yugoslavias implosion

46
ChApter 1
creation of something new and artificial, that is, of a uniform Yugoslav
nation, which smacks a little of assimilation and bureaucratic
centralization, of unitarianism and hegemonism.” 25 In his memoirs,
Mihajlo Marković, a professor of philosophy at the University
of Belgrade in the 1960s and later an ideologue of Milošević’s Socialist
Party, accuses Tito of preventing the creation of a Yugoslav nation.
He quotes Tito’s comment at the Eighth Congress: “to be a Yugoslav
means only to be a citizen of the sfry.” 26
Monumental Changes: 1966
Conflicts within the political establishment began to occur with
increasing frequency. The Brioni Plenum in 1966 and the dismissal of
vice president and State Security Service chief Aleksandar Ranković
marked a break with the unitary-state concept espoused by the lcy.
Because Serbian nationalists believed that a centralized Yugoslavia
was the path to Serbian dominance, they viewed Ranković’s downfall
as a threat to a unitary Yugoslavia. Accordingly, they organized
themselves to find a successor to Tito.
Dobrica Ćosić, who identified himself with a unitary Yugoslavia,
wrote the following in a letter to Tito on June 28, 1966: “Ready
to suffer every possible consequence, I wish to assure you of this:
The political downfall and ruin of Aleksandar Ranković has set into
motion in Serbia a process of moral, political, national disintegration
and caused a rift that our generation will find hard to bear and overcome
morally. After such a downfall and ruin of Aleksandar Ranković,
I fear that Tito will no longer be the Tito he was, nor will the
lcy be what the world believes it to be in the avant-garde renaissance
of Socialism and in the overcoming of all that makes up the
Stalinist epoch.” Ćosić warned Tito that the peasants were on the
side of Ranković, that the Serbian people were loyal to him, and that
25 Quoted in Perović, Zatvaranje kruga, 37
26 Mihajlo Marković, Juriš na nebo, (Beograd; Prosveta, 2008) .