Mickey and Jaki have repeatedly pointed out that they spent 15 years of their lives in the West, studying hard, building a career, so that fact alone makes their worldview unquestionable, which, as they swear to us, is undoubtedly Western and not Byzantine, or more precisely - Orthodox . Their decision to replace careers and living standards in the hated West with engagement in their homeland, with the aim of making it similar to those societies, deserves respect, but every now and then a gaffe comes out of their mouths, which sows the suspicion that they left their homeland for nothing, because the homeland never he did not leave them.
"My grandfather was on Goli otok for five years, the affection we have for the Russian people is clear, as well as for the Ukrainian people, but our European path is also clear, 80 percent of the people are in favor of joining the EU, and in this sense we have an obligation to harmonize our foreign policy with EU countriesMinister Milatović explains to us.
Jed od Jakov, therefore, like most Montenegrins of that time, wandered in the ideological and political mists of time, broke in great social upheavals, from the October Revolution, Nazism, went through the horrors of the Second World War, and after liberation also chose between the East and of the West. Jakov's grandfather, as well as my maternal grandfather, his three brothers and three uncles, chose to be against Hitler first and then, most of those who survived, to be against Tito. It seems as if Russia was their mother who led them to both anti-fascism and communism. Although, viewed from the point of view of universal values of freedom and justice, the first, anti-fascist choice was right and the second, one-partyism - wrong, it is inappropriate to take such examples as benchmarks for today's actions and behavior. Because such an approach ignores the passage of time. Every person changes in his life, society even more so, and how it is only when the time span of several generations is taken.
Hence the logical question: why does Jakov have to follow the example of his grandfather, a partisan and a native of the island, after spending 15 years in Western culture, long enough to understand the advantages of individual freedom and parliamentary democracy, which can be linked to the partisan movement or more of his ideals, but difficult for Goli otok, whether it is about those who created and filled it, or about others who were imprisoned or died there. Like grandfather Boško, one of my ancestors.
Jakov is younger than me, so it would be logical for him to free me from the ghosts of the past, not the other way around. But here, let me confide in him: Faruk Begoli, Ljubiša Samardžić and Tom Sojer influenced my anti-fascism more than the ancestors shot on Breza or killed on Sutjeska. And for accepting solidarity and brotherhood as the greatest values of human civilization, Homer, Cervantes or Saramago helped me more than stories about grandfathers who paid with their lives and prisoners for their beliefs and choices.
It is bad for a young minister, after a decade and a half spent in Europe, to refer to his grandfather, his choice and path, taking a worldview from a completely different time and context as logical and his own. And imposing it on us, without asking. My grandfather loved Russians, that's why he ended up on Goli otok - it's clear then that we all love Russians, says the young Milatović. For someone who lived in the big cities of Western Europe for 15 years, it would be expected that he built his love for Russia on the plays of Chekhov, the novels of Gogol, the poems of Lermontov, the symphonies of Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky, or the films of Eisenstein and Tarkovsky, and not on elections. or his grandfather's delusions.
The mentioned testimony of Minister Milatović is also disappointing in that it implies the conclusion that in reflecting on the deeds of his ancestors, he favors a macho narrative, so he necessarily refers to his grandfather. And his five years of imprisonment on Goli Otok. And nobody, not even Jakov, cares about grandma. Let me confide in him: one of the most important people in my life is my grandmother Milica. Although I didn't meet her because she died before I was born. But her life story, which, I'm sure, resembles the story of young Jacob's grandmother or great-grandmother, is a true story of the heroism of our ancestors. About heroines, not heroes, then. Heroines that our grandfathers didn't ask when they had to choose between the Greens and the Whites, neither between the Partisans and the Chetniks, nor between Tito and Stalin, nor between communism and capitalism. It was theirs to support the family, to give birth and raise children, to take care of the house, to treat colds and infections, to prepare for schools and universities, to carry out and achieve all this while their husbands clarified politics and decided on one side. Because of which they easily lost their heads or went to prison. That's why, instead of the six monuments and one national hero's order that hang on the wall of my grandfather Milutin's family house, I cared much more for the photo of grandmother Milica, which my mother carried in her wallet... I therefore expected from my learned grandson, who graduated from high school, the best schools in the West, built a career there and met many intelligent people, to refer to the heroine's grandmother rather than her grandfather in her statement, of the Golodočka martyr.
Another dangerous stereotype preached by the aforementioned testimony of Jakov Milatović is that the sanctions against Putin's regime and the unreserved condemnation of his brutal aggression against Ukraine are the result of necessity and necessity, not our choice. With this, young Jakov treats Brussels as perhaps his grandfather treated the Comintern - a place of unquestionable and final truth! Whose directives we should follow without any opposition or dilemma. For someone who spent 15 years in the West, especially if he wants to show how much such an environment made him super sensitive to issues of freedom, choice, sovereignty, equality - the condemnation of Russian aggression against Ukraine should be an expression of the deepest sense of justice and the need to stop the crime condemnation, not necessity due to the unquestioning acceptance of the decision of some power center, even if it was right as in this case, and even if it was called Brussels.
Finally, and since I see that Jakov and Mickey are in a lot of pain, let me make it easier for them - Putin is not Russia. Our young yuppies and leaders need to explain to their voters that Putin is an autistic dictator who, after two decades in power, surrounded by sycophants, therefore separated from reality and life, thought he was liberating Ukraine from Nazism, while a Jew stands at the head of that country. As Ivan Krastev explained these days - Putin lives in wrong historical analogies and metaphors, because the heroic struggle of the Red Army against Nazism in the case of Ukraine is symbolized by Zelensky and not him. Jakov should explain this to the voters in Berane today and tomorrow in Podgorica and the day after tomorrow in Montenegro. And to leave grandfather alone.
Bonus video:
