Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T16:26:14.614Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Yugoslav National Idea Under Socialism: What Happens When a Soft Nation-Building Project Is Abandoned?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2020

Tomaž Ivešić Open the ORCID record for Tomaž Ivešić [Opens in a new window]
Tomaž Ivešić*
Affiliation:
Department of History and Civilization, European University Institute, Firenze, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Following Stalin’s interpretations of the Lenin’s thesis on the merging of the nations, the Yugoslav communists first needed to “push” all nations to the same level of development. After the Tito-Stalin split in 1948, the soft Yugoslav nation-building project was accelerated. During the 1950s, national Yugoslavism was stimulated in a latent way through language, culture, censuses, and changes in the constitutional and socialist system. By the end of the 1950s, the Yugoslav socialist national idea reached its peak with the 1958 Party Congress. Nevertheless, with the economic crisis in the early 1960s, and the famous Ćosić-Pirjevec debate on Yugoslavism, the Yugoslav national idea declined. This was evident on the level of the personal, national identifications of the Party members, but also in the ideological shift of the Party’s chief ideologue Edvard Kardelj. Yet, the concept of Yugoslavism was redefined in the second half of the 1960s without ethnic or national connotations. Two Yugoslavisms were created: a socialist one propagated by the Party and a national one that lived among the population in small proportions. Although the Yugoslavs were never recognized as a nation, that did not stop them from publicly advocating for their national rights.

