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Grassroots Groups, Milošević or Dissident Intellectuals? A Controversy over the Origins and Dynamics of the Mobilisation of Kosovo Serbs in the 1980s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Nebojša Vladisavljević
Nebojša Vladisavljević*
Affiliation:
Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science, N.Vladisavljevic@lse.ac.uk
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Extract

The mobilisation of Kosovo Serbs, barely noticeable from the capital initially but highly visible at the centre political stage between 1986 and 1988, played an important part in the political struggles of the late socialist Yugoslavia. The prevailing view in the literature is that Kosovo Serbs were little more then passive recipients of the attitudes and actions of high officials and dissident intellectuals. The elite thesis says that Belgrade-based dissident intellectuals initiated and guided the mobilisation of Kosovo Serbs, aiming to undermine the party's approach to Yugoslavia's national question and to initiate reassessment of the official policy on Kosovo and Serb–Albanian relations. According to the thesis, Milošević then took over and orchestrated the action of various groups of Kosovo Serbs in order to make the case for the removal of Kosovo's autonomy. The intellectuals and Milošević have generally supported this interpretation, claiming their role in the events leading to the constitutional change to the disadvantage of Kosovo Albanians in 1989–1990.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , December 2004 , pp. 781 - 796
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 Association for the Study of Nationalities of Eastern Europe 

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References

Notes

1. See for example Laura Silber and Allan Little, The Death of Yugoslavia (London: Penguin and BBC, 1996), pp. 34–47, 58–59; Tim Judah, Kosovo: War and Revenge (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), pp. 47–55; Noel Malcolm, Kosovo: A Short History (New York: New York University Press, 1998), pp. 339–343; and Julie A. Mertus, Kosovo: How Myths and Truths Started a War (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), Chapter 2.Google Scholar

2. Ivan Stambolić, Put u bespuće: odgovori Ivana Stambolića na pitanja Slobodana Inića (Belgrade: Radio B92, 1995), pp. 165–180.Google Scholar

3. Nebojša Vladisavljević, “Nationalism, Social Movement Theory and the Grass Roots Movement of Kosovo Serbs, 1985–1988,” Europe–Asia Studies, Vol. 54, No. 5, 2002, pp. 771–190.Google Scholar

4. It is hard to establish the scale of inequalities between 1966 and 1981, since this was an official taboo. After 1981, however, credible evidence from official reports provided insight into the forms and pervasiveness of the inequalities. See, for example, excerpts from the report of the working group of the Federal Assembly in “Tačno i netačno: nijesu Albanci, no nepravda,” Intervju, 11 April 1986, pp. 38–45, and “Ispitano i provereno,” NIN, 13 April 1986. The evidence should not be confused with Milošević's propaganda in the following years. For the latter see Srdja Popović, Ivan Jankovič, Vesna Pešić, Nataša Kandić and Svetlana Slapšak, Kosovski čvor: drešiti ili seći? (Belgrade: Hronos, 1990).Google Scholar

5. Calculated from the figures for Serbs and Montenegrins from Jugoslavija 1918–1988: statistički godišnjak (Belgrade: Savezni zavod za statistiku, 1989), p. 48. Montenegrins, who comprised less than 15% of this section of Kosovo's population, saw the Serb identity as more inclusive, shared with all Serbs.Google Scholar

6. See Srdjan Bogosavljević, “A Statistical Picture of Serbian–Albanian Relations”, in Dušan Janjić and Shkelzen Maliqi, eds, Conflict or Dialogue: Serbian–Albanian Relations and Integration of the Balkans (Subotica, Yugoslavia: Open University & European Civil Centre for Conflict Resolution, 1994), p. 23, and Ruža Petrović and Marina Blagojević, The Migrations of Serbs and Montenegrins from Kosovo and Metohija: Results of the Survey Conducted in 1985–1986 (Belgrade: SANU, 1992), pp. 82–85.Google Scholar

7. Petrović and Blagojević, The Migrations of Serbs and Montenegrins, pp. 85–92, 100–104, 111–173.Google Scholar

8. Miloš Sekulović, interview with the author, Belgrade, 18 August 2000. For details see Zejnel Zejneli, Ko je izdao revoluciju (Priština: Jedinstvo, 1988), pp. 74–105, p. 12.Google Scholar

9. Aleksandar Tijanić, Šta će biti s nama (Zagreb: Globus, 1988), pp. 130–131, p. 2.Google Scholar

10. For an account of one of the meetings see excerpts from the diary of Draža Marković in Mirko Djekić, Upotreba Srbije: optužbe i priznanja Draže Markovića (Belgrade: Besede, 1990), pp. 209–210.Google Scholar

