SERBIAN STARTING POINT: Freedom, nation, state, democracy
Abstract
And on this occasion, the author of this substantial, polyvalent and interesting book, Miloš Knežević, showed his magnificent talent as a political thinker and philosopher, who through a geopolitical prism presents the position of the Serbs in the Balkans, Europe and the world in a long historical process: in the pre-Yugoslav, Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav periods. period.
The book is a complete, primarily geopolitically conceived study, full of Knežević’s insightful and humorous syntagms and neologisms – which have already entered the language of contemporary Serbian political science. The book was created meditatively, at a considered distance from daily politics, when one thinks freely and creates most fruitfully.
Knežević’s erudite work, apart from its subject, also represents a dialogue with the reader and an invitation to read carefully. The language is essayistically intoned, rich and intimate. Such language necessarily evokes a personal attitude towards the author, positive or negative, but by no means lukewarm.
The book contains five chapters. In the first chapter, the author discusses Serbia and the “Western Balkans” and the charm of the term “Western Balkans”. He talks about western Serbia, western areas in Republika Srpska, about Russia, Europe and America, about the house on the “imperial road”. He deals with linguistic geography and the concepts of “Bosnian” and not “Bosnian” language.
The second chapter is devoted to issues of liberation, freedom and the state, that is, the Serbian national and state issue.
In the third part, Knežević deals with the fate of the Serbian people before and after Yugoslavia. As part of this chapter, Knežević insightfully dealt with the issues of Serbian countries and entities, Montenegro, Republika Srpska, Republika Srpska Krajina and Kosovo and Metohija. Here, readers can read a series of interesting, research-provoking details, such as Milovan Đilas’ claim that a high-ranking Croatian communist official, later dissident Anrija Hebrang, sought Croatia as far as Zemun.
The author dedicated the fourth part of the book to Josip Broz Tito. This chapter presents a very successful and interesting study of Titus, his personality and form of government; about Titoism, neo-Titoism and post-Titoism, Titophilia, Titophobia, Titomania and other conceptual derivatives from the period of his absolute domination over Yugoslavia and Serbia.
The final, fifth chapter, is devoted to concluding thoughts primarily on the national phenomenon, but not exclusively in the (post)Yugoslav and Serbian context.
And at the very end of the monograph in the epilogue, if at all he lost the indirect dialogue with the imagined reader, Miloš Knežević returns him to everyday impressions, bringing out the unpleasant time of the creation of the book, the troubles with pneumonia, the stay in the hospital and oxygen support, which temporarily slowed down the rhythm of writing. But the book is still shaped.
