the 20th-century Albanian historians and national
workers claimed that a proclamation of independent state of Albania on 28
November 1912 was based on the Albanian political-state inheritance, which
dated back to King Agrons Illyrian Kingdom. Nevertheless, the Romans succeeded in defeating the Illyrians and abolishing their state organization during
the three Illyrian-Roman wars between 229 and 168 BC.
The administratively political concept of Illyria, or Illyricum, was used in
subsequent centuries by the Romans, who after the new conquests in the
Balkans established first the province of Illyricum, and in the 4th century, the
prefecture of Illyricum.34 It stretched from the Istrian Peninsula in the northwest to northern Albania in the southeast, and from the Adriatic Littoral in the
south to the Drava River in the north. However, the main portion of presentday Albania was not included in this Illyrian province and became part of
the Roman province of Macedonia. This was the result of the Roman conclusion that only the territory of northern Albania had been settled by the Illyrian
tribes, but not central and southern Albania. The proponents of the Illyrian
theory of the origin of the Albanians did not provide an answer to the question
of why all of Albania was not absorbed into the Roman province of Illyricum
if it was entirely settled by the ancient Illyrians. The Romans finally brought
under control all of the Illyrian tribes during a new war of 69 AD.35

33

The most prominent Illyrian tribes were Iapudes, Dalmatae, Autariatae, Docletae, and
Taulantii.
34
The prefecture of Illyricum was subdivided into the following provinces: Dacia Ripensis,
Dacia Mediterranea, Moesia Superior Margensis, Dardania, Praevalis, Macedonia Prima,
Macedonia Secunda, Epirus Nova, Epirus Vetus, Thessalia, Achaia, and Creta.
35
Mihail Rostovcev, Istorija staroga sveta: Grka i Rim [History of the old world: Greece and
Rome] (Novi Sad: Matica srpska, 1990), 38384.

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Vladislav Sotirovi

From that time the overwhelming and very successful process of Romanization of the whole Balkan Peninsula began.36 Some protagonists of the Illyrian theory of Albanian origin developed the hypothesis that the Roman emperors Aurelian, Diocletian, and Probus, who were from the western part of
the Balkans, which was settled by the Illyrian tribes, were the predecessors of
the modern Albanian nation.37 During the reign of Diocletian (284305), who
was of Illyrian origin, the whole Balkan Peninsula, except its eastern part, was
administratively organized as the Praefectura Illyricum. Mainly due to such
Roman administrative organization of the Balkans, the names Illyria and
Illyrians were preserved for a very long period of time as common names for
the peoples who lived in the western and central parts of the Balkans, i.e., for
the South Slavs38 and the Albanians.39 However, according to 19th-to-21st36

Regardless of the fact that the Latin language did not replace the Illyrian one in the territory
of Albania during Roman rule, Latin did not become the language of the common people. The
Illyrian language was Romanized to a certain degree and the Latin alphabet was later chosen by
the Albanian national leaders as the national script of the Albanians (one of the reasons for such
a decision was purely political). For sure, the Roman culture and Latin language participated in
the process of the ethnogenesis of the Albanians. However, the proponents of the Illyrian
theory of Albanian ethnogenesis refute this opinion, emphasizing that the number of Latin
inscriptions found in Albania is small when compared with the number found in the other
provinces of the Roman Empire. Their total number is 293. Half of these inscriptions are found
in and around the Roman colony located in the ancient city of Dyrrhachium. Theodor
Mommsen thought that people used exclusively the Illyrian language in the interior of Albania
during the Roman occupation (The Provinces of the Roman Empire, vol. 1 [Chicago: Ares
Publishers, 1974], 20203). Dardania was one of the least Romanized Balkan regions, and its
native population preserved its ethnic individuality and consciousness. Subsequently, the
Dardanians, who escaped Romanization and survived the South Slavic migrations to the
Balkans, emerged in the Middle Ages with the name of the Albanians. Nevertheless, Latin
terminology in modern Albanian and place names in Albania are evidence of the IllyrianAlbanian Romanization/Latinization.
37
However, the proponents of the theory of Serbian Balkan origin claim that all Balkan-born
Roman emperors (around 20) were ethnic Serbs. Diocletian and Constantine the Great are the
most important among them.
38
Among the South Slavs, and in part among the Poles and Russians, the Illyrian theory of
Slavic origin was widespread from the early 16th century to the early 19th century. According
to this theory, the South Slavs were the autochthonous population in the Balkans, originating
from the ancient Illyrians. Furthermore, all Slavs formerly lived in the Balkans and were known
by the ancient authors as the Illyrians. At the beginning of the Middle Ages, they split into
three groups: one group migrated to Central Europe (the Western Slavs), another group went to
Eastern Europe (the Eastern Slavs), while the last group remained in the Balkans (the South
Slavs). According to several medieval chronicles, the South Slavic ancestors were the ancient
Illyrians, Thracians, and Macedonians. Thus, Alexander the Great, Constantine the Great,
Diocletian, and St. Hieronymus were of South Slavic origin. In the time of Humanism,
Renaissance, Reformation, and the Counter-Reformation, a number of Dubrovnik (Ragusian)

Who Are the Albanians? A Challenge to Regional Security

61

century official sciences of history, ethnology, and philology (but not according to many relevant sources), the Illyrians and Slavs were not synonymous as
they came to the Balkans 1,500 years after the Illyrians.40
Clearly, the name Illyrians disappeared in the 7th century at the time of
the Slavic migrations to the Balkans. After the 6th century, however, Byzantine texts do not record any accounts of Illyrians abandoning Balkan territories from the Dalmatian Alps to the Danube. The new Illyrian political and
cultural center became the region of Arbanum (in Greek, Arbanon or Albanon, in Serbian, Raban) in southern Albania. The name Albani appeared in
historical sources no earlier than the 9th century. Byzantine historians employed the name Albani for the Slavic inhabitants living around the seaport of
Durazzo (ancient Dyrrhachium) in northern Albania. From the 11th century,

writers became the most prominent champions of this theory. They included Vinko Pribojevi
(On Origin and History of the Slavs, Venice, 1532), Mavro Orbini (De Regno Sclavorum,
Pesaro, 1601), and Bartol Kai (Institutiones Linguae Illyricae, Rome, 1604). Pribojevi
claimed that all Slavs spoke one common language, which originated in the Balkans. For him,
the Russians spoke a Dalmatian dialect of the common Slavic language. This common Slavic
language was named Our language, Illyrian or Slavic, by Dubrovnik writers.
Subsequently, all Slavs who spoke Our language belonged to Our people. The influence of
the Illyrian theory of (South) Slavic origin can be seen in (1) the work of Serbian nobleman
Count ore Brankovi (16451711) from Transylvania, who in 1688 wrote the first political
program for South Slavic unification into a free and independent state, which he called the
Illyrian Kingdom; and (2) the fact that Orbinis De Regno Sclavorum was translated into
Russian in 1722; and (3) the fact that the Croatian movement of national renewal from the first
half of the 19th century was officially called the Illyrian Movement.
39
Mirdita, Iliri i etnogeneza Albanaca, 910; Eqrem abej, Hyrje n historin e gjuhs shipe
(Prishtina: Enti i teksteve dhe i mjeteve msimore i Krahins Socialists Autonome t Kosovs,
1970), 2932; Prifti et al., The Truth on Kosova, 573; Exhlale Dobruna, Mbi disa toponime t
kohs antike n Kosov [On some ancient toponyms in Kosovo], in Idriz Ajeti, ed.,
Onomastika e Kosovs (Prishtina: Instituti Albanologjik i Prishtins, 1979); Sknder Anamali,
Problemi i formimit t popullit shqiptar n dritn e t dhnave arkeologjike [The problem of
the formation of the Albanian people in the light of archaeological information], in Aleks Buda,
ed., Konferenca Kombtare pr Formimin e Popullit Shqiptar, t Gjuhs dhe t Kulturs s Tij:
Tiran, 25 korrik 1982 [The National Conference on the Formation of the Albanian People,
Their Language, and Culture: Tirana, 25 July 1982] (Tirana: Akademia e Shkencave e RPS t
Shqipris, 1988); and abej, Problemi i autoktonis s shqiptarve n dritn e emrave t
vendeve, 5462.
40
For instance, see Vladimir orovi, Istorija Srba (Belgrade: BIGZ, 1993), 366; Boidar
Ferjani, Vizantija i Juni Sloveni (Belgrade: Zavod za izdavanje udbenika Socijalistike
Republike Srbije, 1966), 2026; Fransis Kont [Francis Conte], Sloveni: Nastanak i razvoj
slovenskih civilizacija u Evropi (VIXIII vek) (Belgrade: Filip Vinji, 1989), 1443; and
Predrag Piper, Uvod u slavistiku 1 (Belgrade: Zavod za udbenike i nastavna sredstva, 1998),
8196.

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Vladislav Sotirovi

the name Albani (in Latin, Arbanensis or Albanenses, in Greek, Albanoi or

Arbanitai) was associated with all Albanian tribes.41
In the Middle Ages, the Albanoi lived in the area between the cities of
Skadar (Scodra), Prizren, Ohrid, and Valona. According to the champions of
the Illyrian theory of Albanian ethnogenesis, the Slavic raids and migrations
to the Balkans in the early Middle Ages did not affect the native inhabitants of
the territory of present-day Albania. They continued to live there, preserving
their own culture, habits, and social organization. The southern Illyrian provinces retained their earlier ethnic composition. And of course, this ethnic composition was identified, although without supporting evidence in the sources,
as Albanian.
The Dardanians Illyro-Albanians, Daco-Moesians, or Thracians?
One of the claims of Albanian historiography is that the central Balkan
tribethe Dardanians, who settled in the southern portion of the territory of
the Roman province of Moesia Superior and northwestern part of the Roman
province of Macedoniashould be considered one of the Illyrian tribes and
an ancestor of the Albanians. With respect to this point, Albanian historians
refer to the German linguist Norbert Jokl, who wrote, according to research of
historical toponomastics, that the ancient cradle of the Albanians was Dardania, from where they moved westward in late Roman times to their present
territories.42 Consequently, the northwestern territory of the present-day Republic of Macedonia (the FYROM), Kosovo and Metohija, and present-day
southern Serbia (settled by the Dardanians in antiquity, as well as the northeastern portion of the present-day Republic of Albania) are considered Albanian historical lands and thus had to be included into a united Albanian national state in the future. For Albanian proponents of the theory of the Illyrian-Albanian symbiosis, the most valuable information and evidence that the
ancient Dardanians were the Illyrians (and thus Albanian ancestors) comes
from the archaeological excavations in the Kuks region in northeastern Albania, which belonged to the western portion of the Dardanian state.43 What is
41

The name for the Albanians, Arbanasi, is derived from the Latin name for the Albanians,
Arbanenses.
42
Norbert Jokl, Albaner, in Max Ebert, ed., Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte, vol. 1 (Berlin:
Walter de Gruyter, 1924), 91.
43
Skender Anamali, The Illyrians and the Albanians, in Prifti et al., The Truth on Kosova, 7;
Bep Jubani, Tipare t kulturs Ilire n trevn e Dardanis [Features of Illyrian culture in the
territory of Dardania], Iliria, no. 2 (1985): 21120; and Selim Islami, Shteti Ilir, vendi dhe roli i
tij n botn mesdhetare [The Illyrian state Its place and role in the Mediterranean world], in
Aleks Buda, ed., Kuvendi I i Studimeve Ilire, vol. 1 (Tirana, 1974), 85105.

Who Are the Albanians? A Challenge to Regional Security

63

of extreme importance according to them is that traditional Illyrian names like

Andinus, Annius, Dassius, Epicadus, Genthiana, Rhedon, Surus, Tata, and
Tridus can be found in inscriptions in Dardania. The Yugoslav specialist in
Illyrology Henrik Bari, from Sarajevo, also championed the idea that the
Balkan homeland of the Albanian people must have been Dardania-Paeonia,
provinces which, judging from the known names of persons, were Illyrian and
not Thracian in antiquity. Therefore, it can be said that Dardania and
Paeonia were the provinces in which the early Albanian-Illyrian symbiosis
took place in the interior of the Balkan Peninsula.44 Bari, in fact, disagreed
with the theory of the Romanian linguist Mateescu, who, in his detailed analysis of the epigraphic material, dated the Thracian infiltration into the province
of Dardania to the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.45
The Albanian exponents of the theory of Illyrian-Albanian continuity and
ethnic symbiosis repeatedly quote Arthur Evans, who observed that the same
coins, pottery, and other handcraft products from ancient Dyrrhachium and
Apollonia (located on the Albanian littoral) are found in Kosovo and Metohija
(in the regions of Pe, akovica, and Prizren).46 This fact is, however, only
evidence of the Hellenization of the Illyrians as the coins were of Greek
origin. Greek was evidently the language of official inscriptions among the
educated class of Illyrian society.47 The Yugoslav historian Fanula Papazoglu
discovered a Dacian-Moesian or Phrygian stratum in the formation of the
Dardanians. For that reason, the Dardanians cannot be identified with the Illyrians and thus cannot provide support for the development of IllyrianAlbanian ethnic self-awareness.48 Finally, modern European ethnographic and
44

Cited in Eqrem abej, Hyrje n historin e gjuhs shqipe: Fonetika historike e shqipes
[Introduction to the history of the Albanian language: Phonetic history of Albanian] (Prishtina,
1970), 4950.
45
N. Mateescu, Granita de apur a Tracilor, Anuarul Institutului de Istoria Nationale (Cluj),
no. 3 (1923): 377492.
46
Arthur Evans, Antiquarian Researches in Illyricum, I and II, Archaeologia (Westminster)
48, no. 1 (1883): 62.
47
Fanula Papazoglu, Les royaumes dIllyrie et de Dardanie, Origines et development,
structures, hellenisation et romanization, in Milutin Garaanin, ed., Iliri i Albanci: Serija
predavanja odranih od 21. maja do 4. juna 1986. godine, Nauni skupovi, vol. 39 (Belgrade:
Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, 1988), 194; and Neritan Ceka, Survey of the
Development of Urban Life among Southern Illyrians (original in Albanian), Iliria, no. 2
(1985): 11936. Cf. Vangjel Toi, New Data about the Illyrian Onomastics in Dyrrhachium
(original in Albanian), Iliria, no. 1 (1986): 12335.
48
Regarding the problem of the Illyrian origin of the very important central Balkan tribe the
Dardanians, see Milutin Garaanin, Considerations finales, in Iliri i Albanci, 37072; Milutin
Garaanin, Razmatranja o makedonskom haltatu: Materijalna kultura, hronologija, etniki
problem, Starinar, nos. 56 (195455): 3740; Milutin Garaanin, Istona granica Ilira

64

Vladislav Sotirovi

historical sciences suggest that the homeland of the Albanian nation lies in
what is today central Albania. The German Illyrologist and Albanologist
Georg Stadtmller stresses that the original Albanian native region includes
the valley of the Shkumba River, both sides of the Mat River, Kruja, and
some neighboring areas.49
The highlanders from Albania, however, began, in the mid-14th century,
to migrate from their mountains towards the more fertile lowlands of Thessaly, Boeotia, Attica, Euboea, and Peloponnese, while from the end of the
17th century they migrated towards the northeast, occupying the territories of
Kosovo and Metohija (Old Serbia, or Serbia proper) and the territories of present-day Serbia around the cities of Novi Pazar, Vranje, and Ni.50 Certainly,
prema arheolokim spomenicima, in Alojz Benac, ed., Simpozijum o teritorijalnom i hronolokom razgranienju Ilira u praistorijsko doba (Sarajevo: Nauno drutvo SR Bosne i
Hercegovine, 1964), 13841; Rdiger Mack, Grenzmarken und Nachbarn Makedoniens im
Norden und Westen, unpublished dissertation (Gottingen, 1951), 17073; Radu Vulpe, Gli
Illiri dellItalia Imperiale Romana, Ephemeris dacoromana, no. 3, 1925: 12957; Emil
erkov, Rimljani na Kosovu i Metohiji (Belgrade: Arheoloko drutvo Jugoslavije, 1969),
106; Zef Mirdita, Studime dardane (Prishtina: Rilindja, 1979), 49; Fanula Papazoglu,
Srednjobalkanska plemena u predrimsko doba (Sarajevo: Akademija nauka i umjetnosti Bosne
i Hercegovine, 1969), 402; Fanula Papazoglu, Dardanska onomastika, Zbornik Filozofskog
fakulteta, vol. 8, bk. 1 (Belgrade: Nauno delo, 1964), 4975; Fanula Papazoglu, Les
royaumes dIllyrie et de Dardanie, Origines et development, structures, hellenisation et
romanization, in Garaanin, Iliri i Albanci, 174; Bep Jubani, Tipare t kulturs Ilire n trevn
e Dardanis, 21122; Nikola Vuli, Dardanci, Iliri i Dalmati, Glas Srpske akademije nauka
(Belgrade), no. 155 (1933). While the Yugoslav historian Grga Novak claimed that the
Dardanians were not of Illyrian origin, his compatriot Milan Budimir claimed that they were
one of the Illyrian tribes. Grga Novak, La nazionalit dei Dardani, Arhiv za arbanaku
starinu, jezik i etnologiju (Belgrade) 4, no. 1 (1969): 7289; Milan Budimir, O etnikom
odnosu Dardanaca prema Ilirima, Jugoslovenski istorijski asopis (Belgrade), no. 3, (1937):
129; and Milan Budimir, Grci i Pelasti (Belgrade: Nauna knjiga, 1950).
49
Georg Stadtmller, Forschungen zur albanischen fruhgeschichte, zweite erweiterte
auflage, Albanische Forschungen, vol. 2 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1966), 167, 173.
50
Dimitri Obolenski, Vizantijski Komonvelt (Belgrade: Prosveta, 1996), 12, 245; Georgije
Ostrogorski, Istorija Vizantije (Belgrade: Srpska knjievna zadruga, 1959), 464, 505; Paul
Lemerle, Invasions et migrations dans les Balkans depuis la fin de lpoque Romaine jusquau
VIIIe sicle, Revue historique 211, 1954: 265308, at 294; Paul Lemerle, Les plus anciens
recueils des miracles de Saint Demtrius, vol. 2, Commentaire (Paris: ditions du Centre
national de la recherche scientifique, 1981), 67; Konstantin Jireek, Istorija Srba, vol. 1,
Politika istorija do 1537. god. (Belgrade: Slovo ljubve, 1978; original written in German and
published in Vienna, 1911) 8586, 216; Konstantin Jireek and Jovan Radoni, Istorija Srba,
vol. 2, Kulturna istorija (Belgrade: Slovo ljubve, 1978; unfinished original by Jireek in
German, printed in Vienna, 1911; completed by Jovan Radoni) 33, 34, 101, 105, 145, 153. On
the Albanian residents in southeast Serbia in the districts of Ni, Leskovac, Prokupjle, and
Kurumlija in 1878, see Protest of 6200 Albanian Emigrants (Prishtina), 26 June 1878,

Who Are the Albanians? A Challenge to Regional Security

65

it was not until the 18th century that throngs of Albanian herdsmen came
down from their native countrys highlands to the fertile areas of Kosovo and
Metohija, which up to that time were populated almost exclusively by Eastern
Orthodox Serbs, and to the regions of todays western Macedonia (from
Skopje to Bitola), whose population consisted of a majority of Macedonian
Slavs and a minority of Serbs.51 Most of the territory of the former Roman
province of Dardania, mainly settled by the Dardanian tribe, was not affected
by the Illyrian-Albanian elements before the migrations of the Albanian tribes
from the highlands of Albania at the end of the 17th century.
Supporters of the theory of Illyrian-Albanian ethnic continuity and symbiosis, however, assert that at the time of the Slavic incursions into the Balkans
there was no large-scale settling of the Slavs in the territory of Kosovo, Metohija, and Montenegro, i.e., in the former Roman provinces of Dardania and
Praevalis. According to Exhlale Dobruna, an Albanian archaeologist from
Kosovo who investigated ancient toponyms in this region, we find the continuous presence of native Albanians, as successors of the Illyrians, in the
same territory where they live today since ancient times.52 Bernard Stulli
writes, from the banks of the Bojana River as far as Ioanina, a unified and
homogeneous people live. From Ioanina to the Bay of Ambrazio lies the
territory denied by the Greek religious and other propaganda to the Albanians,
who are predominant thereif not in number, then at least in strength and
capacity to resist.53 Consequently, the Illyrian-Albanian historical rights to
telegram, Politisches Archiv des Auswartigen Amtes [Political Archives of the German Foreign
Office], Bonn, Fund of the Acts of the Congress of Berlin, vol. 2, 1878, doc. no. 110.
51
The Roman Catholic bishop in Skopje, Matija Masarek, wrote in 1764 a report to the Vatican
in which he noted brand-new colonies of the Albanians, who had just abandoned high Albania
and settled themselves in the lowland of Metohija, around the city of akovica (Jovan Radoni,
Rimska kurija i junoslovenske zemlje od XVI do XIX veka [Belgrade: Nauna knjiga, 1950],
654). On the religious and ethnic situation in Albania and Kosovo and Metohija in the mid-17th
century, see Marko Jaov, Le Missioni cattoliche nel Balcani durante la guerra di Candia
(16451669), vols. 12 (Vatican City: Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, 1992); in the mid-19th
century, see Joseph Mller, Albanien, Rumelien und die sterreichisch-montenegrinische
Granze (Prague: J. G. Calve, 1844); and in the years from 1804 to 1912, see Vladimir
Stojanevi, Srbi i Arbanasi, 18041912 (Novi Sad: Prometej, 1994). According to Serbian
historian Jevrem Damnjanovi, the members of the following Albanian tribes (fisses) settled
Kosovo and Metohija during the Ottoman rule: Kriezi, Tsaci, Shop, Dukadjini, Berisha, Bitiqi,
Krasniqi, Gashi, Shkrele, Kastrati, Gruda, Shala, Hoti, and Kelmendi (Krv i tle, in Kosovska
golgota, special issue, Intervju [Belgrade], no. 7 [22 October 1988]: 5).
52
Exhlale Dobruna, Mbi disa toponime t kohs antike n Kosov [On some ancient
toponyms in Kosova], in Idriz Ajeti et al., eds., Onomastika e Kosoves (Prishtina: Instituti
Albanologjik i Prishtins, 1979), 46.
53
Bernard Stulli, Albansko pitanje, Rad JAZU, bk. 318 (Zagreb: privately printed, 1959), 325.

66

Vladislav Sotirovi

these territories are older and stronger than Slavic Serbian, Montenegrin,
Macedonian, and even Greek ones.54
A Question of the Koman Culture
The majority of Albanian archaeologists have claimed that the Koman culture
that existed in the 7th and 8th centuries represents a historical, ethnic continuity supporting Illyrian-Albanian ethnogenesis. The Koman culture, according
to them, encompassed an extensive territory from Lake Skadar in the north to
Lake Ohrid in the southeast. For these archaeologists, the Illyrian-Albanian
ethnic roots of the Koman culture are more than obvious (although not
scientifically proven).
The history of this culture is of extreme importance for Albanian Albanologists as they are trying to prove that Koman culture is the direct
continuation of the local Illyrian-Albanian culture of Late Antiquity and the
early Middle Ages. In other words, according to them, Koman culture shows
that at the time of the Slavic migration to the Balkans the native IllyrianAlbanian territories were characterized by stability and vitality. They further
claim that the material evidences of Koman culture, which lasted during the
period of transition from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages, share a
commonality with all Illyrian-Albanian regions, including those of Kosovo
and Metohija, eastern Montenegro, and western Macedonia.
Albanian archaeologists disagree with the views of their Yugoslav colleagues on the Slavic or Roman-Byzantine character of the Koman culture.55

54

abej, Problemi i autoktonis s shqiptarve n dritn e emrave t vendeve, 5462.

Sknder Anamali, La ncropole de Kruje et la civilisation du Haut Moyen Age en Albanie
du Nord, Studia Albanica, no. 1 (1964): 14964; Sknder Anamali, Problemi i kulturs s
hershme mesjetare shqiptare n dritn e zbulimeve t reja arkeologjike [The question of
Albanian early medieval culture in the light of new archaeological discoveries], Studime
Historike, no. 2 (1967): 2240; Hna Spahiu, Varreza arbrore e Kalas s Dalmacs
(Grmime t vitit 1961) [The Arber graveyard at Dalmaca Castle (excavations of 1961)],
Iliria, nos. 910 (197980): 2345; Damiano Komata, Varreza arbrore e Shurdahut [The
Arber graveyard of Shurdhah], Iliria, nos. 910 (19791980): 10521; Frano Prendi, Nj
varrez e kultors arbrore n Lezh [A graveyard of the Arber culture in Lezha], Iliria, nos.
910 (197980): 12370; N. Doda, Varreza arbrore e Prosekut (rrethii Mirdits) [The Arber
graves of Prosek (in the Mirdita region)], Iliria, no. 1 (1989): 113; Hna Spahiu and Damiano
Komata, Shurdahah (Sarda), La cite Albanaise medievale fortifiee [Shurdhah-Sarda, an
Albanian, medieval fortified town, Iliria, no. 3 (1975): 249; Vladislav Popovi, Byzantins,
Slaves et autochtones dans les provinces de Prvalitane et Nouvelle Epire, in Villes et
peuplement dans l'Illyricum protobyzantin: Actes du colloque organis par lEcole franaise de
Rome (Rome, 12-14 mai 1982), Collection de lEcole franaise de Rome, vol. 77 (Rome:
55

Who Are the Albanians? A Challenge to Regional Security

67

Thus, for Albanian scientists, the data archaeologists have discovered in many
localities, from the 7th and 8th centuries, clearly fill the gap of the IllyrianAlbanian cultural, ethnic continuity, a gap that could not be filled completely
from written historical (primarily Byzantine) sources. Thus, for Albanian
Albanology, Koman culture is the crucial link in the chain of the unbroken
Illyrian-Albanian ethnogenesis from early antiquity to the present. For these
Albanologists, it must serve as pivotal proof of allegedly Albanian origins on
the Balkan Peninsula.
However, it is a matter of fact that large Slavic settlements and toponyms
existed in the area that came to be known as present-day Albania. After the
first Albanian state was created in 1912, and especially during the rule of the
Albanian communist dictator Enver Hoxha (19451985), however, a great
part of the non-Albanian (especially Slavic) population and toponyms were
Albanized.56 Simultaneously, Albanian national soil was (and continues to
be) gradually cleansed of both the Slavs and the Greeks57 and their nationalcultural traces. In this respect, the province of Kosovo and Metohija experienced the most serious ethnic and cultural cleansing in post-1945 Europe
(together with the territory of former Republic of Serbian Krayina in presentday Croatia, which was ethnically cleansed by the Croat military and police
forces in August 1995). See Fig. 3. This southern Serbian province, known
LEcole franaise de Rome, 1984), 181243; and Vladislav Popovi, Albanija u kasnoj
antici, in Garaanin, Iliri i Albanci, 20283.
56
Bogumil Hrabak, irenje arbanakih stoara po ravnicama i slovenski ratari srednjovekovne
Albanije, in Jovan R Bojovi, ed., Stanovnitvo slovenskog porijekla u Albaniji: Zbornik
radova sa meunarodnog naunog skupa odranog u Cetinju 21, 22. i 23. juna 1990 [The
Slavic population in Albania: Proceedings of the international conference held in Cetinje, 21,
22, and 23 June 1990] (Titograd: Istorijski institut SR Crne Gore, 1991), 115. Regarding the
Slavic toponyms in Albania, see Popovi, Albanija u kasnoj Antici, in Garaanin, Iliri i
Albanci; and Afanasi Matveevich Selishchev, Slavianskoe naselenie v Albanii (Sofia: Izd.
Makedonskogo nauchnogo instituta, 1931). Serb historian Sima irkovi claimed that the
Albanian toponyms in present-day Albania can be found only in the central regions between the
Shkumba and Mat rivers, while the southern regions of Albania are covered by Slavic toponyms. About this issue, see more in the works on Albanian toponyms by Austrian
Byzantologist Johannes Koder.
57
K. Gersin [Niko upani], Altserbien und die albanesische Frage (Vienna: Anzengruber,
1912), 29; Ekrem Bey Vlora, Lebenserinnerungen, vol. 1, 1885 bis 1912 (Munich: Oldenbourg,
1968), 275; and Ekrem Bey Vlora, Die Wahrheit ber das Vorgehen der Jungtrken in
Albanien (Vienna: C. Fromme, 1911), 43. According to the U.S. Office of Strategic Services,
from April 1941 until August 1942, the Albanians killed around 10,000 Serbs and
Montenegrins in the areas of Kosovo and Metohija which were incorporated into Italian
Greater Albania (Massacre of the Innocent Serbian Population Committed in Yugoslavia by
the Axis and its Satellites from April 1941 to August 1942, in Serge Krizman, Maps of
Yugoslavia at War [Washington, DC, 1943]).

68

Vladislav Sotirovi

(by the Serbs) as Old Serbia, or Serbia proper, became almost totally
ethnically and culturally cleansed by the local ethnic Albanians after the
province was occupied by NATO troops in June 1999. Today, there is less
than 3% non-Albanian population in the province (compared to 13% in 1998),
the Slavic (Serbian) toponyms have been changed to Albanian ones, the Serb
cultural property, as the physical proof of Serbian national existence in the
province from a historical perspective, has been largely destroyed (see Fig. 3)
or officially called Byzantine, and the rest of the non-Albanian population,
together with the local Serbs, has been expelled from the province, which
proclaimed its state independence in February 2008.58
It is in this way that Kosovo and Metohija have become an exclusively
Albanian populated and culturally inherited landpart of a united national
state of ethnic Illyro-Albanians in the form of the Greater Albania. Nevertheless, from the perspective of relevant historical sources (the first Ottoman
census in Kosovo and Metohija, recorded in 1455), there was only a 2% Albanian population in the province in the mid-15th century.59 One of the most
famous South Slavic philologists in the 20th century, Pavle Ivi, came to the
conclusion, after an in-depth investigation of the case study of Kosovo and
Metohija, that the factual material clearly shows that there was no linguistic
continuity between the ancient population of the present province of Kosovos
population and those who now inhabit the area.60 This is one of the most
serious scientific refutations of the Albanian hypothesis of Illyrian-Albanian
ethnogenesis. In addition, even today an overwhelming majority (if not all) of
the toponyms in Kosovo and Metohija are of Slavic (Serb) origin.61 The present-day Albanian practice of Albanizing them is quite understandable from

58

Dragan Kojadinovi, ed., March Pogrom in Kosovo and Metohija, March 1719, 2004: With
a Survey of Destroyed and Endangered Christian Cultural Heritage, trans. Milica evkui
(Belgrade: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia/Museum in Prishtina [displaced],
2004), http://crucified-kosovo.webs.com; http://www.kosovo.net; http://www.kosovo.lt.
59
Hazim abanovi, ed., Oblast Brankovia: Opirni katastarski popis iz 1455. godine
(original title: Defter-I, Mufassal-I, Vilayet-I VLK, sene 859), prepared by Hamid Hadibegi,
Adem Handi, and Eref Kovaevi (Sarajevo: Orijentalni institut u Sarajevu, 1972).
60
Pavle Ivi, O jeziku nekadanjem i sadanjem (Belgrade: BIGZJedinstvo, 1990), 141.
61
In the charter (muniment) to the monastery of SS archangels Michael and Gabriel in
Metohija by the Serbian emperor Stefan Duan from the mid-14th century, it is written that at
that time the Albanians lived on Mt. Prokletije (on present-day Albanias border with
Montenegro and Metohija) and that Metohija itself was populated by the Serbs
(Svetoarhanelska povelja cara Stefana Duana, 1860, Zbirka rukopisa Narodne biblioteke
Srbije [Manuscript collection of the National Library of Serbia], RS 759:
http://scc.digital.bkp.nb.rs/document/RS-759).

Who Are the Albanians? A Challenge to Regional Security

69

the perspective of the political aims of the proponents of the hypothesis of the
Illyrian-Albanian ethnogenesis.
The Dacian Theory of the Albanian Ethnic Background
The hypothesis, and later accepted theory, of the Illyrian-Albanian identification is seriously challenged by many contemporary linguists and historians as
simply a hypothesis not based on historical sources. Thus, the Illyrian theory
of Albanian ethnic origin and national inheritance had four weak points:

The ancient Illyrians, according to some scholars, are not indigenous

Balkan people as they migrated to the Balkans around 1000 BC (i.e.,
later than the ancient Greeks).
There are a sufficient number of relevant historical sources of the
time according to which the Balkan Albanian motherland was the
Caucasus Albania in the present-day Province of Dagestan of the
Russian Federation and the Republic of Azerbaijan (Fig. 4).
The claim of Illyrian-Albanian ethnogenesis is not based on any
relevant historical sourceit is primarily an unproven hypothesis
rather than a real scientific theory.
Finally, there are indications that the Albanians who are living today
on the territory of ancient Illyria came there from the territory of the
Roman province of Moesia Superior (in present-day Serbia) and
especially from the valley of the Morava River, which is now the
territory of eastern Serbiatherefore, the ancient Illyrians cannot be
the ancestors of the present-day Albanians.

