The Fall and Rise of a National Hero: Interpretations of Draža Mihailović and the Chetniks in Yugoslavia and Serbia since 1945

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which Draža Mihailović and the Chetnik movement have been presented and reinterpreted as historical figures in Serbian historiography and popular representations of history since the Second World War, from his vilification and portrayal as a traitor to eventual rehabilitation and depiction as a Serbian national hero. It examines the key role played by historians as mediators of memory and charts the way in which the instrumentalisation of Second World War history by communist historiography paved the way for extensive national reinterpretations of wartime history and the creation of new usable national histories in the post-Yugoslav republics. The article addresses issues of transmission by reference to educational historiography and analyses the controversy caused by a Serbian basketball player's tattoo of Mihailović in 2004 in order to explore the shifting paradigms of political memory discourses and historical interpretations.

Keywords:

• memory
• use of history
• Chetniks
• Mihailović
• Yugoslavia
• Serbia
• national hero

Notes

¹ ‘Za života on je bio gonjen, klevetan, mučen i najzad umoren. Njegovo telo je razneto na komade i on nema groba. Ali on i dalje živi u duši srpskog naroda i tu če živeti zauvek, dokle srpske ime bude trajalo’ (Dimitrijević & Nikolić, 2000, p. 475). All translations unless noted otherwise are my own.

² ‘Verovatno je najtačniju istorijsku ocenu o đeneralu Mihailoviću [izrekao Slobodan Jovanović]’ (Dimitrijević & Nikolić, 2000, p. 475).

³ Numerous studies of the Second World War in Yugoslavia have been published. For an overview of these events see, for example, Tomasevich (1969), Pavlowitch (1971, pp. 107–172), Lampe (2000, pp. 201–232) and Ramet (2006, pp. 113–162). On the events in Bosnia see in particular Redžić (2005) and Hoare (2006).

⁴ See Tomasevich (1975, pp. 166–175), Hoare (2006, pp. 143–148), Ramet (2006, pp. 145–146) and Lampe (2000, p. 206).

⁵ ‘Krvave tragove masovnog ubijanja stanovništva, paljenja čitavih sela i varoši i pljačkanja naroda’.

⁶

Oni nose srpsku trobojnicu,

A sa Švabom idu na vojnicu!

Oj četnici, vaša ljuda glava,

Za čija se vi borite prava?

Oj četnici, sramne kukavice,

Lijepo vam je ime izdajice.

Oj četnici, sluge u Germana,

Sudiće vam puške partizana.

For a similar song about the Chetniks' collaboration with the Italians see ‘Oj, četnici, srpske izdajnice’, in Opačić-Ćanica (1971, p. 266).

⁷ ‘Left deviation’ was used as a euphemism for the early period of the Partisan struggle in Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina, when parts of the Partisan leadership believed that Yugoslavia was on its way into the second phase of the Stalinist revolution, which included the elimination of class enemies by use of violence. See, for example, Vujović (1967) and Petranović (1971).

⁸ ‘Pavelić je bio ratni zločinac i saveznik nacista, a Draža je bio sve suprotno od toga’. Gurović is referring here to Ante Pavelić, leader of the Croatian Fascist movement Ustasha that persecuted and massacred many thousand Serbs, Jews and Roma during the Second World War.

⁹ ‘Ta odluka je iznenađenje. To je otvaranja problema na polju sporta, koje ne bi trebalo da bude sporno i gde ne bi trebalo da bude problema’.

¹⁰ ‘Takva odluka je besmislena u demokratskim društvima i demokratskoj Evropi u koju i Hrvatska i Srbija žele da uđu. U takvoj Evropi je dozvoljeno svakome da nosi na ruci svoju ikonografiju’ (Anon., 2004c).

¹¹ ‘… tumačenja hrvatskog zakona lokalne policije, koja je verovatno u starim istorijskim čitankama pronašla podatak da je Draža Mihailović—fašista’ (Anon., 2004d).