دمار يوغوسلافيا : تتبع لإنهيارها

by Branka Magaš

يرصد هذا الكتاب ما حدث فى مدينه سراييفو ومدن بوسنيه أخرى، وهى تتفتت شيئًا فشيئًا من جراء القذائف التى سقطت فوق رءوس سكانها. وقد فرَّ معظمهم من ديارهم بسبب المذابح والاغتصاب والإرهاب، وألقى بهم فى معسكرات اعتقال. وهذا الكتاب يضم التحليل السياسى والريبورتاج والفكر الناشئ عن النقاش والفكر الشخصى؛ ولذا فهو يعطينا أول وصف وتحليل داخلى للطريق المأسوى الذى أدى إلى دمار يوغوسلافيا.
المؤلف: برانكا ماجاس
المترجم: منى عبد الظاهر
دار النشر: المركز القومي للترجمة

Genres: History, War

500 pages, Paperback

First published March 17, 1993

Reviews

[Dubravka · Rating 5 out of 5]

As far as I'm concerned, this is the best book on that topic.

[Tadici · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great overview of the events and developments after Tito's death that inevitably led to the breakup of Yugoslavia. It is a collection of essays from 1980 until 1991 right when the war in Croatia was going on in full force.

I would say this is essential reading if you are interested in learning about Yugoslavia and its dissolution. Though you have to keep two things in mind. Firstly, his being a collection of essays means that you will often read about the same instances over and over again. Secondly, the author has from what it seems a democratic socialist perspective and with that there's gonna be assumptions of decentralization inherently being good and democratic and centralization inherently being bad and authoritarian/Stalinist. In fact, be ready to see the word Stalinist being dropped in every other sentence in some of her passages.

[Boris Cesnik · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an amazingly detailed recount of the 10-12 years proceeding the Third Balkan war. Its scope and objective is to quench anyone's thirst and hunger for a diachronic analysis of the events leading to the destruction of Yugoslavia.

It has all the relevant factoid checks and revealing insight of journalistic reportage; all the empathy and sincerity of a close-to-the-heart memoir; and all the honesty and fervour of the tale of a lifetime political struggle.
The fact that all the essays, articles, analysis etc were written while the actual events were unfolding makes the book even more poignant and real.

It's one of a handful of books that clearly exposed what the steps and remedies could have been taken to avoid this massacre.

My praise does not make it immune from a few shortcomings that could potentially put off some readers. I know the author has written another book on the war in Croatia and Bosnia that took place from 1992 which is where this book stops. I know she is Croatian and at the time of the writing probably still considering herself a Yugoslavian. But I'm sure this republic played a much bigger role in the pre-war history. So I'm curious to know what she says about Croatia's part in the Bosnia war (Mostar anyone?)

It's a book that pays a lot of attention (rightly or wrongly) on Serbia, its political struggle and its 'relationship' with Kosovo and the other republics. It seems the latter become protagonists only inasmuch as they are involved by Serbia.

Trust me, it has more than you can ever wish to know.

One thing I learned: when an old regime starts to crumble, all the pillar words such as 'Communism', 'Revolution' etc are as much abused and distorted like 'Democracy', 'Freedom', 'Rights' etc.that we use today for basically everything.

Oh I'm being nostalgic now...

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have only read, what I presume is a summary of this book in her piece published on an internet forum. It's pretty bad. It falls in line with western narratives, but it does not square with reality. The author makes a rather ludicrouse claim that Serbia is a fascist state-- this is actually a reversal of historical events. Serbs were never big supporters of fascism-- in fact if she read other well known authors like Batinic etc, they will tell you that Serbs by and large were antifascist or pro-royalist. What on earth is Serbian fascism? Nedic's unpopular stooge rule? In fact, no where in Europe was there greater resistance to fascism than Serbia. Just let that sink in. This is why Hitler was enraged when Serbia unlike the rest of Europe did not fall in line with his tyranical belligerence and brutally bombed Belgrade. Indeed, other historians have rightly commented that such bold acts of definace were unseen elsewhere to such a high magnitude with Ristanovic adding that 100 000 people in Belgrade alone protested the royalist's decision to align with the axis (of evil.) (In all fairness, these protesters were by and large pro-status quo and anti-foreign occupation more than anything.) Nonetheless, Serbs were the largest ethno-religious demographic of the Yugoslav Partisans particularly in Croatia (which again came as a result more so than anything from the Croatian Ustashe actions against them.)

In regards to the 1990s, she unconvincingly states: "The break, however, was nowhere so radical as in Serbia, not even in Croatia, despite the new Croatian ruling party’s ambiguous attitude to the Ustasha pro-Nazi quisling state of World War II and despite the Croatian assault on Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1993-4." Croatia's overt rehabilitation and glorification of Ustashism was anything but ambiguous-- it was extremely pronounced and duly commented on by Mirkovic and many others. Why the twisting of reality?


So please riddle me how Serbia is fascist? Serbs have never roundly accepted fascism- not ever. More than any other country (except for of course the Soviet Union) was fascism more challenged than it was by Serbs...and by Serbia-- this can be supported with copious facts which I have only partly demonstrated here.

This narrative falls in line with western narratives that Serbs are simultaneous paradoxical ultimate boogeymen--fascists/communists-- this concept is deftly explained by Subotic. None of this excuses Serb actions but rather highlights the author's disturbing parroting of western (american) narratives which was crucial for laying the grounds for NATO's brutal bombing on the country which killed thousands of civilians. Indeed, American imperialism is by many margins the most oppressive force on the planet. To circle back, one can rather easily make the argument that no country is more anti-fascist than Serbia.

[Anne Haack · Rating 5 out of 5]

In preparation for an upcoming trip through Serbia, Kosovo, and N. Macedonia (and having already visited Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia) I found this book an excellent explanation of Yugoslavia and its dissolution. It is an extremely detailed analysis. The Requiem portion I found most moving, and the intro helped paint helpful brushstrokes.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was good, but I didn't get too much new out of it other than he exlpained what the Serbs needed to do and also the international community. It had interesting presecriptions for them, but how do you educate them through an academic book?