yugoslavias implosion

elevance. The economist Kosta Mihajlović, the historian Vasilije
Krestić, the writer Antonije Isaković, and the philosopher Mihajlo
Marković played key roles in framing the document. Despite official
claims that Ćosić was not involved in writing the Memorandum,
he was in fact behind it; the document reflects Ćosić’s key ideas about
Socialism and the resolution of the Serbian national issue. From the
very beginning, Ćosić defended the Memorandum against attacks
from the Yugoslav public and the political leadership of Serbia. In
his opinion, the motive for a political harangue against sanu lay in
the fact that the “draft Memorandum cogently exposed the undemocratic
constitutional structure of the Titoist Yugoslavia laid down by
the 1974 Constitution [as] testified to by the inequality of the Serbian
people, the bureaucratic and parasitic character of social self-management,
the restrictions on civil rights, and the universal criticism
of Titoism.” 77
The Memorandum consisted of two parts: “The Crisis of the
Yugoslav Economy and Society” and “The Position of Serbia and
the Serb People.” It warned that the seriousness of the Yugoslav crisis
was such that, unless addressed earnestly, the crisis could lead to
the break-up of the country. “Idleness and irresponsibility, corruption
and nepotism, the absence of legal security, [and] bureaucratic
caprice … are everyday phenomena. The collapse of moral values
and of the reputation of leading social institutions, the lack of trust
in those who take decisions, leads to apathy and dissatisfaction in
people.” 78 The Memorandum did not reject Socialism but directed
criticism against Tito’s Yugoslavia—against, that is, the confederalization
of Yugoslavia through the 1974 Constitution.
The Memorandum attached the most blame for economic problems
to the economic reforms carried out in the 1960s, when “all
77 Dobrica Ćosić, Piščevi zapisi 1981–1991, Vilip Višnjić, Belgrade, 2002, p . 203 .
78 Kosta Mihajlović, Vasilije Krestić, Memorandum SANU (The SANU Memorandum),
Odgovori i kritike (Replies and Criticism), (Belgrade: SANU, 1995)
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