Grassroots groups, Milošević or dissident intellectuals? A controversy over the origins and dynamics of the mobilisation of Kosovo Serbs in the 1980s

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Notes

See for example Laura Silber and Allan Little, The Death of Yugoslavia (London: Penguin and BBC, 1996), pp. 34–47, 58–59; Tim Judah, Kosovo: War and Revenge (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), pp. 47–55; Noel Malcolm, Kosovo: A Short History (New York: New York University Press, 1998), pp. 339–343; and Julie A. Mertus, Kosovo: How Myths and Truths Started a War (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), Chapter 2.

Ivan Stambolić, Put u bespuće: odgovori Ivana Stambolića na pitanja Slobodana Inića (Belgrade: Radio B92, 1995), pp. 165–180.

Nebojša Vladisavljević, “Nationalism, Social Movement Theory and the Grass Roots Movement of Kosovo Serbs, 1985–1988,” Europe–Asia Studies, Vol. 54, No. 5, 2002, pp. 771–190.

It is hard to establish the scale of inequalities between 1966 and 1981, since this was an official taboo. After 1981, however, credible evidence from official reports provided insight into the forms and pervasiveness of the inequalities. See, for example, excerpts from the report of the working group of the Federal Assembly in “Tačno i netačno: nijesu Albanci, no nepravda,” Intervju, 11 April 1986, pp. 38–45, and “Ispitano i provereno,” NIN, 13 April 1986. The evidence should not be confused with Milošević's propaganda in the following years. For the latter see Srdja Popović, Ivan Janković, Vesna Pešić, Nataša Kandić and Svetlana Slapšak, Kosovski čvor: drešiti ili seći? (Belgrade: Hronos, 1990).

Calculated from the figures for Serbs and Montenegrins from Jugoslavija 1918–1988: statistički godišnjak (Belgrade: Savezni zavod za statistiku, 1989), p. 48. Montenegrins, who comprised less than 15% of this section of Kosovo's population, saw the Serb identity as more inclusive, shared with all Serbs.

See Srdjan Bogosavljević, “A Statistical Picture of Serbian–Albanian Relations”, in Dušan Janjić and Shkelzen Maliqi, eds, Conflict or Dialogue: Serbian–Albanian Relations and Integration of the Balkans (Subotica, Yugoslavia: Open University & European Civil Centre for Conflict Resolution, 1994), p. 23, and Ruža Petrović and Marina Blagojević, The Migrations of Serbs and Montenegrins from Kosovo and Metohija: Results of the Survey Conducted in 1985–1986 (Belgrade: SANU, 1992), pp. 82–85.

Petrović and Blagojević, The Migrations of Serbs and Montenegrins, pp. 85–92, 100–104, 111–173.

Miloš Sekulović, interview with the author, Belgrade, 18 August 2000. For details see Zejnel Zejneli, Ko je izdao revoluciju (Priština: Jedinstvo, 1988), pp. 74–105, p. 12.

Aleksandar Tijanić, Šta će biti s nama (Zagreb: Globus, 1988), pp. 130–131, p. 2.

For an account of one of the meetings see excerpts from the diary of Draža Marković in Mirko Djekić, Upotreba Srbije: optužbe i priznanja Draže Markovića (Belgrade: Besede, 1990), pp. 209–210.

Boško Budimirović and Miroslav Šolević, interviews with the author, Belgrade, 15 and 17 July 2001, respectively.

Boško Budimirović and Miroslav Šolević, interviews with the author, and Dušan Ristić in Miloš Antić, “Srbija nema rešenje za Kosovo,” Borba, 11 February 1993, p. 13.

“Zahtevi 2016 stanovnika Kosova,” Književne novine, 15 December 1985, p. 2. The expression “ethnically clean” comes from the petition.

For details see Vladisavljević, “Nationalism, Social Movement Theory and the Grass Roots Movement of Kosovo Serbs”, pp. 772–773.

See, for example, “Šta je ko rekao u Kosovu Polju: stenografske beleške razgovora u noći 24. i 25. IV 1987,” Borba, 8, 9–10 and 11 May 1987, p. 17.

Boško Budimirović, Miroslav Šolević and Bogdan Kecman, interviews with the author, Belgrade, 15 and 17 July 2001 and 29 August 2000 respectively.

See “Šta su Kosovci rekli u Skupštini,” NIN, 23 and 30 March and 6 and 13 April 1986; and “Šta je ko rekao u Kosovu Polju”, pp. 1–18.

Miroslav Šolević and Boško Budimirović, interviews with the author. See also Dobrica Ćosić, Piščevi zapisi, 1981–1991 (Belgrade: Filip Višnjić, 2002), pp. 169–170, 186–188.

Ćosić, Piščevi zapisi, pp. 169–170.

Boško Budimirović and Miroslav Šolević, interviews with the author.

For details on the views and action of the intellectuals in relation to Kosovo see Jasna Dragović‐Soso, “Saviours of the Nation”: Serbia's Intellectual Opposition and the Revival of Nationalism (London: Hurst, 2002), Chapter 3. For the text of the intellectuals' petition see “Zahtev za pravnim poretkom na Kosovu,” in Aleksa Djilas, ed., Srpsko pitanje (Belgrade: Politika, 1991), pp. 260–261.

Miroslav Šolević, interview with the author.

Ibid.

Boško Budimirović, interview with the author.

Vladisavljević, “Nationalism, Social Movement Theory and the Grass Roots Movement of Kosovo Serbs,” p. 774.

Nebojša Vladisavljević, “Institutional Power and the Rise of Milošević,” Nationalities Papers, Vol. 32, No. 1, 2004, pp. 183–205.

Draža Marković, interview with the author, Belgrade, 16 August 2000.

Boško Budimirović, Miroslav Šolević and Bogdan Kecman, interviews with the author, and Dušan Ristić in Antić, “Srbija nema rešenje za Kosovo.”

The author's copy of the petition. See excerpts in “Iz peticije 50.000 potpisnika,” Danas, 5 July 1988, p. 23.

Boško Budimirović and Miroslav Šolević, interviews with the author, and Mićo Šparavalo, a prominent activist, in Sava Kerčov, Jovo Radoš and Aleksandar Raič, Mitinzi u Vojvodini 1988. godine: radjanje političkog pluralizma (Novi Sad: Dnevnik, 1990), pp. 243–244.

See Darko Hudelist, Kosovo: bitka bez iluzija (Zagreb: Centar za informacije i publicitet, 1989), pp. 153–221.

Stevan Marinković and Migo Samardžić, prominent activists, in Kerčov et al., Mitinzi u Vojvodini, pp. 229–220, 241.

Marjan Korošić, Jugoslavenska kriza (Zagreb: Naprijed, 1988), p. 63.

See the table showing the numbers of strikes and participants in strikes in Yugoslavia between 1978 and 1988 in Salih Fočo, Štrajk izmedju iluzije i zbilje (Belgrade: Radnička štampa, 1989), p. 62.

Neca Jovanov, Radnički štrajkovi u SFRJ od 1958. do 1969. godine (Belgrade: Zapis, 1979), p. 75.

For details see Tijanić, Šta će biti s nama, p. 128.

James Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nebojša Vladisavljević