Yugoslavia and Macedonia Before Tito: Between Repression and Integration

Description

Held together by apparatchiks and, later, Tito's charisma, Yugoslavia never really incorporated separate Balkan nationalisms into the Pan-Slavic ideal. Macedonia - frequently ignored by Belgrade - had survived centuries of Turkish domination, Bulgarian invasion and Serbian assimilation before it became part of the Yugoslav project in the aftermath of the First World War. Drawing on an extensive analysis of archival material, private correspondence, and newspaper articles, Nada Boskovska provides an arresting account of the Macedonian experience of the interwar years, charting the growth of political consciousness and the often violent state-driven attempts to curb autonomy. Sketching the complex picture of nationalism within a multi-ethnic, but unitarist state through a comprehensive analysis of policy, economy, and education, Yugoslavia and Macedonia before Tito is the first book to describe the uneasy and often turbulent relationship between a Serbian-dominated government and an increasingly politically aware Macedonian people. Concerned with the question of integration and political manipulation, Boskovska gives credence to voices critical of Royal Yugoslavia and offers a fresh insight into domestic policy and the Macedonian question, going beyond traditional high politics. Broadening the spectrum of discussion and protest, she reveals the voices of a people protesting constitutional and electoral fraud, the neglect of local needs and state machinations designed to create a satellite province. Cover ......Page 1 Author Bio......Page 2 Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Dedication ......Page 6 Contents......Page 8 List of Illustrations......Page 12 List of Maps......Page 14 Acknowledgements......Page 16 Introduction......Page 22 Names and Terms......Page 23 On the Establishment of Yugoslavia......Page 31 The Current State of Research......Page 34 Aims of this Study......Page 38 Regarding Sources......Page 42 A Difficult Start for the New State......Page 44 The ‘Macedonian Party’......Page 59 Uprising in Vardar Macedonia?......Page 66 Relaxation of the Tension 1924–5......Page 69 1927: Intensified Terror and Counter-Terror......Page 72 Hopes in a Dictatorship......Page 90 1931: Coerced Constitution and Sham Parliamentarism......Page 95 The Stojadinović Era, 1935–9: Economic Recovery, Political Revival......Page 99 Movement among the Macedonian Intelligentsia......Page 105 The ‘LuĊists’......Page 109 ‘Even the last shepherd became an official here, if only he was from Serbia and a Serb’......Page 113 The ‘25th Anniversary of South Serbia’s Liberation’......Page 115 The Macedonian Parliamentarians......Page 121 Contacts between the Macedonian Movement and the United Opposition......Page 123 In Expectation of Changes......Page 126 The Understanding with the Croats......Page 133 Skopje as Seat of the ‘Serbian Lands’......Page 137 Macedonia and the War......Page 139 Measures against ‘Autonomism’ and ‘Separatism’......Page 143 The Yugoslav Economy......Page 150 Vardar Macedonia: ‘Passive’ Region or Garden of Eden?......Page 152 Industry......Page 157 Crafts and Trade......Page 161 Finances......Page 163 The 100-Million-Dinar Loan......Page 170 Investments and Development?......Page 174 Skopje as a Model City......Page 181 Agricultural Reform and Colonisation......Page 183 Crops and Agricultural Problems......Page 193 The Loan System......Page 201 Animal Breeding......Page 202 The Agricultural Policy of the Stojadinović Government......Page 207 ‘The Most Crying Grievance’: The Tobacco Monopoly......Page 208 Opium: The Demise of a Lucrative Industry......Page 221 The Elementary Schools......Page 230 Secondary School Education......Page 244 ‘Nationalisation and Assimilation’ through the Schools?......Page 253 University Education......Page 257 The Road Network......Page 269 The Railway......Page 273 The Media......Page 278 Language......Page 285 The ‘Classical’ or the ‘Primitive’ South?......Page 291 Officials, Teachers and Gendarmes......Page 293 The Economy......Page 296 Modest Investments......Page 298 The Failure of Yugoslav Integration......Page 299 The Unsuccessful Serbianisation of Macedonia......Page 302 ‘Macedonia for the Macedonians’......Page 305 The Elites in a Dilemma......Page 308 Macedonia as a Special Case within Yugoslavia?......Page 309 Notes......Page 314 Bibliography......Page 360 Index......Page 372