Political freedom necessarily leads to a reexamination of the fundamental tenets of communist ideology, and even the role assigned to this ideology in war history. And this is not the case only in Serbia (the country where the headquarters of the Serbian Orthodox Church is located), but also in Croatia, the Czech Republic (since January 1, a law has been in force there that equates Nazis, communists and their characteristics) and numerous other countries of the former one-party regime. Montenegro cannot and must not be an exception. This is a natural and logical process, in which the question of how democratic and humane the character of the system established by the communists, as undoubted anti-fascists, is deeply problematic. The whole world is buzzing about this, these are some major roads of transition, and not some invention of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Now, we must be careful not to go to the other extreme, and not to declare proven heroes and anti-fascists to be bandits, and not to make bandits heroes.
Truth has one version only and exclusively from the absolute divine perspective. When people, with their own strength, try to perceive it, then it cannot move beyond interpretation, from the human version that is always missing something. The passage of time testifies to how science has a whole history of its discoveries – currently established truths, which have changed each other, and most often denied. Einstein's theory of relativity, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle or astronomical insight into the infinity of reality, are the last words of the exact sciences. In spiritual (social) sciences, the factor of interpretation is much more present and almost indispensable. Sciences that study art, legal sciences, then mental disciplines such as history and philosophy, are based on the skill of interpretation, recognition and interpretation. In all of them, an infinite field of search for the context in which something was said, and in which something happened opens up. This does not mean that a certain measure of truth is impossible and that there are no rules and standards, but it does mean that in most scientific disciplines of this kind, truth is a matter of agreement or majority opinion: the codification of a language system, the description of an artistic direction, the adoption or writing of a law, and especially – the writing of a historical account of an event. "History is written by the victors", "Hardly for the vanquished" or "The law is a spider's web in which only the weakest are caught"… these and similar statements are as old as our civilization. The standard "Write as you speak - read as it is written", without which we could not imagine our own social communication, is no longer valid over the first hill, nor across the nearest sea.
Therefore, anyone who publicly states categorically that "there can be only one truth," without being a religious preacher or a declared believer in the afterlife, is either unfamiliar with the history of science and human thought, or is a supporter of one of the totalitarian "isms" that emerged mostly during the 20th century. All of these "isms" (communism, fascism, Nazism, chauvinism) are based on a single-minded, violence-prone idea that politicians and ideologues possess an absolute, divine perspective of truth, with which there is no discussion.
What is the alternative to such absolutist ideologies? Does this insight lead us to an anarchic relativization of moral principles? Not at all. I said a moment ago that social (and to a large extent scientific) truth is a matter of human agreement and majority opinion. This very "social contract" is the substrate of modern civil society. And it can rest either on the general acceptance and rational codification of traditional (religious, pre-political) beliefs (which is a deeply positive experience of these regions - e.g. the Discipline of Saint Peter of Cetinje), or on a consensus around some, newly thought-out and expressed, human ideals. From this point of view, we can recognize as a kind of sacred things: human life, freedom of choice and conscience, respect for applicable regulations, as well as possession of property acquired through work. All spiritual and political worldviews will agree on them. In relation to the first (the sacredness of human life), criminals are all those who have ever killed unarmed and unconvicted people. In relation to the others (human freedom and the right to property), criminals are those who, by armed force, destroyed old and imposed new political systems in which these sacred things were either reduced or annulled. Thus, in free societies such as the American or Western European ones, a condemnation was pronounced long ago against totalitarian systems, but one could also hear the self-condemnation of those who were prepared to kill more innocent people for the sake of fighting them than totalitarian systems ever did. No one can ever deny the anti-fascist character of the American bombers over Dresden and Hiroshima, the Stalinist armadas and so many others like them, but the normal and democratic world has long wondered to what extent the anti-fascist military momentum brought the human race to the brink of extinction, more than a fascist officer could ever have wished or imagined. Anyone who has not seen the film masterpiece "Oppenheimer" should definitely watch it. This is how criticism and self-criticism of one's own anti-fascism develops in democratic societies. With specific names of criminals, heroes and anti-heroes. Without vague and useless phrases "we admit that it happened", "we do not deny the possibility that it happened" and "we even talked about it once", etc.
Because of all of the above, it is clear that anti-fascism on the one hand, and democracy and civil society on the other – are sets that do not completely overlap.
Montenegro and anti-fascism
We are currently experiencing a political, but also a moral transition of Montenegrin society. An exit from the totalitarian system of values to what is called democracy, parliamentarism, and we clearly see the consequences of an uncritical attitude towards Bolshevik anti-fascism. One of them, equally harmful as the silence about partisan war crimes, is the glorification of war criminals by this anti-partisan side. The decades-old monuments and streets dedicated to certain dubious national heroes have been responded to with monuments to no less controversial war actors. These are personalities who were crowned with glory by their war side, and who turned out to have committed war crimes or served an ideology that was not significantly different from the one they fought against. The names and surnames of all of them must be heard loudly, so that we, as a community, can all be guided by different examples. The glorification of criminals in anti-communist military formations is equivalent to silence about the crimes of "national heroes" and idealizing totalitarian ideology as the alleged bringer of freedom and prosperity. This condemnation of the glorification of criminals on all sides is not an afterthought. I said all this (https://www.pobjeda.me/clanak/perovic-joanikije-govorio-i-o-cetnickim-zlocinima-i-o-potrebi-da-se-svi-zlocini-svih-strana-ispitaju) back on May 5th, interpreting the integral statement of Metropolitan Joanikije in Lijevča Polje. A statement that the totalitarian consciousness cannot accept as integral, nor present as such to itself or the public. And the only monument whose consecration I attended was the one to the blessedly departed Metropolitan Amfilohije in the courtyard of the Kolašin church. Apart from that exception, monumental activity, in my opinion, is not in the spirit of Orthodox church aesthetics and is not close to my heart.
