yugoslavias implosion

The Serbs’ view of the 1974 Constitution influenced their behavior
during the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Most Serbs believe that
the constitution destroyed the unity of Serbia, was the cause of many
problems in Serbia, and led to the break-up of Yugoslavia. In the
opinion of most Serbs, the fact that the constitution established the
republics as states rendered the possibility of a solution to the Serbian
national question remote. Having decided that the 1974 Constitution
marked the beginning of the end of Yugoslavia as they saw it (i.e.,
an extended Serbia), Serbia’s elite set about reviving the “Kosovo
myth”—the belief that the Serbian defeat at the Battle of Kosovo in
1389 and the consequent long period of slavery under the Turks must
be avenged by ousting Muslims from Kosovo and restoring the territory
to its rightful owner, Serbia. The myth rallied the Serbs politically,
just as it had at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Ćosić Emerges
Any discussion of constitutional amendments brought to the
surface contradictions within the lcy in spite of its commitment to
democratization. In Serbia, a segment of the humanist intelligentsia
headed by Dobrica Ćosić was preoccupied by the national question.
Disappointed by the collapse of the unitary Yugoslavia concept and
of integral Yugoslavhood, as well as by the 1966 departure of Ranković
as a symbol of such a Yugoslavia, Ćosić ceased being a Communist
devotee and principal proponent of Yugoslavhood to become the
champion of the Serbian national question. He was also disturbed by
the fact that the Yugoslav republics were growing in power.
Ćosić played a specific part that enabled him to say things Serbian
nationalists in the party felt but could not or did not want to
say. He also acted as go-between between the political leaders and the
nationally oriented intellectuals who had never accepted Yugoslavia
as a feasible community. 45
45 Latinka Perović in Snaga lične odgovornosti, (The Power of the Individual Responsibility), grupa
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