The last point deserves more attention. As the territory of the province of
Moesia Superior was in ancient times the zone of Dacian ethnicity, modern
Albanians could only be of Dacian ethnic origin, not of Illyrian. In this case,
however, Albanians are of the same ethnic origin as modern Romanians. Such
conclusions are supported by the following facts: (1) Illyrian toponyms from
the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans are not in accordance with the
Albanian phonetic laws; (2) the most borrowed ancient Latin words in the
Albanian language have the phonetic form of the eastern Balkan type of the
Latin language, which demonstrates that the Albanians are descendants of the
ancient Dacians; (3) most of the terminology in Albanian which is connected
to the expression of littoral terms is borrowed from different languages, thus
suggesting that Albanians were not originally a coastal people; (4) only a few
words borrowed from ancient Greek exist in modern Albanian; if the Albani-

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Vladislav Sotirovi

ans of Illyrian origin were really an indigenous population in the Epirus

region, there would be many more words from the ancient Greek language;
(5) there is not any reference to the Albanians in the territory of present-day
Albania in any medieval historical source before the 9th century;62 and (6)
around 100 words from the Romanian language are similar only to words in
Albanian. This suggests that the Albanians came to present-day Albania either
from present-day Romania or from the territory of Serbia that is close to
Romania.63
The Albanian language was developed during the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuriesthe time when the proto-Romanian language was formed. According to
some scholars, Romanian should be viewed as the Romanized DacianMoesian language, while Albanian is a semi-Romanized Dacian-Moesian language.64 It has to be concluded that the arguments for the Dacian origin of the
Albanians have strong points, and they deserve to be seriously taken into
consideration by scholars in further investigations of Albanian ethnic origin.
Nevertheless, most probably, the Albanians did not have any ancestors
among the pre-South-Slavic Balkan peoples. Present-day Albanians, like
other modern Balkan peoples, are ethnically mixed. There is a combination in
62
Similarly, Hungarian historians and linguists stress that the Romanian theory of Romanian
ethnic origin from the ancient Dacians is incorrect. The Hungarians argue that the Vlachs (or
the Romanians as it is regarded in Romanian historiography) arrived in the 12th century when
the name of Vlach was mentioned for the first time in historical sources. This opinion is
primarily based on the highly ideological Gesta Hungarorum of the unknown cleric
Anonymous three-hundred years after the events recorded [i.e., the Magyar settlement in the
Pannonia and Transylvania] splendid victories over fictitious chiefs of the peoples found here
by the Magyars, actually projecting the twelfth-century status quo onto the ninth (Laszlo
Kontler, Millennium in Central Europe: A History of Hungary [Budapest: Atlantisz Publishing
House, 1999], 43). Contrary to their Hungarian colleagues, the Romanian historians and
linguists developed the Dacian-Vlach theory of Romanian ethnic origin, suggesting that the
ancient Dacians were proto-Romanians. As a result, modern Romanians are considered the
original settlers in Transylvania, who have stronger historical rights to this territory than the
Hungarians, who came there only in the 10th century. For example, see Ioan Bolovan et al., A
History of Romania [Iai: Center for Romanian Studies, 1996], 4663.
63
The Romanian philologist Vasila Parvan launched a hypothesis in 1910 that the protoAlbanians left their original territories in the Carpathians between the 3rd and 6th century AD
and moved to the Balkans through Transylvania. The Romanian linguist Theodor Capidan was
sure in 1922 that the Albanians formerly lived somewhere in the northern part of the Balkan
Peninsula (Raporturile albano-romne [Albano-Romanian relations], Dacoromania
[Bucharest], no. 2 [1922]: 487). The Greek linguist Philippides thought that the Albanian
motherland was the ancient Roman province of Pannonia. All citations taken from abej,
Problemi i autoktonis s shqiptarve n dritn e emrave t vendeve, 5462.
64
Vladimir Georgiev, The Genesis of the Balkan Peoples, Slavonic and East European
Review 44, no. 103 (1966): 28597; and Fine, The Early Medieval Balkans, 1011.

Who Are the Albanians? A Challenge to Regional Security

71

which the ancestries of the modern South Slavic, Greek, and Romanian
people have been added to their own primary ancestry. However, the pivotal
purpose of the Illyrian theory of Albanian ethnic origin was to confirm that
Albanian historical rights in the Balkans are the oldest and strongest ones in
contrast to those of their neighbors: the Serbs, Montenegrins, Macedonian
Slavs, and Greeks. However, both the Dacian theory and the theory of
admixture of Albanian ethnical roots argue that Albanian historical rights in
the Balkans are not older than the historical rights of their neighbors. This
theoretical-scientific question of Albanian ethnic derivation greatly influenced
the creators of the borders of the Balkan states during the Balkan Wars 1912
13 and also had serious implications for the fixing of the borders of an
independent Albanian state in 191221. In other words, the question of
whether Northern Epirus would become a part of Albania or Greece; western
Macedonia and Kosovo and Metohija, parts of Serbia or Albania; and eastern
Montenegro with Lake Skadar and the city of Skadar (Scodra) parts of Albania or Montenegro highly depended on whose historical rights to these lands
were stronger. By using the Illyrian theory of Albanian ethnogenesis, many
Albanian national workers, scholars, and politicians claimed, for instance, that
the so-called Greek province of Northern Epirus actually had to be considered
part of southern Albania and as such be included in the united national state of
all Albanians.65

Conclusion: Understanding Albanian Nationality and Regional Political

Security Consequences
65

The term Northern Epirus has to be understood as southern Albania, suggests American
scholar Edith Pierpont Stickney (Southern Albania or Northern Epirus in European
International Affairs: 19121923 [Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1926]). In the Appeal of
the Central Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the Albanian Nationality addressed to
all patriots to defend the Albanian lands which are threatened with annexation by Montenegro
(Istanbul, 30 May 1878), the committee demanded that the Albanians be left to their lands:
Through the press and local committees, we have distributed your protest against the
pretensions of the Greek government towards southern Albania, or Epirus, which is a
component part of our country, like central and northern Albania. Further, the Central
Committee will make every effort to defend the rights of Albanian nationality in Northern
Albania before European public opinion and diplomacy, as it has done already for the same
reasons in Epirus. Leave the Albanian lands to the Albanians! (Archives of the Institute of
History of the Republic of Albania, Tirana, Fund of the Albanian League of Prizren, file no. 2,
document no. 5523). This proclamation is published as a leaflet in Albanian and Italian. The
English translation of the document can be found in Pollo and Pulaha, Akte te Rilindjes
Kombtare Shqiptare, 1819.

72

Vladislav Sotirovi

The Albanian nationhood, as understood in the 19th century, was part of a

romanticist notion of nationality, i.e., the Albanians were the Balkan people
whose mother tongue was Albanian, regardless of any confessional division
of Albanian people into three denominations (Muslim, Roman Catholic, and
Eastern Orthodox). Within the north Albanian tribes, especially among the
Miriditi, the Roman Catholic Church was very influential. The Roman Catholic Church became the main protector of the Albanian language and cultural
heritage and the main protagonist of the national identity of the Albanians in
northern Albania.66 Common notions of Albanian nationhood were expressed
by the Albanian political leadership during the Balkan Wars in slogans such
as Neve Shqiptar nuk jemi Greke, Sllav, or Teerk, neve jemi Shqiptar (We
Albanians are not Greeks, Slavs, or Turks; we are Albanians).
The Albanian political methodology from the time of the First Prizren
League in 1878 until the Balkan Wars was applied in preparation for the unification of all ethnically Albanian territories in the Balkans into a Greater
Albaniaa single national state of all Albanians, i.e., within the ethnic
borders demanded by the league in the years of its existence (1878 to 1881).
Essentially similar national state concepts were also included in the political
programs of the Albanian Peja (Pej) League from 1899, the Greater Albanian
Kosovo Committee from 1920, and the Second Prizren League from 1943.
The primary national interest from 1878 on was to preserve traditional common law and local community as the organizational basis of the national
movement, followed by the idea of unifying all territories populated by the
Albanians.67
Clearly, the process of creating Albanian nationality was not yet completed at the end of the 19th century. The Albanian nation was not considered
a political reality in Europe by many politicians at that time. The Albanian
people were among the last ones in Europe to build up their own national
identity and national community.68 When during the sessions of the Congress
66

Sreten Draki, Nadmetanje Austro-Ugarske i Italije koncem XIX i poetkom XX veka u

Albaniji, Marksistika misao, no. 2, 1986: 12932. See also Gzime Starova, The Religion of
the Albanians in the Balkan European Context, Balkan Forum (Skopje) 1, no. 4 (1993): 201
4.
67
On Albanian traditional common law, see Lek Dukagjini, Shtjefn Gjeov, and Leonard
Fox, eds., Kanuni i Lek Dukagjinit The Code of Lek Dukagjini (New York: Gjonlekaj
Publishing Company, 1989); Vjollca Salihu and Islam Qerimi, Social Organization and SelfGovernment of Albanians According to the Costumary Law (Munich: GRIN Verlag, 2013) (in
German); and Shtjefn Gjeovi, Kanuni i Lek Dukagjinit [The code of Lek Dukagjini]
(CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014).
68
On this issue, see more in Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers and Bernd J. Fischer, Albanian
Identities: Myth and History (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2002).

Who Are the Albanians? A Challenge to Regional Security

73

of Berlin in 1878 the question of Albania and the Albanians was put on the
agenda, German Chancellor (Kanzzelar) Otto von Bismarck decisively rejected discussing it, with the explanation that there was no Albanian nationality.69 For him, the Albanians were the Turks. At the same time, the Serbs
(either from Serbia or from Montenegro) and the Greeks considered themselves a nation (i.e., ethnic groups which had their own state organizations)
and as such were recognized by Europe, while the Albanians were understood
as the Balkan ethnic group (i.e., a group of people who did not have its own
state). Consequently, the ethnic group of Albanians could live only as an
ethnic minority included into some of the Balkan national states and could not
expect more than the right to autonomy within them. At the turn of the 20th
century, many politicians in Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece shared the
opinion that the Albanian ethnic group was culturally and politically incapable of modern national development and, above all, unable and insufficiently
competent to establish and rule its own national state.70 The developmental
backwardness of Albanian society at the beginning of the 20th century was
evidenced by the fact that the initiation of a process of modernization shook
the Albanian tribal society but failed to replace it with a modern industrial,
parliamentary, and civil society. The Albanian national movement was seen
as an archaic social movement that could not reach a level of national cohesion in modern terms. This movement produced among the Serbs, Montenegrins, and Greeks a feeling of jeopardization of the political and territorial
integrity of Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece.71 For them, the theory of Illyr69

Anton Logoreci, The Albanians: Europes Forgotten Survivors (Boulder, CO: Westview
Press, 1977), 41.
70
Such an approach can be understood as an old theory which was used during the Balkan
Wars (19121913) to justify Serbian conquest of northern Albania, Greek occupation of
southern Albania, and Montenegrin military seizure of the city of Skadar/Scutari (Dimitrije
Tucovi, Srbija i Arbanija: Jedan prilog kritici zavojevake politike srpske buroazije
[Belgrade, 1914], 11718).
71
The Serbs, Montenegrins, Macedonian Slavs, and Greeks accuse Albanian intellectuals and
politicians of using the theory of Illyrian-Albanian ethnic, linguistic, and cultural continuity for
the sake of realizing the political concept of a Greater Albania in the Balkans (see Fig. 2).
This concept cannot be realized without a radical change of the borders of the Balkan states
established in 191213, following two Balkan wars. Such a change in the borders would violate
the territorial integrity of Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Greece. In conclusion, the
concept of a Greater Albania, based on the theory of Illyrian-Albanian ethnogenesis, among
other ideological constructions, may serve as a prelude to a Third Balkan War. Regarding the
concept and consequences of the creation of a Greater Albania in the Balkans, see Jovan M.
anak, ed., Greater Albania: Concept and Possible Consequences (Belgrade: Institute of
Geopolitical Studies, 1998); ore Borozan, Greater Albania: Origins, Ideas, Practice
(Belgrade: Institute of Military History of the Yugoslav Army, 1995). It should be stressed that

74

Vladislav Sotirovi

ian-Albanian continuity was, in essence, a nationalistic ideological construction, which became a driving political ideology for Albanian politicians to use
in order to create, from the Albanian point of view, their ethnic borders according to Albanian acquired rights.72 Geopolitically, this project, from 1878
to the present, demands not only the territories which ethnically and historically belong to the Albanians, but goes beyond them and encompasses the
entire Illyrian-Albanian ethnic population dispersed in different areas over the
neighboring Balkan regions: Kosovo and Metohija, southern parts of central
Serbia, ameria (Greek Epirus and Greek western Macedonia), the western
portion of the Republic of Macedonia (the FYROM), and eastern
Montenegro.73
However, contrary to the theory of the backwardness of Albanian social
development, the Albanian political and intellectual leadership from the turn
of the 20th century has argued that the Albanians met all conditions required
by contemporary political science to be recognized as a nation: (1) they have
their separate ethnic, linguistic, and cultural identity; (2) the Albanian settlements in the Balkans are compact; (3) the Albanians have a very precisely defined national program; and (4) they possess the abilities to build up a community and their own independent state, which would be self-governed.74
The Albanian political and intellectual leadership often stressed that the
Albanian people, with their own national idea, would never be successfully
integrated into Serbian, Montenegrin, or Greek societies and states. That is, in
addition to numerous and diverse causes, due to the fact that Albanians do not
belong to Slavic or Greek linguistic and cultural groups. There is also
significant divergence of national development between the Serbs, Montenegrins, and Greeks, on the one hand, and the Albanians, on the other. These
in addition to Orthodoxy and the so-called spiritual legacy of St. Sava, the province of Kosovo
and Metohija (i.e., Serbia proper) is the third pillar of Serbian national identity. Contrary to the
Serbian case, Kosovo and Metohija are not of any significance for Albanian national identity.
Regarding the (crucial) importance of Kosovo and Metohija for the Serbs from a historical
perspective, see Radovan Samardi et al., Kosovo i Metohija u sprskoj istoriji (Belgrade:
Srpska knjievna zadruga, 1989).
72
See more in Garaanin, Iliri i Albanci.
73
This is according to the map of United Albania composed by Ali Fehmi Kosturi and
distributed since 1938. Historically, there were two attempts to create a Greater Albania: the
first in 1912, supported by Austria-Hungary, and the second in 1941, with the direct
intervention of fascist Italy and the logistic support of the Third Reich. In both cases, the
concept of Greater Albania reasserted the demands of the 187881 Albanian First League of
Prizren to create an Albanian state inside alleged Illyrian-Albanian historical ethnic borders.
74
Similar arguments referring to Kosovo and Metohija were presented by the Albanian Kosovo
intelligentsia in the 1990s during the Kosovo crisis and the war. See, for example, Shklzen
Maliqi, Strah od novih ratnih uspeha, Borba (Belgrade), 16 September 1993.

Who Are the Albanians? A Challenge to Regional Security

75

nations had different kinds of national movements and distinctly different

political elite and national ideology. However, the Albanian national ideology
of Illyrian-Albanian ethnogenesis was created and still exists as pure myth in
the form of quasi-scientific political propaganda for the sake of the creation of
a Greater Albania.
Finally, the Albanians surely were among the very few Balkan peoples
who managed to find an internal balance between three faiths and build up a
national identity associated with each one as Islam is followed by 70% of the
Albanian population (primarily from Albania proper, Kosovo and Metohija,
western Macedonia, and eastern Montenegro), Eastern Orthodoxy is professed
by 20% of Albanians (chiefly from southern Albania and Greek Northern Epirus), and Roman Catholicism is adhered to by 10% of Albanians (mainly from
northern Albania proper and Kosovo and Metohija).75 In a word, the Illyrian
theory of Albanian ethnogenesis played a crucial role in forming a common
Albanian identity, regardless of the confessional division among Albanians.
The 19th-century movement of Albanian national awakening started half
a century later than similar processes in other Balkan nations, and an entire
century after similar movements in Central Europe. The cause of this delay
was the general national, cultural underdevelopment of the Albanian people,
who lived under Ottoman rule for centuries without cultural or ideological
connections to Western Europe, where the ideology and movement of nationalism emerged and spread throughout the European continent. Subsequently,
the ideas of national identification, national statehood, and the concept of
historical ethnic territorial boundaries were realized by Albanias neighbors
(the Greeks, Serbs, and Montenegrins) well in advance of the Albanian
people. When Albanian intellectuals during and after the Great Eastern Crisis
(187578) theoretically shaped the thought and concept of the Albanian
national idea related to the question of fixing Albanian national territories and
creating an Albanian national state, they faced, and had to struggle with,
Serbian, Montenegrin, and Greek national aspirations towards the realization
of their own national statehood. This ideological, political, and military fight
was focused primarily on the question of certain national soils in the Balkans which would be included either into a united Serbia, united Montenegro,
united Greece, or united Albania: i.e., Kosovo and Metohija, Northern Epirus,
western Macedonia, the Skadar (Scutari) region in northwest Albania, and the
75

To date, Albanian Muslims are the main corps of the Albanian national movement and
nationalism. The concept of United, or Greater, Albania, in its original form (from 1878),
was under the strong influence of conservative, political Islam.

76

Vladislav Sotirovi

territories around the city of Ulcinj and the Bojana River in eastern
Montenegro.
The national program of the First League of Prizren set up the following
two ultimate national goals of the Albanians: (1) the national liberation of all
Albanians, of whom a majority lived within the Ottoman Empire and a
minority in the independent states of Serbia and Montenegro; and (2) the
creation of a national state of Albanians in which all Albanian historical and
ethnic territories would be incorporated (i.e., Greater Albania). This second
requirement led the Albanians in subsequent decades into open conflict with
the neighboring Christian states: Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece. The
national awakening of the Albanian people in the years between 1878 and
1912 resulted in the establishment of an ideology of nationhood and statehood
that was, to a greater or lesser extent, challenged and opposed by all of
Albanias neighbors todaythe Serbs, Greeks, Montenegrins, and the
Macedonian Slavs.
vladislav@sotirovic.eu

The Four Albanian Vilavets during the Ottoman Empire (circ 1878)
Map: Courtesy of Mr. Ilir Hamiti. Kosova Information Centre, London

Figure 1. Four Albanian vilayets to be united into the so-called

Albanian Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire and to compose
in such a way a Greater Albania (about 1878)

Figure 2. Map of a Greater Albania promoted by the

Albanian diaspora in Sweden in 1977

Figure 3. Destruction of Serbian national traces in

Albanian-ruled Kosovo and Metohija after June 1999

Figure 4. Ancient Cholhis, Iberia and Albania at the Caucasus

The Serbian Radical Party 18811903: Ideology and Its Sources1

Miroslav Svircevic
Institute for Balkan Studies
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts

Introduction
Two important aspects of the Serbian Radical Party were its political ideology
and its practices. The major tenets of the movements ideology were constitutional reform, introduction of parliamentarianism, state organization according
to the principle of self-government by local authorities (municipalities and districts), establishment of democracy, including freedom of press, association,
and public assembly, and a national program. The major characteristics of the
Serbian Radical movement could be summed up as follows: flexibility, pragmatism, cohesion, and the use of demagoguery. Ideological tenets may be inferred
from the movements political programs, drafts of the constitution, and numerous writings and articles. The characteristics of the movement were shaped by
the political reality in which it functioned and struggled to survive. One aspect,
the ideological, provided firmness, consistency, and rationale; the other aspect,
the practical, ensured popularity, success, and power. Together, they formed the
essence of the Serbian Radical movement.2
Each of these elements of the Serbian Radical movement took shape gradually over a period of ideological formation. Once they became fully defined
and accepted, the Radical movement had its firm theoretical ground. At this
point, it can be classified as a movement of radical-democratic orientation. The
national program, another basic aspect of their political ideology, belongs to
its external ingredients. Namely, the Radicals viewed national emancipation,
1

This paper was inspired by a project of the Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy
of Sciences and Arts: History of Political Ideas and Institutions in the Balkans in 19th and 20th
Centuries (no. 177011), funded by the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of
Serbia.
2
Gale Stokes, Politics as Development: The Emergence of Political Parties in Nineteenth-Century Serbia (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1990); and Milan St. Proti, Serbian Radicalism 18811903: Political Thought and Practice, Balcanica (Belgrade) 38, 2007: 173.
Serbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 26 (12): 81
103, 2012.

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Miroslav Svircevic

liberation, and unification of the Serbs as originating from internal freedom. In

other words, the national program was the result of democratic changes, and
not the reverse.
Formation of the Peoples Radical Party
The Serbian Radical movement was politically organized in the form of the
Peoples Radical Party. The appearance of the partys newsletter, Samouprava
(Self-Government), the day after Christmas (according to the Julian calendar)
in 1881, marked the official formation of the first real political party in Serbia,
prior to its rival parties: Liberal and Progressive parties. In the first issue of
the partys political, literary, and economic newsletter, the program of the Peoples Radical Party was published. It was signed by 38 deputies, with another
38 fellow deputies whose names were not disclosed. The Radical program
was therefore accepted by 76 members of the Assembly. The publication of the
partys program in the first issue of Samouprava was accompanied by a statement that the signing of the program was open to all members of the Assembly,
and gentlemen who wanted to sign the application form to the Party may do
so with the deputy Mr. Nikola Pai.3 It seemed that almost all the deputies
aligned with the Radicals.4
A group of peasant deputies led by Adam Bogosavljevi joined the Radical
club. Under their influence, Radicals acquired the character of a class peasant party at the very beginning. In this group, the most loyal peasant tribunes
stood out: Ranko Tajsi, Vasa Stoi, Sava and Novak Miloevi, etc. They
represented a strong left movement among the Radicals that did not want to
make any political compromises to anyone.5 Under their influence, the Radicals
largely managed to keep their grit and firmness. However, this did not result
in a splintering of the party factions. The first splitting of the party followed
the Radical-Progressive Agreement of 1901, when the so-called Independent
Radicals separated themselves from the Old Radicalsfollowers of the agreementand formed a new, separate party.
Only the Socialists, led by Dimitrije Ceni (185188), did not wish to join
the Radicals. On the contrary, they declared political war against the Radicals,
accusing them of betraying the socialist program of Svetozar Markovi. Ceni
and his like-minded group of intellectuals (Dragia Stanojevi, Lazar Nani)
3

ivan Mitrovi, Srpske politike stranke (Belgrade: Politika, 1991), 71.

Slobodan Jovanovi, Vlada Milana Obrenovia, vol. 2, Sabrana dela Slobodana Jovanovia,
vol. 5 (Belgrade: BIGZ 1990), 50.
5
Fedor Niki, Lokalna uprava i samouprava u Srbiji u XIX i XX veku (Belgrade: Geca Kon,
1927), 235.
4

The Serbian Radical Party 18811903: Ideology and Its Sources

83

saw in the Radicals their greatest opponents. Thus, the Radicals and Socialists
began a merciless struggle against each other, between the unfaltering followers of an idea and those who were classified as traitors to that idea.
The Radicals were sharply criticized by other parties besides the Socialists,
mostly by the Progressivists. King Milan Obrenovi (18541901)6 also joined
their critics. He assumed that Radicals had always been an anarchist element,
dangerous to the state. The demagogic propaganda on reducing bureaucracy
and establishing the rule of a peasant assembly with the local self-government
created by Radicals, in particular, terrified King Milan Obrenovi. The Serbian monarch often stressed that the Radicals were dangerous for any political
agreement. He did not recommend negotiating with their leaders, but called for
unconditional victory over them. Such a policy towards the most popular political movement in Serbia was unfavorable for the king and his regime.
However, it was not only the domestic opponents of the Radicals who criticized their demagogic approach to policy. Even foreign observers were terrified
by their political style. Herbert Vivian, who was fond of Progressives, wrote
that Radicals, as the best-organized party, always found ways to protect the
wishes and aspirations of their supporters, all of the poorest, laziest, and most
illiterate peasants. When their leaders wanted to organize a large demonstration, they could always count on thousands of peasants who would gladly agree
to spend the end of a week participating at the expense of the party fund. Vivian
further related his impressions, noting that a friend of mine who was present
at the great Radical congregation in 1896 told me that out of 14,000 demonstrators present only 30 or 40 listened to speeches of their leaders, while others
ate watermelon. Yet, he told me that every protester received three dinarsjust
in case.7
Vivians account can be seen as ironic, even malevolent, in tone in describing the membership and structure of the Peoples Radical Party. Nevertheless,
one cannot deny the fact that Radicals very often criticized the established order for demagogic reasons, and they devised their program to ensure maximum
political gain.
The Peoples Radical Party was quite different from other Serbian political parties with respect to its internal organization. According to the partys
statute, there was a Central Committee (based in Belgrade) of the party and
local committees throughout Serbia. Members of the first Central Committee
were engineer Nikola P. Pai, Professor Svetomir Nikolajevi, Professor Gligorije Geri, Secretary of the Ministry of Finance Pavle K. Mijailovi, Kosta
6

Milan Obrenovi ruled as prince of Serbia (186882) and as king of Serbia (188289).
Herbert Vivian, Servia: The Poor Mans Paradise (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1897),
16.
7

84

Miroslav Svircevic

S. Tauanovi, editor of the newsletter Rad (Labor), PeraTodorovi, Professor

Andra Nikoli, business owner Stevan A. Savkovic, business owner Mijailo
Djikadija, and Svetozar Milosavljevi, a professor at Belgrade High School.8
However, the new Central Committee was already elected at the first assembly
of the party in Kragujevac in 1882. Local committees were also formed. Thus,
the Radicals took one action of historical significance: they were the first party
to politically organize the peasant masses. Followers of the peoples tribune,
Constitutionalist Toma Vui-Perii (17881859), in 1842 and St. Andrew
Liberals in 1858 attempted to form a peoples party, but they lacked a real party organization. Only the Radicals did it successfully, in 1881 and 1882, when
they went down to all the villages in force and recruited masses of peasants for
their political activities. This was the first attempt to establish a modern party
organization within the Serbian patriarchal society.9
At the very beginning of their activities, the Radicals were a highly combatant party, ready for a revolutionary change of the system of government.
They explained to the people that the state exists for peasants, not for bureaucracy, and the bureaucracy abused the state authorities and made the peasants
their slaves. The Radicals emphasized that the first task of the bureaucracy
was to improve the life of ordinary people. Therefore, the peasants had to join
the Peoples Radical Party, which would fight against the bureaucracy and its
abuse. This agitation awakened the political consciousness of the peasant masses, which gradually gained a more active role in the political struggle. These
peasants were no longer a passive and inarticulate bunch with whom county
and district chiefs did what they pleased. They became people, fanatical in certain political principles, ready to resolutely resist government, including the
king. This occurred during the famous Timok Rebellion in the fall of 1883. This
rebellion transcended the previously narrow struggle between the king and the
Radicals.10 It assumed the character of a true popular uprising against the kings
regime. The rebellion ended with the total defeat of the Radicals.11
Taught by this experience, the Radicals abandoned the revolutionary method of political change, opting for a path of negotiation and compromise with
political opponents, including the court of the royal family. Some of the Radical
8

Samouprava (Belgrade), nos. 144 and 145, 1881.

Jovanovi, Vlada Milana Obrenovia, 124.
10
The Timok Rebellion of 1883 actually began as a small, local Radical revolt in eastern Serbia,
but soon it turned into an open war between the people and King Milan Obrenovi. The rebellion
was crushed in blood, and the leadership of the Peoples Radical Party was accused of violations
against the state and king.
11
Raa Miloevi, Timoka buna 1883. godine: Uspomene (Belgrade: tamparija Drag. Gregoria, 1923).
9

The Serbian Radical Party 18811903: Ideology and Its Sources

85

leaders quickly adapted themselves to new tactics, seeing them primarily as a

potential source of personal wealth and honors of various types. This new policy led to a Radical-Liberal agreement in 1886, which reached its culmination in
1901 when a Radical-Progressive agreement was signed under the auspices of
King Alexander Obrenovi (18761903). The Radical-Progressive Agreement
of 1901 led to the split in the Peoples Radical Party. Despite all of this, the
Peoples Radical Party never renounced its original political program. It only
changed the tactics of its political struggle, retaining its basic orientation of
being primarily engaged in the establishment of parliamentary democracy and
local self-government.12
It is interesting that the group of so-called Court Radicals immediately separated themselves from the party and acted independently from their leaders
and the will of the majority of the party members. They became important especially after the Timok Rebellion and the change of the main political tactics.
The individual with the greatest influence and authority was Svetomir Nikolajevi (18441922), a professor at the Great School in Belgrade. In addition to
him, ore Simi (18431921), Mihailo Vuji (18531913), Velimir Todorovi (18481920), and Lazar Doki (18451893) also belonged to the group
of Court Radicals. This group always favored an agreement with King Milan
Obrenovi. They were loath to employ any kind of revolutionary method of
political struggle. Some of these politicians became so close to the royal court
that they were never be treated as real Radicals by members of the party. The
monarch could always count on them, especially in the courts political combinations and backstage party negotiations. The purists among the Radicals never
approved of their political methods and behavior. Therefore, the Court Radicals
were not popular either with party members or with the people.
Leaders of the Peoples Radical Party
The leaders of the Peoples Radical Party were Nikola P. Pai (18451926),
Pera Todorovi (18521907), who was a newcomer to the party, Stojan M.
Proti (18571923), and Milovan . Milovanovi (18631912). Each of them
left his own mark on the work and policies of the party.
12

Completely opposite views are present in the historiography. Some historians believe that
Radicals abandoned their original political ideas after the failure of the Timok Rebellion. Thus,
for instance, Ana Stoli states that the Radicals abandoned their original program immediately
after the bloody experience of 1883. It was going slowly but surely. On account of this, the
change of program and method of political struggle became attractive to many politicians who
had nothing to do with Radicalism. Ana Stoli, ore Simi: Poslednji srpski diplomata XIX
veka (Belgrade: Istorijski institut, 2003), 202.

86

Miroslav Svircevic

For more than 45 years, Nikola Pai was the undisputed leader of the
Peoples Radical Party. Radicalism could not have been created and sustained
without him. As much as Pai influenced the work of the party, the party influenced his personal life.13 He remained perpetual Pai Baja. However, he
never was a political thinker, orator, or even an energetic leader. He wrote very
little, hardly ever. One of his articles was published in Samouprava.14 He was
also not very outspoken. Pai was predominantly silent and brought forward
other peoples ideas; he was a very wise politician. In the end, he was never too
combative. He left these roles to others. For himself, he maintained only the
role of negotiator, with a subtle sense of excellent assessment of the political
moment. There was no other politician in Serbia who was criticized as much as
Nikola Pai for opposite political beliefs. Pai was considered a revolutionary
(communist), a subversive, a conservative, a plotter, and a liar. Regardless of
his shortcomings, one thing cannot be disputed; throughout his entire life, Pai
was a convincing and consistent fighter for democracy, both while he was in the
opposition (especially during exile after the Timok Rebellion) and when he was
in power. Even as a young man, hanging out with Svetozar Markovi, Nikola
Pai permanently accepted the principles of natural law, parliamentarism, and
local self-government. Of course, he did it, even for demagogic reasons, in order to attract supporters. As much as the fight for constitutionality, democracy,
and local self-government was associated with the Radicals, so it also was with
Pai. He never gave up that fight, even when his life was in danger. In this
respect, Pai was a real radical.15
Pera Todorovi was a prominent leader of the Peoples Radical Party from
its founding in 1881 until the Timok Rebellion. Although he was not in the party for long, Todorovis political legacy was more than impressive. Pera Todorovi was a real political leader, perhaps more talented than Pai, although he
was never a deputy or a minister. He was an excellent organizer, orator, and
journalist. It can be confirmed that Pai created the Peoples Radical Party and
was its leader at the National, but Todorovi created its organization and spread
its influence among the people.16 The internal organization of the party, coming
out of the party statutes, was Todorovis work.17 In addition, he proved to be a
capable journalist. He was editor and contributor to several literary and political
newsletters: Straa (Sentry), Rad, osa (personal nickname), and Samouprava.
13

Milan St. Proti, Radikali u Srbiji: Ideje i pokret 18811903 (Belgrade: Srpska akademija
nauka i umetnosti/Balkanoloki institut, 1990), 151.
14
See Nikola Pai, Razoruavanje narodne vojske, Samouprava, 1883.
15
Proti, Radikali u Srbiji, 151.
16
Ibid, 160.
17
See Radical Statutes, Samouprava, nos. 144 and 145, 1881.

The Serbian Radical Party 18811903: Ideology and Its Sources

87

Slobodan Jovanovi noted that Todorovi was a herald of the new era of
Serbian political journalism. In Jovanovis words, Todorovi represented the
ugliest side of the journalistic profession as it was practiced today.18 There is
no doubt that Todorovi was a sharp-pen journalist. He wrote with cynicism
and a sneer. He used abusive and very hard words, which brought liveliness
to the boring journalistic and literary milieu. All were afraid of his sharp pen.
His journalistic style brought him many enemies. It was an expression of his
incendiary and unstable temperament. His sensibility was likely to affect his
short-term political role, marked by an unexpected rise and fall, from which
he never recovered. Todorovi underwent a transformation from a militant and
uncompromising peoples tribune to an apostate and mercenary, ready to serve
anyone and everyone, even those who had attacked him the day before. This
occurred during his detention following his sentencing by the kangaroo court
of the Timok Rebellion in Zajear. One visit from King Milan Obrenovi to
him in prison was enough to convert him. During the night, Todorovi forgot
his political beliefs, Svetozar Markovi, and the Russian socialist writings he
had read with youthful enthusiasm. The final act of his political end occurred
after the signing of the Radical-Liberal agreement in 1886. Todorovi stood up
against this agreement, explaining that it was not in harmony with the original
principles of Radicalism. After that, he was quietly expelled from the party.
Stojan M. Proti had a special place in the leadership of the Peoples Radical Party. He was one of the most credible party members. Proti was also
remembered as a leading doctrinaire and polemicist of the party. His political
role was mostly realized as an editor of almost radical newsletters Samouprava,
Odjek (Echo), and Narod (People), and the literary monthly magazine Delo
(Work), a precursor of the famous journal Srpski knjievni glasnik (Serbian Literary Herald). Proti consistently argued for constitutionality, democracy, and
local self-government.19 He never pled for a revolutionary method of political
struggle. This is understandable because Proti, unlike Pai and Todorovi,
was never a Socialist or belonged to Svetozar Markovis group. He opposed
the use of armed conflict with the royal court. Proti became the main ideologist and was convinced that democracy could be realized through all essential
principles of the Peoples Radical Party (Fig. 2). He reached the zenith of his
political career after the May Coup in 1903. During those years, Proti became
18

Jovanovi, Vlada Milana Obrenovia, 169.

