The Mystery of Nationalism: The Paramount Case of Yugoslavia

I. For instance, in Ihe aftermath of the 1990 GulF War, open calts append for support of all disintegralive forces in the Soviet Union because the time was ripe for total victory Zbigniew Brzezinski was one of the promoters of such an idea.

For the assertion that 'Nationalism is no longer a major vector of historical development', see EJ Hobshewm. Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme. Myth, Reality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). p. 163.

In this context, Hungary considers itself to have an historical right in Voyvodina, which is a part of Serbia. The same holds for Bulgaria with respect to Macedonia.

Hobsbawm , op.cit, in note 2, pp. 172-73. In the same vein, Richard Pipes notes. in The Formation of the Soviet Union, that although the new Soviet state was unitary, centralised and totalitarian, the Communists gave constitutional recognition to the multinational structure of Ihe Soviet population by granting the minorities extensive linguistic autonomy and by placing the national territorial principle at the centre of the state's political administration, cited by Roman Szporluk , 'The Imperial Legacy and the Soviet Nationalities Problem', in Lubomyr Hajda and Mark Beissinger (eds). The Nationalities Factor in Soviet Politics and Society (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990). p. 8.

Official Soviet anli-Semltism, which has undoubtedly been observable since the foundation of the Mate of Israel in 1948. must be measured against the rise of popular anti-Semitism since political mobilization became permitted again, not to mention the massacre of Jews on considerable scale by local elements in the Baltic states and Ukraine as the Germans marched in but before systematic German killing of Jews began. See Hobsbawm, op. cit., In note 2.

For an uncerstanding of this equation, the following quote is Instructive: 'by giving Russian imperialist overtones to its domination of other peoples, the regime deflects the resentment of other nationalities from the communist state entity onto the Russian national entity.' See Szporluk , op.cit, in note 4, p. 8.

Steven L. Burg notes that the process of socioeconomic and cultural development that made accelerated rates of upward social mobility possible was also found to have stimulated the development of national self-awareness. See Steven L. Burg , 'Nationality Elites and Political Change in the Soviet Union', in Hajda and Beissinger (eds.), op.cir, in note 4, p. 29: and Szporluk , op.cit, in note 4, p. 20.

'The social-democratic syndrome of values has not only ceased to promote changes and new developments, but it has begun to produce its own contradictions, and it can no longer deal with them effectively.' See Ralph Dahrendorf , 'The End of the Social-Democratic Consensus?', Life Chances,

John Feffer , 'The New Eurocentrism', New Politic. (Vol.II, No., 1991), pp. 113.127.

Hobsbawm correctly reminds us: 'The logical implication of trying to create a continent nearly divided into coherent territorial states each inhabited by a separate ethnically and linguistically homogeneous population, was the mass expulsion or extermination of minorities. Such was and is the murderous reductio ad obsurdum of nationalism in Its territorial version'. See Hobsbawm , op.cit, in note 2, p. 133.

Baltie Republies were independent states at the time of their forceful Integration into the Soviet empire. Slovenia and Croatia were parts of the Habsburg empire. They were without national sovereignty and willingly united with the Serbs and other peoples of Yugoslavia.

Milorad Ekmicic states that at the time of unification, quantitative estimations made by political leaders in power, secret police, foreign emmissaries and a secret plebescite in Clamatia indicated mass support for the unification. See Milorad Ekmitic . The Creation of Yugoslavia 1790-1918, Vols. I and 2 ( Belgrade: Prosveta, 1989), p. 830.

At the Eighth Party Congress (1966). Two. for The first time, declared himself a Croat Until then, he was a Yugoslav.

This is not to say that there are no violations of human rights of Albaman citizens but to indicate aspects that are usually overlooked when the Albaman position in Yugoslavia is concerned.

'We shall start from the assumption that those actors have certain possibilities that can increase or decrease the probability of the persistence and stability of a regime. See Juan J. Einz and Alfred Stepan (eds.), The Breakdown of Demoncratie Regimes (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1978). p. 4 The same authors cite Meineck's comment upon hearing the news of Hitler's appointment as chancellor: This was not necessary See ibid., p.11.

The Constitution begins with the Following statement the millennial national identity of the Croatian nation and the continuity of its statehood. confirmed by the course of its entire historical experience is various statal forms and by the perpetuation and growth of the idea of one's own state. based on the Croatian nation's historical right to full sovereignty, manifested itself in two pages follow that aim to summarise this historical experience.

'Many of the changes that new regime introduce are of a symbolic character: the change of flags ... such changes may arouse enthusiasm at first, but they do not represent tangible advantages for the supporter of new order.' See Guillermo O. Donelt and Phillipe C. Schmitter , Transitions from Authoritarian Rule (Baltimore. MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1986), p. 34.

Generally speaking, nationalist ideology suffers from pervasive false consciousness. Its myths invert reality.' See Ernest Gellner , Nations and Nationalism ( Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983), p. 124,

'Both the modernization of society and political development depended on the foreign policy of the big powers. The division of spheres of interest among them, beginning in 1714, has lasted until this very day. All thin has been occuring on these territories was in one way or another in the shadow of the politics of the great powers See Eknicic . op.cit, in note 12. p. 14,

U. This was quoted in The Times (London) The Economist and by the daily, Politica, 14 May, 199 p. 3.