(Continuation from the last issue of Art)
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Since the Serbian government did not agree with the civil designation of its population - Serbians - for its mission in Serbia, it is removed from administrative use by the more frequent use of the name Serbs. Thus, it is clear why Serbs and not Serbians, why Načertanije is a Serbian national program, politically intended for Serbians and Serbs outside of Serbia. This is the all-Serbian component of the phrase "All Serbs in one state", and it would be an expanded Serbia to the possible limits of ethnic presence.
Namely, only in this way was it possible to pragmatically spread Serbianism to areas of ethnic predominance and presence of Serbs, thus making Serbia the Piedmont of Serbia in the territories of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, part of Croatia, southern Hungary (Vojvodina), parts of Bulgaria, Macedonia, northern Albania and Montenegro Above.
In the imposition of ethnonym characteristics of the population of Serbia in all mentioned historical and geographical areas, ethno-confessional, cultural-linguistic and national-political rules were imposed by the application of Načertani, according to which people lived within the borders of the principality - the kingdom of Serbia.
In this way, Serbian Serbianism was embodied in the ideology of assimilation of the mentioned provinces and the Montenegrin state, which, since the declaration of the principality, became a real obstacle to the goal set by Načertani to gradually expand the borders of Serbia to take control of the entire Serbian space, and to achieve the set program goal "All Serbs in one country".
Yugoslavia as an expanded Serbia
Until the creation of the Kingdom of SHS, the national-political ideology of the Kingdom of Serbia in the service of Serbia definitely imposed itself in the Serbization of the mentioned regions, suppressing and localizing them with ethnic groups: Montenegrin, Bosnian, Herzegovina and Macedonian, reducing the population there to a part of the Serbian ethnic and national corpus.
With such ensured predominance in national and confessional terms, the constructors of the newly created Kingdom of SHS proclaimed, again for pragmatic reasons, the so-called a three-tribe nation consisting of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. It was based on the fact that Croats and Slovenes are significantly weaker in both ethnic and confessional terms, and consequently also in political terms. From an ethno-confessional point of view, Serbian Orthodoxy, ideologised in the form of Saint Savlj, dominated and kept Muslims under control through their ethnic attachment to the Slavic-Serbian past, all with the aim of suppressing the ever-engaging Catholic Church, which strove for a concordat arrangement of inter-confessional relations.
Through this effort, the disappeared Kingdom of Serbia was resurrected through the institutions of the Kingdom of Serbia and Montenegro on the ethnic, confessional and constitutional level, to the extent that Yugoslavia was often referred to as an expanded Serbia, that is, "Serboslavia". With such statements, it is worth reminding that the Italians did not become Piedmontese due to the effect of Piedmont in the unification of Italy, just as the Germans did not become Prussians due to Prussia in the unification of the German people, and accordingly, Serbia's role in the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia should not have led to the creation of Srboslavia. One gets the impression that by the way the Kingdom of SHS (Yugoslavia) was created, along with the strict reduction of Montenegro and Montenegrins to a part of the Serbian national and state corps, the Serbian elite compromised with the leaders of the Croatian and Slovenian people.
Nicholas I, between ambition and vision
And now let's briefly see what the Montenegrin experience is with the use and abuse of Serbianness and Serbianness, that is, what is the essence of Montenegrin Serbianness and Montenegrinism.
Montenegro appeared in the early 80s of the XNUMXth century as a reaction to Serbian Serbia, which was based on the vision of Načertani that all the military and political efforts of Montenegro in the mission of liberating their compatriots in the Ottoman and Habsburg Monarchies should be reduced to the Serbian understanding of Montenegro as a national, and Montenegrin Above as a state ideology that stands in the way of the political and state idea of Serbia in achieving unification.
In fact, the recognizable liberation mission of Montenegro in the area of the so-called of southern Serbia, as well as on the western sides, whether it was Orthodox, Catholic or Mohammedan, disrupted the political, national and state ambitions of the Serbian elite, which since 1882 has used the favorable attitude of Vienna towards the Kingdom of Serbia to actively prepare a plan to expand the state's borders to the south .
By painstakingly annexing the territories obtained on the basis of the decisions of the Berlin Congress, the Montenegrin government directed its political ambitions in the liberation mission towards compatriots in the surrounding area - Boka Kotor, Sandžak, Metohija and northern Albania.