As the editor of Delo, Proti dealt with legal and political issues. He was especially interested
in parliamentary democracy and legislative issues. Aleksandra Kolakovi, Srpska elita i Evropa
krajem XIX i poetkom XX veka, in Vclav ermk and Marek Phoda, eds., Slovansk arel
a Evropa (Prague: Filozofick fakulta Univerzity Karlovy v Praze [Faculty of Philosophy of
Charles University in Prague; erven Kostelec: Pavel Mervart, 2010), 11011.

19

88

Miroslav Svircevic

the second man of the party, next to the undisputed leader Nikola Pai. He
spent the final years of his life in opposition to his long-time friends, with the
same zeal which he demonstrated during his struggle against the Obrenovi
dynasty and other enemies of liberty and democracy. Proti was considered the
conscience of the Peoples Radical Party.20
One of the best assessments of these three leaders of the Peoples Radical
Party was given by Milan St. Proti: if Nikola Pai was representative of the
partys skills and success, and if Pera Todorovi was the personification of its
truculent nature and moral undulation, then Stojan Proti was the inexhaustible
source of its strength, both in ideas and actions.21
Milovan . Milovanovi (Fig. 1) was the fourth leader of the Peoples Radical Party. He managed to impose himself as a leader after the party had gone
through the bloody experience of the Timok Rebellion, total chaos, persecution
of its members, and their excommunication from society. He had always been
under the scrutiny and general suspicion of the Radicals with regard to his real
political affiliation. People always wondered whether Milovanovi had been a
Radical in his beliefs and whether he had truly fought for the political principles of the Peoples Radical Party. One question was always topical: how was
it possible that a Parisian Ph.D. of constitutional law, who spoke French as well
as Serbian, could be in the company of illiterate peoples tribunes? In keeping
with his family affiliations, he should have been a member of the Progressive
Party. His father ore Milovanovi had been a member of the Council (oligarchic representative body) and a minister. Nevertheless, Milovan Milovanovi
joined the Radicals. He did it when he came back from France in 1888. At
that time he was appointed lecturer in constitutional law at the law school in
Belgrade. Slobodan Jovanovi felt that Milovan Milovanovi had joined the
Radicals out of pure Machiavellianism.22 Milovanovi realized that the time
of the Progressivists had passed, and the Radicals political power was rising.
That is why he skillfully took over the role of mediator between the court and
the Peoples Radical Party. Nevertheless, the Radicals predominantly did not
accept him, although there were those who felt that Milovanovis role as intermediary would be welcome. Milovanovi felt that politics was the skill of
calculating the balance of power. He was the initiator and main perpetrator of
the Radical-Progressive Agreement of 1901, and one of the most important creators of the conservative constitution of the same year, which was implemented
20

Dragan D. Nikoli, Stojan Proti ili onaj koji je imao pravo (Belgrade: Rim, 1980), 10.
Milan St. Proti, Radikali u Srbiji: Ideje i pokret, 18811903 (Belgrade: AIZ Dosije, Serbian
Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1990), 170.
22
Slobodan Jovanovi, Milovan . Milovanovi, in Iz istorije i knjievnosti, vol. 1, Sabrana
dela Slobodana Jovanovia, vol. 11 (Belgrade: BIGZ, 1991), 213.
21

The Serbian Radical Party 18811903: Ideology and Its Sources

89

in order to establish the personal regime of King Alexander Obrenovi.23 Unlike Nikola Pai and Stojan Proti, Milovanovi was not convinced in supporting parliamentary democracy, nor was he the typical Radical. Actually, he
would have belonged to the Court Radicals. Thanks to this position between
the court and Radicals, Milovanovi could skillfully balance and gain personal
benefits. Regardless of all his political skill, he was not a top party leader, but
he invested his work and ambitions in the Peoples Radical Party.24 Georges
Clemenceau (18411929) said about Milovanovi once: I have never met a
European statesman of his sensibility.25 These words of the famous protagonist of French Radicalism speak volumes: Milovan Milovanovi was certainly
one of the most educated, most respected, and most successful Serbian politicians and statesmen of the late 19th century and beginning of the 20th century.26
Sources of the Ideology and Program of the Peoples Radical Party
The Peoples Radical Party was ideologically shaped under the influence of Socialist Svetozar Markovi, who had sharply criticized the Regency Constitution
of 1869, and the peasant tribune Adam Bogosavljevi. The Peoples Radical
Party created its political program and directed its political struggle against
bureaucracy. The Radicals believed that bureaucracy was large in number, that
its income was too high, that power was all in its hands, and that it had really
become too dominating. Therefore, the first and primary task of the Radicals
was to eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy. They sought to accomplish this
goal in two ways: (1) by placing the National Assembly as the center of the
state parliamentary system, and (2) by organizing and placing the local administration at the head of the self-government. These were the two most important
elements of the political program of the Peoples Radical Party with which it
was identified in the political life of 19th-century Serbia.27
However, there is a question in the historiography regarding the history of
the Serbian Radical movement between 1881 and 1903 which deserves atten23
The Constitution of 1901 was created by King Alexander Obrenovi. It did not establish the
parliamentary government, but rather a legal framework for the personal regime of the monarch.
24
Milan St. Proti, Radikali u Srbiji: Ideje i pokret, 18811903 (Belgrade: Srpska akademija
nauka i umetnosti/Balkanoloki institut, 1990), 176.
25
Ibid, 171.
26
David MacKenzie, Milovan Milovanovic: Talented and Peaceloving Diplomat (Boulder, CO:
East European Monographs; New York: Distributed by Columbia University, 2009).
27
See Program of the Peoples Radical Party of Serbia of 1881, in Vasilije Kresti and Rado Ljui, Programi i statuti srpski politikih stranaka do 1918. godine (Belgrade: Knjievne
novine, 1991), 10106.

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Miroslav Svircevic

tion. This question is with respect to the source and character of the ideology
of the Peoples Radical Party. It is very important because it invites different
interpretations of historiography even today. Therefore, this issue is a focus of
this scholarly work.
Authors who have researched the ideology of the Peoples Radical Party thus far have tried to explain in different ways its sources and its political
essence. In previous Serbian historiography, the Radicals were regarded as a
socialist, peasant-democratic, petty-bourgeois, and populist party. This is evidenced in the facts to follow.
Slobodan Jovanovi (18691958), as a representative of classic Serbian
historiography, wrote that the program of the Peoples Radical Party of 1881
transmuted the socialist group of Svetozar Markovi into the peasant-democratic party. Jovanovi pointed out that the joining of the peoples tribune Adam
Bogosavljevi and Ranko Tajsi (18431903) with the Radical party was a crucial moment for such an ideological change. That process of final shaping of
the party program ended on Christmas in 1881 with the Radicals establishing
themselves as a political party. Jovanovi explained this phenomenon through
the fact that the Radicals turned first to the peasants and thus changed their
earlier program in accordance with the desires of the peasant population. The
ideological premise on a municipal community of the agricultural fields, created by Svetozar Markovi, was not mentioned at all in the Radical program
of 1881. Only the political part of Markovis program remained: the National
Assembly and local self-government. They explained that the supervision of
the ministries by the parliament was only illusionary because the government
could always, with the help of the police, secure a majority for its policy. In
order to prevent this, the Peoples Radical Party wanted to liberate the parliament from its subjugation by the government and the police and to repeal
the clerk guardianship of the people in the municipalities. What people need
is self-government, screamed the Radicals. So wrote Slobodan Jovanovi
about the Radicals.28
The political essence of the Peoples Radical Party was an issue for analysis
in the socialist historiography of former Yugoslavia. The authors who belonged
to the Marxist theoretical school mainly took the social structure of the movement into consideration, and based on this, explained and defined the party.
One of the typical Marxist historians was Dragoslav Jankovi (191190). He
concluded that the Peoples Radical Party always had a bourgeois character,
but that characteristic appeared differently in particular phases of its political
activities. With respect to this, it went through three phases: (1) during the first
28

Jovanovi, Vlada Milana Obrenovia, 12728.

The Serbian Radical Party 18811903: Ideology and Its Sources

91

phase, from the declaration of the program in 1881 until the Timok Rebellion in 1883, the Radicals were a petty-bourgeois party; (2) during the second
phase, from the Timok Rebellion until 1887, the Peoples Radical Party became
more like the bourgeoisie and its individual class interests; and (3) after coming
to power in 1889, the Radicals became a real bourgeois party. The Radicals
showed real political developmentpointed out Jankoviin events before
the May Coup in 1903; first of all, with their readiness to cooperate with the
royal court on condition that they would also get ministry positions, and then
with a suggestion that the conservative constitution of 1901, which had been
inconsistent with their political program of 1881 and radical constitution of
1888, still remain in effect. It was obvious that it became a party of the high
bourgeoisienow already industrial and bank bourgeoisieheaded by Pai,
who often served as prime minister in the period of 190318.29
Such argumentation did not seem convincing.30 As a consequence, it is evident that it necessitates the use of a different methodology in accordance with
the standards of modern scholarly research.
Latinka Perovi posits that the idea regarding organization of the Radical
movement belonged to Svetozar Markovi and his group, which developed under the influence of the Russian socialists. It is her opinion that this was confirmed by the leaders of the Peoples Radical Party themselves, Nikola Pai
and Pera Todorovi, at the main meeting in a place called Ilijine Vode, near
Kragujevac in 1882. In that large political meeting, which basically presented
the final act of institutionalizing of Serbian Radicalism, Pai and Todorovi
29

Dragoslav Jankovi, O politikim strankama u Srbiji XIX veka (Belgrade: Prosveta, 1951),
26061.
30
In an attempt to find a base for the evaluation of the Radical movement, a movement of the
bourgeois partyas contemporary Serbian historian Milan St. Proti points outthe presence
of wealthy merchants in its membership and also in the leadership of the party was emphasized
as a rule. Thus, since the beginning of the party organization in 1881, this social class among
the Radicals had been pointed out. The names of two wealthy merchants often mentioned were
Luka elovi (18541929) and Stevan Stevanovi. Both joined the Radicals very early and were
members of the highest leadership of the party. Three basic points have been posed which present
difficulties to such a way of thinking: (1) it is very difficult to take examples of only a few people
for the general evaluation of a movement whose membership totaled about several thousand; (2)
the majority of the merchants among the Radicals gained their property much later, in the years
after the May Coup in 1903; in the period we are discussing, they were just at the beginning of
their careers and belonged to a class of young and modest city dwellers that could not be called
bourgeoisie; and (3) they all belonged to the first generation of urban dwellers. Born in the country, their social and political conscience was closer to its peasant roots than to their new social
position in the city. In fact, Luka elovi, at the time when he became one of the richest people
in Belgrade and a member of the board of the Peoples Bank of Serbia, later of Yugoslavia,
remained only semiliterate. He left all of his property to the state. See Proti, Radikali u Srbiji,
5758.

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Miroslav Svircevic

pointed out that the ten-year period before the official founding of the party in 1881 had been of key significance for the history of the party.31 Both
presented the program of the Peoples Radical Party as being deeply imbued
with the ideas of Svetozar Markovi: with respect to internal policypeoples
sovereignty, local self-government, non-capitalistic direction of development
(in order to avoid the obvious mistakes of Western industrial society), joint
property; regarding diplomacyliberation by revolution, union with Bulgaria,
and confederation of the Balkan countries.
The notion radical itself, cites Perovi, had existed since Markovis period.32 This author does not deny the fact that the ideology of the Peoples
Radical Party was also influenced by Adam Bogosavljevis populism, but the
most important thing was that a group of its most loyal followers represented
the ideological and personal base of the party. For the Radicals, equality was
the major principle and capitalism was deemed unjust.33
A similar opinion is also shared by contemporary historians Diana Mishkova and Andrei L. Shemiakin, who dealt specifically with the ideology of Nikola
Pai and the Peoples Radical Party.
In her monograph devoted to a comparative analysis of the path to modernity of Serbia and Romania in the 19th century, Bulgarian historian Diana
Mishkova pays special attention to the character of the ideology of the Peoples
Radical Party and politics led by Nikola Pai. She tries to explore the role of
the Peoples Radical Party in the process of the establishment of the modern
legal-political institutions in Serbia. The main question is whether the Radicals
contributed to establishing a modern state institution (parliamentary government and local self-government), or were they taking populism into administration, using the demagogy attractive to the peasant masses? Like Perovi,
Mishkova points out that the Peoples Radical Party was essentially a Serbian
populist movement which originated with the ideas of populism and socialism.
The influence of Russian socialist ideology, the socialist movement of Svetozar
Markovi, and Adam Bogosaljevis group on the ideology of the Peoples
Radical Party was more than apparent, and it was always the main characteristic of the political program of the Peoples Radical Party. Analyzing the various
notes and manuscripts of Nikola Pai, Mishkova points out that Pai made a
clear distinction between the civilizations of East and West, adding that he was
closer to the civilization of the East, whose spiritual and political center was in
Russia. Mishkova concludes that the process of establishing the modern state31

Latinka Perovi, Srpski socijalisti XIX veka: Prilog istoriji socijalistike misli, vol. 3 (Belgrade, 1994), 72.
32
Ibid., 53.
33
Ibid., 120.

The Serbian Radical Party 18811903: Ideology and Its Sources

93

hood of Serbia led by the Radicals was carried out by using populist ideology
and socialist ideas. With respect to this, Serbia did not pass through the deep
and all-encompassing modernization based on Western patterns, although all
of the Radical acts were designed in the Western spirit. Their policy resulted in
the realization of expensive state- and nation-building projects. Under the leadership of the Radicals, Serbia remained an agrarian and patriarchal society.34
Russian historian Andrei L. Shemiakin also dealt with the ideology of Nikola Pai and the Peoples Radical Party. His analysis focuses on Pais Zurich period, when Pai lived in Zurich as a student of technical sciences,
and on the period of exile after the Timok Rebellion of 1883. Shemiakin
believes that these two periods had a decisive influence on the formation of
Pais profile as a political leader and his further public engagement. Using
Pais extensive correspondence and his emigrant manuscripts and notes from
1872 to 1891, as well as sources from the Serbian and Russian archives, Shemiakin, like Perovi and Mishkova, demonstrates that Pai was ideologically
completely on the side of the civilization of the East, whose epicenter was in
Russia.35
Hanging out with Svetozar Markovi in Zurich, Pai, Shemiakin points
out, left the liberalism of the United Serbian Youth and irrevocably accepted the
populist ideology, i.e., ideas of the Russian socialism of the time. Western ideas
of socialism also had a corresponding impact on the ideological orientation of
Pai, but not nearly as great as the idea of Russian socialism. In this way, Pai
was finally ideologically profiledShemiakin believes.
At the end of this discussion, we can notice that Perovi, Mishkova, and
Shemiakin conclude that the Radicals were and remained primarily East-oriented. The socialist sources and nationalism, especially the deeds of the Russian
revolution theorists and reformers filtered by Svetozar Markovis intellect,
presented the ideological core of the Peoples Radical Party, which influenced
the methodology of its political struggle.
Milan St. Proti, however, holds a completely different opinion. He divides
all the ideological sources of the Peoples Radical Party into two groups: external and internal sources.
External influence splashed the Radical movement with three huge waves:
(1) the first one came from the Russian socialist tradition, mixed with traces
of anarchism and nationalism; this oldest wave of political ideas was particularly strong in the early years of Svetozar Markovis group (the influence of
34
Diana Mishkova, Prisposobiavane na svobodata: Modernost legitimnost v Srbiia i Rumniia prez XIX vek (Sofia: Paradigma, 2001), 16192.
35
Andrej L. emjakin, Ideologija Nikole Paia: Formiranje i evolucija (18691891) (Belgrade: Zavod za udbenike, 2008), 237.

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Miroslav Svircevic

Russian ideas almost vanished after the Timok Rebellion); (2) the second wave
of foreign ideas came from France; during the 1880s the influence of French
Radicalism left the most visible mark on the Peoples Radical Party in Serbia,
regarding the political program as well as the organization of the movement;
and (3) the third and last doctrine that impacted the Radical ideology in Serbia
was the English constitutional and parliamentary theory; the basic principles of
the Constitution of 1888, which was created in the spirit of the Peoples Radical
Party program, originated from the English theory of constitutionality.36
Internal sources of Serbian Radicalism were created by the political, social,
and economic circumstances that existed in Serbia at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Among these factors, the most significant were the
king, opposing political parties, and the structure of Serbian society, in which
the peasantry represented the majority.37
Milan St. Proti particularly emphasized the similarity between European
(especially French) and Serbian Radicalism. First of all, the Radicals stressed
in their program two main objectives of their policy: on the internal policy
progress and freedom of people; and in foreign affairsstate independence and
the liberation and unification of all Serbian people in the Balkans. Then they
proposed constitutional reform, which was to be carried out in the following
way: the National Assembly would be the supreme legislative body and be
comprised entirely of elected individuals; the elections would be direct and
secret, and the right to vote, general. The Great National Assembly would be
in session only in the case of a change to the constitution. With respect to the
administrative division of the country, the Radical program called for a division
of the state territory into districts and municipalities, which would be based on
the principles of self-government.
In the same year, when the first program of the Peoples Radical Party of
Serbia was published, the French Radicals presented their own program in their
parliamentary elections. Two leading Radicals, Georges Clemenceau (1841
1929) and Camille Pelletan (18461915), announced their political platform,
which almost entirely corresponded to the demands of the Serbian Radicals.
In their electoral manifesto, Clemenceau, in particular, demanded the following political reforms: (1) change of the French Constitution of 1875 regarding
abolition of the Senate and the establishment of a unicameral assembly based
36

Proti, Radikali u Srbiji, 59. Shemiakin believes that this constitution did not establish the
parliamentary government in Serbia, but rather temporary political dominance of the Radicals.
They took over all political institutions except the regency performing the kings authorities after
the resignation of King Milan Obrenovi (Ustav osuen na neuspeh srpski Ustav iz 1888,
Godinjak za drutvenu istoriju [Belgrade] 7, nos. 23 [2000]: 16489).
37
Proti, Radikali u Srbiji, 70.

The Serbian Radical Party 18811903: Ideology and Its Sources

9
5

on the democratic legitimate; (2) absolute freedom of press, unification, and

public speech guaranteed by the constitution; (3) separation of church and state;
(4) obligatory free and civil primary education; (5) replacement of the regular army with a militia; (6) free and equal justice for all citizens; (7) electoral
and mandated officiate within all state institutions; (8) personal and criminal
responsibility for all public officials; (9) administrative decentralization; and
(10) progressive taxes on income. The political program of Camille Pelletan
was also introduced for the elections in 1881. This program was more detailed
than Clemenceaus. In the first place, he demanded constitutional reform with
respect to the establishment of a unicameral assembly based on the principle of
peoples sovereignty and organization of the general councils as supreme representative body in departments, based on the principle of self-government.38
This opinion is shared by Duan T. Batakovi. He also believes that the
French Radicals had a decisive influence on the final shaping of the Peoples
Radical Party.39 This is indicated by the similarity between Serbian and French
Radicals.40
The view of Greek historian Augusta Dimou is also significant. It stands
between these two main historical schools represented by Perovi, Shemiakin,
and Mishkova on one side, and Milan St. Proti and Duan T. Batakovi on the
other. Dimou observes both schools and delivers credible conclusions. She also
provides her own opinion.
The first school emphasizes the originality of the Peoples Radical Party
and conceptualizes its development until the 1890s within the broad parameters
of populist/socialist ideology. While acknowledging the procedural distancing
of the Radicals from the original theoretical sources, this school also stressed
non-negligible aspects of continuity, regarding Serbian Radicalism more as
a movement in the making than as the final product of a precise ideological
scheme. From their standpoint, ideological mutation and dissent do not necessarily signify a betrayal of origins but are viewed procedurally as part of the
Radicals sense of political pragmatism. They are the outcome of the Radicals negotiation with the possibilities and the limitations of their environment
as part and parcel of concrete political practice, and more emphatically, they
38

Proti, Radikali u Srbiji, 72.

Duan T. Batakovi, Francuski uticaji u Srbiji 18351914: etiri generacije Parizlija,
Zbornik za istoriju Matice Srpske (Novi Sad), no. 56 (1997): 7395; Duan T. Batakovi, Linfluence franaise sur la formation de la dmocratie parlementarie en Serbie, Revue dEurope
centrale (Strasbourg) 7, no. 1 (2000): 1744.
40
Duan T. Batakovi, Le Modle Franais en Serbie Avant 1914, in La Serbie et la France.
Une alliance atypique: Relations politiques, conomiques at culturelles, 18701940 (Belgrade:
Institute for Balkan Studies/SASA, 2010), 68.
39

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Miroslav Svircevic

are the result of power politics, a process whereby ideological elements are
dropped, added, or modified.41
The second school views the 1880s as a watershed period, the moment
marking the abandonment of the initial populist doctrine and a major movement of the Radicals towards Western influences, predominantly French Radicalism and English constitutionalism. The principal contention of this position
is that the Radicals developed along the lines of a classic bourgeois political
party. The emphasis is laid on comparison of political programs, and above all,
on the pretensions of the Radicals on constitutional and parliamentary legality.
The weakness of this position is its capacity to trace precisely and consequently
confirm the channels through which these influences became the part of Radical
doctrine.42
Dimou points out that the early Radicals, spurred initially by the desire to
control the process of modernization, exemplified a defensive populist socialism, where socialism was understood as a means to counter the threatening
effects of Westernization and its broader socio-cultural connotations. The
Radicals moral revolt was a reaction to the corrosive effects of the encroachment of the moneyed and increasingly market-oriented economy upon the traditional structure of their society. The low degree of social differentiation offered,
in the eyes of the Radicals, a unique opportunity to evade the scenario of extreme social polarization, inject modern scientific and technological know-how
into their egalitarian social structure, and therefore move, with little cost, into
a fairer future. Abbreviating the course of time signified for the early Radicals
both the possibility of retaining the particularity of their popular (social and
cultural) character and catching up with the more advanced parts of the world.
Through the Janus-like, but foremost defensive, character of their ideology,
entailing elements such as the exaltation of the qualities of the pre-capitalistic
past and the emphasis on the autarchy of the peasant commune, the Radicals
entered the realm of ideological ambiguity. The retreat into the strengths of the
local economic community was to facilitate the semantic passage that characterized their later theoretical mutation from the autarchic economic unit into the
community of the nation.
Dimou further notes that the Radicals moved progressively from a defensive popular socialism to a demagogical populist nationalism, instrumentalizing the language of mobilization and manipulating indigenous patriarchal
values for agitational purposes. They were pioneering in conceptualizing the
opportunities opened up by mass politics in a representative political system
41

Augusta Dimou, Entangled Paths Towards Modernity. Contextualizing Socialism and Nationalism in the Balkans (Budapest/New York: Central European University Press, 2009), 62.
42
Ibid., 61.

The Serbian Radical Party 18811903: Ideology and Its Sources

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7

that had neglected to turn the peasantry, the most massive stratum of the country, into a social subject, and they made timely use of this availability. The Radicals so oriented their discourse as to catch and mobilize the patriarchal pulse
of the peasantry and their anti-etatist disposition, and thus turned the people,
now equated with the peasantry and its worldview, into their chief political ally
in the confrontation with their political opponents. The Radicals proposed a
project that corresponded to the egalitarian aspirations and value system of the
peasantry and furthermore equated the above with the true national essence.
By legitimizing peasant patriarchalism, the Radicals legitimized themselves.
In this dialectical process, the Radicals compromised aspects of their ideology
that could alienate the peasants (the claim for communal property, for example), and with time accommodated themselves even further as much with the
given socio-economic circumstances as with the exigencies of power politics.
As an end result, the Radicals incorporated the countryside into the state by
nationalizing the peasantry. Dimou observes that, having achieved political
preponderance in Serbian society, the Radicals oversaw a long-sought constitutional reform, which guaranteed their hegemonic status and turned Serbia into
a constitutional monarchy.43
Such a variety in the interpretation of the ideology of the Peoples Radical
Party and its sources in historiography shows that a very delicate question was
being discussed. The viewpoint that follows the development of Serbian Radicalism since the appearance of Svetozar Markovi and Adam Bogosavljevi is
totally reasonable. It is known that the founders of the Peoples Radical Party
were close associates and friends of Markovis and that they were strongly influenced by his ideas. However, already after the Timok Rebellion, the Radicals
got rid of the burden of some of his social-utopian theories and visions. They
moved from the field of socio-economic alteration of the state to the field of
struggle for political changes: for limitation of the power of the Crown, that is,
for constitutionality, complying with principles of the peoples sovereignty and
parliamentary democracy; for the establishment of local self-government; for
respect for political freedom and rights; and for justice as the highest of values
of every individual citizen of the state.
A good part of the Radical Partys first program (1881) was devoted to
the prospects of a new constitution and its substance. However, the Radical
understanding of the constitutional question can be best grasped from two documents: the constitutional proposal of 1883, and the Constitution of 1888.

43

Ibid., 40810.

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Miroslav Svircevic

The guiding principle of the proposal drawn up in July 1883 was the peoples sovereignty.44 Contained in the proposal were the following: the people
should be the sole source of power, expressing their sovereign will through a
national representative bodythe National Assembly; the Assembly should be
elected, and by direct and secret ballot; universal male suffrage is required; and
the National Assembly, as the supreme legislative authority, is at the top of the
state pyramid. According to the proposal, the Assembly could be bipartite: Regular and Grand. The jurisdiction of the Grand National Assembly is defined by
the constitution itself, making a constitutional change its primary responsibility.
All legislative prerogatives are assigned to the Assembly. The ruler is entitled
to approve a proposed law, but the Assembly has the capacity to pass the law in
its next session, even in case of his disapproval. The proposal favored a council
of ministers at the top of administration, assigning to the cabinet the role of a
mere instrument of the Assembly. In that way, the Radical project envisaged a
system that strictly subordinated the executive branch to the legislature. The
territory of the state was to be divided into districts and municipalities, and all
subdivisions were to be organized on the principle of local self-government.
The proposal envisaged the so-called Convent system, an almighty National
Assembly. The role of the ruler was largely neglected. Basically, the project
inaugurated a republic with the monarch at its head.
In light of their ideological evolution, this proposal was halfway between
the Radicals socialist past and their parliamentary future. On the one hand, it
was expressive of their covert republicanism, a concept derived from the teachings of Svetozar Markovi. On the other, it insisted on all elements of a democratic system, which included civil liberties, ministerial responsibility, direct
and secret elections, universal male suffrage, and judicial autonomy. This was
a sign of their getting closer to the ideology of radical democracy. At that point,
the process of their political maturation was still underway, and yet they were
able to come up with a complete constitutional proposal after only three years
of organized political activity.
The proposal was the result of the work of the entire Radical membership.
The text was read, analyzed, and commented upon by all party committees, and
the final version was adopted by common consent.45 Illustrative of the multiple
sources of Serbian Radicalism, it came about as a result of their socialist origins
44

Raa Miloevi, Timoka buna 1883. godine: Uspomene (Belgrade: tamparija Drag. Gregoria, 1923), 10828; Milivoje Popovi, Borbe za parlamentarni reim u Srbiji (Belgrade: Politika, 1939), 54; Miodrag Jovii, Nacrt ustava Radikalne stranke od 1883.akt koji je iao ispred
svog vremena, Arhiv za pravne i drutvene nauke (Belgrade) 79, no. 3 (1993): 48794.
45
Milan St. Proti, Serbian Radicalism, 18811903: Political Thought and Practice, Balcanica (Belgrade), no. 38 (2007): 176.

The Serbian Radical Party 18811903: Ideology and Its Sources

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9

and European democratic influences, and at the same time, as a result of their
opposition to the absolute authority of the king. The Radical ideas were imported from Europe, but they were used to accomplish an internal goal.
The Constitution of 1888, a cornerstone of Serbian democracy, was a great
triumph of the Peoples Radical Party. Legal work on the constitution had largely been done by Radical intellectuals, and therefore it expressed Radical ideas,
but formally it was agreed upon by all three political parties. Its most significant
feature was that it established a system of parliamentary democracy. Its major
characteristics may be summed up as follows:
1. Guarantee of political and civil rights expressed through a multi-party system
2. Free elections of all representatives (universal male suffrage) and the
unicameral Parliament (National Assembly)
3. Dual right of legislative initiative shared between the Assembly and
the king
4. Power of the National Assembly to control the government (interpellations, interrogations, hearings)
5. Ministerial responsibility, both political and criminal
6. Right of the National Assembly to pass the budget
7. Administrative organization of the country according to the principle
of local self-government.46
The constitution also guaranteed freedom of press, association, and public assembly, introduced compulsory primary education, and abolished capital punishment for political crimes. The Constitution of 1888 showed that the Radical
concept had fully matured; the Radicals were capable of defining their ideas,
finally accepting the principle of division of power expressed through parliamentary democracy. Thereafter, rather than developing their constitutional
ideas further, they insisted upon full implementation of this constitution, which
became not only the expression of their understanding of the political system,
but their ultimate constitutional objective.
The other three elements of the Radical ideology derived from the first.
Parliamentarianism, self-government, and civil liberties were in fact specific
points of the Radical understanding of constitutionalism. The idea of parliamentary democracy found its way into the ideology of Serbian Radicalism only
gradually, and for two main reasons: first, the concept of multipartyism required
a well-developed political environment supported by an organized general pub46

Milivoje Popovi, Poreklo i postanak Ustava od 1888. godine (Belgrade: tamparija Dragomira Popovia, 1939), 170.

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Miroslav Svircevic

lic (this had not occurred in Serbia until the 1880s); and the second, the concept
of parliamentarianism derived from Western European, more precisely, British,
political practice. Radical thought had to evolve through several phases before
accepting this particular concept. Here is what Andra Nikoli wrote about parliamentarianism in the 1880s: Parties and policyit is a reality, a necessity
because not all people think the same and people want freedom hence,
different opinions on the public scene.47 According to the Radicals, who followed the British example, a party system was simply the organized way of
expressing the multiple interests of the people. They argued for a system in
which the party that wins the majority in Parliament forms the government: A
government is born, lives, and dies with the Assembly majority.48 Moreover,
the essence of parliamentarism resides in the cabinets dependence upon and
responsibility to the Assembly.49
The principle of local self-government was the earliest element of the Radical ideology. It drew its origin from the teaching of Svetozar Markovi and was
insisted upon by the group under Adam Bogosavljevi in particular. Unavoidable in all Radical programs, it was the most permanent element of their political theory, and as such, requires examination in more detail. As an alternative to
the centralized system of government, the Radicals proposed direct elections of
local officials by local populations. In that way, they believed, the principle of
popular sovereignty would be fulfilled and the paternalistic pressure of the central authority relieved. The Radicals did not restrict this principle to the sphere
of administration but argued that the physician, the teacher, the priest, and even
the local military commander should be elected by the people.
The system of local self-government as conceived by the Radicals was
based on the division of the country into municipalities and districts, and the
municipality was seen as the basic political and economic unit. Each municipality had the right to have two elected representatives in the District Assembly.
The envisaged districts were quite large, with about 10,000 taxpayers each, and
governed by three bodies: the District Assembly (the fully elective, supreme
decision-making body in a district), the District Control Committee (the executive organ of the Assembly), and the District Administrative Organ (with
administrative and judicial responsibilities). All executive and administrative
offices were elective, and the officeholders were responsible to the District Assembly. The activity of the District Assembly included all educational, judicial,
administrative, financial, statistical, technical, economic, and religious matters
47

Proti, Serbian Radicalism, 18811903, 177.

