yugoslavias implosion

64
ChApter 1
although the Serbs won wars, they lost out in peace. “How can a people
so dignified, proud and great in war be so humble and obedient in
peace?” he wondered. 48 Ćosić’s view of the Serbs’ plight in Yugoslavia
was predominant. The subject was treated in many books, with
the Jasenovac concentration camp in Croatia, where 80,914 people,
among whom were 45,923 Serbs and 16,045 Roma were killed during
World War II, becoming a potent symbol for the Serbs of their recent
historical suffering and of the existential threat posed to them in
Croatia. 49
The allegedly unfavorable situation of the Serbs was raised at the
political level, where Petar Stambolić and Draža Marković were the
chief advocates of the Serbian cause. A Blue Book calling for amending
the 1974 Constitution was published in 1977, but it failed to secure
support from other republics and the federal leadership.
POPULISM EMERGES
In the 1980s, the general mood in Serbia reverted to the heady
goal of Serbia as a ethnic modern state, an image sustained by epic
poetry, oral tradition, the Serbian Orthodox Church, political parties,
and “all the elements of mass and elite nationalism” until it
became “the people’s ideal.” As chief ideologue of the national project,
Ćosić “never recognized the avnoj boundaries” and advocated
a “plebiscite, along with the right of self-determination of
peoples,” not republics. 50 According to Ćosić, the avnoj boundaries
were “Communist, provisory, because they are unfounded
(save in the case of Slovenia) either ethnically, or geo-politically, or
48 Dobrica Ćosić, Pristupne akademijske besede ( Accession Speeches to the Academy),
(Belgarede:Serbian Academy for Science and Arts, 1978) p .37, p . 131 .
49 The data concerning the exact number of dead at Jasenovac comes from research
conducted by Natasha Mataushich, Museum Adviser at the Croatian Historical
Museum and President of Board at the Jasenovac Memorial; See Natasha Mataushich
“Jasenovac 1941–1945, Logor smrti i radni logor,Jasenovac, Zagreb 2003
50 Interview with Ćosić in Politika, 21 January, 1991