It was certainly not politically expedient and illogical for the Montenegrin sovereign Nikola I Petrović to indicate to the Serbian king and "brother" with this decision Alexander what is it preparing for and what will Montenegro adhere to in the joint liberation program.
In his messages to the king and the government in Belgrade, Prince Nikola emphasized: "Let's fight together for the liberation of our compatriots, gather them under the roof of a common state, let's do what the Italians and Germans have achieved and in the bosom of the 'mother of Yugoslavia' let's renounce the curse that marks every dynasty as evil doom follows.”
In his political, national and above all statesmanship visions, he is not a Montenegrin sovereign, with the charismatic prestige achieved by leading Montenegro in the Great War of 1876-1878. and in the years of peace, he was a supporter of the liberating Serbia without a justified reason with an undisguised ambition to lead it.
Where in that political labyrinth of interests of Serbian and Montenegrin transgression was he deceived, where did he assume his own ambitions to whimsical political reality and did he not remember Montenegro too late in the already advanced application of the principle of nationality, why did he, as an experienced statesman, overlook the influence of ideological Serbia, which Načertanije laments over his fate Dušan's empire and at the same time breaks, demolishes and propaganda reduces Montenegro to a part of Serbia, giving it the most unfortunate name - separatism, these are topics to which Montenegrin and Serbian historiography so far do not have a reliable and non-ideological answer.
However, it should be remembered that the articles about Montenegro on the pages of "Glas Crnogorac" in Belgrade were greeted as a bolt from the blue, even though in the state ideology of Petrović, Montenegro could already be recognized as a national ideology.
Namely, Montenegro was really present during the entire time of Petrović, from Bishop Danilo until the departure of King Nikola from the political scene, who made him known to the general public for a number of reasons, the most important of which, of course, are the contemporary requirements and understanding of this statesman who translated his own experiences and those of his predecessors into political, national and state visions of Montenegro.
Today, precisely because of the renewal of political propaganda that always leaves dishonorable traces, one can think and ask why the emergence of Montenegrinism as a national and state idea produced such an incomprehensible and crude propaganda reaction in the circles of the political elite of Serbia at the time and its public media. Searching for a valid answer to this question, one could ask whether the essential principles of the well-guarded, then still secret political program of Serbia - Nacertani were not called into question.
Montenegro, truth be told, does challenge the state strategy of the Serbian government and homes Obrenović i Karađorđević who, for the sake of their own vision, reduce Montenegro to a historical and geographical fact, and consider its statehood dangerous in any form. Its every existence in the national and political view is considered separatism in relation to Serbia.
With such an understanding and propaganda aberrations, Montenegrin statehood, both medieval and modern, became a scarecrow with which the Serbian political elite "scared" the Serbian people, throwing stones at every Montenegrin identity and individuality. In doing so, she wholeheartedly referred to Svetosavlje, which took root as a school glory at the end of the 50s with the ambition to work educationally to win Montenegrin youth and adults to understand and accept Serbian Serbianness. When at the beginning of the 80s of the mentioned century they realized that Montenegrin Serbia, and especially Montenegrin, would not merge into Serbia and through it into Serbia, the reaction in the press was abrupt and naked. Moreover, until then reluctantly accepted, Montenegrin warrior and liberating Serbia at all costs, which did not suit the Serbian elite, was understood in Belgrade political circles as the opposite by which Montenegro evades political control in terms of achieving national and state goals.
Montenegrin warrior and fighting Serbs were no longer trusted because they are not following the desired path traced in Belgrade's political circles.
In the accusations and the campaign between king of Milan and Prince Nikola are dominated by dynastic ambitions. Belgrade uses 16 young people from Montenegro studying in Belgrade for attacks on the regime of Prince Nikola, and the top political circles conclude that Serbian Belgrade no longer trusts Cetinje, despite the sacrifices Montenegro made in the fight for Serbia as an idea of national and religious liberation.
The Serbian political elite realized that Prince Nikola Petrović's Montenegro does not want to be the Serbian Sparta, that Lovćen is not the Serbian Olympus that Belgrade wants, that Montenegrins want to be Montenegrins and not Serbian Serbs, even if they are the best, and that precisely because they become increasingly unreliable Serbs question the project of an all-Serbian gathering under the leadership of Serbia.
