[ Il seguente intervento, che contesta la presunta "artificialita'"
dello Stato jugoslavo, e' apparso nella rubrica Lettere di Giano n.47,
settembre 2004 (vedi in fondo, l'Indice del numero) ]
Darko Suvin, Sulla "invenzione" dello Stato jugoslavo
Caro direttore,
reading your most useful issue no.44, I find in the article of Mr.
Bonanate on "II sistema internazionale e le guerre" a passage which not
only seems unnecessary for his argument but is in my opinion basically
dubious. I refer to the passage on p. 115 which speaks of "una
diplomazia assurda... a Versailles in 1918, inventando uno Stato come
la Jugoslavia" (corsivo nell'originale). Now I was born and have lived
in Yugoslavia until my departure for teaching abroad in 1967, I visited
it almost every year since, I've published a lot there and continue to
do so both in Zagreb and Beograd, and -- perhaps most to the point --
my Ph.D. from Zagreb University on comparative literature and theatre
dealt with the years 1800-1920, mainly in Croatia and Dalmatia under
Austria-Hungary but including the effervescence that led to the
post-1918 Yugoslavia. Thus, although I have done no encompassing
research on the formation of the first (monarchist) Yugoslav State in
1918, I think the following is generally accepted by those who have no
particular separatist commitment (as do all rightwingers today, merrily
revising history). The "yugoslav" idea ("jug" means "south" in
Croato-Serbian, thus the idea of a unity of southern Slavs, usually
excluding the Bulgarians) was born in Croatia early in the 19th
Century, during a Risorgimento parallel to if feebler than the Italian
one. It was first couched, in the cultural movement of Gaj and his
followers in Croatia, in pseudohistorical terms of "Illyrian" unity,
sparked by Napoleon's short-lived "Illyrian Provinces", but after the
trauma of 1848 reborn as "Yugoslav". The best testimony to it is that
the academy of arts and sciences, established in Zagreb under the aegis
of the patriotic Bishop Strossmayer as a focus for the activities of
national affirmation, was named the "Yugoslav Academy". The idea grew
parallel to the disenchantment with the Habsburg Monarchy and was at
the time of the First World War clearly favoured by most people, as
different from the small nationalist party. The disastrous war resulted
in large-scale famine, in large-scale bloodshed among the Croatian,
Slovene and Bosnian solders fighting on Isonzo and elsewhere, and in
mass defections among the soldiers hiding in woods and countryside. At
that point, amid military collapse, the Croatian regional Parliament
followed emigre' politicians like Supilo who had been pressing for
Yugoslavia, and asked for an accession to a Kingdom of Southern Slavs,
and the Slovenians followed suit. The main opposition to the idea came
from some currents in the Serbian emigre' government striving rather
for Greater Serbia, but it was backgrounded by a combination of popular
sentiment and the Karadjordjevic dynasty acceptance. One should not be
too naive about this. All the political parties involved were bourgeois
or petty-bourgeois, concerned mainly for law and order in troubled
times, while workers and the mass of peasants had no official political
voice. And surely Franco-English interests were not only for stability
in a country rich in raw materials but also in a bulwark against the
spread of Soviet Revolution. But having worked on private diaries and
letters of the 1914-18 period, I found little anti- Yugoslav sentiment
in Croatia. Just as important perhaps is the refounding of Yugoslavia
in Tito's partizan struggle during 1941-45 which went on through the
whole country, and defeated by independent means not only the German
and Italian fascist occupiers but also their nationalist quisling
authorities in Serbia and Croatia. This mass movement with prominent
participation of peasants added a genuine component of social justice
and national equality. Whatever its errors and failings, the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia was (to my mind) clearly preferable to the
nationalist wars and frenzies after its collapse. While it is today not
realistic to speak about a Yugoslav State, this latest experience might
have warned Mr. Bonanate to either proceed more cautiously or give some
valid argument for this acceptance of the fascist and nationalist
separatist thesis about the artificiality of Yugoslavia.
Yours truly, Dr. Darko Suvin Professor Emeritus, McGill University
----
http://www.odradek.it/giano/archivio/2004/47.html
“Giano.Pace ambiente problemi globali” n. 47– settembre 2004
EUROPA E ZEUS. UN DOSSIER TRANSATLANTICO
Gordon Poole
Introduzione alle elezioni in Usa: Bush, Kerry e i candidati “terzi”
QUADRANTE
EUROPA E ZEUS. UN DOSSIER TRANSATLANTICO
Domenico Di Fiore
Tra vecchi nazionalismi, pressioni Usa, classismo dei potenti: quale
Europa?