Milovan . Milovanovi, O parlamentarnoj vladi, Otadbina (Belgrade), no. 19 (MayJune
1888): 166.
49
Stojan Proti, Ustavna vlada i njena odgovornost, Samouprava, 1882.
48

The Serbian Radical Party 18811903: Ideology and Its Sources

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in the district.50 In 1883, Arandjel-Raa Miloevi, a distinguished leader of

the Radical Party and member of its Main Committee, wrote a booklet, District Organization according to the Principle of Self-Government and Election
Right, thoroughly explaining the concept and system of local autonomy.51
This text was also published in Samouprava and distributed to all local party
committees.
The demand for civil rights and liberties was among those upon which the
Radicals insisted from the very beginning of the movement. As early as 1875,
Adam Bogosavljevi stressed the importance of freedom of the press and public speech: Tell a simple peasant he is forbidden to write and speak the only
way he knows, and he would not believe a thing like that possible think
today Serbia needs the freedom of expression more than ever.52And again,
there were two aspects to the tenet of the Radical political program: theoretical
and practical. Civil rights and liberties were inherent in their concept of democracy, although they were used also as an instrument of their demagoguery,
appealing to a vast portion of the population. The 1888 constitution marked a
turning point in this respect also. By abolishing censorship, it enabled a proliferation of the political press.53
Regarding foreign policy and the national program, the Peoples Radical
Party thought of itself as being a nationalist movement from the outset. The first
party program defined an independent state and the liberation and unification
of all parts of Serbdom as its foremost goal. In a proclamation to the Radical
membership dated 1886, the leadership reaffirmed its view of Serbia as the
Serbian Piedmont.54 In 1894, the national program was clearly articulated:
Serbia simply cannot abandon the interests of Serbdom. From the Serbian standpoint, there is no difference between the interests of the Serbian state and the interests of other Serbs. The question of Serbdom is
the to-be-or-not-to-be question of the Serbian state. Cut off from
other Serbian lands, Serbia alone is nothing and has no raison dtre.55
50

Fedor Niki, Lokalna uprava i samouprava u Srbiji u XIX i XX veku (Belgrade: Geca Kon,
1927), 242.
51
Miroslav Svirevi, Lokalna samouprava u Srbiji i Bugarskoj (18781914) (Belgrade:
Slubeni glasnik, 2009), 187195; and Miroslav Svirevi, Lokalna uprava i razvoj moderne
srpske drave: Od kneinske do optinske samouprave (Belgrade: Institute for Balkan Studies/
SASA, 2011), 34756.
52
Proti, Serbian Radicalism 18811903, 179.
53
Ibid.
54
Ibid., 180.
55
Milovan . Milovanovi, Naa spoljna politika, Delo (Belgrade), no. 4 (1894): 246.

102

Miroslav Svircevic

This statement reflects clearly the nationalist orientation of the Radical movement, following in the footsteps of earlier Serbian national programs. There is
a striking similarity between the Serbian national program of 1844, or the socalled Naertanije (Draft), and the Radical concept of 1894.56
The Radical movement followed the tide of history, carrying Serbia towards the 19th-century European ideal: one nation, one state. In the Serbian
case, this ideal meant to strive for liberation and unification of the Serbs living
in the neighboring multinational empires, the Habsburg and the Ottoman. Internationalists in the early days of enthusiasm about socialist ideas, the Radicals
soon turned nationalists, and that aspect became conditio sine qua non of their
ideology.57
Conclusion
The formative period of the Serbian Radical movement, from 1881 to 1903,
was the period of its ideological formation, resulting in a shift from vaguely
defined socialism to the concept of parliamentary democracy. The evolution of
Radicalism was interlocked with the shift taking place in Serbia from an agrarian society to a modern European one. The Radical movement was both the
cause and effect of this process; it arose from the underlying social and political
trends, but it also encouraged the process of modernization. Thus, the Radical
movement was the force of progress in Serbian politics.
This period was also marked by a certain parallelism between theory and
practice, or between ideology and the movement, a process in which the movement eventually prevailed over ideology. Theory was overpowered by reality
as the success of the movement became favored over the consistency of ideas.
The Radicals were only concerned with accomplishing the possible. It was a
movement of action rather than of doctrine.
The Radical movement may be defined as an ideological association. It
included individuals and groups of various political thought, such as socialists, parliamentary democrats, opportunists, and peasant democrats. What made
such a combination possible and enduring was the flexibility of practice. In that
sense, Radicalism represented the opinion of the average man. On the other
hand, the Radical movement also included its conformism, leading to inconsistency; its partisanship, leading to exclusiveness; and its demagoguery, leading
to dishonesty.

56
57

Proti, Serbian Radicalism 18811903, 180.

Ibid.

The Serbian Radical Party 18811903: Ideology and Its Sources

103

In terms of ideology, the nature of the Radical Party was dual. Its commitment to constitutionalism, the middle-class background of its leadership, and a
class alliance affirmed in its program made it a party of the center. Its emphasis
on democracy, its struggle for justice, and its socialist roots made it a party of
the Left.
Serbian Radicalism was an open ideology in the sense that it was more
influenced by events than by logical deduction. The process of its development
was based on political practice rather than on ideological suppositions. In that
sense, Radicalism involved a permanent transformation of views.
The Radical movement functioned as a bridge between European ideas and
Serbian realities. In this sense, its ideology was eclectic: it drew from foreign
sources but was implemented in a specific environment. The Radicals were
not original thinkers, but the concepts they espoused bore a distinctly Radical
seal; these concepts were modified so as to respond to the Serbian social and
political realities.
An observation of French historian Jacques Kayser seems perfect to conclude with:
II ny a pas de doute, les radicaux furent des opposants, les hommes qui
criaient: Non! Ils taient contre: leur force dattraction vient de l, leur
prestige aussi et leur vulnrabilit.58

58

Ibid., 189.

Figure 1. Milovan Milovanovi

Figure 2. Stojan Proti

Separatism in Kosovo-Metohija and the Caucasus:

Similarities and Differences
Vladislav B. Sotirovi
Mykolas Romeris University

Introduction
In February 2008 Kosovos Albanian-dominated parliament proclaimed Kosovos independence without organizing a referendum, with obvious U.S.
diplomatic support indicated by unilateral recognition. The U.S.s justification
that the case of Kosovo is unique, i.e., it will not be repeated elsewhere, raises
the question of whether the problem of the southern Serbian province of Kosovo-Metohija really is unique or whether the U.S. administration was trying
to convince the rest of the international community of this.1 The goal of this
research is to investigate and compare the interethnic and interstate clashes
and wars in the Balkan microregion of Kosovo-Metohija with those from the
macroregion of the Caucasus from a general point of view by performing a
textual analysis of the primary sources and relevant and available scientific
literature on the topic.
The Domino Effect in Global Politics
The consequences of the recognition of Kosovo independence by a large part
of the international community are already visible and will become more so in
the future, primarily in the Caucasus, because there are some similarities between these two regions.2 In the Caucasus region, where about 50 different

The region known as Kosovo by the West and the scientific community is traditionally and
historically called Kosovo-Metohija by the Serbs, and Kosova or Kosov by the Albanians. The
western portion of the region is Metohija, and the eastern is Kosovo. The word kos is of Slavic
origin.
2
Nataliia Portiakova and Gennadi Sysoev, Iuzhnuiu Ossetiiu smerili kosovskim vzgliadom,
Kommersant, 15 November 2006, http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/721626.
Serbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 26(12): 10717, 2012.

108

Vladislav B. Sotirovi

ethnolinguistic groups live,3 a self-proclaimed state independence has been

claimed by Abkhazia and South Ossetia,4 following the pattern of both
Nagorno-Karabakh (de jure a province in Azerbaijan) in 1991 and Kosovo in
2008.5 Experts from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs had already expressed in 2007 their real fear that, as in the case of the U.S. and EU unilateral
recognition of Kosovo independence, a similar unilateral diplomatic act could
be implied by Moscows recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as a
matter of diplomatic compensation and as a result of the domino effect in
international relations.6 It is also known from official OSCE sources that Russian delegates to this pan-European security organization have constantly
3

On the history, anthropology, religion, and ethnography of the Caucasus, see Nicholas
Griffin, Caucasus: A Journey to the Land between Christianity and Islam (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2004); Bruce Grant and Lale Yaln-Heckmann, eds., Caucasus Paradigms:
Anthropologies, Histories and the Making of a World Area, Halle Studies in the Anthropology
of Eurasia, vol. 13 (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2007); Charles King, The Ghost of Freedom: A History
of the Caucasus (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2008); Thomas de Waal, The
Caucasus: An Introduction (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2010); James Forsyth,
The Caucasus: A History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013); Arthur Tsutsiev,
Atlas of the Ethno-Political History of the Caucasus (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
2014); Gordon M. Hahn, The Caucasus Emirate Mujahedin: Global Jihadism in Russias North
Caucasus and Beyond (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2014). On ethnopolitical
conflicts in the Caucasus, see Svante E. Cornell, Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of
Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus, Caucasus World Series (London/New York:
RoutledgeCurzon, 2001); and Emil Souleimanov, Understanding Ethnopolitical Conflict:
Karabakh, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia Wars Reconsidered, Rethinking Peace and Conflict
Studies (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013).
4
On the self-proclamation of state independence by Abkhazia and South Ossetia and the
following war between Georgia and Russia in August 2008, see Svante E. Cornell and S.
Frederick Starr, eds., The Guns of August 2008: Russias War in Georgia, Studies of Central
Asia and the Caucasus (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2009); Ronald D. Asmus, A Little War
That Shook the World: Georgia, Russia, and the Future of the West (New York: Palgrave
MacMillan, 2010); and Dorota Gierycz, The Mysteries of the Caucasus (Bloomington, IN:
Xlibris Corp., 2010).
5
According to the Kosovo Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as of today there are more than 100
states in the world who have recognized this territory as an independent state. Among them are
26 EU member states. However, Kosovo is still not a member of any international political,
economic, or sports organization. The first two states to recognize Kosovos proclamation of
independence in February 2008 were Afghanistan and the U.S. The number of states that
actually recognized Kosovos independence is very questionable.
6
Moscow illustrated the domino effect principle in the case of the re-unification of the Crimean
Peninsula with Russia in the spring of 2014 and can use the same principle for the re-unification
with Russia of any other region of Ukraine or other ex-Soviet republic with a significant
presence of Russian-speaking inhabitants, or at least to support their autonomous or separatist
political movements.

Separatism in Kosovo-Metohija and the Caucasus: Similarities and Differences 109

warned the West since before 2008 that such a scenario is quite possible, but
with one peculiarity: since 2007 they have stopped mentioning the possibility
of Russian recognition of Nagorno-Karabakhs self-proclaimed independence
on 2 September 1991. This is most probably because Moscow has not wanted
to deteriorate good relations with Azerbaijana country with huge reserves
of natural gas and oil.
The Case of South Ossetia
At first glance it can be said that the Orthodox South Ossetians are equally as
separatist as the Muslim Albanians of Kosovo. However, the South Ossetians
have sympathies towards the Serbs (not for the reason that they are both
Orthodox Christians), but not, as we could expect, towards separatist Kosovo
Albanians. The real reason for such sympathies is a similar notion of legal
states rights applied by both the Serbs in Kosovo and the South Ossetians.7
Historically, South Ossetia was never really an integral or authentic part
of the sovereign Georgian state (see Fig. 2),8 in contrast to Kosovo-Metohija,
which was not only integral, but culturally and politically the most important
region of the medieval Serbian state (called Ancient Serbia or Serbia proper)
until the mid-15th century, when Kosovo-Metohija was occupied by the
Ottomans (see Fig. 1).9 Before it became part of Russia politically, the territory of present-day Georgia historically was never firmly united around its
capital Tbilisi, in contrast to Serbia, which had a long experience as a unified
state territory, with Kosovo-Metohija as its center, before it lost its independence in 1459. When Serbia gained autonomous status within the Ottoman Empire in 1830/1833 and was later recognized as an independent state by the
European Great Powers at the Berlin Congress in 1878, its rulers and politicians knew which historical territories belonged to it: Kosovo-Metohija was
in first place.10 The present-day territory of Georgia entered the Russian Em7

There is a claim that the Ossetians are the only European nation in the Caucasus, but this
claim has not yet been scientifically proven. The Ossetians themselves believe they originate
from the Sarmatian tribe of Alans. The Ossetians speak a language that is remotely related to
Persian.
8
See Philip M. Parker, ed., Ossetia: Websters Timeline History, 12042007 (San Diego, CA:
ICON Group International, 2010).
9
The Serbian Christian Orthodox cultural heritage in Kosovo-Metohija is of crucial importance
for the national identity of all Serbs. On this issue, see Politika revija (Institut za politike
studije, Belgrade) 35, no. 1 (2013): specifically the articles under the theme Kosovo i
Metohija, pitanje identiteta i sprskog nacionalnog interesa.
10
Milorad Ekmei, Dugo kretanje izmeu klanja i oranja: Istorija Srba u Novom veku
(14921992) (Belgrade: Evro-Giunti, 2010), 20394.

110

Vladislav B. Sotirovi

pire in partssegment by segment. Ossetia as a united territory (i.e., not divided into Northern and Southern Ossetia, as is the situation today) voluntarily became part of the Russian Empire in 1774, according to Russian historiography. Before incorporation of this province into the Russian Empire,
Empress Catherine the Great (176296), confirming that the Ossetians were
really independent, sent a special commission to inform St. Petersburg that
the Ossetians are free people subordinated to no one.11
Georgia itself became part of the Russian Empire in 1804 (27 years later
than Ossetia). This fact is the most important argument used by the South
Ossetians in their dispute with the Georgian authorities. Authority for Georgia
to administer the southern part of Ossetia in the USSR was given by decision
of three Georgian CommunistsJ. V. Stalin, Sergei Ordzonikidze, and Avelj
Enukindze. It should also be stressed that the border between Northern and
Southern Ossetia never existed before 1994.
Concerning the Kosovo Albanian case, it is known that the Albanians
started to settle in the region of Kosovo-Metohija from the present-day northern Albania area only after the First Serbian Great Migration (or Exodus)
from the region in 1690. Before the Ottoman occupation of Serbia, there were
no Albanians in Kosovo-Metohija in any significant number (only 2%, according to the Ottoman census in 1455).12 According to several Byzantine and
Arab historical sources, the Balkan Albanians originated in the Caucasian
Albania; in the 9th century they left the Caucasus and settled by the Arabs in
western Sicily and southern Italy, which they left in 1043, when they came to
the Balkans.13 The borders of the present-day territory of Kosovo-Metohija
were fixed in 1945 by the Yugoslav Communist authorities,14 who in fact sep11

On the history of Georgia, see Ronald Grigor Suny, The Making of the Georgian Nation
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994); Donald Rayfield, Edge of Empires: A History
of Georgia (London: Reaktion Books Ltd., 2012); and Stephen F. Jones, Georgia: A Political
History since Independence (London: I. B. Tauris, 2014).
12
For instance, see Hamid Hadibegi, Adem Handi, and Esref Kovaevi, eds., Oblast
Brankovia: Opirni katastarski popis iz 1455. godine (Sarajevo: Orijentalni institut u
Sarajevu, 1972).
13
About this issue, see Mihailo Stanii, Jovan Dereti, and Dragoljub Anti, eds., Kavkaski
Albanci lani Iliri (extended texts of papers presented at the multidisciplinary roundtable
Metodoloki problem istraivanja porekla Albanaca [Methodological problem of researching
the origin of the Albanians], Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, Belgrade, 21 June 2007)
(Belgrade: Pei i sinovi, 2007); and ovan. I. Dereti, Dragoljub P. Anti, and Slobodan M.
Jarevi, Izmiljeno doseljavanje Srba (Belgrade: Sardonija, 2009).
14
Before 1945 it was hardly known what the exact borders of this province were since it
historically depended on the power of the local feudal lords (e.g., the Brankovies) or the
foreign power which was administering the province (e.g., the Kosovo Vilayet in the Ottoman
Empire).

Separatism in Kosovo-Metohija and the Caucasus: Similarities and Differences 111

arated this province from the rest of Serbia, together with the Province of
Vojvodina.15 In addition, the Yugoslav Communist Peoples Assembly issued
the decree according to which it was forbidden for about 100,000 Serbs
expelled from Kosovo-Metohija by the Albanian authorities during the Second World War to return to the province. This decision was followed by the
migration of up to 200,000 Kosovo-Metohija Serbs from the province to central Serbia during Yugoslavias socialist period. In addition, during this time it
is estimated that up to 300,000 Albanians migrated from Albania to KosovoMetohija. Together with the enormously high birth rate of the Kosovo Albanian population,16 these are the main reasons for the drastically altered demographic picture of the province in favor of the Albanians during the time of
15

The Albanian minority in Serbia within the region of Kosovo-Metohija during the socialist
period in Yugoslavia enjoyed all kinds of minority rights according to international law and
beyond. The region had its own president, constitution, parliament, police, academy of science,
law, press, education system, etc. In other words, Albanian-run and -dominated Kosovo-Metohija was, in fact, an independent political subject in Yugoslavia equal with all Yugoslavias
republics. Within such political conditions, Kosovo Albanians developed an extensive policy of
oppression and expulsion of ethnic Serbs from the region, with a strong inclination to separate
the region from the rest of Serbia and incorporate it into a Greater Albania. What Slobodan
Miloevis government did in 1989 was to abolish just the political independence of both
autonomous regions in SerbiaVojvodina and Kosovo-Metohijain order to protect the
country from territorial destruction. However, even after 1989 Kosovo Albanians enjoyed minority rights according to the basic standards of international law. Many minorities in Europe
or elsewhere today can only dream of having the minority rights allowed to Kosovo Albanians
by Serbias government in 1989. In comparison, for instance, the Kurds in Turkey (a candidate
country for EU membership as of 1999) do not enjoy a single minority right for the very reason
that they are not recognized as a minority group at all. From the legal point of view of the
Turkish government, the Kurds in Turkey do not even exist as an ethnocultural and linguistic
group. For this reason, the process of Kurdish assimilation in Turkey is ongoing. On the
Kurdish question in Turkey, see Metin Heper, The State and Kurds in Turkey: The Question of
Assimilation (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007); Cenk Saraoglu, Kurds of Modern
Turkey: Migration, Neoliberalism and Exclusion in Turkish Society (London: Tauris Academic
Studies, 2010); Michael M. Gunter, The Kurds Ascending: The Evolving Solution to the
Kurdish Problem in Iraq and Turkey (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011); Noah Berlatsky
and Frank Chalk, eds., The Kurds (Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013); and Ramazan Aras, The
Formation of Kurdishness in Turkey: Political Violence, Fear and Pain (London/New York:
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2014). On Slobodan Miloevi from the western
perspective, see Louis Sell, Slobodan Milosevic and the Destruction of Yugoslavia (Durham,
NC: Duke University Press, 2002); and Adam LeBor, Milosevic: A Biography (London:
Bloomsbury, 2012).
16
The Kosovo Albanian birth rate after the Second World War was the highest in Europe and
even higher than in Albania. This population growth was inspired by the political plan of
claiming Kosovo-Metohija to be exclusively Albanian territorya claim based on ethnic rights
because the Albanians do not have any historic right to this province. Petar. V. Gruji, Kosovo
Knot (Pittsburgh, PN: RoseDog Books, 2014), 3969.

112

Vladislav B. Sotirovi

socialist Yugoslavia, thus making a stronger legal case for Serbs to challenge
the Albanian drive for Kosovos independence and inclusion into Albania.
In the referendum about the future of the USSR on 17 March 1991, the
people of South Ossetia voted for the existence of the Soviet Union (like the
Serbs voted on Yugoslavia and Kosovo Albanians on the referendum to become independent from Serbia, as the Georgians had from the USSR).17 This
referendum was organized two months after the Georgian army started the
war against South Ossetia, during which 86 Ossetian villages were burned
through September of the same year. It is calculated that more than 1,000
Ossetians lost their lives and that around 12,000 Ossetians emigrated from
South Ossetia to North (Russian) Ossetia. Similarly, at least 200,000 Serbs
were expelled from Kosovo-Metohija by the Albanian so-called Kosovo Liberation Army18 after NATO peace-keeping troops entered and de facto
occupied the province in June 1999.
The Republic of South Ossetia was formally proclaimed independent
from the Republic of Georgia on 29 May 1992. However, this legal act cannot
be understood as a separatist one for the reason that, at that time, Georgia
was not recognized by any state in the world as an independent political subject itself and was not a member of the United Nations. However, in contrast
to the case of South Ossetia, the unilateral proclamation of the state independence of Kosovo by the Albanians on 18 February 2008 cannot be treated by
the international community as a legitimate act (without permission by Bel17

The South Ossetian referendum was deemed illegal by Georgia, just as the Kosovo Albanian
referendum was said by Serbian authorities not to be legally based. At the time of the Kosovo
Albanian referendum, the south Serbian province did not have any political autonomy. KosovoMetohija enjoyed very wide political autonomy until 1989, when this autonomy was withdrawn
by Belgrade in order to prevent separation of the province from the rest of the country. Left to
Kosovo-Metohija after 1989 was cultural and educational autonomy for the local Albanians
the right which they enjoyed in Montenegro and the FYR of Macedonia. South Ossetia never
enjoyed such wide political autonomy (semi-independence) in the USSR as did KosovoMetohija in socialist Yugoslavia until 1989.
18
On the Kosovo Liberation Army, see, for instance, pro-Albanian and pro-Western points of
view on the historical background of the Kosovo Liberation Army, with descriptions of its
activities up to and including the NATO intervention: Henry. H. Perritt Jr., Kosovo Liberation
Army: The Inside Story of An Insurgency (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2008);
and James Pettifer, The Kosova Liberation Army: Underground War to Balkan Insurgency,
19482001 (London: C. Hurst & Co., 2012). The latter book is an official history of the
Kosovo Liberation Army, ordered and financed by the Albanian-run Kosovo government and
composed by Kosovo Liberation Army veterans. The Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army is no
less separatist and terrorist than, for instance, the Kurdish PKK. However, the international
community allows the Turkish government to use all legal and other means to fight the PKK,
including clear violations of human rights. On human rights and humanitarian intervention, see
Andrew Heywood, Global Politics (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 30329.

Separatism in Kosovo-Metohija and the Caucasus: Similarities and Differences 113

grade) because Kosovo, by international law and agreements, was an integral

part of Serbia (the same legal reason was applied by the international community to the case of the self-proclaimed independence from Croatia of the Republic of Serbian Krayina in 1991).19 Unlike the case of Georgia when South
Ossetia proclaimed its state independence in May 1992, Serbia in 2008 was an
internationally recognized independent state and a member of the United Nations when the Albanian-dominated parliament of Kosovo proclaimed state
independence. This is a common point of similarity between the Ossetians
and the Serbs as nations: both are fighting against the separation of one part of
their national body from the motherland. Considering this, Tbilisi is doing the
same thing as Belgrade, i.e., claiming that South Ossetia and Abkhazia are
historically part of Georgia.20 From this point of view, there is a similarity
between the political claims of both statesSerbia and Georgiabut with
one significant difference: the historical rights of Serbia over Kosovo-Metohija are much stronger in comparison to the rights of Georgia over South
Ossetia and Abkhazia. In other words, Kosovo-Metohija was always, from
historical, cultural, state, and identity points of view, a central and proper part
of Serbia, while both South Ossetia and Abkhazia have been just borderland
provinces of Georgia.21
Separatism and the Global Politics
The main argument used by Western politicians for the case of Kosovos selfproclaimed independence being a unique case from a global perspective is
the fact that according to the Kumanovo Agreement between Serbia and
NATO, signed on 10 June 1999, and UN Resolution 1244, which followed
this agreement, Kosovo-Metohija was put under the UN protectorate, with an
19

Concerning the case of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, see Veljko uri, Republika Srpska
Krajina: Deset godina poslije (Belgrade: Dobra volja, 2005). Regarding the destruction of
ex-Yugoslavia in the 1990s, see Jelena Guskova, Istorija jugoslovenske krize (19902000), 2
vols. (Belgrade: IGAM, 2003).
20
According to data from 1989, the ethnic breakdown of Georgia was 69% Georgian, 9%
Armenian, 5% Russian, 3% Azerbaijani, and 3% Ossetian. In 1993 there were 146,000 refugees
in Georgia. At the same time, about one million people left Georgia, lived in break-away
regions, or were expelled after 1989. Ivan Ivekovi, Ethnic and Regional Conflicts in Yugoslavia and Transcaucasia: A Political Economy of Contemporary Ethnonational Mobilization,
Europe and the Balkans International Network, vol. 13 (Ravenna: Longo, 2000), 18.
21
See Celine Francis, Conflict Resolution and Status: The Case of Georgia and Abkhazia
(19892008) (Brussels: VUB Press, 2011); and Arsne Saparov, From Conflict to Autonomy in
the Caucasus: The Soviet Union and the Making of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno
Karabakh, Central Asian Studies, vol. 29 (New York/London: Routledge, 2014).

114

Vladislav B. Sotirovi

imposed international system of governing and security. However, such an

argument does not work in the case of South Ossetia, because the Ossetians
were governing their land themselves, and much more successfully in comparison with internationally (i.e., NATO) protected Kosovo-Metohija. This
was quite apparent in March 2004 when the international organizations and
military troops could not (i.e., did not want to)22 protect the ethnic Serbs in
Kosovo-Metohija from violent attacks organized by local Albanians, during
which 4,000 Serbs were exiled in three days (March 1719), more than 800
Serbian houses were set on fire, and 35 Serbian Christian Orthodox churches
and cultural monuments were destroyed or severely damaged. The March
Pogrom of 2004 revealed the real situation in the region of Kosovo-Metohija.23 The position of the South Ossetians in independent Georgia from 1991
to August 2008 could be compared with the position of the Serbs in KosovoMetohija after June 1999, i.e., under total Albanian domination. In fact, South
Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Pridnestrovje24 had a much stronger political, legal
basis and better capabilities to be recognized as independent states because
they showed a real ability to govern themselves, not be governed by international organizations, as has been the case with Albanian-governed Kosovo
(the Republic of Kosova from February 2008) from June 1999 until today.
They also exhibited much more democracy and respect for human and
minority rights compared to Muslim, Albanian-ruled Kosovo.25
22

Ursachenforschung in Kosovo nach Unruhen, Neue Zrcher Zeitung, 14 May 2004.

See more at www.kosovo.lt (NGO Crucified Kosmet).
24
The unrecognized Republic of Pridnestrovje, the break-away region from the Republic of
Moldova, is a very good example of transitional or uncompleted statehood. It is de facto not
under Moldovan control, possessing all the formal attributes of a sovereign state like the
Republic of Kosova. Pridnestrovje, or Transdniestria, forms part of the worldwide belt of
pseudo states. Vladimir Kolossov, A Small State vs. a Self-Proclaimed Republic: NationBuilding, Territorial Identities and Prospects of Conflict Resolution (The Case of MoldovaTransdniestria), in Stefano Bianchini, ed., From the Adriatic to the Caucasus: The Dynamics
of (De)Stabilization (Ravenna: Longo, 2001), 87. Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Pridnestrovje
are the only states in the world that recognized the self-proclaimed independence of the
Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in 1991. However, it has still not been recognized by any of the
UN member states.
25
On the issue of the violation of minority rights in Albanian-governed Kosovo-Metohija,
including the policy of ethnic cleansing, see, for instance, Dragan Kojadinovi, ed., The March
Pogrom in Kosovo and Metohija (March 1719, 2004): With a Survey of Destroyed and
Endangered Christian Cultural Heritage (Martovski pogrom na Kosovu i Metohiji, 1719 mart
2004. godine: S kratkim pregledom unitenog i ugroenog hrianskog kulturnog naslea),
trans. Milica evkui (Belgrade: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, Museum in
Pritina (displaced), 2004); Hannes Hofbauer, Experiment Kosovo. Die Rckker des
Kolonialismus (Vienna: Promedia, 2008); Mirko upi, Oteta zemlja: Kosovo i Metohija
23

Separatism in Kosovo-Metohija and the Caucasus: Similarities and Differences 115

The Case of Nagorno-Karabakh

There are several similarities, but also dissimilarities, between conflicts in the
Nagorno-Karabakh province and Kosovo-Metohija. In both cases the international community is dealing with the autonomy of a compact national minority who comprise a majority in the land in question and desire to create their
own national independent state out of that territory. Both the NagornoKarabakh Armenians and Kosovo Albanians reject any solution other than
separation and internationally recognized independence (and later unification
with their motherlands).26 Both conflicts are in fact continuations of old historic struggles between two different civilizations: the Muslim Turkish and
the Christian Byzantine. In both conflicts, international organizations are included as mediators. Some of them are the sameFrance, the U.S., and Russia, as members of both Contact Groups for ex-Yugoslavia and the Minsk
Group under the OSCE umbrella for Azerbaijan. Serbia and Azerbaijan objected that their cases (Kosovo-Metohija and Nagorno-Karabakh) be proclaimed unique because otherwise it would be a green light to both Albanian and Armenian separatists to secede their territories from Serbia and
Azerbaijan without permission from Belgrade and Baku (which in reality has
already happened).
However, there are differences between the Kosovo-Metohija and Nagorno-Karabakh cases. First, Kosovo-Metohija was an internal conflict within
Serbia, which, after June 1999, was internationalized, but in the case of Nagorno-Karabakh, there was external military aggression by Armenia. Secondly, in contrast to Armenia in relation to Nagorno-Karabakh, Albania never
formally accepted any legal act in which Kosovo was called an integral part of
the state territory of Albania (with the historical exception during the Second
World War when Kosovo-Metohija, eastern Montenegro, and western Mace(zloini, progoni, otpori) (Belgrade: Nolit, 2006), 38788; and Vladislav B. Sotirovi, Kosovo
i Metohija: Deset godina nakon Martovskog pogroma 2004, Srpska politika misao (Serbian
Political Thought) 43, no. 1 (2014): 26783. Such a policy of violation of minority rights,
including ethnic cleansing, at least to such an extent, is not recorded in the cases of South
Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Pridnestrovje. According to Miroljub Jevti, both Kosovo Albanian
secessionism and destruction of Serbian Christian Orthodox national and cultural heritage in
this province have an Islamic background (Islamska sutina albanskog secesionizma i kulturno
naslee Srba, Nacionalni interes (National Interest) 17, no. 2 (2013): 23152). On Islamic
fundamentalism, see Lawrence Davidson, Islamic Fundamentalism: An Introduction (Santa
Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2013).
26
Regarding the case of Nagorno-Karabakh, see Heiko Krger, The Nagorno-Karabakh
Conflict: A Legal Analysis (Berlin/London: Springer, 2010); and Bahruz Balayev, The Right to
Self-Determination in the South Caucasus: Nagorno Karabakh in Context (Lanham, MD:
Lexington Books, 2013).

116

Vladislav B. Sotirovi

donia were included into Mussolinis so-called Greater Albania, with the capital in Tirana). No delegation from Albania participated in the talks and negotiations between Prishtina and Belgrade about the final status of KosovoMetohija from 2007 to 2013, while Armenia has an official status of interested side in the conflict regarding Nagorno-Karabakh. However, Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh did not obtain such a status. While the Armenian
army (i.e., from the Republic of Armenia) was directly involved in military
operations in Nagorno-Karabakh, officially part of an independent state of
Azerbaijan,27 in the Kosovo-Metohija conflict of 199899 the official regular
army of the Republic of Albania was not involved (other than a great number
of volunteers from Albania). As a result, Armenia occupied one-fifth of Azerbaijan territory, and the victims of ethnic cleansing were mainly Azerbaijani.
The militarily weaker Azerbaijan side, in comparison to Armenia, which was
supported by Russia in arms and other war material, did not appeal to NATO
for military help, but the Kosovo Albanian side, militarily weaker in comparison to Serbias police and the Yugoslav army forces, did so during the
Kosovo conflict of 199899.28

27

On the political history of Azerbaijan since 1991, see Svante E. Cornell, Azerbaijan since
Independence (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2010).
28
Azerbaijan did not appply for NATO help for at least three reasons: (1) not to spoil good
relations with Russia; (2) not to provoke Iran, a country which was supporting Azerbaijan in its
conflict with Armenia; and (3) because NATO at that time was not ready for a confrontation
with Russia in the region, which was de facto recognized by Brussels and Washington as the
Russian zone of interest. On the Kosovo War in 199899 in the context of the destruction of
ex-Yugoslavia, see Costis Hadjimichalis, Kosovo82 Days of an Undeclared and Unjust
War: A Geopolitical Comment, European Urban and Regional Studies 7, no. 2, (2000): 175
80; Tim Judah, Kosovo: War and Revenge, Essential Histories, bk. 63 (New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press, 2002); and Alastair Finlan, The Collapse of Yugoslavia 19911999 (Oxford:
Osprey Publishing, 2004). On NATOs air war for Kosovo-Metohija in 1999, see Ted Galen
Carpenter, ed., NATOs Empty Victory: A Postmortem on the Balkan War (Washington, DC:
Cato Institute, 2000); Benjamin S. Lambeth, NATOs Air War for Kosovo: A Strategic and
Operational Assessment (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2001); and Dag Henriksen, NATOs
Gamble: Combining Diplomacy and Airpower in the Kosovo Crisis, 19981999 (Annapolis,
MD: Naval Institute Press, 2007). On NATOs humanitarian intervention in the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999, see David N. Gibbs, First Do No Harm: Humanitarian
Intervention and the Destruction of Yugoslavia (Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press,
2009). According to Prussian general and military theorist Karl von Clausewitz (On War,
1832), War is the continuation of politics by other means. The Realpolitik position (theory)
suggests that war does not need any moral justification.

Separatism in Kosovo-Metohija and the Caucasus: Similarities and Differences 117

Conclusions
It appears that the Albanian unilaterally proclaimed Kosovo independence of
February 2008 cannot be considered a unique case in the world without direct consequences for similar separatist cases due to the domino effect
(South Ossetia, South Sudan, the Crimean Peninsula, eastern Ukraine, Scotland, Catalonia, Basque region, and so on). That is the real reason why, for instance, the government of Cyprus is not supporting Kosovo Albanian rights
to self-determination,29 because the next unique case could easily be the
northern (Turkish) part of Cyprus, which is, by the way, recognized only by
the Republic of Turkey and has been under de facto Ankaras protection and
occupation by the regular army of the Republic of Turkey from 1974 onward.30 Finally, that the Kosovo domino effect works well in practice was
shown by the Russian authorities in spring 2014 when Moscow recognized
the separation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine based on the self-determination of the local inhabitants, exactly recalling the 2008 Kosovo case of
self-proclaimed independence.
vladislav@sotirovic.eu
http://www.sotirovic.eu

29

On the Cyprus conflict, see Clement Dodd, The History and Politics of the Cyprus Conflict
(London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).
30
The author of this article has a strong belief that the U.S. and Russian administrations simply
decided in 2008 to recognize, at the moment, the de facto situation in the Balkans and Caucasus
affairs: Kosovo-Metohija would be recognized as a U.S. domain, and South Ossetia and
Abkhazia as Russian ones. By now, of course, such a secret diplomacy deal cannot be proved
by any document.