Therefore, with the advertising of Montenegrin ideologues on the pages of "Voice of Crnogorac", from the point of view of Serbian propaganda, "Serbia was blackened" again, as at the time of the declaration of Montenegro as a principality (1852). And thus, until then skillfully concealed, Belgrade's intentions towards Cetinje became public and exposed the tactics of Belgrade's court and political circles in realizing the concepts of the Serbian and Montenegrin understanding of Serbia.
Montenegrin Serbia, inspired by the tragic outcome of the medieval great state that was "a kingdom from the first" and "grandfather" Nemanjić dynasty, from the time of the tragic Kosovo myth, it became fatefully linked to the warrior liberation of all Serbs included in the borders of the Ottoman, Habsburg Monarchy and the Venetian Republic.
The cult of Montenegrin Serbs grew and developed in the centuries-old resistance imposed by the circumstances during the centuries of dominance of the aforementioned states.
Montenegrin Serbs are not at the will of Serbia either
Known as "fighting Serbia", the Montenegrin concept started from the threatened Orthodoxy in the religious and political sense, but was also present as a fear of losing the "Orthodox soul" due to proselytizing and extreme Catholic religio-political predominance. And while against the Ottoman Empire, due to the brazen arbitrariness of the pashas and viziers from Shkodër, Trebinje, Mostar, Sarajevo and Travnik, as the epic poem says, "the struggle is unceasing", and against the Christianly close Venice and Austria, i.e. against their providuros in Kotor and barons and counts in Vienna, there was also a constant struggle for the protection of faith and name.
Hence, all the Montenegrin past is essentially Montenegrin, and the Serbian one is certainly if it is objectively understood and understood as a combative, political and religious effort to save, preserve, defend and liberate the South Slavic population which, after the collapse of the Nemanjic state, ideologically and ideologically inherited The SPC, accepting the position of being in the Ottoman Empire what the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople agreed to in the name of the Greek people, therefore, the guardian of privileges and guaranteed political rights.
Montenegrin metropolis, precisely because of the special position of Montenegro, on a significantly narrowed area of the country Crnojevica, in the mountains of Podlovćen, for the area of Old Montenegro as well as for all the later areas where Montenegro expanded territorially and state-wise, she was the spiritual and political heir, the fighting leader of everything that the General Montenegrin choir - "the choir of all Montenegro" obliged its champions to do. .
That is the difference, in fact, a delusion and a tangled mess that historical science and inexorably ideologically motivated propaganda are enslaved even today when it comes to the attitude of the political elites of Serbia and Montenegro towards the phenomenon of "Serbism".
To conclude:
Montenegrin Serbia, as soon as it was recognized in its true, original Montenegrin form, was not welcome to Serbian Serbia, which since Načertani had and persistently created the conditions for Serbia to realize a Piedmont role in unifying Serbs in all areas of presence.
Montenegrin Serbs do not fit into such efforts of the political and church elite of Serbia, since time Prince Miloš i Njegosha, and will be vainly covered and concealed by their truly significant liberation efforts. In political terms, unfortunately, it was limited and reduced to giving spiritual leadership to Njegoš (we do not know if only for his time), so that, from the declaration of Montenegro as a principality in the sense of state law, that political prestige of Serbia would be and remain for Montenegro a question to be or not to be. On that basis, all the fatal and evil politically designed propaganda of Obrenović and Karađorđević against Petrović was born, which ended with the destruction of Montenegro and Petrović's home in 1918. Therefore, the Podgorica Assembly is nothing but the ultimate goal of a long-ordered plan and finally found actors for execution plan for the disappearance of Montenegro as a state and Montenegrins as a nation.
Montenegro existed according to the principle - only a free man is worthy of that great sign of being a man, and in order to be a man, he must have, acquire and realize it through the state as a necessary prerequisite. Montenegro has always cherished its identity and it was and still is today for all its citizens. Its uniqueness bothered only those who had political, religious and ideological interests towards it as a space and people that they included in their state legal projects. Montenegro resisted it with sword and pen and, despite many temptations, searched and survived.
Hence, for the time we are going to meet, Njegoš's words sound appropriate: "The heart that does not beat for its ownness, has awakened in the chest in vain."
(October 2023)
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