In the works since mid-August, I have the pleasure and honor to post yet another collaborative segment of the Balkans' history with you all! Utilizing a format akin to the one used for the Royal Families of Latin America, please enjoy the story of a remarkably different, yet familiar Serbia!
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The Abridged History of Modern Serbia
By Kozma Savomiljević
Excerpts reproduced here with permission.
Modern Serbian history began with the
Serbian Revolution (also known as the
First Serbian Uprising in Serbian historiography) in 1804, initially a revolt fought against renegade janissaries that had couped the local government, before turning into a large-scale fight for liberation once Sultan Selim III organized a campaign against them. The establishment of modern Serbia was marked by the hard fought autonomy from the Ottomans upon the signing of the then-somewhat controversial
Ičko's Peace, which ended conflict on favorable terms in early 1807, though Turkish troops continued to lightly garrison the capital of Belgrade despite successfully falling into revolutionary hands in late 1806. The
First Serbian Republic, as it is known as today, was led by the elected Grand Vožd
Đorđe Petrović Jovanović, more well known as
Karađorđe, alongside the
Governing Council, otherwise popularly translated as the
Serbian Administering Soviet, and the
National Assembly. Plenty of revolutionary veterans would secretly go across the border and assist in instigating revolutionary fervor across the Hem, partly leading to the
Hemus Uprising and the subsequent
First Balkan War (also known as the
Second Serbian Uprising in Serbian historiography when referring to Serbia's involvement exclusively). The Revolutionary Republic would officially join in the war in late 1814, heavily assisting the revolutionaries in Peonia and the Montenegrin Army among others. With the end of the war, Serbia, along with the rest of the
Hem Bloc, sent its delegate to Vienna to participate in the
Congress of Vienna.
At the Congress, many abhorred the idea of a republic following the Napoleonic War, and at first, demanded that a foreign royal be named the King of Serbia, with protests from the Serbs. However, it was suggested that perhaps the position held by the then-Serbian head of state could just have its powers expanded to accommodate a position akin to a monarch. While the Governing Council was worried by the proposal, having been in conflict with Karađorđe in attempts to reduce the amount of power he held, the Grand Vožd halfheartedly promised he would continue to cooperate democratically. Not wanting to infuriate the Great Powers, the decision was made in 1815 to increase the power Karađorđe held, being declared the Vožd of Serbia, beginning the
Vozhddom of Serbia.
The
Vozhddom of Serbia, while technically seen as a monarchical state, was more akin to a dictatorship with nominal democratic features. Karađorđe would attempt to subtly reduce the power of the Council and increase the power of his own shadow government, including figures such as
Mladen Milovanović. In many ways, he had succeeded in confirming his claim to supreme authority, gaining the power which he had been denied during the revolutionary period, but he would become more overt in his power gains from the mid 1830s onward, as more liberal leaders were pressured and silenced non-lethally, within both the Governing Council and the National Assembly. The opposition would become noticeable from the early 1840s, and it would reach its peak during the Revolutions of 1848. Protests in the larger cities of Serbia, the largest in the capital, called for the return of the republic and the abdication of a man who could be considered the Father of a Nation. It is said that Karađorđe was approached by his eldest son
Aleksa, who told him to listen to the will of the people and abdicate, reminding him of the ideals of the Revolution he had led and seemingly abandoned. Following that supposed meeting, Karađorđe held a speech in what is now known as Belgrade's
Republic Square, where he returned power to the Council and Assembly, and ended the Vozhddom, to be replaced with a new Republic, to carry the ideals of the Revolution. Following the now-famous speech, known as the
Apology of Karađorđe, the Karađorđević family briefly stepped out of the limelight and returned to Topola, where Karađorđe would spend the rest of his days.
The
Second Serbian Republic, unlike the revolutionary state that was the First Republic and the near autocratic rule of the Vozhddom, was a semi-parliamentary government which was adopted by Serbia following the abdication of Karađorđe in 1848, lasting until the end of the
First World War. Many of Serbia's modern parties claim heritage to those established or reformed in the period of the Second Republic, and it would during this time that Serbia developed more progressive policies. While issues would arise relating to the representation of Muslims of all kinds within the borders of the Republic, as well as the defensive
Second Balkan War and later the First World War, the state would continue to modernize in all aspects of life, even if an upper class of sorts had formed, consisting of those connected to the Revolution. The position of Vožd had been replaced with that of a ceremonial President, which would often be held by a member of said upper class, supported by the Prime Minister and the National Assembly. The parties formed during the Second Republic would evolve during the Republic of Yugoslavia, combining with many similar parties in other sections in the parliamentary republic.