Gabriele Garibaldi
La “nuova” Unione Europea: i dubbi e le “certezze”
Marco Piccioni
Il conflitto tra Europa e Stati Uniti sul controllo delle risorse
energetiche
Enrico Maria Massucci Europa, convitato di pietra della
“comunità internazionale”
Patrizia Zanelli
L’Europa vista dal mondo arabo
Gaetano Arfè
Un europa senz'anima: un federalismo incompiuto e deformato a cura di
Fabio Gentile
Strumenti
Dall’Oece all’Euro. Cronologia 1948-2004 a cura di G. Garibaldi
Alexander Höbel
L’evoluzione della strategia dell’imperialismo Usa (1991-2003)
Antonio Gambino
La “dottrina” statunitense: una guerra perpetua contro i “non schiavi”
Corsivo “Strategia della tensione mediatica” (l.c.)
Archivio Angelo Panebianco, Quali che siano stati, regolarmente
ANALISI
Andrea Panaccione
Una rete di interdipendenze storiche. Russia ed ex-Urss nel nuovo
disordine mondiale
Angelo Michele Imbriani
“Shining India”: una “terza via” socialdemocratica?
Silvia Rossi
La Siria nel disegno mediorientale degli Stati Uniti
CLIMA, ENERGIA, AMBIENTE
Critica dello sviluppo capitalistico (II°)
dossier a cura di Angelo Baracca
Emilio Del Giudice
Il problema dell’energia alla luce di alcuni recenti sviluppi
scientifici
Michele Paolini
La concezione tragica della crescita
Corsivo Vittorio Sartogo, Acerra, e non solo
Vita di “Giano” Contro la guerra e il terrorismo, per le compagne
sequestrate
Lettere a “Giano” Darko Suvin, Sulla “invenzione” dello Stato
jugoslavo;
Luigi Bonanate, Risposta al prof. Suvin
LIBRI
Recensioni Aronowitz – Gautney (eds.), Implicating Empire (F.
Marcelli); I. Masulli, Welfare (M. Meriggi)
Segnalazioni a cura di Luigi Cortesi, Domenico Di Fiore,
Vincenzo Pugliano, Silvio Silvestri, Ireneo Vladimiri, Brigitta Gruber.
http://www.odradek.it/giano/
dello Stato jugoslavo, e' apparso nella rubrica Lettere di Giano n.47,
settembre 2004 (vedi in fondo, l'Indice del numero) ]
Darko Suvin, Sulla "invenzione" dello Stato jugoslavo
Caro direttore,
reading your most useful issue no.44, I find in the article of Mr.
Bonanate on "II sistema internazionale e le guerre" a passage which not
only seems unnecessary for his argument but is in my opinion basically
dubious. I refer to the passage on p. 115 which speaks of "una
diplomazia assurda... a Versailles in 1918, inventando uno Stato come
la Jugoslavia" (corsivo nell'originale). Now I was born and have lived
in Yugoslavia until my departure for teaching abroad in 1967, I visited
it almost every year since, I've published a lot there and continue to
do so both in Zagreb and Beograd, and -- perhaps most to the point --
my Ph.D. from Zagreb University on comparative literature and theatre
dealt with the years 1800-1920, mainly in Croatia and Dalmatia under
Austria-Hungary but including the effervescence that led to the
post-1918 Yugoslavia. Thus, although I have done no encompassing
research on the formation of the first (monarchist) Yugoslav State in
1918, I think the following is generally accepted by those who have no
particular separatist commitment (as do all rightwingers today, merrily
revising history). The "yugoslav" idea ("jug" means "south" in
Croato-Serbian, thus the idea of a unity of southern Slavs, usually
excluding the Bulgarians) was born in Croatia early in the 19th
Century, during a Risorgimento parallel to if feebler than the Italian
one. It was first couched, in the cultural movement of Gaj and his
followers in Croatia, in pseudohistorical terms of "Illyrian" unity,
sparked by Napoleon's short-lived "Illyrian Provinces", but after the
trauma of 1848 reborn as "Yugoslav". The best testimony to it is that
the academy of arts and sciences, established in Zagreb under the aegis
of the patriotic Bishop Strossmayer as a focus for the activities of
national affirmation, was named the "Yugoslav Academy". The idea grew
parallel to the disenchantment with the Habsburg Monarchy and was at
the time of the First World War clearly favoured by most people, as
different from the small nationalist party. The disastrous war resulted
in large-scale famine, in large-scale bloodshed among the Croatian,
Slovene and Bosnian solders fighting on Isonzo and elsewhere, and in