Figure 1. Serbian Empire in 1355

Figure 2. Kingdom of Georgia from 1184 to 1230

Carigradski Glasnik (18951909): Celebration of August 19/31

Klara Volari
Central European University, Budapest

From 1895 until 1909, the paper of the Ottoman Serbs, Carigradski glasnik
(Constantinoples Messenger), was published weekly in Istanbul. It was directed primarily toward the Serbs living in the Ottoman Empire. It was published in Serbian and in the Cyrillic script under strict Hamidian censorship,
and surprisingly, it survived for only one year under the Young Turks, whose
period was generally characterized by freedom of the press. A publication of
major significance on a variety of levels, Carigradski glasnik has yet to be fully
researched. Secondary literature on it is very limited, and the few scholars who
have touched upon it have typically covered only specific themes, for instance,
its articles on music. Full understanding of its context and overall impact calls
for further investigation. In this article, I have also limited my research, focusing on the yearly celebration of Abdulhamid IIs ascent to the throne. Carigradski glasnik followed the Julian calendar so this event took place on August
19, which is August 31 in the Gregorian calendar (and from 1 September 1900).
I also consider the articles on the March 31 Incident (dated 27 April 1909 in
Carigradski glasnik).
Focusing on the yearly celebrations marking Abdulhamid IIs enthronement
is important for several reasons: it gives insight into one of the most important
days during the Hamidian era when the sultan was visible; we can track the
strength of Ottoman censorship throughout that time and how the sultan used
it as a successful tool in creating his public image; most importantly, we can
see the shift in writing after the Young Turk Revolution, and especially after
the dethronement of the sultan; and last but not least, it gives us the notion of
the context in which Carigradski glasnik was written and the difficulties with
which the authors were confronted. In the first part of this article, I provide general information on Carigradski glasnik, including the circumstances in which
it was created and published. In the second part, I focus on the celebration of
August 19 and its coverage in this paper.

Serbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 26 (12): 121
32, 2012.

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Klara Volaric

Carigradski Glasnik
From the early 1890s, Serbian intellectual circles in the Ottoman Empire tried
to initiate the publication of a Serbian magazine that would encompass all
Serbian national elements in the Ottoman Empire.1 At the time, two papers
in Serbian were already being published, Prizren and Kosovo, but some Serbian scholars do not consider them Serbian journals, stating, the official vilayet organs Prizren and Kosovo cannot be regarded as a Serbian press because
they served the interest of the Turkish government.2 During the 1890s, in the
parts of the Ottoman Empire inhabited by Serbs, such as south Serbia, Macedonia, and Kosovo, there was a more intense effort towards achieving a national
awakening, which up to that point was mainly centered around the Prizren
Seminary, under the leadership of a few intellectuals. During this period, young
intellectuals who were trained in Belgrade came to south Serbia and Macedonia
to teach in the new schools, whose teaching material was published in Istanbul.
Eventually, this circle of intellectuals became engaged with the idea of publishing Carigradski glasnik and Golub, two papers that promoted Serbian culture
and would eventually be considered the only spiritual food for young teachers, clerics, and other literate citizens in south Serbia and Macedonia.3
Carigradski glasnik was mainly a product of long endeavors of the Serbian
embassy in Istanbul. The idea for publishing a paper was initiated at a conference of Serbian intellectuals that the embassy probably organized in 1892,
and Milojko V. Veselinovi, a future Serbian consul in Bitola, composed the
program of the future periodical. Veselinovi proposed that the periodical be
published weekly and bilingually in Serbian and French, that it bring daily
news, primarily from Istanbul, based on the Ottoman-Turkish papers and other periodicals, and also, that it contain an appendix on Serbian folklore and
tradition by emphasizing Serbian customs and celebrations of saint days, publishing novels and poetry by Serbian writers, etc. The biggest emphasis, however, would be on the Serbian schools and churches, especially in Ottoman
Macedonia. In other words, the papers content was designed to bolster Serbian nationhood in the Ottoman Balkans.4 Although Nikodim Savi, the first
owner and main editor of the periodical, appealed to the Ottoman Ministry of
1

Dragana Stojanovi-Novii, Napisi o muzici u Carigradskom glasniku (18951909), Riznica srpska, 8 March 2011, http://www.riznicasrpska.net/muzika/index.php?topic=629.0.
2
Ibid.
3
Aleksa Jovanovi, ed., Spomenica dvadesetpetogodinjice osloboenja June Srbije, 1912
1937 (Skoplje: Juna Srbija, 1937), 891.
4
Petar Mitropan, Carigradski glasnik, Juni pregled, no. 5 (1928): 19.

Carigradski Glasnik (18951909): Celebration of August 19/31 123

Internal Affairs in 1893,5 the decision was delayed because Ottoman officials
wanted a bribe for their permission to start the periodical. In fact, the requested
amount was not small400 golden lirasand because of this, publication of
Carigradski glasnik was delayed.6 This is testified by correspondence between
Mihailo Risti, an official of the Serbian mission in Istanbul, and the Serbian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1894. At that time, Risti still inquired about
the situation regarding the periodical, and the whole matter was settled only in
1895, when the first issue of Carigradski glasnik was printed.7
The first issue was published on 14/26 January 1895, on the very day celebrating Serbias greatest saintSaint Sava. It was written only in standard
Serbian, with the Cyrillic script (the original bilingual plan of Milojko Veselinovi obviously failed). Due to censorship restrictions, the paper could not
have aimed for much more than religious and educational topics. The editors
had to be very careful with articles regarding political and other sensitive issues, but it seems they had a double problem because they were monitored not
only by the Ottoman censors, but also by the Serbian embassy, which stayed in
close contact with the editors. Censorship in the Ottoman Empire, especially
during the Hamidian period, was strict, so any article that was connected to
mainly political news concerning the Ottoman Empire was written in an exaggerated style, full of compliments and praise for the Ottoman government:
every move of the Ottoman government was wise and done for the glory of
God, health of the Sultan, and happiness of the subjects.8 Foreign political
issues were also described in a very general tone, especially policies regarding
the Serbian Kingdom. For instance, authors had to write about the problems of
Serbian inhabitants in the Ottoman Empire in code, as, for example, they were
forbidden to write that a person of Serbian nationality had been killed. In such
instances, the authors would write that a person died of an illness to which they
referred with an invented term, olovac (derived from the Serbian word olovo,
which means bullet).9 Carigradski glasnik thus assumed an educational and
religious character, working towards a cultural and national awakening of its
readers. On the subject of childrens education alone, it published more than a
5

Letter of Nikodim Savi to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 1893, Babakanlk Osmanl Arivi
(BOA), DH.MKT 316-38 5. .
6
Vladan Virijevi, Carigradski glasnik o Novom Pazaru i okolici krajem 19. i poetkom 20.
veka (Carigradski glasnik on Novi Pazar and surroundings at the end of the 19th and beginning
of the 20th century), Novopazarski zbornik, no. 33, 2010: 111.
7
Biljana Vueti, Pisma iz Carigrada Mihailo G. RistiSvetislavu Simiu (1894) (Letters
from Constantinople, Mihailo G. Risti to Svetislav Simi), Meovita graa, no. 33, 2012: 339.
8
Virijevi, Carigradski glasnik o Novom Pazaru, 3.
9
Stojanovi-Novii, Napisi o muzici u Carigradskom glasniku.

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Klara Volaric

thousand articles.10 The authors of articles undoubtedly realized the importance

of education in the strengthening and shaping of the identity of Serbs, no matter
where they lived. As a result, there were articles from Istanbul to San Francisco
in which the authors encouraged their readers to actively research the history of
education in their own region.11 Articles advocating the preservation of the Serbian language and Cyrillic alphabet in countries beyond the Serbian Kingdom
encouraged their readers to contribute to the establishment of Serbian schools
and other national institutions.12 Education was seen as a pillar that preserved
and promoted Serbian identity, in which teachers were the most important link
in the chain. Since most of the associates of Carigradski glasnik were educators, extensive space was devoted to topics on the education of teachers and the
establishment and improvement of the schools and educational system.13
Carigradski glasnik was typically published weekly, usually on Thursday
or Friday, and at times, also on Wednesday, Saturday, or Sunday, probably depending on the breaking news as well. At first it was published in a small format, with the first issue consisting of only 12 pages, but starting in January
1896, it was published in a larger folio format. Typically, it was about four pages, but depending on the volume of information, it could expand to six or eight
pages. As mentioned, it was published for the Serbian Orthodox population
living in the Ottoman Empire, but the information contained in the paper covered events concerning Serbs throughout the world. Most important (political)
news from the Ottoman Empire and abroad was based on that of the European
press, or on the news that associates regularly sent to the editors. Associates
were also responsible for maintaining the subscriber lists in a certain area since
Carigradski glasnik was distributed through those lists throughout all parts of
the Ottoman Empire. It was distributed abroad as well, so it had subscribers in
Serbia, Montenegro, parts of the Habsburg Monarchy (mainly Croatian lands
and Vojvodina), Bulgaria, Russia, Greece, England, etc. Only the name, Carigradski glasnik, was multilingual and written in Serbian, Ottoman-Turkish, and
French.14
All in all, the aim and character of the Carigradski glasnik was best described in the first issue of the paper. The main heading on the front page was
in large letters, and it read: May our great Padishah live long. It was followed by the editors first official address to future readers, full of praise for
10

Ljiljana oli, Carigradski glasnik nacionalni i prosvetni putovoditelj kosmetskih Srba (Kosovska Mitrovica: University of Pritina, 2010), 221.
11
Ibid, 222.
12
Ibid, 223.
13
Jovanovi, Spomenica dvadesetpetogodinjice osloboenja June Srbije, 89293.
14
Virijevi, Carigradski glasnik o Novom Pazaru, 2.

Carigradski Glasnik (18951909): Celebration of August 19/31 125

our Wise Dynast. After this official section, the editors presented a much
more interesting feature, their Program of Our Paper. They emphasized that
the aim of the paper was completely practical in nature and that everything
that concerned progress in the economy, education, and similar fields would
be covered. Political issues were planned to be covered to the extent that the
editors thought it useful to their readers. Breaking news was usually featured
in the very heading of Carigradski glasnik. The columns that followed were
News from Istanbul (Carigradske vesti), mainly covered in two parts: the
sultans activitiesmainly Cuma selamlii (Friday ceremonies)and news related to the army and navy; Domestic News (Domae vesti), i.e., news from
the rest of the empire; and News from Abroad (Strane vesti), which actually
meant news from Russia, Serbia (which, at some point, went under Domestic
News),15 and Montenegro. Other columns that followed were an Overview
of the Press (Pregled tampe) that provided an outline of the European press
news and Correspondence (Dopisi), i.e., news from their associates. The rest
of the paper mainly presented information on economic and trade issues, and
most of that part was dedicated to education and religious affairs. As noted,
the paper generally consisted of four pages, out of which two or three pages
contained the columns cited above. According to the editors, the ultimate goal
of the paper was to be of real benefit and to help readers respond to the majestic will of our overly merciful Sultan, whose aim is that his subjects advance
towards progress and a bright future but that does not just depend on us, but
also on our readers, who will embrace our paper and subscribe for it.16
Despite censorship that occasionally bore a tragic-comical character, Carigradski glasnik was published for 15 years. However, it was only during the
Second Constitutional Era that there was a visible level of some freedom and
open discourse on issues confronting Ottoman Serbs. In such cases, Carigradski glasnik reported on difficult situations experienced by Ottoman Serbs and the
harassment of Bulgarian etas (armed bands) in the Kosovo, Bitola, and Skadar vilayets, or about Austro-Hungarian-occupied Novi Pazar, where Muslims
were attacking Orthodox inhabitants, for which Carigradski glasnik accused
Austro-Hungarian diplomacy for pursuing Drang nach Osten.17 The last issue
of Carigradski glasnik was published on 10/23 October 1909. The editors provided the following reasons for the publications suspension:
15

As the numbers went by, it was evident that news from Serbia and Serbian cultural activities
became more represented in Carigradski glasnik. A new column, Srpski glasnik (Serbian Messenger), was introduced on the first page and presented Serbian cultural activities.
16
Carigradski glasnik (CG), no. 1 (1895), 34.
17
Virijevi, Carigradski glasnik o Novom Pazaru, 3, 12.

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Klara Volaric

With this issue we are suspending further publishing of our paper because of technical difficulties that could not be resolved. When these
technical difficulties are removed, Carigradski glasnik will again be
published since the papers owners did not renounce their rights to the
state. As the publication rights are still in effect, the paper will be able
to resume publication.18
The reasons for closing the paper after a long 15 years were hardly of a
technical nature, but most probably lay in the overall context after the Young
Turk Revolution. The liberalization of the Ottoman press market resulted in
Carigradski glasnik ceasing to be the only Serbian paper in the Ottoman Empire. Starting from September 1908, another paper, called Vardar, was established in Skopje. It was founded by the leaders of the Serbian revolutionary
organization, and hence, it was no surprise that this paper defended Serbian
interests in Ottoman Macedonia more strongly and energetically.19 In addition,
Carigradski glasnik had continuous problems with finances because subscribers did not pay regularly. An editorial note in 1899 described how desperate the
situation was for Carigradski glasnik while commenting on the suspension in
Montenegro (the reasons for suspension were not stated). The editors claimed
that losing Montenegro was a positive financial development because, of the
18 subscribers from this state, only 3 of them actually paid for their subscriptions.20 Regarding the fact that the main subscribers of the Carigradski glasnik
were teachers and they subsequently became involved in the revolutionary organization, it is likely that even they stopped paying subscription. In addition,
after 1903 the Serbian state also took a different position towards Ottoman
Macedonia, and although it still advocated loyalty to the Ottoman Empire and
the importance of religion and education in the national fight, it was obvious
that Serbian diplomacy supported and turned to revolutionary organizations.
This might have resulted in smaller subsidies for Carigradski glasnik, knowing
that the Serbian state always had problems with the budget.
August 19/31 Celebration in the Carigradski Glasnik
The state of the press during the Hamidian period has primarily been described
as the darkest age of the Turkish press, in which journalists, unable to write
non-blandly about the Ottoman reality, instead filled their pages with prayers
18

CG, no. 42 (1909), 1.

Jovanovi, Spomenica dvadesetpetogodinjice osloboenja June Srbije, 893.
20
CG, no. 1 (1901), 4.
19

Carigradski Glasnik (18951909): Celebration of August 19/31 127

and eulogies, and strove to make the people believe that our country was an
example descended from heaven.21 Although the oppression and absurdity of
the censorship during the Hamidian period was the mainstream view created
during the Young Turk regime in order to delegitimize the previous Hamidian
regime, such extreme examples of harsh censorship as cited above could sometimes be tracked in Carigradski glasnik. However, censorship was not something invented by Abdulhamid II since it was present before his reign in the
Ottoman regulations which gave the government the right to control the press.
Namik Kemal in 1873 wrote, To call a sycophant a sycophant was considered
contrary to good manners, to say that malice was an evil was considered contrary to the interests of the state.22 Therefore, what Abdulhamid II did was to
sustain previous laws and regulations, and those he further improved based
on his own experience with the press. In 1888 he issued the Printing Houses
Regulation, in which publishing procedures were set forth. However, the censorship rules were not clear, so the interpretation of the text depended on both
the censor and the particular circumstances in which the text was set.23 However, Abdulhamid II was aware of the fact that the press represented a powerful
weapon in image propagation. All the newspapers, including Carigradski glasnik, covered the sultans procession to the Friday prayers and the anniversary of
his coming to the throne, since these were the only occasions during which the
sultan was visible. Not covering these events was out of the question since a
simple printing mistake might lead to the banning of the paper. This news regularly appeared on the front pages and was reported in a pompous style, clearly
cautious not to produce any mistakes.24 This was the case with Carigradski
glasnik as well.
In 1895, the first year of its publication, Carigradski glasnik devoted a
whole front page to the August 19 celebration, i.e., the anniversary of Abdulhamids assumption to the throne on 19/31 August 1876. Under the Ottoman
emblem, which appeared at the top of the page, the text was in italic letters and
written in a very grandiose style, as exemplified by the following: So that on
this occasion (the inhabitants) can express their enormous love, endless loyalty,
and true affection. It has been twenty years since He, governing from that famous Throne, lavished with fortune His numerous subjects in His immense and
powerful Empire. Every year is a line of those happy events whose source
21

Ebru Boyar, The Press and the Palace: The Two-Way Relationship between Abdlhamid
II and the Press, 1876-1908, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 69, no. 3
(2006): 417.
22
Ibid., 422.
23
Ibid., 42224.
24
Ibid., 42425; 3032.

128

Klara Volaric

is the great mind and Divine wisdom of His Magnificence. Long Live His
Magnificence SULTAN GAZI ABDUL HAMID HAN THE SECOND!25 If
Carigradski glasnik was published on the actual day of the inauguration, August 19, which usually happened quite often, then generally on that day the
paper would publish a text full of pomposity in which the sultan was glorified
and the Ottoman Serbs were presented as the most loyal nation to the sultan.
This was regularly put into the text after the Armenian massacres. In the next
issue of Carigradski glasnik, the ceremony of the week before would be described. Therefore, on 24 August/5 September 1895 Carigradski glasnik had
a report on approximately one page on the celebration. Thus, we learn that in
the morning the sultan received the highest state delegates, who expressed their
loyalty. After responding to the congratulations sent by foreign representatives,
the sultan granted amnesty to certain prisoners, and this was followed by the
celebration. The reporters took special care to describe all the neighborhoods
in Istanbul, especially Yildiz, that were breathtakingly illuminated. According
to these reporters, the citizens enjoyed the whole night, and there was not even
a single incident.26 The next year, on 19 August 1896, the sultans inauguration
day again covered most of the front page. The article this time emphasized the
virtues of the Ottoman Serbs that made them good subjects. According to the
authors, the Ottoman Serbs expressed their loyalty not only with words, but
with deeds and obedience of Ottoman laws.27 The inclusion of this kind of text
might be better understood when it is juxtaposed with a second article that appeared at the bottom of the first page. It describes Armenian troublemakers
(Jermenski smutljivci) who the day before entered the building of the Ottoman bank at the Galata and suddenly caused a mess.28 In the next issue, dated
29 August/10 September 1896, the editors very briefly reported on the event,
repeating almost everything written the year before. However, this time they
also included ceremonial poems dedicated to the sultan that were published
in Ottoman-Turkish newspapers. This is not surprising since in 1896 the sultan was celebrating 20 years of inauguration. Thus, it seems a bit strange that
Carigradski glasnik dedicated so little space to this event.29 On 21 August/2
September 1897 the paper carried an especially celebratory passage marking
the sultans day. Although this issue was published after August 19, the editors
did not include descriptions of the celebration, but they did once again men25

CG, no. 31 (1895), 1.

26

CG, no. 32 (1895), 23.

CG, no. 31 (1896), 1.

27
28
29

Ibid.

CG, no. 32 (1896), 1.

Carigradski Glasnik (18951909): Celebration of August 19/31 129

tion the devotion of the Ottoman Serbs towards the sultan.30 The description
of August 19 the following years basically followed the same pattern. As mentioned, if the paper was published on August 19, then the whole page would be
dedicated to the virtues of the sultan, and in the next number the celebration
would be described. If the paper was published after the celebration, then in the
first small passage the sultan would be praised, and the celebration would be
described in the second passage. Laudatory texts and celebrations were always
described in the same way, i.e., Abdulhamid II was described as the divine ruler, to whom Ottoman Serbs were extremely loyal; and the celebration consisted
of the sultans reception of high officials, granting of amnesty to prisoners, and
a dazzling illumination of the city. There were very few variations in the texts,
and the laudatory text looked exactly the same in 1903 and 1904!31 However,
those of August 19 in 1905 and 1906 were slightly different since the sultan was
celebrating 30 years of inauguration. Thus, on 26 August/8 September 1905
the authors reported that, besides the usual ceremonies, many charitable institutions were opened, the Armenian patriarch presented the sultan with a declaration of loyalty from the Armenian people, and there were no usual fireworks,
a change which the sultan justified because of concerns over the possibility of
fire. Instead, the money for fireworks was donated to impoverished mosques.32
The next year, in the issue dated 25 August/7 September 1906, the celebration
was more grand than usual as it was the 30th anniversary of the sultans inauguration. According to this report, it lasted for a couple of days, music was present
in every house, and Bosphorus, especially the residences of high statesmen,
was illuminated with so many colors that the people came out of their houses
just to see them.33 On 19 January/1 February 1907, after the third published
issue, Carigradski glasnik was temporarily suspended because of the death of
its main editor and owner, Kosta Grupevi.34
The first issue after Grupevis death was published on 4/17 January 1908.
The year 1908 was also a turning point in terms of the content of Carigradski
glasnik as only a month earlier the Young Turk Revolution had taken place. On
22 August/4 September 1908 the text devoted to the anniversary of the sultans
coming to the throne took on a distinctly different character, as evidenced by
the following:
30

CG, no. 29 (1897), 1.

CG, no. 34 (1903), 1; no. 34 (1904), 1.
32
CG, no. 35 (1905), 1.
33
CG, no. 34 (1906), 1.
34
CG, no. 3 (1907), 1.
31

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Klara Volaric

Sweet months of His Rule were accompanied by harsh fate. Reformed

glorious Turkey had to save the country from danger that was threatening from the outside. This attempt was stopped by the evil will of
the Sultans advisors, whose personal interest was more important
than a public one. In their irresponsibility, they brought the country
to the edge of doom. The voice of suffering and tired people reached
the Throne of our Mighty. On June 11 our divine Ruler put an end to
these intrigues. June 11 is a day of freedom, day of progress, day of
rejuvenated Turkey! In rejuvenated, constitutional, free Turkey, Sultan
Abdul Hamid celebrates the 33rd year of his coming to the Ottoman
Throne. The 33rd year is the most glorious in the Ruling of our divine
Sultan. That is the beginning of the renaissance of our country based on
the equality and brotherhood of all the Ottoman nationalities, with the
protection of civil freedom and safety. With him begins the Easter of
our native land in all possible cultural directions. Live Constitutional
Sultan Abdul Hamid II! Live!35
This text makes interesting points about the nature of the revolution. Since the
August 19 celebration took place only a month after the Young Turk Revolution, we cannot know the degree of censorship of the media regarding the presentation of the sultans image. Even if there was none, many people believed,
especially in Istanbul, that the sultan was misled by his advisors, as he stated
to Parliament and as reported in Istanbul newspapers. Unfortunately, we do
not know what the Carigradski glasnik authors opinion was with respect to
the role of the sultan and if they were sincerely enthusiastic towards the Young
Turk Revolution. We also cannot know if the following year, a year of counter-revolution, the Carigradski glasnik regularly informed its readers about the
March 31 Incident and if they sided with the CUP and the Macedonian army.
Their reports on the role of the sultan with respect to the counter-revolution
meaning are quite ambiguous. They did not pay special attention to the sultan,
but rather, they were focused on the possible clash between two armies. Whether at the time they were not focused on the sultan because they did not see him
as a leader or important person in these events remains unknown. The only
thing they reported regarding Abdulhamid II was that H. I. M. (His Imperial
Majesty) the Sultan had taken into consideration the rebels demands, pardoning the rebel soldiers from any punishment.36 However, when the outcome
was known, i.e., when the new sultan was inaugurated, they commented on
35
36

CG, no. 34 (1908), 1

CG, no. 14 (1909), 1

Carigradski Glasnik (18951909): Celebration of August 19/31 131

the dethronement of Abdulhamid II, stating, what should and must have happened, happened. The army, because of which our country has a constitution
and civil rights, again acted and by a hard fight preserved the constitution from
the reaction.37 So this time it was not the sultan (as noted in an earlier issue
of the paper), but the army that re-proclaimed the constitution. Carigradski
glasnik saw the dethronment of Abdulhamid II as an historical act in which
the Ottoman Empire got rid of a despot who could be seen as a new Caligula
or Nero. It is also important to note that in describing the events related to the
freshly dethroned sultan, they simply refer to him as Abdul Hamid, while in
the reporting on events prior to his dethronement he was still identified as His
Imperial Majesty Sultan.38 This suggests that Carigradski glasnik was playing
it safe, waiting until the very dethronement of Abdulhamid II became a done
deal. Only then, after 15 years, did Carigradski glasnik change the rhetoric on
Abdulhamid II, transforming him from an adored patriarch into a monster and
adjusting itself to the new, Young Turk regime.
Conclusion
Carigradski glasnik was a direct product of those earliest Serbian diplomats in
Istanbul who believed that a firm Serbian position in the region could only be
established through political action based on collaboration with Ottoman authorities and intellectual endeavors like schools and printed materials. Carigradski glasnik remained faithful to this mission even after 1903, when new
Serbian diplomacy took a more radical stance toward Ottoman Macedonia.
Naturally, because of the inability to write directly about the problems of
the population in Ottoman Macedonia, Carigradski glasnik acquired an educational and religious character, with hundreds of articles being published
about education and religion.39 In truth, Carigradski glasnik, at the time of
its establishment, did not need more than that. It was envisioned as a paper
that would express the utmost loyalty to the sultan and the Ottoman state. On
the other hand, it would engage in a religious and educational struggle, encouraging articles and correspondences of the readers in that direction. In this
context, Carigradski glasnik acted as an educational and religious mobilizer.
The paper was filled with texts on the Saint Sava celebrations, happenings,
and events that took place throughout Serbian religious-educational communes
in Ottoman Macedonia. A great deal of space was devoted to the activities of
37

CG, no. 16 (1909), 1

CG, no. 17 (1909), 1.
39
oli, Carigradski glasnik nacionalni i prosvetni putovoditelj kosmetskih Srba, 221.
38

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Klara Volaric

the Serbian metropolitanstheir tours around the dioceses were described and
their speeches were transferred. By this, Carigradski glasnik created a sense of
belonging among the local population and fostered Serbian identity and culture,
although someone could say, within the Ottoman borders. Indeed, basing the
premises solely on the texts in Carigradski glasnik, one could conclude that
Serbs had absolutely no irredentist claims. Carigradski glasnik operated fully
in accordance with Ottoman press regulations, and therefore, the editorial staff
went out of their way to demonstrate the Ottoman Serbs utmost loyalty, commitment, and honest intentions towards the sultanate.
sivkec@gmail.com

Actively Writing Standing Figures in Painting from

Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria
Ljubica D. Popovich, Emerita
Vanderbilt University

Introduction
The people who could translate verbal sounds into visual symbols and convert
them back into spoken words were responsible for the beginning of human
history, and history paid back its debt by visually immortalizing them. Depictions of scribes and writers date back to ancient Egypt and Classical Antiquity. This practice continued into the Middle Ages, when many writers
were portrayed in various materials and a myriad of poses but with similar
attributes identifying their trade. The category of standing figures, a rarely
studied group, is the topic of this studyspecifically, depictions in monumental paintings of people who are actively inscribing on scrolls while standing,
or who have just completed that task. Included are the images of prophets,
king-prophets, archangels, members of the Divine Hierarchy, and even a
famous theologian.
The purpose of this article, however, is not to create a catalogue raisone
of all actively writing standing figures in Byzantine art, but rather to call attention to this visual phenomenon by focusing on several examples. So far,
this specific group of images has not been the subject of an iconographic
study, nor has there been an explanation for the actions of such figures in the
context of a message relative to the theology of the time. In this study, many
of the representations in situ served as the primary source. Illustrations in
secondary literature, in most cases, provided supplemental visual material.
Several methods were applied in working with these figures: descriptive,
comparative, iconographic, and analytical. If the descriptive approach seems
to be preeminent, the relatively poor preservation of the painted representations in question made it necessary. Equal attention is given to works created
during the Palaeologan period (12611453) and during the Ottoman domination. Examples from Serbian medieval art predominate numerically because
Serbia, despite many difficulties, was prosperous during the period under conSerbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 26(12): 13354, 2012.

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Ljubica D. Popovich

sideration. Therefore, many foundations were endowed and large churches

built and decorated, some of which are fortunate enough to have survived thus
far. To the representations of the standing and writing figures from Serbia examples from Greece and Bulgaria have also been added. They demonstrate
the shared iconography and theological ideas within Byzantine cultural
borders.
The reader should note the following: all non-Greek text is referred to by
the general term Old Church Slavonic. All the locations of the monuments
discussed in this study are presented according to medieval geographic
boundaries rather than contemporary borders. All the names of prophets are
given in Hebrew, not in Greek transliteration. If examples from some countries in the Byzantine Commonwealth (e.g., Russia and Romania) are not
mentioned in this study, it is due to the fact that this author is not aware of the
existence of images of this iconographic type in those locations.
Iconography of the Active Writers
The following are some of the iconographic characteristics that identify an
actively writing figure: the standing scribe bends slightly and turns naturally
toward the scroll, which is placed over the arm, a feature uncommon in surviving monumental painting (Fig. 1); more often, the scroll is suspended on a
rope from a hook (Figs. 7A and 7B). The parchment scroll, the ancient form
of a book, is lined, thus fully prepared for the text. It is seldom left uninscribed, and most frequently contains several lines from a selected quotation.
The writer holds a sharply pointed quill in his right hand to trace a letter (Figs.
11 and 14B) or to add punctuation or diacritical marks (Fig. 19). Often, the
person writing also holds a containervariously shapedand an inkwell
(Fig. 12). Sometimes the painter specifically depicts the inkwell as holding
two colors of inkred/purple and a darker color. The former is reserved for
initials or theologically significant texts (Fig. 3).
When actively writing, the scribe touches the scroll with his left hand, and
in all examples studied here, he writes with his right hand holding the quill.
Dexterity is required since he is standing while he writes. The inkwell and
quill container are most often tucked in the crook of his left arm and tightly
pressed against the body (Fig. 12) or held in the left hand (Figs. 9 and 11).
This detail is frequently overlooked by scholars, resulting in a misinterpretation of the figures action.1 Regardless of the style of a given representation, a
1

Sran uri, Ljubostinja: Crkva Uspenja Bogorodiinog [Ljubostinja: Church of the

Dormition of the Virgin] (Belgrade: Prosveta/Republiki zavod za zatitu spomenika kulture
[hereafter RZZZSK], 1985), 76, plate 12, and figs. 67, 71, and 75.

Actively Writing Standing Figures in Painting from Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria 135

profound sense of psychological involvement with the important task at hand

is always successfully conveyed. There are, however, rare exceptions to the
iconography of actively writing figures. Yet, the persons calling is seldom
identified solely by the tools necessary for writingthe quill and the inkwell.
In the small church of St. Nikola in Psaa, whose frescoes were executed
between 1365 and 1371, there is an interesting, yet unidentified, figure (Fig.
2). He is a saint standing frontally, in early middle age, according to his portrait, and based on his garment, possibly a deacon. He does not have a scroll,
which is associated with a writer, but in his right hand he holds a sharply
pointed quill. In his left hand is an elongated, square-shaped container, closely
resembling those held by other actively writing figures. Until his identity is
positively established (his name inscription is almost gone), he cannot be accurately placed within the group of actively writing figures discussed in this
work. Nevertheless, his depiction with writing attributes testifies to the spirit
of the period in which the active writers seem to be not only visually popular,
but also theologically significant.2
Prophets, Kings, and a Theologian as Scribes
The mosaic image of the prophet Ezekiel, inscribing a text on his scroll while
standing, from the dome of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Thessalonica
(ca. 131012) is possibly the oldest preserved representation of that particular
biblical figure in Byzantine monumental painting (Fig. 1). This dark-haired,
bearded prophet turns to his left in a three-quarter view. With his left hand he
supports the cascading scroll with some difficulty, while he holds a quill in
his right hand as he finishes inscribing the fifth line of his prophecy (Ezekiel
1:19).3 Obviously, the artist has not yet resolved the placement of the scroll in
relationship to the writers body. The draping of the parchment over Ezekiels
left arm strongly resembles the draping of a scroll of a seated writer or a
standing figure in the studio, as exemplified by the figure of an evangelist in a

Pera Popovi, Vladimir R. Petkovi, Ljubomir Stojanovi, Staro Nagoriino, Psaa, Kaleni,
Stari jugoslovenski umetniki spomenici, bk. 1, Stari srpski umetniki spomenici (Belgrade:
Dravna tamparija Kraljevine Jugoslavije, 1933), plate 9, 2; also, Vojislav J. uri, Vizantijske
freske u Jugoslaviji [Byzantine frescoes in Yugoslavia] (Belgrade: Jugoslavija, 1974), 7576,
and n. 94.
3
Andreas Xyngopoulos, H psphidt diakosmsis tou Naou tn Hagin Apostoln
Thessaloniks [The mosaics of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Thessalonica]
(Thessalonica: Hetaireia Makedonikn Spoudn, 1953), 3540.

136

Ljubica D. Popovich

gospel from Novgorod, who is perhaps pointing to the original source of

inspiration (Fig. 3).4
A parallel, but earlier, image of a standing and writing figure is found in
the miniature from Vatican MS (Vat.) gr. 1153, fol. 54v, in the representation
of Haggai, dated after 1261 and before 1282 (Fig. 4).5 Similarities exist in the
positioning of the body in the act of writing and in the absence of an important object for this processan inkwell. Haggai writes his text (Hag. 2:9)
while being inspired by the hand of the Lord, emerging from the sky and
emanating three rays of divine light, symbolizing the Trinity, that fall upon
the nimbus of the prophet.6 Damage to the dome of the Holy Apostles makes
it impossible to determine if a visual manifestation of divine inspiration
previously existed above the standing prophets, including Ezekiel.
Some scholars, however, have suggested that there was a 10th-century
prototype for the images of prophets in Vat. gr. 1153.7 To the best of the
authors knowledge, such a representation has not been discovered, but the
idea of a revival of Macedonian art (8671056) during the Palaeologan era
(12611453) is in accord with the spirit of the times, as already indicated
above in the case of the prophet Haggai from Vat. gr. 1153, fol. 54v.
The omission of a writers toolbox will be corrected in the oldest known
preserved image of an actively writing prophet in Serbian medieval art, which
is somewhat later chronologically than the example preserved in Thessalonica. The fresco of the writing prophet Isaiah is paired with that of Habakkuk
and painted between 1345 and 1350 in the naos of the Church of the Holy
Apostles in the Patriarchate of Pe (medieval Serbia).8 These two figures occupy one side of the belly of the arch that separates the middle from the
western bay of the naos (Fig. 5). Isaiahs iconographic type follows the wellestablished traditionan old man with long hair and a lengthy beard flecked
4

Olga S. Popova, Russian Miniatures of the 11th to the 15th Centuries (Leningrad: Aurora Art
Publishers, 1975), fig. 57. The Gospel with the Acts of the Apostles of the State Public Library,
gr. 101, fol. 50v, the Evangelist Mark, 12th c. (repainted in the 13th c.), plate 42.
5
John Lowden, Illuminated Prophet Books: A Study of Byzantine Manuscripts of the Major
and Minor Prophets (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988), fig. 83;
none of the other prophets represented in this manuscript is inscribing his text (see figs. 7682
and fig. 84).
6
Haggai 2:9 is part of the chapter dealing with the erection of the temple. All biblical
quotations are taken from the Douay-Rheims Holy Bible (Rockford, IL: Tan Books and
Publishers Inc., 1971).
7
Lowden, Illuminated Prophet Books, 3238, specifically p. 35.
8
For the state of scholarship concerning the post-13th-century frescoes in the nave of the
Church of the Holy Apostles in the Patriarchate of Pe, see uri, Vizantijske freske u
Jugoslaviji, 59, and nn. 63 and 64.

Actively Writing Standing Figures in Painting from Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria 137

with graybut here he is not portrayed in his more frequently used frontal
pose. Instead, he turns to the beholders left in a three-quarter view, and in
that stance his image differs from other representations of writing prophets in
Serbian art that follow in this discussion. His long scroll undulates as if the
parchment were windblown. Isaiah touches it with his left hand; in the crook
of his left arm he holds a flat, rectangular box containing the tools necessary
for a writer. With a quill in his right hand, he begins inscribing his prophecy.
The extremely animated poses of Habakkuk and Isaiah indicate that they are
experiencing a visionary moment of divine inspiration. Indeed, represented in
the apex of the arch in question is the bust of Christ, with his left hand
extended toward the two prophets standing below him and blessing them.
Habakkuk holds a scroll inscribed with a lengthy text, Hab. 3:2, the most
frequently used quotation from his book in Byzantine art.9 His companion, the
prophet Isaiah, presents an incomplete message, as if the prophet were
expecting the words to come as a direct inspiration from above. The words
inscribed on the first three lines are badly defaced, but from the remaining
traces, this author proposes that the following was written: Thus spoke the
Lord.10 This phrase is often inscribed on scrolls held by numerous prophets
within the entire realm of Byzantine art. The inspiration for using this phrase
may originate from the Prophetologia or from the biblical book of a given
prophet. The intention seems clear: to assure the reader or the beholder that
the following lines of inscription are indeed the words of God. As one of the
four major prophets, Isaiah was seldom omitted from the iconographic program of a church. A number of quotations from his book were selected to be
written on the scroll displayed by him in various churches. Above all the other
choices stands the selection of Isaiah 7:14, interpreted as a reference to the
birth of Jesus.11

9
Habakkuk 3:2, O Lord, I have heard thy voice, and was afraid, is the text I found written
on his scroll in 20 monuments. The next most popular quotation is Hab. 3:3, God will come
from the south, and the holy one from Mount Pharan, used in 15 monuments, and to the best
of my knowledge, the following quotations were used only once: Hab. 1:23; 2:1; 2:20; and
3:17.
10
With some variations, these words are found in the following chapters and verses of the
Book of Isaiah: 1:24; 3:16; 10:24; 14:22; 17:3; 17:6; 20:3; 21:6; 21:16; 22:15; 22:25; 28:16;
29:13; 29:22; 30:15; 31:4; 37:21; 39:8; 42:5; 43:16; 44:2; 44:6; 44:24; 45:1; 45:11; 45:14;
48:17; 49:5; 49:7; 49:8; 49:22; 50:1; 52:4; 56:1; 56:4; 65:13; 66:1; 66:12; 66:20; 66:21; 66:22;
and 66:23. None of these suggests the actual quotation that would have been chosen.
11
For the liturgical reading of Isaiah 7:14, see Anne-Mette Gravgaard, Inscriptions of Old
Testament Prophecies in Byzantine Churches: A Catalogue (Copenhagen: Museum
Tusculanum, 1979), s.v. Isaiah.

138

Ljubica D. Popovich

As already indicated, the writing figure of Isaiah at Pe is iconographically different, and only three lines, of which only bare traces survive, were inscribed. The text by the prophet Habakkuk (Isaiahs companion) refers to his
vision; that is, hearing the Lords voice, he was afraid, which is expressed by
the movement of his body. Isaiahs agitated pose implies that his text could
refer to his vision of the Lord (Isa. 6:15), which seems logical because he is
paired with Habakkuk, who, as stated, is also experiencing a vision. At this
time, the visual language of the images could be as eloquent as any written
words or orally delivered homilies.
Chronologically following the representation of the prophet Isaiah in Pe,
an actively writing figure is preserved in the monastery Ravanica, Serbia. This
foundation of Knez Lazar, dedicated to the Ascension of Christ, stylistically
belongs to the Morava school. The figure in question, however, is not among
the 20 prophets and other Old Testament figures labeled as prophets that are
painted in two tiers in the drum of the dome.12 Yet to be identified, an elderly
figure writing on a scroll is represented in the narthex of this church, painted
about 1390. Much damaged, the figure in question is depicted in the upper
section of a painted niche on the south side of the eastern wall of the narthex
(Fig. 6). This male figure, seen in three-quarter view and facing south (or to
the beholders right), has lost his name inscription, with only traces of
lettering remaining on his scroll. An inkwell is still visible in the crook of his
left arm, as is a quill in his right hand, attributes that identify him as actively
writing.13
After comparing this image with many other figures in this category, including prophets, this author observes that the Ravanica representation closely
resembles the prophet Zephaniah (Sophonias) in the monastery Manasija (Fig.
8A),14 founded by Despot Stefan Lazarevi, son of Knez Lazar. The frescoes
of this church were painted between 1407 and 1418. Because of close family
connections, it is possible that the painters working for this Serbian ruling
family shared models. Therefore, this author proposes a hypothetical identification of the Ravanica writing figure as the prophet Zephaniah. The
missing text from his scroll is not possible to reconstruct using contemporary
technological means. If indeed this figure is Zephaniah, then after comparing
12

Branislav ivkovi, Ravanica crtei fresaka [Ravanica drawings of frescoes] (Belgrade:

RZZZSK, 1990), drawing on pp. 1011; Marina Belovi, Ravanica: Istorija i slikarstvo
[Ravanica: History and painting] (Belgrade: Zavet, 1999), 8490, fig. 10, plate 13.
13
Belovi, Ravanica: Istorija i slikarstvo, fig. 39.
14
The prophet Zephaniah is placed in the lower zone of a double tier of 24 prophets. See
Branislav ivkovi, Manasija crtei fresaka [Manasija drawings of frescoes] (Belgrade:
RZZZSK, 1983), drawing I.

Actively Writing Standing Figures in Painting from Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria 139

textual quotations carried by this prophet in other examples of monumental

painting, one can speculate that inscribed here were the lines from Zephaniah
3:8 or 3:14.15 The iconographic context of this image within its location in the
narthex, however, may provide a clue as to the choice of his text.
In the lower segment of the painted niche is a partially preserved image of
St. Gerasim of Jordan with a lion. This saint is called the new Adam. The
niche with its two figures is near the tomb of St. Romil, who was a monk in
Paroria, located on the border of Byzantium and Bulgaria. St. Romil also lived
in the monastery Ravanica from 1375 until his death in 1380. His burial place
was on the south wall of the narthex near the niche in question, which is on
the adjacent eastern wall. St. Romils disciple, the monk Grigorije, wrote the
itije (Life) of his teacher in this monastery.16 Given the funerary context of
its location and that the text of Zephaniah 3:8 is read on Holy Saturday and
interpreted as a reference to the Resurrection, it is possible that this quotation
may have been used as the only one appropriate for the Ravanica narthex.
Further support for the Resurrection idea is provided by the visual reference
to the new Adam below the prophet. Iconographic programs of Byzantine
churches were well planned following the established tradition and executed
accordingly by experienced artists so that very little was left to chance in such
an iconographic ensemble.17
In spite of formal similarities among the actively writing figuresthe
prophets, above alleach example is slightly different, as demonstrated by
the following case. In the lower, and only preserved, zone of frescoes, painted
from 1402 to 1405, eight prophets are preserved in the dome of the monastery
Ljubostinja, the foundation of Knjeginja Milica, which is dedicated to the
Dormition of the Virgin. Because of the damage to the surface of the frescoes,
all of the name inscriptions have been lost. Seven of the eight figures, however, are identified through their iconography and the texts inscribed on the
scrolls they hold. Only one among them has no words written on his hanging
scroll. His iconographic type and assumed pose of an actively writing figure
help identify him as the prophet Zephaniah.18 In addition to the previously
15

Gravgaard, Inscriptions of Old Testament Prophecies in Byzantine Churches, s.v.

Sophonias. Although other quotations were selected from the book of the prophet Zephaniah,
Zeph. 3:8 and 3:14 far outnumber all others in both the preserved manuscripts and monumental
painting.
16
Belovi, Ravanica: Istorija i slikarstvo, 15557.
17
Ljubica D. Popovich, Prophets Carrying Texts by Other Authors in Byzantine Painting:
Mistakes or Intentional Substitutions? Zbornik radova Vizantolokog instituta [Proceedings of
the Institute of Byzantine Studies] (Belgrade), no. 44 (2007): 22944.
18
uri, Ljubostinja, 7576, and figs. 66 and 71 (detail).

140

Ljubica D. Popovich

discussed prophet Isaiah, the figure in Ljubostinja is among the most animated (Figs. 7A, 7B, and 7C). The expressive style of the zograph Makarios
seems to reflect the historically turbulent times in Serbia after the battle with
and defeat by the Ottoman forces on the Kosovo Polje in 1389. Zephaniahs
body seemingly twists on its own axis, while his hanging scroll echoes the
outline of the prophets body, as if both were windblown. The scroll is fully
lined, and Zephaniah is ready to inscribe his text. The prophets right hand
holds a quill, which is placed on the sixth line, and in his left hand he holds an
elongated container for the inkwell, details not noted by Sran uri in his
monograph of this monastery. Why this scroll was left totally empty must
remain unansweredbe it that the work was suddenly interrupted or the
painter simply left the work unfinished. For the most frequently used
quotation of this prophet, see the discussion in the context of Ravanica.19
Painted between 1407 and 1418, the drum of the dome in the monastery
Manasija, dedicated to the Trinity, contains a group of 24 figures, the largest
such ensemble in the drum of a dome in Serbian medieval art or Byzantine art
in general. The group consists of 16 prophets in addition to a selection of 8
other Old Testament figures that are arranged in two zones. They are identified by their name inscriptions (20 out of 24 are preserved), texts inscribed on
the scrolls, various symbols, and iconography.20 Only one among them is an
actively writing prophet, placed in the lower zone just below the prophet
Elijah. His scroll is suspended on a rope looped in a ring from the painted
border (Fig. 8A). He holds a quill in his right hand and an inkwell in his left.
The position assumed by his body, the cascading folds of his himation, and
the rendering of other drapery folds so closely resemble the Ravanica representation of the writing prophet that one is tempted to suggest that a shared
model was used.21 The same can be said for the undulating parchment of the
19

See above, fn. 15. In addition to Zephaniah 3:8 and 3:14, the following quotations were
recorded, but in insignificant numbers: Zeph. 1:14-15; and Zeph. 3:16 and 3:17.
20
This monastery bears two names in scholarship, Manasija and Resava, and it should not be
confused as two different monuments. In addition to the 16 authors of the biblical books of the
prophets, the following figures are included in this group: Moses, Aaron, Samuel, Gedeon,
Elijah, Elisha, Zachariah the Elder, and St. John Prodromos. See Stevan Tomi and Radomir
Nikoli, Manasija: Istorija ivopis [Manasija: History painting], Saoptenja, vol. 6
(Belgrade: Republiki zavod za zatitu spomenika kulture, 1964), drawing 5 and fig. 12; and
Branislav Todi, Manastir Resava [Monastery Resava] (Belgrade: Dragani, 1995), fig. 41
(Zephaniah).
21
For the use of models, see Ljubica D. Popovich, Models for the Sea and the Cosmos and
Their Dissemination in Byzantine Art, volution gnrale et dveloppements rgionaux en
histoire de lart: Actes du XXIIe Congrs International dHistoire de lArt, Budapest, 1969
[General evolution and regional developments in art history: Acts of the International Congress

Actively Writing Standing Figures in Painting from Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria 141

hanging scroll in both examples (Figs. 8A and 8B). Their heads differ slightly.
The figure in Ravanica has short hair, while the one in Manasija has shoulderlength hair. Both have long beards, but each has corkscrew curls ending in a
different manner. The prophet at Manasija is clearly identified by the name inscription in Old Church Slavonic as the prophet Sofonia, the Slavic variation
of the Greek Sophonias.
The prophet is busy inscribing the seventh line of his text, clearly readable as Zephaniah 3:8. These lines are interpreted as a reference to the Resurrection (Descent into Limbo), and the prophecy is read on Holy Saturday.22
The choice of this text can be found among preserved examples of Byzantine
monumental paintings from the 11th century, but seems to have become a
preferred choice during the Palaeologan period.23 Even if the style of the frescoes of the three churches discussed here were different, the iconographic
similarities and use of models should not be surprising since these churches
were founded by the Lazarevi dynasty: Knez Lazar, Knjeginja Milica, and
their son, Despot Stefan, respectively.
Another monument in Serbia with a preserved representation of an actively writing prophet is also connected to the Lazarevi family. It is the monastery Kaleni, the foundation of two brothers, Bogdan and Petar, noblemen
in the service of Despot Stefan, with the church dedicated to the Presentation
of the Virgin. Its frescoes were painted between 1407 and 1413, and this
church once contained a rich iconographic program in the dome. The Pantokrator at its apex and the upper bodies of the angels serving the Divine Liturgy are lost. Between each of the eight windows of the drum in the upper
zone stands an Old Testament forefather. Below them and above the pendentives with the seated evangelists is a continuous painted frieze of 12
prophetsa rarely used format. Only one of them is actively inscribing text
on his scroll. The surviving name inscription identifies him as the prophet
Joel.24

for the History of Art, Budapest, 1969] (Budapest: Akadmiai Kiad, 1972), 127137 (six
illus.).
22
Gravgaard, Inscriptions of Old Testament Prophecies in Byzantine Churches, s.v.
Zephaniah.
23
The examples are from Panagia ton Chalkeon, Thessalonica, 11th c. From the late 13th
through the first decades of the 15th century, examples are from Parigoritissa, Arta;
Peribleptos, Ohrid; Fethiye Camii, Istanbul; Staro Nagoriino, Graanica, and Deani from
medieval Serbia, in addition to those included in this study.
24
Draginja Simi-Lazar, Kaleni: Slikarstvo, istorija [Kaleni: Painting, history] (Kragujevac:
Eparhija umadijska, 2000), 101, fig. 4; and Branislav ivkovi, Kaleni crtei fresaka
[Kaleni drawings of frescoes] (Belgrade: RZZZSK, 1982), drawing I.

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Ljubica D. Popovich

A comparison with prophets in Ravanica, Ljubostinja, and Manasija

demonstrates that a similar model was used for the body, with some minor
changes in the facial type (Fig. 8D). Joel is depicted at the moment when he is
writing his selected quotation on the sixth line of the scroll. It reads, I will
pour out my spirit upon all (Joel 2:28). This text is liturgically connected
to the Feast of the Pentecostthe Descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a
dove upon the apostles, who are illuminated by divine rays.25 This quotation,
according to the preserved evidence, seems to be especially popular from the
14th century into the Ottoman period.26 Since the quill appears to have been
lost from the right hand of Joel, Draginja Simi-Lazar, in her monographic
study of Kaleni, states that Joel is reading his text while tracing the lines with
his fingers. The presence of an inkwell in his left hand, however, is proof that
he too belongs to the group of writing authors (Fig. 9).
The largest preserved group of prophets outside medieval Serbia is found
in the Church of St. George in Sofia, Bulgaria. A centrally planned building
attributed to the period of Constantine the Great (sole emperor from 323 to
337) was converted into a church, whose surviving frescoes belong to three
different periods. Paintings in which one might identify actively writing figures were executed before 1382, the date of the fall of Sofia to the Ottoman
Turks.27 This date makes them close contemporaries with the Serbian
churches of the Morava style considered above.
In the large dome of St. George, there is a continuous frieze of 22
prophets and other Old Testament figures, a formal arrangement similar to
those at Kaleni. Due to damage from earthquakes and the ravages of time,
this group of figures presents a challenging problem in respect to the prophets
who are actively writing. To intensify this enigma, many prophets are depicted in animated poses, seldom static and frontal. A number of them assume
the pose usually associated with a standing and writing figure. The visual
reading of these images suggests a possible solution. Those who are slightly
25

Gravgaard, Inscriptions of Old Testament Prophecies in Byzantine Churches, s.v. Joel.

Among the texts of prophets I have collected, 16 examples of Joels quotation (Joel 2:28) are
preserved from the Palaeologan period and five examples from the period of the Ottoman
domination. Although his book is short, containing only three chapters, numerous quotations
were selected to be inscribed on the scroll of this prophet, e.g., Joel 1:1 in Lavra and in
Xenophon (Athos); Joel 2:23 in St. Stephen, Kastoria; Daphne; and Kurbinovo (Macedonia),
and Vatopedi (Athos); Joel 2:12 in Parigoritissa (Arta), and in Staro Nagoriino; Joel 2:21 in
Fethiye Camii (Istanbul); Joel 3:1 in Dochiariou (Athos); Joel 3:12 in Atheni (Georgia), Arilje,
Deani (Serbia), and Metropola (Mystras).
27
Liljana N. Mavrodinova, Stennata ivopis v Blgariia do kraia na XIV vek [Wall painting in
Bulgaria up to the end of the 14th century] (Sofia: Akademino izdatelstvo, 1995), 68, figs. 105
and 106, and n. 206.
26

Actively Writing Standing Figures in Painting from Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria 143

bent but do not hold an inkwell or a quill are not writers. Their scrolls are
already completely inscribed, and the index and middle fingers of their right
hand are usually placed in the middle of the scroll, as if tracing the words
while reading them aloud. The kings David (no. 1) and Solomon (no. 22) and
the minor prophets Haggai (no. 4) and Micah (no. 9) belong to this group of
figures.28
Among the other prophets, Zephaniah (no. 19) (Fig. 10) turns in a threequarter view to the beholders left, a pose used for the previously discussed
figure of Isaiah at Pe (Fig. 5), and the cascading folds of his himation mimic
a similar representation observed in prophets already discussed in the
churches of the Morava style (Figs. 8A, 8B, 8C, and 8D). The scroll is suspended in the same manner as those in Serbian monumental paintings (Figs.
8A, 8D, and 9) and in manuscripts of this period (Fig. 3). With his left hand
he steadies the bottom of the scroll, and in his right hand he holds a clearly
discernible quill, possibly inscribing the sixth line of the text. The selected
quotation is impossible to decipher.29 Further restoration of these badly damaged frescoes may reveal additional prophets inscribing their texts who are
very much in the spirit of the period, but different from all other examples
included in this study.
The tradition of writing prophets painted in domes of churches continues
during the period of Ottoman domination. This iconographic choice seems to
have survived within much larger geographic areas, but an extensive exploration of this topic is reserved for another study. To support the statement
regarding the tradition of writing prophets, it is sufficient to mention the
powerful image of the prophet Zephaniah from the dome of the Church of St.
John the Theologian in Poganovo, dated to 1499.30 This minor prophet is
28
During the summer of 1990, with a grant from Harvard University and the Bulgarian
Academy of Arts, I was able to study the much damaged frieze of prophets in the dome of St.
George in Sofia, Bulgaria. My proposed identification of the prophets differs from that of other
scholars working on this project. The final solution can only be found with an advancement of
technological means that can read deeper into the mortar beneath the surface that was lost.
Beginning from an imaginary eastern axis and moving clockwise, thus south, west, and north,
according to my identification, the prophets are (1) King David; (2) Moses; (3) Daniel; (4)
Haggai; (5) Ezekiel; (6) Isaiah; (7) Malachi; (8) Obadiah; (9) Micah; (10) Jonah; (11) Nahum;
(12) Joel; (13) Habakkuk; (14) Elijah; (15) Elisha; (16) Jeremiah; (17) Baruch; (18) Amos; (19)
Zephaniah; (20) Zechariah the Younger; (21) Hosea; and (22) King Solomon. Andr Grabar,
La peinture religieuse en Bulgarie, Orient et Byzance. Etudes dart medieval, vol. 1 (Paris: P.
Geuthner, 1928), 33753, and plates 5764. Grabar deals extensively with this monument but
does not mention the prophets below the Pantokrator and the Divine Liturgy.
29
For the quotation from the book of the prophet Zephaniah, see above, fnn. 15, 19, and 22.
30
It is important to note that the church at Poganovo belongs to Bulgarian art of the late Middle
Ages. After the end of World War I, with new borders established between Bulgaria and

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Ljubica D. Popovich

identified by his name inscription (Fig. 11). His robust body is clad in a
classical garment with the folds of his himation cascading down his back, as
was the style with other writing figures (Figs. 1, 5, 6, 7A, 8A, 8B, 8D, and
10). His short beard and hair are almost white. The large forehead dominates
his relatively delicate face, which reflects intense concentration. The scroll
hangs in front of him, swaying as if windblown. His extraordinarily and realistically represented hands hold the attributes of a writer. The quill in his right
hand is held in a proper way between the index and middle fingers and
supported with his thumb.31 What appears to be a glass inkwell and two hollow tubes are in his left hand.32 Zephaniah is working on the third line of his
text. Although much abridged and in Old Church Slavonic, the large letters
are clearly visible: Tako glagolaet Gospod (Thus spoke the Lord).33
Many figures in monumental painting and manuscripts passively display
scrolls that are already inscribed. All of them are standing, such as the Church
Fathers in the apsidal region of a church and various other categories of
saints, such as Martyrs or Holy Hermits, even the Virgin Mary, dispersed
throughout the apse, naos, and narthex of churches. While displaying their
scrolls, these figures occasionally place their index and middle fingers on the
text, as if reading it. Rarely does one find a representation from this category
that is standing and actively writing.
A remarkable example is preserved in the narthex of the church of St.
Gavrilo in the monastery Lesnovo (medieval Serbia, now Macedonia).
Painted in 1349, the narthex has an extremely rich iconographic program on
its vaults, pendentives, and in its dome.34 In the lower zone opposite St. John
Serbia, Poganovo and its monastic church fell within Serbian borders. Zephaniah is possibly
one of at least eight prophets painted between the windows of the drum.
31
It is interesting to note that well into the 20th century, pupils, upon entering the first grade of
primary school, were taught to hold the pencil or pen in the same way. Holding the implement
in this manner and writing must have been an ancient practice, while today it is not the case.
32
The object in his left hand is realistically rendered, an item observed firsthand in the scribes
studio. A similarly constructed inkwell can be seen in the hand of the archangel Michael in the
Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Trnovo, 15th c. See Grabar, La peinture religieuse en
Bulgarie, plate 45B.
33
For a discussion about the selection of texts for the prophet Zephaniah, see above, fnn. 15,
19, 22, and 29.
34
For the schema for the iconographic program of the narthex, see Smiljka Gabeli, Manastir
Lesnovo: Istorija i slikarstvo [Lesnovo monastery: History and painting] (Belgrade: Stubovi
kulture, 1998), 156; for St. John, p. 166, with extensive bibliography, and plate 50. Gabeli
does not explore the concept of an actively writing figure in her work. It is interesting to note
that in the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Trnovo (15th c.), in the scene of the Dormition of
the Virgin, Cosma of Jerusalem and Joseph the Creator hold quills in their hands, in addition to
inscribed scrolls. See Grabar, La peinture religieuse en Bulgarie, 278.

Actively Writing Standing Figures in Painting from Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria 145

of Studion, on one side of the eastern arch, stands St. John of Damascus, actively inscribing his scroll (Fig. 12). Interestingly, he performs his task differently from most other representations already discussed. While other active
writers more or less focus on writing on their scrolls, St. John of Damascus,
the defender of icons and a poet, does not face the parchment he holds in front
of him. Instead, he looks up at the image of the Virgin above him, whose
iconographic type is The Source of Life. St. John of Damascus is identified
by his name inscription and, above all, by a scarf wrapped around his head in
a turban-like style, a reference to the fact that he is from a distant land.
Despite his upward gaze, he firmly holds the bottom of his scroll, and with his
left forearm he presses a quill container and an inkwell against his body. With
a sharp quill held in his right hand, St. John of Damascus is inscribing the
tenth line of his texta reference to the Virginwritten in Old Church
Slavonic. The icon of the Virgin justifies his presence, but one aspect is of
special interest to this study. While conforming to the depiction of a standing
and actively writing figure, the image of the saint is demonstrating something
else to the beholder that is similar to the prophet Isaiah from Pe (Fig. 5).
More than a fanciful interpretation of a model, these writers exhibit with their
body language the power of divine inspiration.
Major and minor prophets are not the only ones privileged to be depicted
in the loftiest places of a church while in the process of recording divinely
inspired words. Other figures engaged in the same type of activity are found
in various locations within the sacred ecclesiastical space, dictated by programmatic needs, as already demonstrated with Isaiah from Pe (Fig. 5) and
Zephaniah from Ravanica (Fig. 6). The two Old Testament kings also designated as prophets, David and Solomon, are not included among the 24 figures
in the drum of the central dome at Manasija.35 Rather, they are in the spandrels of an arch that flanks the western wall of the naos (Fig. 13). There the
kings form part of a theologically rich composition depicted on the west wall
above the entrance door. The subject is a well-known reference to the Last
Judgment.36 At the apex is the Hand of God holding the Souls of the Just,
framed by a radiant, divine light. In the lunette below is the scene of the
Never-Sleeping Eye, representing the young Christ reclining on a palette,
guarded by two angels and the adoring Virgin at his feet. The angels hold the
35

In addition to 16 authors of the biblical books of the prophets, other figures were included in
this group: Moses, Aaron, Samuel, Zachariah the Elder, St. John Prodromos, Gedeon, Elijah,
and Elisha. See ivkovi, Manasija crtei fresaka, plate I. While line drawings clearly
demonstrate the iconographic content of the scene, they fail to convey the visual impact of this
composition in actual space.
36
Todi, Manastir Resava, 10506, and nn. 199201.

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Ljubica D. Popovich

instruments of martyrdoma cross, a lance, and a reed with a sponge. On the

spandrels of the adjoining arch, the two kings explain the scene with their
text. David is depicted as elderly and Solomon as young, a standard iconography for the pair. Each is crowned and wears a jewel-encrusted imperial dalmatic with a similarly decorated loros. Rays of light, the source of their divine
inspiration, strike their crowns. The identifying names and inscriptions on
their scrolls are written in Cyrillic letters in Old Church Slavonic.
The south spandrel of the arch is occupied by the image of David (Fig.
14A). In front of his slightly bent body hangs a scroll that is suspended from a
decorative hook, probably part of a deers antler. David holds the bottom of
the scroll with his left hand, so as to prevent the lengthy parchment from curling. His body and the position of his head silently describe his action, which
goes well beyond a simple visual effect. It testifies to the close cooperation
between a theologian and an artist, the first providing an idea, and the second
interpreting it correctly in visual terms. Only four lines are written on Davids
scroll, followed by four dots arranged to form a rhombus. These punctuation
marks signify the end of the sentence. David seems to be contemplating the
text he has just written: his right hand, still holding the quill, rests against his
chest, as if waiting to add to or correct his text. The selection is directly related to the image in the lunette: Arise, why sleepest thou, O Lord? (Psalms
44:23).37 This single line is sufficient to explain the scene.
Although the younger of the two, the figure of King Solomon is a mirror
image of David (Fig. 14B). Solomon, however, is actively inscribing his text,
working on the sixth line of the scroll: But the souls of the just are in the
hand of God, and the tor[ment] (Wisdom 3:1). The text makes a direct reference to the Hand of God pictured above. Among the various texts inscribed
by Solomon on the scroll that he holds, this choice is one of the most rare,
reserved exclusively for the iconographic content of this scene.38
Frequently pairedfather and son, kings and prophetsDavid and Solomon play a significant part in the iconography of Byzantine churches. With
their presence, they also deliver messages selected from their texts that are
appropriate for the given context. David and Solomon are found in the drums
of main or subsidiary domes,39 and on the north and south piers in the eastern
37

See above, fn. 6.

For examples of the application of this text (Wisdom 3:1), see Monastery of St. Nicholas, the
Meteora (16th c.), and Monastery Stauronicetas (1546), Athos, among others.
39
David and Solomon are included in the drum of the dome, for example, in the following
monuments: Panagia Protothronos; Martorana; Capella Palatina; Daphne; Lagoudera; Spilia
Pendeli; Peribleptos, Ohrid; Parigoritissa; Hodegetria, Pe; Kaleni; and in a number of other
churches painted during the period of Ottoman domination. The pair is found in the southwest
38

Actively Writing Standing Figures in Painting from Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria 147

part of the church, thus, near the Annunciation scene, where they standardly
hold inscribed scrolls.40 Rarely is one of them engaged in the process of writing his text. Occasionally, despite the inclusion of an identifying attribute for
a scribe, the role remains unacknowledged by scholars.
Such is the case with the image of Solomon in the monastery Kaleni.41
Painted on the northeast pier in the context of the Annunciation, this young
king turns slightly toward the beholders right and bends over his scroll. In his
left hand, a square box is clearly visible. His scroll is not completely inscribed, and the fingers of his right hand assume the proper writing gesture for
a scribe (Fig. 15A). Either the quill is missing due to the passage of time, or
the artist making line drawings of this figure did not or could not see the quill.
The text in Old Church Slavonic is lengthy and a frequently selected quotation in this iconographic contextProv. 31:29: Many daughters have gathered many riches: thou hast surpassed them all. This text is read during the
liturgical reading at the Feast of the Annunciation and on Friday of Palm
Week.42 To the figure of Solomon writing in the proximity of the Annunciation, an example from the post-Byzantine period can be added to document
the power of this iconographic tradition. In the Church of the Archangel
Michael in Pedoulas, Cyprus, dated 1474, King Solomon inscribes his scroll
with the quill clearly visible in his right hand. Missing here, however, are the
inkwell and the box with writing tools (Fig. 16).43
At Manasija, King David, having written his message, withdraws his hand
holding the quill to the front of his chest, as if contemplating the inscribed
words (Fig. 14A). A similar example is found in two churches from the period
of the Ottoman domination. In the katholikon dedicated to St. Nicholas in the
dome of the five-domed church (pentatrurion) of Graanica, and they are included in the dome
of the narthex in Lesnovo. In all the examples listed above, David and Solomon hold inscribed
scrolls. Neither is engaged in writing.
40
David and Solomon are rarely absent from the proximity of the Annunciation scene. See
Branislav ivkovi, Graanica crtei fresaka [Graanica drawings of frescoes], Spomenici
srpskog slikarstva srednjeg veka, vol. 7 (Belgrade: RZZZSK, 1989), drawing 6: southeast pier
with King David and northeast pier with King Solomon. Both are holding inscribed scrolls.
41
See ivkovi, Kaleni crtei fresaka, 9, drawing 7; and Simi-Lazar, Kaleni: Slikarstvo,
istorija, 170.
42
For the liturgical reading of King Solomons quotation, see Gravgaard, Inscriptions of Old
Testament Prophecies in Byzantine Churches, s.v. Solomon; and Dionysius of Fourna, The
Painters Manual of Dionysius of Fourna, trans. Paul Hetherington (London: Sagittarius
Press, 1974), 31. This text is read on the Feast of the Annunciation and on Friday of Palm
Week.
43
Andreas and Judith Stylianou, The Painted Churches of Cyprus: Treasures of Byzantine Art
(1964), 121, fig. 204 (for Pedoulas).

