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Nikola Ožegović, PhD
Na­ti­o­nal Re­se­arch Uni­ver­sity, Hig­her Sc­ho­ol of Eco­no­mics, Moscow, Russian Federation

 

THE STRUGGLE AGAINST “SERBIAN NATIONALISM” AND THE POLITICAL PERSECUTION OF SERBIAN INTELLECTUALS IN BANJA LUKA IN THE 1970s AND 1980s

Vol. XLIII, 1/2025, pp. 197-218
https://doi.org/10.29362/ist20veka.2025.1.oze.197-218

 

ABSTRACT/RESUME:

The pa­per shows how in the area of ​​Ba­nja Lu­ka (Bo­snia and Her­ze­go­vi­na) the Le­a­gue of Com­mu­nists of Yugo­sla­via (LCY) and the sta­te aut­ho­ri­ti­es fo­ught aga­inst what was as­ses­sed as “Ser­bi­an na­ti­o­na­lism” wit­hin the ide­o­logy of the ru­ling party, du­ring the last two de­ca­des of the Yugo­slav sta­te. The ide­o­lo­gi­cal ba­sis, con­text and po­li­ti­cal and so­ci­al mechanism of the per­se­cu­ti­on of Ser­bi­an in­tel­lec­tu­als in the area of ​​Ba­nja Lu­ka, the re­gi­o­nal cen­ter of Bo­sni­an Kra­ji­na, which was mos­tly po­pu­la­ted by Serbs, are pre­sen­ted. The term “Serbi­an na­ti­o­na­lism” me­ant not only free di­scus­si­ons, pu­blic or pri­va­te, abo­ut po­li­ti­cal and so­ci­al is­su­es “from the Ser­bi­an po­int of view”, which dif­fe­red from the of­fi­ci­al ide­o­lo­gi­cal and po­li­ti­cal plat­form of the LCY, but al­so the me­re emp­ha­sis of the Ser­bi­an na­ti­o­nal and cul­tu­ral iden­tity out­si­de the of­fi­ci­al, fixed and only al­lowed ma­tri­ces. Al­most all ac­cu­sa­ti­ons of “Serbian na­ti­o­na­lism” in the Ba­nja Lu­ka area were ac­com­pa­ni­ed by ac­cu­sa­ti­ons of denying the Mu­slim na­ti­on and emp­ha­si­zing the thre­at of Serbs by Mu­slims. Al­so, it is ob­vi­o­us that it was for­bid­den and po­li­ti­cally very dan­ge­ro­us to hig­hlight the fact that the Ser­bi­an pe­o­ple ma­de by far the gre­a­test con­tri­bu­ti­on in the Na­ti­o­nal Li­be­ra­ti­on Strug­gle (1941–1945), com­pa­red to other pe­o­ples in Bo­snia and Her­ze­go­vi­na. The que­sti­on of re­se­arc­hing and hig­hligh­ting the ge­no­ci­de of the In­de­pen­dent Sta­te of Cro­a­tia aga­inst the Serbs was al­so sen­si­ti­ve. At the newly fo­un­ded Uni­ver­sity in Ba­nja Lu­ka, only mem­bers of the te­ac­hing staff of Ser­bi­an na­ti­o­na­lity were per­se­cu­ted. In the pe­ri­od from 1976–1986, six such ca­ses were re­cor­ded. The po­li­ti­cal mec­ha­nism of per­se­cu­ti­on re­li­ed on the of­fi­ci­al ide­o­logy and ri­gid laws of the one-party totalita­ri­an sta­te, whi­le the mo­ti­ves of the whis­tle­blowers and the per­se­cu­tors were dif­fe­rent, inc­lu­ding tho­se of a com­ple­tely per­so­nal na­tu­re. Re­se­arch on po­li­ti­cal per­se­cu­ti­ons in Bo­snia and Her­ze­go­vi­na shows that the Yugo­slav and espe­ci­ally Bo­sni­an so­ci­ety fa­i­led to re­ach the requi­red le­vel of po­li­ti­cal and so­ci­al co­he­si­on and that the re­a­sons for the war con­flicts and the di­vi­si­on of Bo­snia and Her­ze­go­vi­na in the 1990s co­uld ha­ve be­en fo­re­se­en much ear­li­er.

 

KEYWORDS: “Ser­bi­an na­ti­o­na­lism”, po­li­ti­cal af­fa­irs, po­li­ti­cal pri­so­ners, in­tel­lec­tu­als, Le­a­gue of Com­mu­nists of Yugo­sla­via, Ba­nja Lu­ka, Bo­snia and Her­ze­go­vi­na, Uni­ver­sity of Ba­nja Lu­ka

 

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