Something completely different is the prayerful (s)memorial of the innocent victims, and especially those who are still without a grave. Without that fundamental characteristic of our civilization. And one of these is the priest-martyr Joanikije Lipovac, Metropolitan of Cetinje. The archives of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral possess four volumes of his letters written during the war. There are nice words addressed to the occupier, New Year's greetings, birthdays... but in almost every one of these and other letters there are also requests for numerous people to be released from the dungeons, for the condemned to be spared, for the people who are starving to be helped. We received these letters through the kindness of his children and grandchildren (Joanikije was tonsured a monk as a widowed priest), and one volume is missing, stolen from a NOB officer, whose mother the Metropolitan saved from an Italian prison. All this painful and involuntary confusion of collaboration and humanity would certainly not have been the reason for Joaniki's canonization, if it had not been for his martyrdom, by the justice of God. A man who committed no crimes was killed as the greatest criminal, without trial and without a grave – to this day. In order to draw the scale of that crime for some hot-headed people, we will compare this case with a somewhat similar one: the case of Cardinal Stepinac.
The same army and command – partisan (conspicuous presence of Montenegrin partisans), the same city – Zagreb, a church dignitary of similar rank and war fate, similar probably unwilling collaboration (because neither one nor the other were members of any Ustasha or fascist party, but rather representatives of the Church that advocates opposite values) with criminals… However, Stepinac receives both a trial and house arrest as punishment, while Joanikije receives neither. Stepinac's canonization has already become commonplace in Croatia and among our local Croats and their political representatives, and the Serbian Orthodox Church needs to justify itself to someone for the canonization of the priest-martyr Joanikije!
Song from the stands
That is why, I repeat, the song from the fans' stand in Podgorica about "running away together" is absolutely inappropriate. Even if it was spontaneous (which few people believe), some elementary things need to be explained to this heated youth. And we can send that explanation in a free and democratic public space, despite the commissar spirit that wants to determine who is allowed to say what and to whom, while at the same time criticizing and almost cursing everything that comes to hand. If it is difficult for someone to understand the inappropriateness of the content of such a song, then I guess everyone has eyes and can see that its performers really did not unfurl the banner of Pavle Đurišić, but did the one with the image of Krsto Popović. Again, I personally have many reasons not to view the personality of Krsto Popović negatively, as those who liked the aforementioned song (calling him a war criminal) do! I know about his collaboration, but I do not know about Krsto's crimes. I also know about a lot of good that he did during the war - what remains to be remembered is how his thanks to him, there were the fewest fratricides in the territory he controlled. Loyal to the king's grandfather, loyal to the king's grandson, and a vocal opponent of Bolshevism, to whom he did not want to surrender at the cost of his own life. Well, it is easy for me to arrange the truth in this way, but how will those who maintain that anti-fascist crimes do not have criminals with names and surnames, and that collaboration does not know of any bright examples of humanity, at the cost of sacrificing their own reputation and honor, as in the case of Metropolitan Joanikije and Officer Krsto Popović, explain their fascination with fan songs and the aforementioned coloration.
The media play with the premises A) "Ljubo Čupić is a national hero" + B) "Some Chetniks killed Ljubo Čupić" = CONCLUSION) "All Chetniks are criminals" leads us to the following: A) "Ilija Damjanović from Broćanac is a national hero" (Educated officer of the Kingdom of Montenegro; participant of the Christmas Uprising and supporter of the Petrović dynasty; was internment and then amnestied by the king Aleksandra; respected by both the Whites and the Greens; at the beginning of the war, disappointed by the actions of all the warring parties, he withdrew from those divisions... )+ B) "Partisans liquidated him one night, after he hosted them at dinner" = CONCLUSION) "All partisans are criminals"! Is it possible to reason like this and does this kind of reasoning lead us to the truth? The death of Ilija Damjanović is not the only such case (the murder of the Tadić brothers near Vidrovan in Nikšić is one of the greatest crimes of the fratricidal war, and it was the liquidation of young partisans because they did not want to kill their own uncle!!!). Some partisan liquidations of the local population did not distinguish between former greens and whites. The criterion was someone's reputation among the people and the fact that the prominent person was an opponent of communist ideology. The executions were carried out at night, without trial, so to this day we do not know whether these heroes went to their deaths with a smile, and what they said to the criminals immediately before their death. Behind some of these crimes stand the names of individual "national heroes". All this does not diminish the heroism of the fallen partisans and proven heroes, but it opens up a field for a large number of unsolved crimes. Crimes that concern someone's closest relatives and ancestors. Crimes that must not be repeated under any circumstances or justifications. And in order to remove them from our consciousness and perspective, we must first mark them and call them by their right name.
At the end of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, and the holy victory over the evil of fascism, I hereby end my public statements on the aforementioned topic and will not participate in further polemics, although I believe that in the spirit of tolerance and mutual respect, others should also be heard who will look for points in our recent past that unite us, rather than those that irrevocably divide us. Here is my humble contribution to such an endeavor:
https://www.pobjeda.me/clanak/perovic-neka-barem-svemir-cuje-nemir
https://www.pobjeda.me/clanak/revizijom-protiv-relativizacije
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