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Ljubica D. Popovich

Stauroniceta monastery on Athos, dated 154556 (Fig. 17), and in the katholikon dedicated to the Transfiguration in the Meteoron monastery in Meteora,
Greece, painted in 1552 (Fig. 18), there are two almost iconographically
identical figures of King David.44 In both churches, David is included in the
group of prophets and painted in the drum of the dome. He is crowned and
wears royal garments, decorated differently in each church, and a loros encrusted with jewels. His head is slightly higher than the text, and he gazes
upward. His left hand holds the inkwell, while his fingers gently support the
edge of the long, undulating scroll. The quill in his right hand touches a line
of text. In both representations, David has finished writing, indicated by the
presence of punctuation marks. The quotation is the same but differs in one
respect: at Stauroniceta it is 13 lines long, and at Meteoron, only 7 lines. Both
David and Solomon are biblical authors and are designated as scribes in these
visual examples. There is no clear reason why David is portrayed as just having finished his text, while Solomon, his son, is still inscribing his lines (Figs.
14B, 15A, and 16).
Archangels as Scribes
All the members of the Heavenly Hierarchy have designated roles in the
iconographic program of a church.45 Angels and archangels assume special
duties: first among them, guardians of human beings; and second, guardians
of churches. Sacred places always had guardians throughout human history,
and Byzantine sanctuaries are no exception. For example, the icon of the dedicatory saint of a church, often represented above the main entrance door,
served such a role.46 Another choice could be representations of Sts. Peter and
Paul in one of their multiple duties, for example, standing as guardians at the
entrance to the naos.47 Quite often an archangel, usually the warrior kind, e.g.,
44

Manolis Chatzidakis, Recherches sur le peintre Thophane le Crtois, Dumbarton Oaks

Papers, nos. 2324 (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, 1969
70): 30952, fig. 89. The discussion of the representation of King David in the church of the
Transfiguration in the monastery Meteoron in Meteora, Greece, is based on field notes of the
author (15 July 1978). King David is one of the 12 prophets painted in the drum of the dome in
this church. He stands on the north side of an imaginary eastern axis, flanked by the prophets
Isaiah and Solomon.
45
ivkovi, Manasija crtei fresaka, plates I and II; also Tomi and Nikoli, Manasija:
Istorija ivopis, 52 and 9495.
46
For example, for St. George in Djurdjevi Stupovi, see Sara M. Wages, The Fresco Program
of Djurdjevi Stupovi, Serbian Studies 12, no. 2 (1993): 12122.
47
Paul A. Underwood, The Kariye Djami, vol. 1, Historical Introduction and Description of
the Mosaics and Frescoes, Bollingen Series, vol. 70 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1966), 43

Actively Writing Standing Figures in Painting from Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria 149

Michael, stands by the door of the naos, paired with another saint48 or with the
archangel Gabriel. When the exterior (western) elevation of a church is sheltered by a narthex, the paintings on that wall become iconographically elaborate, and in such a case, the role of guardian archangels becomes even more
complex.49 The archangels Michael and Gabriel also assume the role of scribe
in the examples examined here.
Therefore, to the group of actively writing figures several images of archangels can be added, albeit with a slight difference. In all the representations
discussed here, the archangels still bear the attributes of a scribethe quill
and the inkwellbut they are distinctive in having just finished their task of
inscribing a scroll. Thus, on the west wall of the narthex at Deani, painted ca.
1350, the archangel Gabriel bends attentively toward his scroll, carefully
adding final touches, that is, the last dot at the end of the text. The scroll is
long and contains 11 lines executed in Old Church Slavonic (Fig. 19).50
Contemporaneous with the archangel Gabriel from Deani is his representation in the narthex of Lesnovo, dated 1349. Occupying the space just
below St. John of Damascus on the eastern wall, Gabriel flanks the entrance
door. Opposite him is the archangel Michael, depicted as a warrior. Gabriel
inclines his head toward the unfurled scroll, on which eight lines are preserved. His left hand supports the bottom of the scroll. In her monograph,
Smiljka Gabeli assumes that he held a quill in his right hand and that he was
actively writing. The inkwell seems to be absent in this depiction.51
Other images of archangels in the same role as the one from Deani are
iconographically quite similar. There are also some differences worth noting
here. In a small church near the village of Berende, Bulgaria, the archangel
Michael has shed his military garment for a simple chiton and himation. The
45; and Paul A. Underwood, The Kariye Djami, vol. 2, Plates 1334: The Mosaics, Bollingen
Series, vol. 70, no. 2 (London: Routeledge & Kegan Paul, 1967), plates 3031.
48
Branislav ivkovi, Arilje: Raspored fresaka [Arilje: Layout of frescoes] (Belgrade:
Branislav ivkovi and Svetislav Mandi/Novi dani, 1970), 15, fig. 47.
49
Vesna Milanovi, Fresco Program in the Narthex, in Vojislav. J. Djuri, ed., Zidno
slikarstvo manastira Deana: Graa i studije [Mural paintings of the monastery of Deani:
Material and studies], Posebna izdanja [Special issues] (Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti),
bk. 632, Odeljenje istorijskih nauka [Department of Historical Sciences], bk. 22 (Belgrade:
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts [SANU], 1995), 36175.
50
Mirjana Tati Djuri, Archanges gardiens de la porte Deani [Archangel gatekeepers at
Deani], in Vojislav J. Djuri, ed., Deani et lart byzantine au milieu du XIV e sicle [Deani
and Byzantine art in the mid-14th century], Academie serbe des sciences et des arts, Colloques
scientifiques, vol. 49, Classe des sciences historiques, vol. 13 (Belgrade: SANU, 1989), 359
66, especially p. 361, fig. 1.
51
Gabeli, Manastir Lesnovo, 19697, nn. 1149 and 1450, and fig. 98.

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Ljubica D. Popovich

frescoes in this church, dated around the mid-14th century, are almost contemporary with Deani. Michaels left arm, covered by the edge of his himation, supports the scroll, inscribed with 16 lines of text in Old Church Slavonic
(Fig. 20). The letters of this beautiful inscription gradually diminish in size
toward the bottom of the scroll, as if the scribe were running out of space
needed for the text. His emerging left hand holds the inkwell and container,
prominently displayed between his right hand and the scroll. Michaels right
hand, placed against his chest, holds the quill, seemingly ready to dip it into
the inkwell. The impression is that the archangel, having finished writing and
reading the text, is now ready to make corrections, if needed.52
In another Bulgarian church, the archangel Michael assumes the roles of
guardian, scribe, and adviser. In the 15th-century Church of Sts. Peter and
Paul in Trnovo, he is depicted as the mirror image of the representation in
Berende, with some iconographic differences. His unfurled scroll is quite long
and contains the text not only in Old Church Slavonic (10 lines), but also in
Greek (6 visible lines). The artist has cleverly separated the Slavic from the
Greek text by extending Michaels left arm across the scroll, his left hand
holding long reeds tied together, most likely containers for quills (Fig. 21).
Attached to it is an inkwell, resembling the one from Poganovo (Fig. 11). The
archangel Michael from Trnovo looks intently at the scroll. With the quill
held in his right hand, he gently touches the area above the letters N and O,
either adding an abbreviation mark or making a correction.53
The three texts inscribed on the archangels scrolls in Deani, Berende,
and Trnovo, studied by Elka Bakalova, who identified their source as the Herminia of Denis of Fourna, are of a moralizing, instructional nature.54 All the
implements used by actively writing figures are similar. Thus, one surmises
that they were realistically rendered based on the actual objects used by
writers in the scriptoria and thus familiar to the painters.
Conclusion
We can only speculate as to why so many holy figures passively display
scrolls that are already inscribed, while those discussed in this study, among
52

Elka Bakalova, Stenopisite na tsrkvata pri selo Berende [Frescoes of the church in the
village of Berende] (Sofia: Blgarski hudozhnik, 1976), 56, n. 58, and figs. 67 and 69 (in
Bulgarian).
53
Grabar, La peinture religieuse en Bulgarie, 279, plate 45B.
54
Bakalova, Stenopisite na tsrkvata pri selo Berende, n. 58. In addition, it should be noted
that the text carried by Gabriel in Lesnovo is identical to the text carried by the same archangel
in Deani.

Actively Writing Standing Figures in Painting from Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria 151

others, are represented as standing and actively writing outside a scribes

space or scriptorium. If it were a question of reusing a formal model or love
of reviving an older one, even ancient classical prototypes, the answer would
be easy and of a formal nature. Could such images be interpreted in another
context: the desire to express visually that there was direct inspiration, and
consequently, the actual presence of Divine Power connecting this world to
the other world? Again, it is important to note that the iconographic program
of Byzantine churches was so well planned that nothing is accidental and
every detail has significant meaning.
Thus, the movement of Isaiahs body together with the proposed reading
of the words on his scroll (Fig. 5) and the rapt attention paid to the icon of the
Virgin by St. John of Damascus (Fig. 12) all seem to support the idea of direct
inspiration. In addition to their royal status, David and Solomon, in their role
as prophets, seem to be listening carefully to the divine words before delivering the given message beneath rays of light (Fig. 13). The archangels, as
members of the Heavenly Hierarchy, must have known in advance the divine
words that they were entrusted to display. Still, they concentrate on their
completed texts, poised to add to or embellish them (Figs. 19, 20, and 21).
These are all logical explanations that correspond well with the iconographic message of the Byzantine period. More difficult to explain is the decision to represent two of the minor prophets among all the others as active
writers. With the loss of many monuments, one cannot be absolutely certain
that these minor prophets were the only ones selected to participate in the
actual recording of the Lords words rather than passively displaying the text
already inscribed on a scroll, as if in stone, similarly to many others. The
books of the prophets Zephaniah and Joel are short, each only three chapters
in length, and they prophesy about horrific times. In the end, however, they
promise salvation to mankind, possibly providing the reason they were chosen. Until other evidencevisual or writtenis found, this explanation
represents the best this author has to offer.
When dealing with visual manifestations of the Divine Light, one does
not want to imply that such a painted phenomenon was directly influenced by
a religious movement, or that the paintings influenced the movement. Nevertheless, it is important to note that there are some elements in commonthe
experience of the Divine Light. The visual manifestation of that light certainly
predates, by many centuries, the mystical tradition known as Hesychasm.
Although the roots of Hesychasm go back to the 11th century, the political
and religious situation in Byzantium resulted in its revival among the hermit
monks in Thessalonica in the 1320s. This movement became especially strong
among the Athonite monks by the 1340s, thus coinciding chronologically with

152

Ljubica D. Popovich

some of the images mentioned in this study. The Hesychast monk sat quietly
with head bent and chin resting on his chest, contemplating his navel and
chanting a prayer in hopes of experiencing the Divine Light in his religious
ecstasy. He hoped to experience light that was not man-made but similar to
that witnessed at the scene of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor.55 Likewise, some of the figures examined in this study, among others, seem to have
experienced illumination from the Divine Light (Figs. 4 and 13) or inspiration
from an icon in order to write the appropriate words (Figs. 5 and 12).
Divine inspiration assumes many forms, such as the personification of Divine Wisdom,56 the light that was visualized through art, and the Word that
was materialized through writing (John 1:1). Perhaps this is the reason why
the text inscribed on the scrolls of prophets often begins with the words Thus
spoke the Lord, as if reassuring the audience of its source.57 This idea is
strongly expressed in the paintings of the Palaeologan period but not earlier.
For example, in the dome at Daphni, dated ca. 1100, the image of the Pantokrator is encircled by a rainbow design, while the prophets stand below in
the drum, displaying inscribed scrolls.58 There is no visibly implied connection between them. By the second half of the 13th century, representations of
the prophets in the drum of the dome are illuminated with rays of light, and
the inspirational messages are delivered directly with the help of various
members of the Divine Hierarchy.59
55

For a discussion of the 14th-century Hesychasts, refer to Timothy Ware (Bishop Kallistos of
Diokleia), The Orthodox Church, rev. ed. (London; New York: Penguin Books, 1997), 6170.
56
Ljubica D. Popovich, Muses and Divine Wisdom, in Personifications in Palaeologan
Painting (12611453), unpublished doctoral dissertation (Bryn Mawr College, 1963), 157166.
57
See above, fn. 7.
58
Ernst Diez and Otto Demus, Byzantine Mosaics in Greece: Hosios Lucas and Daphni
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1931), frontispiece, plate 1.
59
Visual confirmation of such a statement is found in the Parigoritissa in Arta (ca. 1290 or
somewhat later), where seraphim and cherubim fly above the windows of the drum, thus
combining the divine illumination with the natural light. Beneath their multi-colored wings
stand the prophets with scrolls already inscribed. See Anastasios Orlandos, H Pargortissa
ts Arts [The Parigoritissa in Arta] (Athens: Archaiologik Hetaireia, 1963), 10918, 12122,
and plates 120. Even more prominent are depictions of divine inspiration and illumination in
several Serbian churches from the first half of the 14th century. In St. Georges church in Staro
Nagoriino, the rays from the Pantokrators medallion emanate toward the double ring formed
by the flying angels and the Divine Liturgy and toward the standing prophets below. See
Ljubica D. Popovich, Compositional and Theological Prophet Cycles in Churches Selected
from the Period of King Milutin (12821321), Cyrillomethodianum (Thessalonica), nos. 89
(198485): figs. 11 and 12. Two other examples of the type of inspiration mentioned here are
even more direct. In the main dome of the Virgin Ljevika in Prizren (ca. 1307), rays of light
emanating from the Pantokrator again touch the windows of the drum, similarly to the

Actively Writing Standing Figures in Painting from Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria 153

As mentioned, the medallion with the Pantokrator in the apex of the dome
is framed by the rainbow design, various forms of light radiance, or with
inscribed words, yet another symbol of the ever present Divine Power. Judging by preserved examples, we know that selections of text were varied.60 One
of these quotations, however, may signify the Lords presence and a direct
source of inspiration, thus adding another possible explanation for actively
writing figures. The text preserved in the dome of the Virgin Hodegetria at
Pe is based on Psalms 101:2021: verse 20, from heaven the Lord has
looked upon the earth; and verse 21, That he might hear the groans of
them that are in fetters. This citation, which assures the Lords constant

depiction in Arta. Eight angels emerge between the eight rays and extend items to the standing
prophets. Three among them hold rolled scrollsa sign of authority; one hands tongs with a
live coal to Isaiah directly belowa reference to the prophets vision (Isa. 6:6); the three
remaining angels display open scrolls inscribed with the words Thus sp[oke the Lord] on two
scrolls and Savaot on the other. The eight angels are totally damaged. See Draga Pani and
Gordana Babi, Bogorodica Ljevika [The Virgin Ljevika] (Belgrade: Srpska knjievna
zadruga, 1975), 11819, and drawing 2; also, Ljubica D. Popovich, A Study of the Standing
Figures in the Five Domes of the Virgin Ljevika in Prizren, Zbornik radova Vizantolokog
instituta (Belgrade), no. 41 (2004): 32231, figs. 12. The representation of this direct and
commanding inspiration is even more explicitly rendered in the Church of the Virgin
Hodegetria in Pe, painted before 1337. Above 16 standing prophets in the drum of this church
fly seraphim framed by such radiance. From their feathered wings emerge small hands offering
rolled scrolls to Aaron, Solomon, Zephaniah, and Elisha. The scrolls handed to the other
prophets contain a few letters, just enough to inspire them to write. Isaiah is just told Tako
Gla (Thus sp[oke the Lord]); the others are given more assistance. Ezekiel is reminded Ja
Videh (I saw), a brief reference to Ezekiel 2:9, which clearly explains the whole concept
of the dome, as well as some of the ideas emphasized in this study: And I looked, and behold,
a hand was sent to me, wherein was a book rolled up: and he spread it before me, and it was
written within and without. The same divine help is offered to the other prophets,
confirming what was stated in the text of Ezekiel. Habakkuks inscription is damaged, but his
already standard hand gesturea finger pointing toward his earmust be related to his vision
(Hab. 3:2). Zachariah the Younger holds a sickle, and above him are the words Sickle
fly[ing], a reference to Zachariah 5:12. Due to the damaged surface, the other messages
cannot be positively identified. See Ljubica D. Popovi, Figure proroka u kupoli Bogorodice
Odigitrije u Pei: Identifikacija i tumaenje tekstova [Figures of the prophets in the dome of
the Church of the Virgin Hodegetria at Pe: Identification and interpretations of the texts], in
Vojislav J. uri, ed., Arhiepiskop Danilo II i njegovo doba [Archbishop Danilo II and his
time], Nauni skupovi srpske akademije nauka i umetnosti, bk. 58, Odelenje istorijskih nauka,
bk. 17 (Belgrade: SANU, 1991), 44364, figs. 18.
60
For quotations inscribed around the Pantokrator: St. Petar, Ras, Psalms 33:1314, see
Svetozar Radoji, Staro srpsko slikarstvo (Belgrade: Nolit, 1966), 18, and n. 16; the Virgin
Peribleptos, Ohrid, Psalms 80:1516, see Petar Milkovik-Pepek, Deloto na zografite Mihailo i
Eutihij [The work of painters Michael and Eutychios] (Skopje: Republiki zavod za zatita na
spomenicite na kulturata, 1967), 48, and n. 186 (in Macedonian).

154

Ljubica D. Popovich

visible (Pantokrator) and invisible presence, is appropriate for the political

and economic challenges of the Palaeologan period.61
Further research of the surviving visual documentation within the Byzantine Commonwealth and during the post-Byzantine era will undoubtedly uncover more examples of standing and writing figures.62 Such a study may reveal many of the same figures discussed here or different ones, all engaged in
the same activity. The main aim of this study, however, is to point out,
through a small iconographic detail, the close relationship between the form
and its function to deliver a meaningful message about the Divine Presence.
We might also ask why so many scrolls sway in the stillness of a sanctuary, as
if they are blown by a strong wind. Can it be just another subtle indication of
the constant presence of the Divine Power (dynamis in Greek)?63
dragana11062@gmail.com

61

George Ostrogorsky, History of the Byzantine State (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University
Press, 1957), 401509.
62
For example, opposite St. John of Damascus stands St. Theodore the Studite in the narthex
of the Monastery Lesnovo. He turns slightly to his left and looks up toward the image of the
Virgin in the soffit of the arch. He holds a codex upon which he is inscribing his text related to
the Virgin. Iconographically, the image is related to the representations of the standing
evangelists. The illuminating rays of light are not depicted in this case. See Gabeli, Manastir
Lesnovo, 180, fig. 98, and schema on p. 156, no. 244.
63
The inclusion of standing and writing evangelists found in illuminated gospel books extends
well beyond the scope of this work, which is primarily dedicated to examples in monumental
painting. It is worth noting, however, how the images discussed here share certain iconographic
features with standing and writing evangelists in gospel books of the same period. See Rome,
Vat. gr. 1208, 12th c.: The New Testament and the Acts of the Apostles, fol. 1v: St. Luke
writing and St. James standing beside him.

Na
g
o
r
i

i
no
,
Ps
a

a
,
Ka
l
e
ni

,
pl
a
t
e9,gur
e2)

Figure 3. Evangelist Mark, Novgorod Gospels, no. 3651, late 14th c., Moscow (Popova,
Russian Miniatures, fig. 57)

Figure 4. Prophet Haggai writing, Vat. gr. 1153,

fol. 54v, second half of the13th c., Rome
(Lowden, Illuminated Prophet Books, p. 83)

Figure 5. Prophet Isaiah writing, with Habakkuk,

ca. 1346, the patriarchate, Church of the Holy
Apostles, Pe, Serbia (Photo: Vojislav J. Djuri)

Figure 6. Standing and writing prophet, ca. 1390,

Monastery Ravanica, Church of the Ascension of
Christ, narthex (ivkovi, Ravanica crtei fresaka, p. 53; permission of the artist)

Figure 7A

Figures 7A, 7B, and 7C. Prophet Zephaniah, Monastery Ljubostinja,

Church of the Dormition of the Virgin, dome, 140205. 7A, general
view; 7B, close-up detail; and 7C, drawing (uri, Ljubostinja: Crkva
Uspenja Bogorodiinog, figs. 66 and 70, and plate XII, respectively;
permission of the author)

Figure 7B

Figure 7C

Figure 8A. Prophet Zephaniah, Monastery Manasija,

main dome, lower zone (ivkovi, Manasija crtezi
fresaka, pp. l0-11, detail; permission of the artist)

Figure 8B. Prophet Zephaniah(?),

Monastery Ravanica, see Fig. 6

Figure 8C. Prophet Zephaniah, Monastery

Ljubostinja, see Fig. 7A

Figure 8D. Prophet Joel, Monastery

Kaleni, see Fig. 9 (permission of the artist)

Figure 9. Prophet Joel (140713), Monastery Kaleni,

Church of the Dormition of the Virgin, drum (Simi-Lazar, Kaleni, fig. 4; permission of the author)

Figure 10. Prophet Zephaniah writing (second from beholders left), before 1382, Church of St. George, Sofia,
Bulgaria, detail from the frieze of the prophets in the
dome (Grabar, La peinture religieuse en
Bulgarie, plate 36)

Figure 11. Prophet Zephaniah writing, 1499,

Church of St. John the Theologian, Poganovo (Photo: Vojislav J. Djuri)

Figure 12. St. John of Damascus, 1349, Monastery Lesnovo, Church of St. Gavrilo, narthex
(Gabeli, Manastir Lesnovo, plate L; permission
of the author)

Figure 13A. King David, Monastery Manasija, west wall of the naos (ivkovi, Kaleni
crtei fresaka, section VII, fig. 12; permission
of the artist)

Figure 13B. The Hand of God, Monastery Manasija, west wall of the naos (ivkovi, Kaleni crtei
fresaka, section VII, fig. 11; permission of the artist)

Figure 13C. The Never-Sleeping Eye, Monastery Manasija, west wall of the naos (ivkovi,
Kaleni crtei fresaka, section VII, fig. 10; permission of the artist)

Figure 13D. King Solomon, 140718, Monastery

Manasija, west wall of the naos (ivkovi, Kaleni
crtei fresaka, section VII, fig. 13; permission of the
artist)

Figure 14A. King-Prophet David, 140718,

Monastery Manasija, west wall of the naos

Figure 14B. King-Prophet Solomon writing,

140718, Monastery Manasija, west wall of the
naos (Todi, Manastir Resava, figs. 85 and 86)

Figure 15A. Gabriel and Solomon, northwest pier

(ivkovi, Kaleni crtei fresaka, p. 9, fig. 7;
permission of the artist)

Figure 15B. David and the Virgin, southeast

pier (ivkovi, Kaleni crtei fresaka, p. 14,
fig. 11; permission of the artist)

Figure 16. Propher Solomon, 1474, Church of the Archangel Michael, Pedoulas,
Cyprus (Andreas and Judith Stylianou, The Painted Churches of Cyprus, p. 121)

Figure 17. King-Prophet David with Isaiah, 1546, Monastery Stauroniceta, Church of St. Nicholas, dome. Athos
(Chatzidakis, The Cretan Painter Theophanis [Mount
Athos: Holy Monastery of Stavronikita, 1986], plate 32)

Figure 18. King-Prophet David, 1552, Monastery Meteoron, Church of the Transfiguration, dome, Meteora, Greece (Chatzidakis,
Recherches sur le peintre Thophane le
Crtois, fig. 89)

Figure 19. Archangel Gabriel writing, before

1350, Monastery Deani, Church of the Savior,
east wall of the narthex, Serbia (Pavle Mijovi,
Deani [Belgrade: Jugoslavija, 1963], fig. 9)

Figure 20. Archangel Michael, 15th c., Church of

Sts. Peter and Paul, Trnovo, Bulgaria (Grabar, La
peinture religieuse en Bulgarie, plate 45B)

Figure 21. Archangel Michael, ca. mid-14th c., church,

vicinity of Berende, Bulgaria, west wall of the naos
(Bakalova, Stenopisite na tsrkvata pri selo Berende,
fig. 67; permission of the author)

Biljana D. Obradovi

BILJANA OBRADOVI, a Serbian-American poet, translator, and critic, has

lived in Yugoslavia, Greece, and India. She is Professor of English at Xavier
University in New Orleans, where she has been on the faculty since 1997. She
has published three collections of her poems: Frozen Embraces (1997), Le
Riche Monde (1999), and Little Disruptions (2012). Her poems also appear in
Three Poets in New Orleans (2000) and in anthologies: Like Thunder: Poets
Respond in Violence in America and Key West: A Collection. In addition to
her own poetry, other works include translations of poetry books into Serbian
(John Gery, Stanley Kunitz, Patrizia de Rachewiltz, Bruce Weigl), translations from Serbian into English (Bratislav Milanovi), and an anthology,
Fives: Fifty Poems by Serbian and American Poets, A Bilingual Anthology
(editor and translator). She is also a reviewer of books for World Literature
Today.

Serbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 26(12): 17578, 2012.

176

Biljana D. Obradovi

That Double 0 Seven

I was watching a movie with Roger Moore

as 007, who asked for a shaken, not stirred, martini to drink.
Why did the bar have this movie on that I adore?
Usually when I am at a bar, TV is a bore
with football, or baseball. This drives me to the brink.
However, we were watching a movie with Roger Moore.
Live and Let Die comes with a McCartney score.
Outside was so cold, I had to wear my mink.
Why did the bar have this movie on that I adore?
Forget Sean Connery and his 007 lore.
Hes not too bad, but his sex appeal stinks.
We were watching a movie with Roger Moore.
Moore looked handsome in anything he wore.
Oh, if only he were here to have a drink
Why did the bar have this movie on that I adore?
When the movie ended, we left through the door.
But at home I couldnt sleep, dreaming of his wink.
We were watching a movie with Roger Moore.
Why did the bar have this movie on that I adore?

Biljana D. Obradovi

The Perfect Pears

after Van Goghs Quince Pears, 188788

They are not quince but pears,
juicy when ripe, tart like
unripe quince when green.
Quince I love, but cant find them
in American stores often, maybe two weeks
out of the year in November or May.
When I go to the cashier to pay for them,
she does not know what they are
and asks me about them,
how to eat them. I tell her
they are best roasted in the oven
till the bright yellow turns brown.
One can then make quince
balls with sugar and roll the meaty
part in ground walnuts.
The pears from my grandmas farm
were best when so ripe they turned
brown and fell off branches
Then Grandpa would pick them to save for me
by placing them in oats in the granary.
I never knew why he did that,
but when I came for a visit in the fall,
thats where Id find them and eat five or six at a time.
Only one has to watch
because the more overripe pears you eat,
the more youd need to visit the bathroom.

177

178

Biljana D. Obradovi

But nothing tastes like those pears.

If only I could have some now.
Is the tree still standing? Who eats them now
that my grandparents are gone?

bobradov@xula.edu

Mirjana N. Radovanov-Matari

MIRJANA N. RADOVANOV-MATARI holds an M.A. in English literature and a

Ph.D. in linguistics and world literature, fields in which she has taught for
over 50 years. Matari is a prolific bilingual writer and translator of modern
American, English, Irish, Indian, Swedish, and Serbian poetry and prose. Her
creative work embraces memoirs, poetry, short stories, and other genres. Her
36 published books include Kadmus i druge pesme (1975), Memories, BitterSweet Memories (1988), Legacy (2002), Engleska knjievnost u Srba 1900
1945 (2010), and Dobro jutro gospoo M (2013). Her work has also been
published in numerous anthologies and literary publications. For her notable
educational and cultural contributions, Matari has received numerous
awards, including 5 U.S. Presidential medals, the Arsenije arnojevi Award
from the government of Serbia (2005), a literary award from the Academy
Ivo Andri (2013), the Golden Medal from the government of Serbia for
advancing culture, the Sretenska povelja for promoting Serbian culture in the
U.S. through translations (2008), and other awards for short stories and
poems.

Serbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 26(12): 17987, 2012.

180

Mirjana N. Radovanov-Matari

Novi Sad

Born in Novi Sad,

the Serbian Athens,
on the beautiful blue Danube,
on which, in my dreams,
white ships sail.
The Danube I swam across
with my brother and his friends,
both ways, so they wouldnt think of me
as a girl only.
While they played chess,
I snuck into a boat and rowed
far up the river.
Stowing the oars, I lay
on the bottom watching
the skies flow while
the Danube stood still.
Suddenly, a huge white ship
appeared right behind me.
A ship?
I had no time to be scared,
it was so beautiful.
It passed, and the waves
rocked me slowly back to the beach.
Sometimes landing at a sandbar,
I walked on the cool, wet sand,
I, the owner of the land
upon which there was nothing
but the sand and I.
How would it be
to live on a deserted island,

Mirjana N. Radovanov-Matari

I wondered.
My family would miss me.
You are wild like your father,
Mom always said.
The city would go on without me.
When it rained, I took off my swimsuit,
tied it around my neck, and swam topless.
Mom would be shocked if she knew!
I dared not think what I would do
ifGod forbid
the water took it away.
Sometimes, on the surface of the water
tiny snake heads shimmered,
like a pearly necklace.
The snakes swim too? The River teaches.
Novi Sad. The city of my youth,
korzo, opera, and the Danube Park,
in which a college boy tried to kiss me.
I refused.
We will never walk together again,
he said.
Flipping my hair like a horses mane,
I thought
it is better not to threaten me.
He was a silent type, a mathematician.
And those are unpredictable.
We never talked again.
I have no idea what equation he solved,
I confirmed mine.
Novi Sad is unique in the world.
There I wrote poetry, went to school,
collected chestnuts in the fall,
smooth and shiny, like my hair;
chestnutty, Mom called it, with a smile.

181

182

Mirjana N. Radovanov-Matari

Novi Sad, close to Strazhilovo,

where each spring we went on a field trip
to the grave of poet Branko Radievi.
We took a short train ride
and climbed the mountain
to the sun-drenched brilliant top.
One year, the train moved back
and cut off a boys legs.
Shocked and silent, our day darkened,
we returned home.
Strazhilovo still means Branko Radievi,
but this other memory has moved in as well.
I left Novi Sad for Belgrade and college,
then married and visited my parents
with my husband and our child.
My parents gone, my husband too,
I left with my child for America.
Now Novi Sad means memories:
no home, only Moms grave,
overgrown with weeds.
The city changed by the bombing.
Not in WWII, which,
as a child, in our cellar
I experienced, but the civil war
half a century later, harder
to endure.
There are too many wars
in one human life,
even worse in the life
of a nation and the world.
Now, in America, I crave
to hear about Novi Sad,
though it sounds unrecognizable.

Mirjana N. Radovanov-Matari

183

A city with some other youth.

Matica Srpska is still a sentinel.
I grew up in its library,
in Letopis published my first poetry.
I am not there to walk the bridge
and watch my city from the ancient
Petrovaradin Fortress,
upon which the old tower clock
still relentlessly counts the time.
Much of what I knew is not there.
But the Danube flows,
and the new generation grows.
They will build bridges, write poetry,
and read books in the Matica Library.
I have nothing to regret.
Rich with memories, I know
life is always precious and beautiful.
Those who love life
have subscription to Eternity.
California, 2000

184

Mirjana N. Radovanov-Matari

The Old Mill

after Nada Zoris painting The Old Mill

Time passes and flows away,
river and mill grinding life
and memories,
only nostalgia left.
Old skin brown like the wood,
hair dry, brittle like the straw of the mills roof,
river of time took it once forever.
California, May 2011

Stara vodenica

Vreme prolazi, reka protie

stari mlin melje ivote i uspomene
ostaje nostalgija: koa stara
mrka kao drvo vodenice
kosa suva i krhkaslama krova
reka vremena odnela sve
zauvek.
Kalifornija, maj 2011.

Mirjana N. Radovanov-Matari

Chamomile

I bought a small packet of chamomile

in Belgrade, the city of my youth,
in the Institute for Herbs
a long time ago.
Brought these charming golden heads
crowned with lacy white petals
into the land where I live
without chamomile.
In the frenzy of everyday existence
(a cunning assassin of life)
chamomile lay forgotten
in the darkness of a credenza
with the screaming salsa, Horgosh paprika,
and other insidious herbs.
Finding it unexpectedly, with a smile
I prepare my mothers tea,
dazzling with its molten golden hues
(color of her hair), its aroma soft like her hand,
tender as the smile, sparkle of her eyes.
Mother, Mother, mutely I scream,
stretching empty hands after all
that has inexorably left me through the years.
For a flash you were here,
only your tea is left,
whose fragrance announced the beginning
of a day in my growing years.
You spoiled us, Mother,
with something beyond definition.
The word love is much in use today,
worn out like a dirty bill.
Without you, nothing is like before
for our father, my brother, or me.
We have sipped your tea

185

186

Mirjana N. Radovanov-Matari

until you quietly disappeared

like its fragrance.
Your breath still lingers.
Only love lives on,
the rest is a dream.

Mirjana N. Radovanov-Matari

187

An Old Tree

after Nada Zoris painting An Old Tree

shortcut to the human nature
eyes and roots like sensors
into the human psyche
silently teaching through
meditation and prayer
connection of
nature and God
as One
2011

mira016@hotmail.com

Three Serbian Ballads from the Collection of

Vuk Stefanovi Karadi
eljka Cvjetan Gortinski*

In the 19th century, Vuk Stefanovi Karadi (17871864), a Serbian linguist,

dedicated 30 years of his life to collecting and publishing Serbian oral ballads
and other folk literature. European intellectuals of the time recognized the
unique artistic, educational, and moral value of this poetry and translated it
into various languages, including English. As a result, the three ballads presented here are not unknown but are usually presented in larger collections or
anthologies.
These three ballads, while focused on specific events or individuals, also
shed light on the social conditions affecting Serbian women during the Middle
Ages and throughout the 19th century. It is noteworthy, for instance, that none
of the female characters in these poems has a name or personal identity. They
carry their husbands names or are simply sung merely as mothers. I wanted
listeners to hear only these three poems together because the majority of traditional Serbian oral ballads do not describe women and their experiences. In
fact, women are inconspicuous supporting characters in a vast number of traditional ballads that have passed from generation to generation with no
substantive changes for hundreds of years.
Female characters, when they appear, are mostly observers. They usually
have no assigned roles that propel the dynamics of the events. They listen to
their husbands or sons; they wait for them to return from their various duties
of war; they prepare meals; they serve the food and drinks; they care for those
wounded in battle; they bear, raise, and advise their children; but their distinguished personal identities are hidden and could only be reconstructed based
on the considerable historical knowledge that we have today. Presenting these

* The editors are honored and most grateful to eljka Cvejtan Gortinski for her generosity in
sharing this recording. She has brought the creative talents through which she has achieved international renown as an actress to conceiving and bringing together this project. Ms. Gortinski
provides a poignant oral interpretation of these evocative ballads. While they reveal traits
unique to Serbian poetry and culture, ultimately, they are, indeed, timeless and universal.
Serbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 26(12): 18991, 2012.

190

eljka Cvjetan Gortinski

poems together allows us to perceive and understand the magnitude of pain

and hardship that Serbian women have experienced.
Even though they originated at different times and describe different historical and legendary characters and events, each poem contains powerful images of motherly love, loss, and inexpressible grief. And while each is memorable on its own, I hope that, taken together, they will stand as a fitting
tribute to motherhood.
As ancient as these stories are, they are also timeless. I am sure the listener will discover contemporary relevance and recognize how profoundly the
plight of these mothers reaches beyond specific time and place and evokes
images of marriage and motherhood that will resonate with women today,
regardless of their race, religion, national identity, or social position.
These poems were handed down by word of mouth from one generation
to another for centuries. Because of both their cultural significance and artistic
merit, they have survived the test of time. It is my personal pleasure and privilege to pass them forward in the CD recording that accompanies this issue of
Serbian Studies.1
zeljkacg@hotmail.com

A Note from Roderick Menzies, Voice Recording Producer:

While helping to bring The Pearl Drops (Biserne suze) to fruition, I developed a profound sense of appreciation for these beautiful examples of oral
epic poetry. These recordings are unique and extraordinary, partly due to
eljkas talent and skill as an oral interpreter and partly because of her strong
personal connection to the material. Before I agreed to participate in this project, I had already directed eljka as an actor and knew of her talent and her
artistic standards. However, while working with her on these wonderful
pieces, I became aware of her Serbian cultural heritage and developed a heartfelt connection to the plight of women everywhere who are subject to unjust
suffering.
As I guided eljka to create effective oral interpretations of these lyrical
ballads, in both Serbian and English, I was drawn into the rich tradition of
maternal wisdom that pervades these historic narratives, and I became deeply
moved by their timeless universality. I sincerely hope these remarkable re1

I would like to extend my thanks to Dr. Milka Andri for her contribution and support, as well
as to Bernadette Polich, who generously helped me edit and translate various versions of the
booklet, which unfortunately is not yet published.

Three Serbian Ballads from the Collection of Vuk Stefanovi Karadi

191

cordings will touch you as much as they have touched me and that you will
share your appreciation of them. By introducing others to their exceptional
beauty and wisdom, we can help ensure that they will never fade into
obscurity.

Closing Time in Sarajevo

Dr. Nele Karajli. Fajront u Sarajevu. Belgrade: Laguna/Veernje novosti,
2014. 379 pages
Reviewed by Svetozar Poti
Vilnius University, Lithuania
As in the case of the decade prior to the October Revolution in Russia, the last
ten years before the breakout of the civil war in the former Yugoslavia (1991
95) was a time of a unique cultural and artistic boom. Most critics would agree
that the leading art form in that Balkan swan song belonged to rock-and-roll.
Quite a few bands from the two most prominent cultural centers, Zagreb (Azra,
Film, Prljavo kazalite) and Belgrade (Elektrini orgazam, Riblja orba, Idoli),
reached enviable popularity across the entire nation during the 1980s, but the
central position, ideologically as well as geographically, belonged to Sarajevo,
that melting pot of South Slavic nations and religions and the epitome of Titos communist, non-aligned project. Imported from the West, Yugoslav rock
mostly echoed the sounds of U2, the Rolling Stones, Duran Duran, and Velvet
Underground. The Sarajevo music scene, nevertheless, begat perhaps the only
authentic movement in the region: New Primitivism.
The idea behind New Primitivism was mainly created by the manager of
the band Elvis J. Kurtovi and His Meteors and later Blue Orchestra (Plavi
Orkestar), Malcolm Muharem (Goran Mari), but it was most visibly carried
out by the band Zabranjeno Puenje (No Smoking) and the comedy troupe Nadrealisti (Surrealists). All were part of the same wide group of friends born in the
early 1960s, most of whom grew up in Koevo, an ethnically mixed high-rise
residential project on the sloping outskirts of the Bosnian capital. Nadrealisti
won over the local radio, then the nation-wide TV audiences with their humor
based on irreverence and absurdity. They parodied the backwardness of the
multi-ethnic central Yugoslav republic, the characteristic urban Sarajevo accent with a discernible Turkish lexical legacy, their love for football, and the
political bickering between the republics after Titos death. Zabranjeno Puenje
achieved its greatest success with songs about poor workers, pensioners, petty delinquents, and other people from the margins of society. In this respect,
Serbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 26 (12): 193
96, 2012.

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Svetozar Potic

their orientation corresponds with the poetics of Emir Kusturica, the bassist of
the group, who celebrated gypsies and other anti-heroes in his award-winning
films. The person who headed both the comedy troupe (together with Branko
Djuri-Djuro) and the band, as its singer and song co-writer, was Dr. Nele Karajli (born as Nenad Jankovi), who memorably ignited concert stages with his
famous exhibitionism and maniacal antics.
Considering the legendary status of his persona and the aura still surrounding the context that brought him to the fore, it is no wonder Karajlis turn to literature drew such an interest. His autobiography, or a tale about the city and the
epoch that made him into a star, adequately dubbed Closing Time in Sarajevo
(Fajront u Sarajevu), sold 20,000 copies in the first week after its appearance,
an unprecedented feat in such a small market as Serbia. Replete with political
commentary and expressive in its worldview, this tale of growing up in bliss before a catastrophe was bound to satisfy the rock stars former and present fans.
In his book Shake, Rattle and Roll: Yugoslav Rock Music and the Poetics of
Social Critique, Dalibor Miina argues that the driving force behind the music
of commitment was, although critical, a fundamentally constructive disposition towards the progressive ideal of socialist Yugoslavia.1 Brotherhood and
Unity, vehemently promoted by the president of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito
(199280), during his entire reign, represented for Karajli and his cohorts a
cradle of security and carelessness. Most Sarajevans did not suspect that the
propaganda used to cover up WWII crimes and promote new nations in the
country represented a folding screen placed in front of a powder keg bound
to blow up after Marshall Titos death and the loosening of the screws in a
system based on tight media and secret police control. Even though Karajlis
relationship with Tito is remembered through an infamous affair, lawsuit, and
denigration in the media, the singer/comedian-turned-writer recognizes the importance of the Tito cult in his life and dedicates a considerable space in the
book to this phenomenon. After a 1984 concert in Rijeka at which Karajli declared to the audience, Marshall croaked I mean the amplifier, Zabranjeno
Puenje was immediately taken off radio charts and rock magazine covers. The
statement, uttered in full consciousness, proved to be more an act of defiance
and rebelliousness than disdain for the deceased leader; Karajli even openly
declares his love for Tito. After describing the idyllic scene of his acceptance
to the Communist youth organization that coincided with the first snow, which
he adored, Karajli declares, So, how then can a man not love Tito?2 In the
1

Dalibor Miina, Shake, Rattle and Roll: Yugoslav Rock Music and the Poetics of Social Critique. (London: Ashgate, 2013), 17.
2
Dr. Nele Karajli, Fajront u Sarajevu (Belgrade: Laguna/Veernje Novosti, 2014), 228.

Closing Time in Sarajevo

195

present context, this sentence probably deliberately smacks of irony, but the
author tries his best to persuade us of the sincerity of his feelings.
Top lista Nadrealista (Surrealist Hit Parade) started out as a radio show in
Sarajevo in 1981 but turned into an extremely popular TV show (1st series in
1984, 2nd series in 1989, 3rd series in 1991). Karajli describes the birth of
the concept, the chemistry and routine among the members, the invitation to
continue the show on TV, and the ensuing reaction to the great popularity. The
rapturous reception of a sketch about a silly made-up game called Hrklju and
the character of a dressed-up woman, Minka, was most surprising.3 The unexpectedness of this success stimulated Karajli to ruminate about the fleeting and
seemingly arbitrary nature of a masterpiece. In retrospect, the astonishing approval of the series probably lies in the total spontaneity of its protagonists and
the nonchalant irony of the kids brought up in an atmosphere of comfort and
ease now facing inevitable instability and fratricide. The last series, broadcast
at the beginning of the civil conflict in Croatia, featured a few sketches about
the war, like the one about a wall dividing Sarajevo, which gave the troupe a
lasting reputation of being prophetic.
Suddenly becoming a Serb in a place increasingly oriented toward Islam
caught Karajli, a Yugoslav-oriented young man, by surprise. The band and the
troupe had to painfully and reluctantly discover each others nationality, and
those turned out to be diverse. Bosnians of mixed national origin had to choose
sides. The ethnic mixture that was once an asset now became not only a frailty,
but also a fatal danger. The majority dispersed in various directions; Karajli
fled to Belgrade with his wife and infant daughter only three days before the
start of violence. In an attempt to explain the origins of the conflict, he spends
quite a few pages contrasting socialism and capitalism, revealing his leftist tendencies, showing how ethnicity and faith have not reached the list of his top priorities to this date. In a typical Marxist fashion, he looks at the world in terms of
haves and have nots yet equates freedom and democracy to a utopian goal and
admits the inevitability of globalization, with all its materialistic decadence. He
is a deeply disappointed man, but after a heart attack he experienced in 2011,
which he uses as a fantastic backdrop for the story, he is grateful for the new life
he was awarded and enthusiastic about the new medium for artistic expression.
Sarajevo before the civil war still lingers in the imagination of the citizens
of the former Yugoslavia as a site of urban legends and the myth of careless detachment and unique merriment. Dr. Nele Karajli is perhaps the central figure
in that enduring fable. In his newfound endeavor, he found an effective way to

Ibid., 31617, 32122.

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Svetozar Potic

remind us of the bliss and tragedy, and to deepen the nostalgia for a time and
place that once was, no matter how utopian and artificial it may now seem.
svetozar.postic@gmail.com

The Krajina Serbs and the Role of Baron Mihajlo Mikainovic in

Austro-Hungarian Military Service as a Possible Historical
Framework for Milo Crnjanskis Novel Migrations*
Branko Mikasinovich
Ph.D., Voice of America

Two literary works, Milo Crnjanskis novel Migrations and Dr. Djuro Zatezalos biography Baron Mihajlo Mikainovi of Schlangenfeld (Mihajlo barun
Mikainovi od Zmijskog polja),1 provide an insight into the context of the
mid-18th-century lives of the Serbs in Austria-Hungary and the many-sided
aspects of their suffering. The key dimension of this struggle in both books is
found in Serbian military campaigns during Austro-Hungarian rule. As a literary concept, struggle is often encountered in family and professional relations, encouraging the idea of migration or an escape as an ultimate effort
in achieving change and happiness. In this brief study, the author will examine
how writer Crnjanski and biographer Zatezalo deal with these issues.
Acclaimed as one of the best 20th-century Serbian novels, Crnjanskis
masterpiece Migrations2 has a symbolic, genuine, universal, and timeless message, and migration itself is, as the English artist and author John Berger once
said, the quintessential experience of our time.3 Migration has changed human history on a grand scale, with populations mixing and co-existing and, in
the process, changing our habitat and civilization. Crnjanski wrote Migrations
in 1929, as if predicting what was to come by reiterating what was in the past,
because human history is, for him, an endless cycle of migrations.
Crnjanskis narrative deals with the destiny of two Serbian brothers, Vuk
and Arandjel Isakovi, who represent two different personalities and outlooks
on life.
*

The author would like to express his gratitude for editing assistance to Mr. Robert Pranger,
writer, editor, and former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense.
1
uro Zatezalo, Mihajlo barun Mikainovi od Zmijskog polja (Zagreb: Euroknijiga, 2011).
2
Milos Tsernianski [Milo Crnjanski], Migrations, trans. Michael Henry Heim (New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1994).
3
John Berger, And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos (London: Bloomsbury Publishing,
1984), 55.
Serbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 26 (12): 197
200, 2012

198

Branko Mikasinovich

Vuk is, like the main subject of Zatezalos biography, a patriot and a person
ready to sacrifice himself for his people and his faith. Both he and Mihajlo are
caught at the crossroads of two empires, the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman.
Vuk dreams of returning to a Serbia free from Ottoman domination, while
Mihajlo fights in Krajina for Serbian rights and survival and wants to stay
where he is. Krajina is his fatherland and homeland, while Vuk imagines if
he cannot return to a free Serbia, a New Serbia, he would rather migrate to a
remote Russia, where he will be able to retain his Orthodox faith and identity.
For Vuk, Russia is a vision of salvation, contrary to Austria-Hungary, where his
faith and nationality are in constant jeopardy.
Vuks brother Arandjel represents another view: he is a merchant who belongs to a new civic class, who does not long to return to Serbia and wishes
to remain a successful businessman in Austria-Hungary. He is attached to an
enlightened Europe, a progressive and civilized continent. Arandjel takes amiss
military force and everything based on traditional life and faith. The two brothers are faced with a choice: to stay, which Arandjel is inclined to do, and lose
their faith and identity, or leave for a promised landRussiawhich Vuk believes to be the only place that can substitute for Serbia.
Baron Mikainovi found himself in a similar situation as the two protagonists in Crnjanskis novel. He is a historic, authentic person, depicted in
Zatezalos biography as an educated and accomplished Krajina Serb who is
representative of the Serbian elite of his time. Mihajlo spoke several languages and was dedicated to his military calling, serving superbly Empress Maria
Theresa, but at the same time, doing whatever he could to protect and help his
Serbian people. Mikainovi, like Vuk Isakovi, lived in the mid-18th century
and participated in wars waged by Austria-Hungary throughout Europe. Born
into a well-to-do family of nobility (whose title was introduced at the Croatian parliament in 1658, in the Sabor article 18), Mihajlo was educated at the
military academy in Vienna, and upon completing his education, he joined the
Austro-Hungarian armed forces.
During his career, he ascended to the ranks of General and Baron. Mihajlo
was the first Serb ever to be awarded the noble title of Baron without rejecting
his Orthodox faith and becoming a Catholic. Empress Maria Theresa bestowed
this honor on him in Vienna, in the year 1760. Both rank and title were awarded
for exceptional military achievements. Concurrently with his services to the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, he helped build Serbian churches and monasteries,
as did Vuk Isakovi. When Mikainovi openly stood on the side of his people
at the Serbian church assembly in Sremski Karlovci in 1769 and voted for a
pro-Serb bishop, Danilo Jaki, instead of Viennas candidate, he was rebuked
by Maria Theresas court officials and eventually forced to retire from the army,

Baron Mihajlo Mikainovic 199

only to return to Vienna, where he died disillusioned. Mikainovi was a great,

and some say tragic, historic figure, a person who personified deep national
convictions.
Similarities between Mikainovi and Vuk Isakovi are noteworthy. Both
of them were active in the Austro-Hungarian military in the mid-18th century,
when Crnjanskis novel takes place; both are high-ranking Austro-Hungarian
officers and Serbs of Orthodox faith; and both are patriots who looked for ways
to preserve their identity and that of their people. They rejected conversion to
Catholicism, and both strived for the betterment of the Serbs. But there is also
one key differenceMikainovi was an actual living person and Vuk Isakovi
a fictional character.
Taking into consideration these similarities, can we assume that Crnjanskis fictional character Vuk was in some ways based on the life and personality
of Mikainovi? By the time Crnjanski wrote his novel, historical facts about
Mikainovi were well known, and he was already a subject of writings and his
countrymens oral interpretations. In Crnjanskis Migrations as well as Zatezalos Baron Mihajlo Mikainovi of Schlangenfeld, we also witness a number
of similar or identical characters, such as Serbian bishop Nenadovi, and extensive descriptions of specific rapports between Serbian military officials and
Austrian military and nobility, including the names of regiments, not identical
but geographically very close or overlapping, for example, the Karlovac-Varadin regiment or the Danube-Slavonian regiment.4
Like Vuk, who had a merchant brother, Mihajlo also had close relatives
who were merchants and focused more on business and less on national issues.
In addition, the idea of Vuks patriotism could have been predicated on Mikainovis personality and his clan. In fact, the latter, as members of Austria-Hungarys military, moved and fought constantly, as did Vuk, while at the same
time defending Serbian causes. At one point, out of 40 members of Mikainovis clan who held various high ranks in the military, 20 died fighting for
Austrian interests.
Mikainovi might have been an inspiration not only for Crnjanskis main
character, Vuk, but also for the content of the novel related to wars and family
relations, which are traced through three lives, those of Vuk Isakovi, his wife
Dafina, and brother Arandjel. Mikainovis life is linked with his clan and his
two wives, as was Vuks, although not much is known about Mihajlos spouses,
except that his second wife was the young and elegant Ana, daughter of the
commander of the Brod regiment, Mihajlo Prodanovi, also a member of the
nobility.
4

Philip Haythornthwaite, The Austrian Army 174080 (London: Osprey Publishing, 1995),
1219, D and F.

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Branko Mikasinovich

Aside from exceptional descriptions of a soldiers hard and challenging life

and conflicts across Europes frontiers, Crnjanski offers brilliant psychological descriptions of all three personalities in his novel, particularly the brother
Arandjel and Vuks wife Dafina, whose affair with her brother-in-law precipitates an unsuccessful abortion and her early death. A neurotic and tortured
woman, Dafina loves her husband but feels abandoned and neglected, and as
such, falls victim to the relentless pursuit and obsessive attention of Arandjel.
Her infidelity is shown to arise out of the frustration of always being left behind as a woman, waiting for her man and powerless to act, as pointed out by
a reviewer in Londons daily Guardian.5 In fact, all three characters are in a
constant state of waiting: Vuk is waiting to end perpetual border crossings, dislocations, and fighting; his wife Dafina is waiting for her husbands return; and
Arandjel for resolution of his precarious personal life. The solution for all three
of Crnjanskis main characters seems to be an escape: for Vuk, departure from
military life, for Dafina, to sever the relationship with her brother-in-law, and
for Arandjel, to elude his brother. The getaway for Vuk is the constant dream
of migrating to a Russia that he idealizes. At one point in his conversation with
a Catholic bishop, Vuk says, I pray to God the Creator to show me the way to
Russia. RussiaR for Resurrection, U for the Universe, S for the Slavs, S for
Salvation, I for the Immortality of Christ and A,6 but he does not finish
his thought, as if suspecting that his Russian journey will never take place.
None of the characters accomplished their goals: Vuk stays in Serbia, Dafina
dies, and Vuks brother Arandjel ends up in Austria-Hungary, while Baron Mikainovi concludes his last years discontented in Vienna.
What then is the overwhelming impression we are left with upon reading
Crnjanskis novel and Mikainovis biography? As regards Migrations, we are
overcome with a feeling of a truly tragic novel written in dramatic form, whose
main personages possess fatal flaws of character. Nevertheless, it is a work of
poetic and epic beauty, in spite of the gloomy descriptions of lifes hardships
and often disastrous human choices. On the other hand, Zatezalos book on
Baron Mikainovi is a documentary, a factual work with incisive and historic
revelations about distinguished Serbs in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, their
lives, struggles, and aspirations.
bmikasinovich@gmail.com

5
6

Kate Webb, Milos Tsernianski, Migrations, The Guardian (London), 13 December 1994.
Tsernianski, Migrations, 47.

Book Review
Ivana Milankov. Dinner with Fish and Mirrors [Veera sa ribom i ogledalima].
Trans. Zorica Petrovi and James Sutherland-Smith. Todmorden: Arc Publications, 2013. 115 pgs ISBN 978--1904614-78-4
Reviewed by Biljana D. Obradovi
Xavier University of Louisiana
The well-established Serbian poet, retired English high school teacher, and
translator Ivana Milankov, author of seven collections of poems and a dream diary poetical prose book, who studied with Ann Waldman and Alan Ginsberg at
Naropa Institute near Bolder, Colorado, has put together a collection of poems
which are difficult to categorize, except to say that they are connected to Modernism informed by classical and religious culture, as Sutherland-Smith
says in his introduction (although he cites critics of Milankov, he also includes
unnecessary material like the fact that Hadrian was thought to be a homosexual,
which has nothing to do with Milankovs poems and thus confuses readers).
The collection, which is not divided into sections, contains 43 facing-page
translations from the Serbian into British English, which are well done for the
most part, except for a few poems, like Requiem, in which the translators
translate sav je od kamila as it is a caravanserai (71), when it should be
something like [the mind] is made of camels or one with camels. These
lyrical poems, mostly narrated in first person, are persona poems in the voice of
Roman emperor Hadrian or in that of an imagined, unidentified person. Their
dream-like quality has many recurring motifs like glass, sand, wind, mirrors,
dreams, silk and deserts, to name a few. Milankov mentions names of people and places that were important to the ancient worldfor instance, Thrace,
Babylon, Persia, Crete, Galicia, Alps, Tashkent, Sinai, Mediterranean, Cassandra, Mt. Etna, Pompeii, Damascus, Rome, and Egyptand alludes to historical
texts as well as imagined events.
Her poems are in free verse, and she uses anaphora a great deal, along with
repetitions and refrains. She free associates and puts together words that would
normally not go together as metaphors, similes, and mixed metaphors, as in
An Extra Dimension, where she says,

Serbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 26 (12): 2012,
2012.

202

Biljana D. Obradovi

The spirit is leaving the mirror.

At the bottom of my blood sphinxes await me.
The surrounding moisture offers its ego to me.
The mind comes from the sea,
as damp as madness. (19)
The only poem that does not fit the book is 36: The Richmond Bus, which
is in the third person and about an actual person, a black woman she sees on the
bus. She seems to try to relate the experience to the rest of the book by mentioning enslavement and Spartacus, but it seems a bit forced or too politicized.
Another poem, Call Me Atlantis, is narrated in the second person, you. Do
we need to know what is happening in the poems? Perhaps, but what we get is
being in the minds of the ancients and experiencing what Milankov imagines
they went through.
Overall, the collection is the work of an imaginative poet who surprises
and delights taking us to an ancient world and making that world closer to us.

On the Patriarchal Idyll of Literary Historiography

Serbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 23
(2): 2009.

Reviewed by Dubravka Bogutovac

Faculty of Philosophy
University of Zagreb, Croatia

In the old family and the wider communal family he sees an ideal, harmonious human community, in which each individual finds
safety and security. It can easily solve all the difficulties arising
either from sinful inclinations of human nature, or from individual beliefs that deviate from the unwritten norms of collective morality. Each sheep that lost its way has its shepherd who will find
it, and bring it back to the flock. A man who devoted himself to a
disastrous passion, for example, gambling, a spoiled, headstrong
woman who does not care about anything, an irrepressible boy,
rejected by the society and thrown out of school, can not and
must not fall into ruin, because as soon as they find themselves
on the edge of a precipice, they will always find a saving hand
that will keep them from falling, and bring them back into the lap
of community, where joy and general forgiveness awaits them.
Conservative, closed in itself, the community will be open even
to a foreigner as soon as he testifies his national and human
values. The collective morality and family feeling of brotherhood
and solidarity with everybodythese are the values that are the
foundations of the patriarchal community.

-Jovan Dereti on Laza Lazarevi, Kratka istorija srpske

knjievnosti [A Short History of Serbian Literature]

Since 1980, the journal Serbian Studies has been published in the U.S. under
the auspices of the North American Society for Serbian Studies. A few years
ago the journal published a special issue dedicated to Laza Lazarevi (1851
Serbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 26 (12): 2037,
2012.

204

Dubravka Bogutovac

91), a Serbian physician and writer who published eight short stories during his
life. His literary legacy includes a few other stories, some of which were left
unfinished. Lazarevis short stories were originally published in magazines,
and in 1886 they were published as a book entitled est pripovedaka (Six Short
Stories). They included the stories To Matins with Father for the First Time,
The School Icon, Well Done, Robbers!, At the Well, Werther, and The People
Will Reward All of This. After this book, Lazarevi published only two short
stories: The Wind and He Knows it All. Seven years after his death, in 1898, his
story The German Girl was published, which the editors reconstructed from
fragments of his legacy.
In Serbian literary historiography, Lazarevi is known as the founder of the
Serbian psychological short story. In the preface of this special issue of Serbian
Studies, the author Svetlana Tomi starts from the assumption that Lazarevis
contribution to Serbian literature and culture can be identified and character
ized by its subversion of patriarchal ideas, which, at the time, signified a bold
and risky venture. More than a century later, Lazarevis stories are still an
integral part of the primary and secondary education curriculum, as well as
the study program of Serbian literature. For example, the story To Matins with
Father for the First Time is included in the program implemented in secondary
schools and is also studied at the university level. Tomi holds the belief that
the fictional aspect of this story has not yet been evaluated in its full potential
form, but rather, subjectively interpreted through the prism of longstanding
interpretive norms. This review aims to offer an alternative interpretation of
this Lazarevi story.
The research Tomi conducted in order to publish this issue is part of her
ongoing effort to incorporate the concept of feminism in reading strategies of
Serbian culture. She claims that the exclusion and misinterpretation of female
characters is a process comparable to the exclusion of female authors from the
literary canonboth acts are associated with the reductionist construction of
Serbian realism and the manipulative strategies of authority. This exclusion
leads to the incorrect assumption that there were no female authors, or that their
creative work made no impact. Such misconstrued insight obstructs the possibility of a deeper understanding of Serbian realist fiction. Therefore, Tomi
compares Lazarevis stories with stories of his contemporaries and arrives at
the conclusion that the academic literary canon was determined by political
rather than aesthetic criteriamore precisely, that Serbian academic literary
historiography suffers from misogyny.
Despite these facts, the author points out that the real problem of understanding Lazarevis prose lies neither in the reductionist interpretation nor in

On the Patriarchal Idyll of Literary Historiography 205

the misogyny of the critics; it results from the intercultural transmission of

inadequately taught Serbian literature and inaccurate English translations.
The main theme that links the articles of this issue is the questioning of the
usual attitude towards Lazarevi as a defender of patriarchy. For over a hundred
years, this attitude has dominated the discourse of the academic, institution
alized literary historiography, as well as public opinion. The absence of a critical review of knowledge of those in authority in the scientific community has
strengthened the confidence in that knowledge, even though it is only part of
the subjective structures and ideological manipulation, as stated by Tomi. Her
articles offer a new interpretation of Laza Lazarevis story To Matins with
Father for the First Time, but also a new understanding of the importance of
his work as a whole. She believes that the attitude which the academic literary
historiography has had for over a hundred years, with which Lazarevi defends
and idealizes patriarchy, is simply not true. In this collection of articles, the
importance of Lazarevis work can be seen in his view of the problem within
the patriarchal system, which causes suffering among women and children. In
Lazarevis stories, such truths come to light through the testimony of sons and
mature men, and these male figures reflect on their subconscious battle with
the patriarchal system, whose privileges they inherited purely through virtue
of their gender.
The story To Matins with Father for the First Time was chosen for analysis
because, for the first time in Serbian prose, the character of the son admits his
own negative attitude towards his father. In this story, the son, Mia, does not
depict his father, Mitar, the key patriarchal figure, as the head of the family in
the moral and human(istic) sense, but as a tyrant (as Lazarevi argues). While
he admits that, Mia constantly contrasts his mother, Marica, with his father.
Due to the patriarchal system, Marica is reduced to a slave and condemned
to suffering, despite being more intelligent than and morally superior to her
husband. The character Mia reveals the conflict between the patriarchal power
of his father and his abuse of authority. The importance of the mother figure
is stressed as the embodiment of morality, responsibility, and care for others,
while Mitar is viewed as in a veiled position of power, behind which lies violence and tyrannical selfishness.
Tomi analyzes another one of Lazarevis stories, Mother, which has rarely been published, and Tomi finds relevance in its testimony to the mothers
influence on the son (which is depicted in a more intimate way than in the story
To Matins with Father for the First Time). Both stories are of great cultural
significance, especially because, in this period of time, very few writers of Serbian literature, especially short stories (even Serbian feminists), focused their
attention on the problem of the mother influencing and shaping the character

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Dubravka Bogutovac

of her male children, who will become the legitimate representatives of the
patriarchal society. Because of this inversion of focus of mother-and-son relationships versus father-and-son relationships, as well as a deep understanding
of women as sort of moral guides, Lazarevis story is far ahead of its time,
according to Tomi.
In eight articles of this special issue, Tomi examines Lazarevis prose
through various aspects, including its reception. First of all, she focuses on the
ways in which Lazarevi is present and how his works are read during the 20th
century in academic circles (especially in literary historiography), and opens up
new possibilities for reading and different interpretations, starting with the text
of Lazarevi, which she carefully reads again. Furthermore, she questions the
methodology that is used to approach Lazarevis story To Matins with Father
for the First Time in high school and university textbooks. The third article
deals with power relations and the rhetoric of gender politics, and the text that
follows it discusses the weakened position of the father as the key figure in this
patriarchal society. The author pays particular attention to the analysis of this
storys English translationshe lists a multitude of examples showing where
the patriarchal interpretive norm impinges on the area of translation. Another important aspect of this Lazarevi story is addressed herethe problem of
epiphany between the mother and the sonand an alternate interpretation of
the storys end is offered. Furthermore, the author examines the established
interpretation of Maricas character in the story. The final article of this issue
deals with Lazarevis confession to his own mother, which is depicted in his
story Mother.
This interpretive project is a remarkable contribution to literary historiography, and its significance is severalfold. Reading of this special issue of Serbian Studies evidences the vitality of feminist criticism and its ability to depict
the contemporariness of a classic such as Lazarevi. To anyone who deals with
Lazarevis work todaywhether a student of Serbian literature, someone who
teaches it to students, or someone who writes about itthis research will be
a great treasure because it gives a comprehensive overview of what has been
written about Lazarevi, as well as a critical reflection of that work, comprising
more than one century. I can attest from my experience (here comes the first
personafter all, this is a feminist theme!) that reading Lazarevis stories with
students of Serbian studies in the last few years has shown that the attitudes of
Serbian literary historians about some of his work surprise contemporary male
and female readers. This arises out of the fact that there is as much patriarchal
idyll in Lazarevis work as there are female writers in Deretis Short History
of Serbian Literature.

On the Patriarchal Idyll of Literary Historiography 207

The only serious criticism of this important issue is related to the article
Relations of Power and the Rhetoric of Gender Politics, in which the author
points out, It is very important to follow how, from the beginning of the story,
the son creates a contrast in the way he portrays his parents. On the one side
is his indirect definition of the father as strange, cruel, irrational, and weird
that is, as negative and unacceptableand on the other, there is the mother,
described as a character with positive and desirable values. The story develops
largely through the deterioration of patriarchal values materialized in the father,
which makes Deretis interpretation irrelevant. This story does not present
a patriarchal pastoral or small town idyll since it does not contain anything
idyllic (243). We agree with this last view; there is no question of patriarchal
idyll, possibly even patriarchal grotesque, but the statement at the beginning of
the quote, in which the character of the son/narrator indirectly defines his own
fathers negative characteristics, may require some extension. A careful reading
of the story supports somewhat different conclusions, which further complicate
the interpretation: in several places the narrator uses strategies to justify his
father and reduce his coldness, rudeness, and coarseness. For example, the son/
narrator says: He did love us, the children, as well as Mother; this can be seen,
but he was too strict with us.1 Or: He wanted Mother to sleep even when she
was not sleepy so that he could go on a drinking spree without any worries. It
did hurt him, that can be seen.2 The question raised by these statements is who
is thisthis meaning what can supposedly be seen hereintended for?
For the reader or the implicit author, as a self-referential reminder revealing this author? What does can be seen actually mean? Who sees it? Why
does the narrator conclude that love and care can be seen although he narrates
something other than love and care? Is it an expression of loyalty to a dominant
parent? Can we talk about the split subject of first-person narration? These are
only some of the questions that the new reading of Lazarevis prose provokes.
Hopefully we will not have to wait another hundred years to have a new special
issue of a journal dedicated to this great writer, and hopefully no one will have
to deal with proving the thesis that a woman who mustnt light a candle in the
darkness does not live in a patriarchal idyll.

Laza K. Lazarevi, Dela, Srpska knjievnost u sto knjiga, bk. 32 (Novi Sad: Matica srpska,
1970), 96.
2

Ibid., 97.