11. Boško Budimirović and Miroslav Šolević, interviews with the author, Belgrade, 15 and 17 July 2001, respectively.Google Scholar

12. Boško Budimirović and Miroslav Šolević, interviews with the author, and Dušan Ristić in Miloš Antić, “Srbija nema rešenje za Kosovo,” Borba, 11 February 1993, p. 13.Google Scholar

13. “Zahtevi 2016 stanovnika Kosova,” Književne novine , 15 December 1985, p. 2. The expression “ethnically clean” comes from the petition.Google Scholar

14. For details see Vladisavljević, “Nationalism, Social Movement Theory and the Grass Roots Movement of Kosovo Serbs”, pp. 772–773.Google Scholar

15. See, for example, “Šta je ko rekao u Kosovu Polju: stenografske beleške razgovora u noći 24. i 25. IV 1987,” Borba, 8, 9–10 and 11 May 1987, p. 17.Google Scholar

16. Boško Budimirović, Miroslav Šolević and Bogdan Kecman, interviews with the author, Belgrade, 15 and 17 July 2001 and 29 August 2000 respectively.Google Scholar

17. See “Šta su Kosovci rekli u Skupštini,” NIN, 23 and 30 March and 6 and 13 April 1986; and “Šta je ko rekao u Kosovu Polju”, pp. 1–18.Google Scholar

18. Miroslav Šolević and Boško Budimirović, interviews with the author. See also Dobrica Ćosić, Piščevi zapisi, 1981–1991 (Belgrade: Filip Višnjić, 2002), pp. 169–170, 186–188.Google Scholar

19. Cosić, Piščevi zapisi , pp. 169–170.Google Scholar

20. Boško Budimirović and Miroslav Šolević, interviews with the author.Google Scholar

21. For details on the views and action of the intellectuals in relation to Kosovo see Jasna Dragović-Soso, “Saviours of the Nation”: Serbia's Intellectual Opposition and the Revival of Nationalism (London: Hurst, 2002), Chapter 3. For the text of the intellectuals' petition see “Zahtev za pravnim poretkom na Kosovu,” in Aleksa Djilas, ed., Srpsko pitanje (Belgrade: Politika, 1991), pp. 260–261.Google Scholar

22. Miroslav Šolević, interview with the author.Google Scholar

23. Ibid.Google Scholar

24. Boško Budimirović, interview with the author.Google Scholar

25. Vladisavljević, “Nationalism, Social Movement Theory and the Grass Roots Movement of Kosovo Serbs,” p. 774.Google Scholar

26. Nebojša Vladisavljević, “Institutional Power and the Rise of Milošević,” Nationalities Papers, Vol. 32, No. 1, 2004, pp. 183–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

27. Draža Marković, interview with the author, Belgrade, 16 August 2000.Google Scholar

28. Boško Budimirović, Miroslav Šolević and Bogdan Kecman, interviews with the author, and Dušan Ristić in Antić, “Srbija nema rešenje za Kosovo.”Google Scholar

29. The author's copy of the petition. See excerpts in “Iz peticije 50.000 potpisnika,” Danas, 5 July 1988, p. 23.Google Scholar

30. Boško Budimirović and Miroslav Šolević, interviews with the author, and Mićo Šparavalo, a prominent activist, in Sava Kerčov, Jovo Radoš and Aleksandar Raič, Mitinzi u Vojvodini 1988. godine: radjanje političkog pluralizma (Novi Sad: Dnevnik, 1990), pp. 243–244.Google Scholar

31. See Darko Hudelist, Kosovo: bitka bez iluzija (Zagreb: Centar za informacije i publicitet, 1989), pp. 153–221.Google Scholar

32. Stevan Marinković and Migo Samardžić, prominent activists, in Kerčov et al, Mitinzi u Vojvodini , pp. 229–220, 241.Google Scholar

33. Marjan Korošić, Jugoslavenska kriza (Zagreb: Naprijed, 1988), p. 63.Google Scholar

34. See the table showing the numbers of strikes and participants in strikes in Yugoslavia between 1978 and 1988 in Salih Fočo, Štrajk izmedju iluzije i zbilje (Belgrade: Radnička štampa, 1989), p. 62.Google Scholar

35. Neca Jovanov, Radnički štrajkovi u SFRJ od 1958. do 1969. godine (Belgrade: Zapis, 1979), p. 75.Google Scholar

36. For details see Tijanić, Šta će biti s nama , p. 128.Google Scholar

37. James Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990).Google Scholar