yugoslavias implosion

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times to protect their Serb national particularity and to preserve their
Orthodox faith. This correlation of faith and nation has been complete,
for in guarding their faith the Serbs have defended their nation
and vice-versa; and so, by standing in defense of faith and nation, they
have saved themselves from the numerous violent onslaughts aimed at
their conversion and assimilation. The Serb name in reference to people,
language or church, which has systematically and deliberately been
left out, deleted or altered, has been at the focus of all Serb demands,
petitions and national-political programs. I shall briefly refer back to
the various societies, organizations and institutions which the Serbs
had under Austro-Hungarian rule in Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia.
I am not going do this because I wish to arouse your admiration of
the glorious past, but because I am firmly convinced that we can draw
many a lesson from the past, from how things were done by our forbears,
who fought persistently and expertly for their survival 122.
The works of Ivo Andrić, 123 the only Nobel Prize winner from
the former Yugoslavia, were often cited abroad, especially his reference
to the “controversies and afflictions of the Dark Vilayet” 124 (his
description of a mysterious and hostile Bosnia)—and Pismo iz 1920
[Letter from 1920], which states that “Bosnia is a land of hatred and
fear.” Emphasis was often placed on a passage asserting that “there
are more people in Bosnia than in other Slav or non-Slav countries
with much larger populations and territories who are prepared, in
fits of blind hatred, on various occasions and under various pretexts,
to slay and be slain.” By presenting Bosnia in this way, it was clear
what was to become of Bosnia later because the ground for all kinds
of argumentation was already prepared.
122 Vasilije Krestić, Srbi u Hrvatsko (Serbs in Croatia), by weekly Duga, July 1990 . (The whole
issue was devoted to Serbs from Croatia without any date – it was part of propaganda)
123 Andrić was born in Bosnia to a Catholic Croat family .
124 http://www.ivoandric.org.yu/html/body_andriceva_riznica_ii.html#Pismoiz1920