23.10.2014
Promotion held for the book "The Rankovic case - From the KOS archives"
Promotion of the book “The Rankovic case – From KOS archives” by General Svetko Kovac, Bojan Dimitrijevic, PhD and Irena Popovic Grigorov was held today at the Gala Hall of the Central Military Club of Serbia. The book tells about an affair that changed the course of history of the socialist Yugoslavia.In the center of the affair, there was Aleksandar Rankovic, the first man of Yugoslav and Serbian security agencies and the organization secretary of the Communist Party. Based on so far unknown archive build of the Military Security Agency, the book problematizes the “Brijuni affair”, posing new data against the accusations made then. The book is enriched with many photographs from the Rankovic family’s album, available to the public for the first time.
At the promotion, speeches were given by reviewers Prof. Andreja Savic, PhD and Assistant Minister of Defence for Human Resources Milos Jankovic, and the authors.Assistant Minister of Defence said that “the veil of secrets that had for decades covered the Rankovic case had been lifted a long time ago.”
- There are not enough books about the aforementioned subject. Creators and actors of these events gave different perspectives of the bugging, including Rankovic’s notes. The causes, reasons, results and consequences of this event were discussed by daily and weekly press for years. In all publications and explanations, however, the public was left without an answer to the question if the bugging had occurred or not. Unfortunately, the book does not provide a crystal clear answer to very important questions – whether Rankovic bugged Tito and, if he did, who ordered him to – Jankovic said.
Professor at the Faculty of Security and Diplomacy Andreja Savic stressed that the book is based on the fond of the KOS Military Security Agency related to the Brijuni Plenary and the Rankovic case.
- We are talking about the political deposition of Aleksandar Rankovic. The Brijuni Plenary is a colloquial title for the 4th Plenary Session of the CK SKJ on July 1, 1966 at the Iskra Hotel at Brijuni, where, due to the bugging affair, Rankovic’s resignation was extorted. He was marked as the main culprit, which made him resign from all functions. In spite of a certain number of published works, most titles discuss this topic partially, so it seems that the Rankovic case has not been fully resolved to this day. For us, it would seem that the book completes the publicist approach – Savic stressed, adding that the book represents an invaluable contribution to the historiography of SFRY and that it can inspire other researchers to analyze the Rankovic case in greater depth.
MSA analyst Irena Popovic Grigorov said that “the Brijuni Plenary is the protagonist of the book, because this event brought about the painful breakup of our state”.- We took on the difficult task of telling the old story in a new way and answering old questions while respecting historiographical postulates – why and who needed the bugging affair and whether Rankovic actually bugged Tito. We will never find the correct answers, because that is what Rankovic wanted, never giving his version of the event – the author said.
Science associate at the Institute for Contemporary History Bojan Dimitrijevic stated that the book is a result of a long-lasting work and research of the Military Archive, Archive of Yugoslavia and the MSA’a fond, and that it was no easy task to collect everything into one book.
- I am impressed with what we have offered the public – new historiographical data and photographs. In a way, reading about the Rankovic case can only begin with this book, and new interpretations can be made just now, based on relevant archive build. We did not want to educate, but to set the archive build chronologically and to give context to the events. The book is a result of our endeavors to make a contextualization of the 1966 events, starting from the feud between Tito and Rankovic, to the Plenary, later deposition and reorganization of national security, and everything that has been hidden from the public – Dimitrijevic said, adding that, if the book does not cause complete rehabilitation of Rankovic, it will help perceiving the event more clearly.Former MSA Director retired General Svetko Kovac stressed that the authors’ wish was to say what the others hadn’t said.
- I have read around 13000 pages of various materials, from which the most important was to be extracted. We wanted to provide facts to support what others had assumed and I believe that we succeeded. We clarified dilemmas, all thanks to good data. If I were to give my personal opinion, I would say that Rankovic didn’t bug Tito and that he never wanted to be Tito’s successor. We also did a research on the phenomenon that Rankovic, who had spent his entire life in security agencies, was surprised. We believed that this was because he had been blindly loyal to Tito, and he hoped that the President wouldn’t fall for such rumors – Kovac said.
The guests were also addressed by Director of Odbrana Media Center Colonel Stevica S. Karapandzin, who, in the wake of the 59th International Belgrade Book Fair, said that is one of the new titles of the Media Center which will also be presented at the Fair.Excerpts from the book were read by actor Lazar Ristovski, and the promotion was also attended by Rasim Ljajic, Deputy Prime Minister of Government of Serbia and Minister of Foreign and Domestic Trade and Telecommunications of Serbia, Head of the General Staff of Serbia General Ljubisa Dikovic, Serbia's war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vuckovic, representatives of the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces of Serbia and a great number of visitors.