After the First World War, the Second Serbian Republic merged with the
State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, the
People's Administration for Banat, Bačka and Baranja, and the
Kingdom of Montenegro into the
Republic of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as
Yugoslavia), whose system of government was parliamentary. While efforts were made to make all within the Republic equal, fears arose that the Serbs, whose size had made them the majority in the country, would push the state towards its interests, and several minority parties attempted to rival the rise of Serbian nationalist parties, like the
Serbian Radical Party. At the same time, however, many pan-Slavic or Yugoslavian parties achieved widespread popularity within the country, including the liberal
Democratic Party and the communist
Socialist Labour Party, later known as the
Communist Party.
Following the end of the
Second World War, the
Federal People's Republic of Serbia was formed, an one party federated socialist state, led by the
League of Communists of Serbia. It was made up of three socialist republics; Serbia, Montenegro and Peonia; and included two autonomous provinces within Serbia; Vojvodina and Kosovo & Metochia. General Secretary
Živko Topalović would find himself in the position of President of Serbia for the immediate post-war period, forced to cooperate with the Soviet Union as part of the
Warsaw Pact, as the Red Army marched into the region after East-West borders were demarcated. The initial prime ministers chosen by Moscow would toe their party line, but Topalović would end up returning the party to its roots during the late 50s, when
Petar Stambolić was chosen as Prime Minister, allowing for the beginning of state reform. Similar to Albania, there was just as heavy an emphasis on agrarianism and peasants as there was on industrialism and workers, as both countries were rather agrarian sans select areas, such as Vojvodina for Serbia.
Milovan Đilas' contributions would introduce a style of autogestion unique to the country. Nationalistic policies would see a rise, though that was outside of the hands of Topalović and the liberal members of the party, as figures such as
Aleksandar Ranković,
Slobodan Penezić and similar pushed towards the interest of Serb unity and similar centralist views, having allowed all those that retreated from Albanian terror in Kosovo to return to their homes, alienating domestic Albanians in the region.
Following the passing of Topalović,
Milan Gorkić was named the President, and successfully managed to denunciate Ranković, but in many ways the damage had already been done, something that would be made apparent with Ranković's passing in the mid 1980s, as a large number of people attended his funeral, supportive of his ideology. While Soviet influence may not have been as weak as it was during the war, it had weakened over time as it concentrated more on the pure communist states of Poland and Hungary, and the semi-communist states of Czechoslovakia and Rumania, which permitted western influences to seep into the country, allowing for the development of popular media based on it such as music, with many acts from the country being popular hits in other socialist states, excluding Albania, which held itself to incredibly specific standards as a result of its ideology, contrasting with Serbia's more traditionally libertarian standards.
The office of President of the Presidency was successfully defined during Gorkić's presidency, and went into effect following his passing in the 80s. However, while life in Serbia may have been seen as nice for most, especially in the north and the coast, the domestic Albanians had many troubles, exacerbated in Ranković's time, and things would only worsen with the
Anti-Bureaucratic Revolution, a campaign of street protests ran between 1986 and 1989, resulting in the rise of
Slobodan Milošević as President of SR Serbia and his allies in Vojvodina, Kosovo and Montenegro, to the dismay of the state President
Bahri Oruči, a native Albanian from the region of Kosovo. Serb-Albanian relations would continue to worsen, which would result in the
Third Balkan War, leading to the collapse of FPR Serbia.
After 1999, the
Democratic Republic of Serbia, as it was first known, attempted to gather its bearings in the new world it found itself in and return to the way of old. Becoming the
State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2002, the new government tried to reconcile with the Ghegs, which had formed its own state in the form of Dardania, but initial relations were cold. However, as a result of Tosk conservatism in Albania, Dardania would find itself alienated by its southern neighbor and ironically look towards Serbia and Montenegro for relations. With Montenegrin independence in 2007, the current Serbian government was established, named the Third Serbian Republic, and relations with Dardania continued to improve, leading to remarks that they were "strange bedfellows," being in some ways each other's greatest regional partners, with many Serbs visiting Dardania to see old Serbian structures like churches and many Ghegs traveling from Belgrade to other cities by plane. Relations with the rest of its direct neighbours and Greece are fine, though those with Peonia and Albania fluctuate from time to time.
The
Third Serbian Republic, otherwise known as the
Republic of Serbia, is the current system of government implemented in Serbia, using a semi-presidential system, technically established on the 15th of June, 1999, but put into law following the
Loader Revolution later that year, which overthrew Milošević after he attempted a rapid takeover of the government in face of the loss of the Third Balkan War.
Ivan Stambolić was popularly named the Acting President, but the following year, proper parliamentary and presidential elections were held, with
Zoran Đinđić becoming President and
Vesna Pešić becoming Prime Minister. The current Serbian president is
Aleksander Karađorđević, elected in 2012, running as part of the Serbian Progressive Party, beating out
Stefan Pantević Obrenović of the Social Democrats,
Mirko Jović of the People's Radical Party and
Vuk Jeremić of the Liberal Party. Aleksander is the first Karađorđević to be a Serbian head of state since the abdication of Karađorđe in 1848. The current Serbian prime minister is
Bojan Pajtić, elected in 2014, running as part of the Democratic Party, beating out
Petar Maksimović Budisavljević of the Independent Worker's Party, the independent
Milutin Radičević-Karadžić and
Dagobert Šmetau of the Greens. An EU membership candidate since 2006, the Republic has been negotiating its EU accession since late 2007, and with the steady closing of chapters, is assumed to join by 2020. Today, Serbia numbers more than 7 and a half million residents, and its capital, Belgrade, ranks among the oldest and largest cities in Southeast Europe.
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Communism during Yugoslavia and post-war Serbia
By Kozma Savomilević
Excerpts reproduced here with permission.
During the times of the
Republic of Yugoslavia, one of the most popular political parties would end up being the
Communist Party of Yugoslavia, also known as the
Socialist Labour Party. In the early history of the party, the reformist
Centrists had managed to steer the course of the party away from the revolutionary tendencies espoused by the
Radicals, and with the failures of the
Communist Revolution in the
Hungarian Democratic Republic, managed to stay within legal boundaries by 1920. This push towards what could be considered democratic communism led to the falling out of the party with the
Comintern, with some more revolutionary-minded Radical members of the party leaving and forming the
Revolutionary People's Party of Yugoslavia, which would find most of its members killed during the
Great Purge, and the remains being reabsorbed into the party.
Živko Topalović,
Moša Pijade,
Milan Gorkić,
Milovan Đilas,
Janko Jovanović,
Jovan Mališić,
Nikola Kotur,
Kosta Novaković,
Gojko Samardžić,
Vilim Horvaj,
Kosta Nađ,
Koča Popović,
Triša Kaclerović,
Peko Dapčević,
Pavle Pavlović,
Lazar Mojsov,
Dragutin Bukvić and many others would end up being formative members of the post-war
League of Communists of Serbia.
During the
Second World War, relations between the
Chetniks, who had intended to restore the Republic as it was, and the
Partisans, formed out of not just the Communist Party of Yugoslavia but also out of many smaller revolutionary factions, would end up collapsing over misunderstandings relating to not only proposals over the state of government following the war but also supposed collaboration with the
Axis on the side of the Chetniks and the Comintern on the side of the Partisans. With the success of the
Lorković–Vokić plot in Croatia, supported by King Juraj I, who had been doing his best to subvert Axis activity in the region to the dismay of the Hungarians, the Partisan movement found itself cracking as a result of the seemingly instant collapse of Yugoslavia, as the Allies arrived in Slovenia from the north to arrive in Zagreb. General Secretary Topalović, seeing the writing on the wall, called for Partisans in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina to cooperate with the Allies and attempt to gain sympathy as to ensure their survival following the war. While some fought heavily against this, the vast majority did as he said. With the end of the war, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia fractured into the
Socialist Party of Slovenia, the
People's Party of Croatia and the League of Communists of Serbia, the last Topalović remained the General Secretary of. The former two parties ended up surviving the end of the war, becoming well-respected as they transitioned to more socialist-minded policies in an attempt to avoid association with communism directly, though that didn't stop their critics, with some remarking they were "
zajedničari." The political theories made by the parties in Slovenia and Croatia, often cooperating with one another behind closed doors, would result in an ideology which spoke of, what could be called, a communist interpretation of
market socialism, among other things, credited to
Edvard Kardelj and
Vladimir Bakarić nowadays.
Meanwhile, over the border, the League of Communists of Serbia would initially find itself following the ideology of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union, akin to other pure Communist states in the Warsaw Pact, but in the late 50s, amidst reforms both within the party itself and in the country, would somewhat return to the roots of the party, while also accommodating for the necessary changes needed due to the position the party was in, such as controlling a vastly agrarian territory. The League of Communists would find itself forced to reform following the collapse of FPR Serbia, becoming the
Independent Worker's Party of Serbia, or the NRS (
Nezavisna radnička stranka). The party by itself does not hold much influence today, being one of the lesser parties in the National Assembly, but it often partakes in the larger coalitions. Ideologically, it rivals the slightly less popular
Party for Cooperation, which practices the socialist ideology advocated by the 19th century politician
Svetozar Marković, and the
Socialist Party, which advocates for democratic socialism rather than democratic communism. The party often aligns itself with the
People's Peasant Party, a minor agrarian communist party, and frequently disapproves of the
Worker's Alliance of Socialism, a much smaller party headed by former allies of Slobodan Milošević, well-known for its heavy partisanship ("
poborništvo") regarding its policies. Notably, the NRS has been a strong supporter of the
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former FPR Serbia and SR Albania, or ICTSA, praising the government for its efficiency in catching the last of the indicated in 2005, properly allowing for EU accession negotiations to begin.
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As always, if there are any questions, please feel free to ask them and I'll try to answer them to the best of my abilities! And, as I've said before, if there is anyone out there who would want to contribute to these Balkans in a way neither I nor Leinad could, feel free to post your suggestions! I'll also take the opportunity to
link the map of the region once more.
