(Center for Civic Education; cgo-cce.org)
For most national Montenegrins, the year 1918 rightly evokes negative emotions. Namely, although exhausted in the Balkan Wars, at the end of July 1914 Montenegro mobilized its army, showed solidarity with Serbia before any other European country, and fought on the side of the Allies for about eighteen months in World War I. It was among the eight European countries that took part in the war in the summer of 1914, which would eventually turn into a global conflict the world had never seen before, but by the will of the Allies in 1918, the independent Montenegrin state disappeared and the Yugoslav state (Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) was created.
Montenegro joined the newly created state of Serbia, and by the decisions of the Podgorica Assembly in November 1918, King Nikola and the Petrović-Njegoš dynasty, which had ruled Montenegro for more than two centuries, were overthrown from the throne. Thus, unlike other European states that fought on the side of the Entente powers, and which after the First World War largely continued to exist as independent states, Montenegro was denied this right. It is therefore understandable that the mention of 1918 causes resentment among most national Montenegrins, which has been best expressed in recent years through the slogan "Never again 1918!", the creator of which was a Montenegrin historian.
Although, regarding the year 1918, the majority of national Montenegrins today also feel regret for the state that disappeared after the First World War, which is understandable considering that Montenegrins are statists, if it had not been for 1918, Montenegrins would, in all likelihood, still be the majority in the national sense today, and Montenegro would probably be the second Serbian state in the Balkans. Montenegrins were raised in the Serbian spirit for generations. And not to be just any Serbs, but elite Serbs. The greatest advocate and enforcer of elite Serbness in this region was Prince/King Nikola I Petrović Njegoš, who succeeded in doing what no other Serbian ruler had managed to do – to convince certain former Catholic tribes and former Albanians that they were Serbs. And not ordinary Serbs, but the best Serbs. Therefore, even if the Allies had allowed King Nikola to return to Montenegro, and even if Montenegro had continued to exist as an independent state after 1918, the character of that state would undoubtedly have been Serbian.
However, thanks to the unwise actions of the Serbian authorities and the violence they and their supporters in Montenegro inflicted on opponents of unconditional unification for years, the Serbs made the greatest contribution to the de-Serbization of Montenegro and the national emancipation of Montenegrins after 1918. The way they carried out the unification angered, deeply humiliated and hurt the people who were the first to take up arms in 1914 to defend the attacked Serbia.
This is confirmed by a famous Montenegrin communist, who later wrote about the way the unification was carried out: "Beating and even torturing prisoners, up to and including bombings, which were rare in Montenegro, came into use overnight - with the outbreak of the civil war and the introduction of Serbian police order. And although it was formally prohibited, it was widely practiced - the only public events were beatings and gun butts. It was as if there was some frenzied passion in the fact that Montenegrins were being beaten, more sensitive to this than to long-term imprisonment and the heaviest fines, or even to shooting themselves. Moreover, with the new government, the idea seemed to creep in that the most important thing was to humiliate the opponent and that such treatment was in some way a confirmation of loyalty and firmness, so the police, even those who were intimately against such methods, raced to do it, of course taking care not to maim the accused and to keep everything within their circle, so that it would not leak into the newspapers or to parliament. And if a riot broke out somewhere, the policemen's unbelting was taken jokingly, if not considered a virtue."
Given the terror that was imposed in Montenegro after 1918, it is understandable that a significant number of Montenegrins would increasingly distance themselves from Serbia and increasingly emphasize their Montenegrin identity. Among those who saw the injustice done to Montenegro were the children of supporters of unconditional unification and participants in the Podgorica Assembly.
The violence carried out by the Serbian government persistently worked to its own detriment and unnecessarily caused dissatisfaction among the Montenegrins, as the commander of the Adriatic troops noted: "They welcomed us enthusiastically in Montenegro at the beginning, we just needed to be a little more tactful and maintain that enthusiasm." However, since the new government did not behave wisely and tactfully towards the Montenegrins, after the Christmas Uprising was suppressed, the commander of the Adriatic troops had to report with regret that in Montenegro, "dissatisfaction with Serbia is general because all hopes have been disappointed: both political and economic." Moreover, in addition to being tactless, he also said that the government lacked authority, that the opponents of King Nikola's regime were also resentful of the government's actions, and that if circumstances did not change, "the idea of an association with Serbia would undoubtedly come into question."
And did it have to be that way? If there had been wisdom in the Serbian government, of course not. All the more so, because in 1918 the Montenegrins were overwhelmingly in favor of unification with Serbia. When there is an overwhelming mood of the population for unification, only an unwise government would issue police-like orders to its officers “not to be soft-hearted when working in Montenegro”, that the Montenegrin king should not be allowed to return to Montenegro at any cost, marginalize the supporters of King Nikola, commit violence and act tactlessly towards the population that “welcomed them enthusiastically”. If they had been wiser, the Serbs could have left the Montenegrins the freedom of choice – whether to unite with them and join a common Yugoslav state or not. Given that there was a majority mood in Montenegro for unification, the Montenegrins would certainly have decided to unite with Serbia. In that case, no one could accuse Serbia of having forcibly achieved unification, and the Christmas Uprising would probably not have happened, because the decision to unify would have been made by the Montenegrins of their own free will. However, these are counterfactual considerations.
Since historians do not deal with what could have been, but with what actually was, the fact is that after 1918, the Serbs definitely lost sympathy among a considerable number of Montenegrins, due to the decision of the Serbian authorities to achieve unification with Montenegro at all costs. Therefore, the unification of Montenegro with Serbia in 1918 was not an epoch-making concept, as one historian claims, but the greatest defeat of the Serbian idea in Montenegro. Moreover, unlike King Nikola, who taught his subjects that they were elite Serbs, this happened through the violence that they and their supporters in Montenegro committed against opponents of unconditional unification. The irony of history is that the Serbs raised the national consciousness of the inhabitants of the Black Hills and taught them to be Montenegrins. And this is certainly the most positive thing that the unification of 1918 produced.
The author is a historian and associate at the University of Donja Gorica (UDG)
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