mass defections among the soldiers hiding in woods and countryside. At
that point, amid military collapse, the Croatian regional Parliament
followed emigre' politicians like Supilo who had been pressing for
Yugoslavia, and asked for an accession to a Kingdom of Southern Slavs,
and the Slovenians followed suit. The main opposition to the idea came
from some currents in the Serbian emigre' government striving rather
for Greater Serbia, but it was backgrounded by a combination of popular
sentiment and the Karadjordjevic dynasty acceptance. One should not be
too naive about this. All the political parties involved were bourgeois
or petty-bourgeois, concerned mainly for law and order in troubled
times, while workers and the mass of peasants had no official political
voice. And surely Franco-English interests were not only for stability
in a country rich in raw materials but also in a bulwark against the
spread of Soviet Revolution. But having worked on private diaries and
letters of the 1914-18 period, I found little anti- Yugoslav sentiment
in Croatia. Just as important perhaps is the refounding of Yugoslavia
in Tito's partizan struggle during 1941-45 which went on through the
whole country, and defeated by independent means not only the German
and Italian fascist occupiers but also their nationalist quisling
authorities in Serbia and Croatia. This mass movement with prominent
participation of peasants added a genuine component of social justice
and national equality. Whatever its errors and failings, the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia was (to my mind) clearly preferable to the
nationalist wars and frenzies after its collapse. While it is today not
realistic to speak about a Yugoslav State, this latest experience might
have warned Mr. Bonanate to either proceed more cautiously or give some
valid argument for this acceptance of the fascist and nationalist
separatist thesis about the artificiality of Yugoslavia.
Yours truly, Dr. Darko Suvin Professor Emeritus, McGill University
----
http://www.odradek.it/giano/archivio/2004/47.html
“Giano.Pace ambiente problemi globali” n. 47– settembre 2004
EUROPA E ZEUS. UN DOSSIER TRANSATLANTICO
Gordon Poole
Introduzione alle elezioni in Usa: Bush, Kerry e i candidati “terzi”
QUADRANTE
EUROPA E ZEUS. UN DOSSIER TRANSATLANTICO
Domenico Di Fiore
Tra vecchi nazionalismi, pressioni Usa, classismo dei potenti: quale
Europa?
Gabriele Garibaldi
La “nuova” Unione Europea: i dubbi e le “certezze”
Marco Piccioni
Il conflitto tra Europa e Stati Uniti sul controllo delle risorse
energetiche
Enrico Maria Massucci Europa, convitato di pietra della
“comunità internazionale”
Patrizia Zanelli
L’Europa vista dal mondo arabo
Gaetano Arfè
Un europa senz'anima: un federalismo incompiuto e deformato a cura di
Fabio Gentile
Strumenti
Dall’Oece all’Euro. Cronologia 1948-2004 a cura di G. Garibaldi
Alexander Höbel
L’evoluzione della strategia dell’imperialismo Usa (1991-2003)
Antonio Gambino
La “dottrina” statunitense: una guerra perpetua contro i “non schiavi”
Corsivo “Strategia della tensione mediatica” (l.c.)
Archivio Angelo Panebianco, Quali che siano stati, regolarmente
ANALISI
Andrea Panaccione
Una rete di interdipendenze storiche. Russia ed ex-Urss nel nuovo
disordine mondiale
Angelo Michele Imbriani
“Shining India”: una “terza via” socialdemocratica?
Silvia Rossi
La Siria nel disegno mediorientale degli Stati Uniti
CLIMA, ENERGIA, AMBIENTE
Critica dello sviluppo capitalistico (II°)
dossier a cura di Angelo Baracca
Emilio Del Giudice
Il problema dell’energia alla luce di alcuni recenti sviluppi
scientifici
Michele Paolini
La concezione tragica della crescita
Corsivo Vittorio Sartogo, Acerra, e non solo
Vita di “Giano” Contro la guerra e il terrorismo, per le compagne
sequestrate
Lettere a “Giano” Darko Suvin, Sulla “invenzione” dello Stato
jugoslavo;
Luigi Bonanate, Risposta al prof. Suvin
LIBRI
Recensioni Aronowitz – Gautney (eds.), Implicating Empire (F.
Marcelli); I. Masulli, Welfare (M. Meriggi)
Segnalazioni a cura di Luigi Cortesi, Domenico Di Fiore,
Vincenzo Pugliano, Silvio Silvestri, Ireneo Vladimiri, Brigitta Gruber.
http://www.odradek.it/giano/