Keywords

nationalismnation-buildingcommunistSoutheastern Europenational identity
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 142 - 161
Check for updates
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Anderson, Benedict. 1983. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Bakarić, Vladimir. 1983. Socijalistički samoupravni sistem i društvena reprodukcija: druga knjiga. Zagreb: Informator.Google Scholar
Bakić, Jovo. 2011. “Jugoslovenstvo Josipa Broza Tita: kontinuitet ili diskontinuitet?” In Tito - viđenja i tumačenja: zbornik radova, edited by Pintar, Olga Manojlović, 43–56. Beograd: Inst. za Noviju Istoriju Srbije.Google Scholar
Banac, Ivo. 1984. The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Banac, Ivo. 1988. With Stalin against Tito: Cominformist Splits in Yugoslav Communism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Banac, Ivo. 1990. “Political Change and National Diversity.” Daedalus 119 (1): 141–159.Google Scholar
Banac, Ivo. 1991. Hrvatsko jezično pitanje. Zagreb: Mladost.Google Scholar
Bašić, Nataša. 2007. “Ljudevit Jonke i jugoslavenski jezični unitarizam.” Jezik: časopis za kulturo hrvatskog književnog jezika 54 (5): 161–173.Google Scholar
Brunnbauer, Ulf, and Grandits, Hannes. 2013. “The Ambiguous Nation: Socialist and Post-Socialist Nation-Building in Southeastern Europe in Perspective.” In The Ambiguous Nation: Case Studies from Southeastern Europe in the 20th Century, edited by Brunnbauer, Ulf and Grandits, Hannes, 9–42. München: Oldenbourg Verlag.Google Scholar
Bulajić, Milan. 1964. Šta je nacija? Beograd: Jugoslovensko udruženje za medjunarodno pravo.Google Scholar
Connor, Walker. 1984. The National Question in Marxist-Leninist Theory and Strategy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ćosić, Dobrica. 2000. Piščevi zapisi (1951-1968). Belgrade: Filip Višnjić.Google Scholar
Cosovschi, Agustín. 2015. “Between the Nation and Socialism in Yugoslavia. The Debate between Dobrica Ćosić and Dušan Pirjevec in the 1960s.” Slovanský přehled 101 (2): 41–65.Google Scholar
Čulinović, Ferdo. 1955. Nacionalno pitanje u jugoslavenskim zemljama: Historijat njegovog razvitka. Zagreb: Pravni fakultet u zagrebu.Google Scholar
Čulinović, Ferdo. 1962. Tri etape nacionalnog pitanja u jugoslovenskim zemljama. Zagreb: JAZU.Google Scholar
Djilas, Aleksa. 1991. The Contested Country: Yugoslav Unity and Communist Revolution, 1919–1953. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Đokić, Dejan. 2010. Nedostižni kompromis: srpsko-hrvatsko pitanje u međuratnoj Jugoslaviji. Edicija Reč 59. Beograd: Fabrika Knjiga.Google Scholar
Dugandžija, Nikola. 1985. Jugoslavenstvo. Beograd: Mladost.Google Scholar
Friedman, Francine. 1996. The Bosnian Muslims: Denial of a Nation. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Gabrič, Aleš. 1995. Socialistična kulturna revolucija: slovenska kulturna politika 1953-1962. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva zal.Google Scholar
Gabrič, Aleš. 1996. “Leto 1945 in slovenska kultura.” In Slovenija v letu 1945, edited by Gabrič, Aleš, 155–170. Ljubljana: Zveza zgodovinskih društev Slovenije.Google Scholar
Grandits, Hannes. 2008. “Dynamics of Socialist Nation-Building: The Short Lived Programme of Promoting a Yugoslav National Identity and Some Comparative Perspectives.” Dve Domovini 27: 15–28.Google Scholar
Haug, Hilde Katrine. 2012. Creating a Socialist Yugoslavia: Tito, Communist Leadership and the National Question. London: I.B. Tauris.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirsch, Francine. 2005. Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge & the Making of the Soviet Union. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Hroch, Miroslav. 1985. Social Preconditions of National Revival in Europe: A Comparative Analysis of the Social Composition of Patriotic Groups among the Smaller European Nations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ignatieff, Michael. 1995. Blood and Belonging. Reprint edition. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Google Scholar
Ivešić, Tomaž. 2016. Jugoslovanska socialisticna nacija: ideja in realizacija (1952-1958). Nova Gorica: Založba Univerze v Novi Gorici.Google Scholar
Jović, Dejan. 2003. Jugoslavija - država koja je odumrla: uspon, kriza i pad Četvrte Jugoslavije: 1974–1990. Zagreb: Samizdat B92.Google Scholar
Jović, Dejan. 2015. “Lenjinistički i staljinistički izvori Tuđmanove politike samoodređenja i odcepljenja.” Politička misao 52 (1): 15–47.Google Scholar
Kardelj, Edvard. 1953. “O Nacionalnom Pitanju.” Naša Stvarnost: Časopis Za Društvena Pitanja 7: 3–36.Google Scholar
Kardelj, Edvard. 1957. Razvoj slovenskega narodnega vprašanja. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije.Google Scholar
Kemp, Walter A. 1999. Nationalism and Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kopač, Janez. 2005. “Kraji in občine kot upravnoteritorialne enote: 1945–1955.” Arhivi 28: 205–212.Google Scholar
Kopeček, Michal. 2012. “Historical Studies of Nation-Building and the Concept of Socialist Patriotism in East Central Europe 1956-1970.” In Historische Nationsforschung im geteilten Europa 1945–1989, edited by Kolář, Pavel and Řezník, Miloš, 121–136. Köln: SH-Verlag.Google Scholar
KPJ. 1948. V. kongres komunistične partije Jugoslavije: [Beograd, od 21. do 28 jul. 1948. V Ljubljani: Cankarjeva založba.Google Scholar
Kristen, Samo. 2015. “Od Manjšinskega inštituta do Inštituta za narodnostna vprašanja (1925–2015): ob devetdesetletnici začetkov institucionaliziranega preučevanja etnične problematike na Slovenskem.” In 90 let Inštituta za narodnostna vprašanja, edited by Medvešek, Mojca and Pirc, Janez, 53–131. Ljubljana: INV.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. 1916. “Lenin: The Socialist Revolution and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination.” Marxists Internet Archive, n.d. https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/jan/x01.htm. (Accessed June 6, 2019.)Google Scholar
Lučić, Iva. 2013. “Making the ‘Nation’ Visible: Socialist Census Policy in Bosnia in the Early 1970s.” In The Ambiguous Nation: Case Studies from Southeastern Europe in the 20th Century, edited by Brunnbauer, Ulf and Grandits, Hannes, 423–448. München: Oldenbourg Verlag.Google Scholar
