The hawthorn stake for political dissidents as a new idea of Balkan democracy. In fact, it is not very new, it is as old as modern democracy, since May 1991. While one part of the former joint state still mourned the creator of the SFRY, created in blood on the levers of brotherhood and unity, the greatest son of the nation and nationality was not everyone's favorite. The neo-democrats resorted to the mythological means of the old Slavs, first on May 4, 1991, on the anniversary of Tito's death, the idea of sticking a hawthorn stake into the House of Flowers was born, just in case it didn't become a vampire. But it didn't stop there, because democracy is a dynamic discipline in the Balkans. The day before the twelfth anniversary of Zoran Đinđić's murder, the hawthorn stake was recycled again. Officially, that's it. In the meantime, the hawthorn stake becomes a toy in the hands of the neo-democrats and they are still not letting it go.
If historical revisionism were an Olympic discipline, more national teams could definitely be formed in the Balkans, which would easily fight for the highest Olympic honors. Historical revisionism has become an autochthonous discipline of most of the Balkans. At the time of the launch of the idea of the hawthorn stake in Belgrade, in Croatia, at the same time, a lot of work was being done on the rehabilitation of the Ustasha movement and, as Vladimir Bobetić wrote in his blog from 2012: "The Croatian market is flooded with cans packed with clean Croatian air, and Jasenovac is almost declared an air spa and every way was tried to reduce the number of those who perished, either in the furnaces, or under the hammer, or by the knife".
In the Western Balkans, the greatest historical revisionism is certainly the historical rehabilitation, from 2004, of the Chetnik movement of Draža Mihailović and his comrades. And so overnight patriots and national heroes became enemies of the nation, from freedom fighters to fighters against the national question, and traitors, quislings and servants of the occupiers overnight became national heroes, idols of new generations, martyrs and one by one became saints, in red letters entered in church calendars. And those newly minted heroes of the nation at the time of the NOB and the revolution did not make big differences on a national basis, some with cattle, some with stakes or under the knife. With their rehabilitation, a hawthorn stake has been driven into all their victims. For some, sin was another religion, for some who were not for the king and the fatherland. And so a new history is written again, even better, more true, more history and fairer. Just like when Dubrovnik was bombed, we were promised that a new one would be built, even more beautiful and even older.
Revisionism in Montenegro goes even deeper, so it's Njegoš's turn, and again, all the Titoists are to blame. To return Njegoš's chapel. It was as if the Titoists had overthrown it. Njegoš's mausoleum, a symbol of Montenegrin identity, bothers the spokesmen of Alexander the Great in Montenegro the most, who put themselves on the pedestal of defending Serbia. It sounds like a recycle from the era of Slobo the Great. They elevate themselves above the rest of the Serbs in Montenegro. They create "alpha Serbs" out of themselves. As if there is an entrance exam for the "alpha" title... the more you deny and smear the heritage, culture and history of your country, the easier it is to qualify and become an "alpha".
Could Tito's Yugoslavia survive? Perhaps she would have survived if the circumstances had been slightly different, if the leader had been of a different origin. With us, it is popular to have a great leader, a great leader, to follow him throughout history... But our leaders, our leaders must be, if not autochthonous, then at least originating from Serbian Sparta. The great leader is still at the head of Serbia today. I almost drove the Miloš Veliki highway from Belgrade to Čačak. Fantastic highway. But what will be the name of the one after Alexander the Great, he certainly cannot, because the Greeks will protest. Then it must be Alexander the Great.
And I can't shake the impression that the historical events of the late eighties and early nineties might have had a different course, I'm even sure of that. The historical idea of "all Serbs in one state" burst for the second time like a soap bubble. Neo-democrats say because there was no democracy-democracy in SFRY either. Whatever it was, it was much more than in the previous state. Monuments to the creator of the first common state throughout Serbia, a hawthorn stake is reserved for the creator of the second state. The last chance was missed in the 1991 elections. If Ante Marković and the Alliance of Reform Forces had been supported by 9 million Serbs, today we would probably live in the one that was once ours, never regretted. But Ante was not autochthonous either.
If Tito had not been Jožek from Kumrovac, but an autochthonous Milojko from Kosierić, his life's work would never have been called into question, nor would the revisionists have broken up the SFRY.
Bonus video:
