yugoslavias implosion

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Yugoslav Communists, the Yugoslav working class, and the Yugoslav
peoples. It will not expire at the conference table, as its enemies
hope it will. Yugoslavia, gained in a great struggle, will be defended
in a great struggle.” 101 At the same rally, the poet Milovan Vitezović
uttered the now oft-quoted sentence: “Honorable people, this year
will go down in our history as the year in which the people came into
their own.” Serbian populism was in full swing.
Brimming with confidence, Milošević said: “We in Serbia no
longer suffer from the complex that, just because we are the most
numerous, we ought to sit like mice in their holes, or to acquiesce
in things which are not in our interest. We do not want to be frustrated
by those who are fewer in number.” 102 As the crisis worsened,
he announced, “We must make sure that we have an integral Serbia
if we want the largest and most numerous republic to dictate the
course of events to come.” 103
Milošević based his policy on populism. His meteoric rise to
power was not lost on the intellectuals; they had gone over to his
side in the second half of 1988. The national program of Ćosić and
his group came into the open now that a political leader had been
found to espouse it. The power was in the hands of Milošević, but the
future of Serbia was charted in the home of Ćosić, who was hailed
by Serbs as the architect of the program. In spite of their moral and
political differences, the two worked in harness: Ćosić in pursuance
of his nationalist goals, and Milošević, the opportunistic leader,
in pursuit of his interests. This commonness of purpose bound
them together. 104 Many prominent intellectuals publicly supported
Milošević, helping to consolidate his popularity among the masses.
101 Godine raspleta, p . 276 .
102 Slavoljub Đukić, 1990 .
103 NIN, 12 April 1991
104 Slavoljub Đukić, Između slave i anateme (Between the glory and the anathema) .