Lučić, Iva. 2016. Im Namen der Nation: Der politische Aufwertungsprozess der Muslime im sozialistischen Jugoslawien (1956–1971). Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet.Google Scholar
Marković, Predrag J. 2001. “Odnos partije i Tita prema Jugoslovenskom i nacionalnem identitetu.” In Identitet: Srbi i/ili Jugosloveni, edited by Ljuboja, Svetlana and Sekelj, Laslo, 13–62. Belgrade: Institut za evropske studije.Google Scholar
Martin, Terry. 2001. The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mevius, Martin. 2009. “Reappraising Communism and Nationalism.” Nationalities Papers 37 (4): 377–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Nick. 2007. The Nonconformists: Culture, Politics, and Nationalism in a Serbian Intellectual Circle, 1944–1991. New York: Central European University Press.Google Scholar
Milosavljević, Olivera. 2003. “Titov Jugosloven - Nacionalni ili državni identitet?” In Dijalog povjesničara/istoričara 7, 175–192. Zagreb: Zaklada Friedrich Naumann.Google Scholar
Pahor, Boris. 1966. “Glosa 65.” Zaliv 2/3: 52–60.Google Scholar
Pahor, Boris. 1967a. “Slovenstvo danes.” Zaliv 6/7: 57–61.Google Scholar
Pahor, Boris. 1967b. “Tržaški zapiski.” Zaliv 6/7: 114–124.Google Scholar
Palmowski, , Jan. 2009. Inventing a Socialist Nation: Heimat and the Politics of Everyday Life in the GDR, 1945- 1990. New Studies in European History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pearson, Sevan. 2015. “The ‘National Key’ in Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Historical Perspective.” Nationalities Papers 43 (2): 213–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peković, Ratko. 1986. Ni rat ni mir: panorama književnih polemika: 1945-1965. Beograd: Zavod za Izdav.Google Scholar
Perovšek, France. 1995. Moja resnica: spominski utrinki iz delovanja po letu 1945 na Primorskem in v Ljubljani. Ljubljana: Društvo piscev zgodovine NOB Slovenije.Google Scholar
Petranović, Branko, and Zečević, Momčilo. 1985. Jugoslavija 1918-1984: zbirka dokumenata. Beograd: Izdavačka radna organizacija “Rad.”Google Scholar
Pirjevec, Jože. 2011. Tito in tovariši. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba.Google Scholar
Pocock, John Greville Agard. 1987. “The Concept of a Language and the Métier d’historien: Some Considerations on Practice.” In The Languages of Political Theory in Early-Modern Europe, edited by Pagden, Anthony, 19–38. Ideas in Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
stanovništva, Popis 1953. Knjiga 1, Knjiga 1. 1959. Beograd: Savezni zavod za statistiku.Google Scholar
stanovništva, Popis 1953. Knjiga 8, Knjiga 8. 1959. Beograd: Savezni zavod za statistiku.Google Scholar
Ramet, Sabrina. 1984. Nationalism and Federalism in Yugoslavia, 1963-1983. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Režek, Mateja. 1998. “Jugoslovanski federalizem in ustavni zakon leta 1953.” Prispevki za novejšo zgodovino 38 (1/2): 151–160.Google Scholar
Režek, Mateja. 2005. “‘Jugoslovanstvo’ in mednacionalni odnosi v Jugoslaviji v petdesetih letih 20. stoletja.” Prispevki za novejšo zgodovino 45: 133–145.Google Scholar
Robinson, Connie. 2010. “Yugoslavism in the Early Twentieth Century: The Politics of the Yugoslav Committe.” In New Perspectives on Yugoslavia: Key Issues and Controversies, edited by Djokić, Dejan, 10–26. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rusinow, Dennison. 1977. The Yugoslav Experiment 1948–1974. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Sedmi kongres Saveza omladine Jugoslavije. 1963. Beograd: Komunist.Google Scholar
Sekulic, Dusko, Massey, Garth, and Hodson, Randy. 1994. “Who Were the Yugoslavs? Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia.” American Sociological Review 59 (1): 83–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shoup, Paul. 1968. Communism and the Yugoslav National Question. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Slezkine, Yuri. 1994. “The USSR as a Communal Apartment, or How a Socialist State Promoted Ethnic Particularism.” Slavic Review 53 (2): 414–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stalin, Joseph. 1929. “The National Question and Leninism: Reply to Comrades Meshkov, Kovalchuk, and Others.” Marxists Internet Archive, n.d. https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1929/03/18.htm. (Accessed June 6, 2019.)Google Scholar
Suny, Ronald Grigor. 1993. The Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Timasheff, Nicholas. 1946. The Great Retreat: The Growth and Decline of Communism in Russia. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.Google Scholar
Troch, Pieter. 2018. “The Prospects of Composite Nationhood: Yugoslavism in Associational Life across Interwar Yugoslavia’s Imperial Phantom Border.” Paper presented at an ASN conference, Nationalism in Times of Uncertainty, Graz, July 4–6.Google Scholar
Troebst, Stefan. 1997. “Yugoslav Macedonia 1943–1953: Building the Party, the State and the Nation.” In State-Society Relations in Yugoslavia, 1945–1992, edited by Bokovoy, Melissa K., Irvine, Jill A., and Lilly, Carol S., 243–266. New York: St. Martin’s Press.Google Scholar
VII. kongres Saveza komunista Jugoslavije: Ljubljana 22-26 aprila 1958 (stenografske beleške). 1958. Beograd: Kultura.Google Scholar
Višnjić, Čedomir. 2003. Partizansko ljetovanje: Hrvatska i Srbi 1945-1950. Zagreb: SKD Prosvjeta.Google Scholar
Vlajčić, Gordana. 1979. KPJ i problemi revolucije: Rasprave o idejnom i organizacijskom razvitku KPJ između dva svjetska rata. Zagreb: Centar za kulturno djelatnost.Google Scholar
Wachtel, Andrew. 1998. Making a Nation, Breaking a Nation: Literature and Cultural Politics in Yugoslavia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Yurchak, Alexei. 2006. Everything Was Forever, until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ziherl, Boris. 1950. Komunizam i otadžbina: Prilog pitanju o komunističkom moralu. Beograd: Kultura.Google Scholar
Ziherl, Boris. 1952. Dijalektički i istoriski materijalizam: stenografske beleške. Beograd: RAD.Google Scholar

Archival Sources

Archives of the Republic of Slovenia (Arhiv Republike Slovenije)Google Scholar
Archives of Yugoslavia (Arhiv Jugoslavije)Google Scholar
Croatian State Archives (Hrvatski državni arhiv)Google Scholar