05.10.2017
Monograph about the Violence against Serbs in the 20th Century Promoted
A two volume edition of the monograph “Violence against Serbs in the 20th Century – Causes and Consequences” which is the latest work of Professor Radoslav Gaćinović was presented today in the the Ceremonial Hall of the Central Military Club.
Apart from Professor Gaćinović, the speakers commenting on this capital work, which is the fruit of several years long research of the author, included Professor Vojislav Maksimović, full member of the Academy of Science and Art of the Republic of Srpska, Miša Đurković, PhD, Scientific Councillor and Director of the Institute for European Studies, Mile Bjelajac PhD, Scientific Councillor and Director of the Institute for Recent History of Serbia and a representative of Eurobook publishing house, Gordana Subotić.
At the promotion, which was attended among others by the Minister of Culture in the Government of the Republic of Serbia – Vladan Vukosavljević, Director of the Representative Office of the Republic of Srpska in Belgrade – Mlađen Cicović and State Secretary in the Ministry of Defence – Aleksandar Živković, one could hear that the author, applying an interdisciplinary approach, interpreted in depth many events that had caused the greatest suffering of Serbian people over the 20th century, as well as those that due to having been passed over in silence “clouded” historical facts, do that the author also identified gross mistakes of Serbian leadership and he answered many very significant questions for the science about the topic he deals with.
Speaking about the significance of the monograph, Professor Vojislav Maksimović, full member of the Academy of Science and Art of the Republic of Srpska, said that the author of this voluminous work had clearly defined the topic he dealt with, making it quite clear even from the very title of the book and that the study provided an encompassing image, starting from theoretical determination of the notion of violence and its causes, types and consequences.
Looking back on certain chapters of the book, Professor Maksimović reminded that the author had not refrained from somewhat diverging from the basic theme of his writing.
- We can notice that in many chapters of the study, and by attaching these additions to the basic topic, the author has achieved an unexpected comprehensiveness - Maksimović noted and added that Professor Gaćinović was particularly interested in those Serbian organisations that were directly related to Bosnia and Herzegovina, primarily the National Defence, than the famous Black Hand, and especially described was the famous Thessaloniki profess during which Apis and his associates had been sentenced to death and shot.
The member of the Academy of Science and Art of the Republic of Srpska pointed out that, after publishing this monograph, he dared say that Professor Gaćinović ranked among well-known Serbian historians who came from Herzegovina.
The Scientific Councillor and Director of the Institute for European Studies, Dr Mile Bjelajac, one of the editors of the monograph, spoke about the biography and acquaintance with the author and said that Gaćinović had undertaken a demanding work of summarising the history of political violence against Serbs in the 20th century, one evil fate that had been prepared for the Serbian people in the Balkans for almost two previous centuries.
- He directed his attentions to historical reasons for that doing, but he also paid attention to the doing itself, its scope and quantification, its protagonists – Dr Bjelajac said and reminded that the author stated that nothing could happen in the Balkans independently from European and later world politics.
He called the attention to the fact that, in his monograph, Gaćinović had given his perception of Serbian attempts to defend themselves and promote the idea of freedom in a union with others with whom they had shared or share the area they inhabited and for whom Serbs believed that they shared common ideals and interests.
-The author not only informs about his own realisations, but the author encourages the reader to think about the controversies produced in this field by recent literature written by both Serbian and world „quills“ – Bjelajac said.
Dr Miša Đurković, Scientific Councillor and Director of the Institute for European Studies said that it was a great pleasure for him to be able to speak about the great synthesis of his colleague in his mature years, which thus crowned his many years long carrier and he underlined that in his monograph, Gaćinović spoke about different kinds of violence, not just the naked, physical one.
- I will start and finish my address with this in order to point out to something that is called the violence against identity and values – Đurković said and started his address by giving as an example that the Latin script was introduced for the first time in these parts in 1915 on Austro-Hungarian bayonets, meaning some 100 years ago, and that today we are in a position to fight a “bloody war” to preserve our Cyrillic script as our own script.
He emphasised that for Serbs, defending the state in any way always represents an issue of elementary survival but that today we are suffering the most because of the “violence against our values” which is promoted by primarily foreign centres of power, predominantly through “anti-family” legislation, promotion of pornography, abortion and other, which all led to the fact that in 2016 we recorded the lowest number of new-born babies since 1918.
Professor Radoslav Gaćinović , the author of the monograph “Violence against Serbs in the 20th Century – Causes and Consequences”, who was unwilling to expatiate upon the work, thanked his publisher Eurobook for the cooperation and the entire editing team, Department for Public Relations of the Ministry of Defence and Media Centre “Odbrana”, and particularly the editors and the Minister of Culture in the Government of the Republic of Serbia, Vladan Vukosavljević, who had evaluated the work as “highly valuable” and helped its publication.
- I am very happy because the monograph has been published. Its preparation lasted more than 10 years, with interruptions, in those times when it was not quite popular to speak about Serbs, not even about their suffering, sometimes even in Serbia, but it was because my scientific pride and curiosity and rebellion as well against the lies and injustice and against those who were killing our glorious ancestors, that I felt the need to conduct an in-depth research of the violence against Serbs in the 20th century and to offer these facts to the public – the author explained and added – for some as a reminder and for some to educate themselves so that the crimes are never forgotten, because if they are forgotten they will happen again.
Gaćinović said that the science he deals with enabled him to thoroughly analyse the works of a great number of national and foreign authors, many historical documents, and other, after which he needed to meticulously analyse centuries long struggle for freedom fought by glorious ancestors and to recognise on time the anti-Serbian activities of those who by this very violence endeavour to blunt the edge of the national struggle and the orientation towards the preservation and building Serbian national identity.
The importance of the monograph was recognised by the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia which financed the publishing project at an open competition for capital editions in February 2017.
Professor Radoslav Gaćinović was born in Meka Gruda 1955, in municipality of Bileća. He is a Scientific Counsellor in the Institute for Political Studies in Belgrade.
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