B0246 - CONTEMPORARY HISTORY OF THE BALKANS

Learning outcomes

The aim of this module is to provide an overview of 20th century history of SEE seen through the prism of larger systems/empires, to try to detect how big powers were coping with the region, trying to absolve it, make it more like them. It should show how new “imperial” players were introduced, how, for example, communist system was differently organized in 4 communist countries in the region. South Eastern Europe was for centuries part of different imperial systems, influenced from different centers. It was also a region where different empires were colliding. The border between the Eastern and the Western Roman Empire was running through the SEE. Both for the Byzantium and the state of Charlemagne region was on the very edge of their imperial domains. In the late medieval period and later, parts of the region were border areas of the Ottoman, Habsburg and Venetian systems (Triplex confiniuim). Therefore, three imperial systems were colliding, or being forced to cooperate, in SEE. It all changed with the Balkan wars and the WWI. The Ottoman Empire (later Turkey) was de facto pushed from the region. The Habsburg Monarchy seized to exist in 1918. However, the old imperial systems, practices and traditions did not evaporate. New realities were created, but they were usually based in the old practices, sometimes as a pure negations (the Ottoman tradition was always and everywhere negative example, even justification of present-day hardships), or very positive, even posh symbols of the glorious past (Habsburgs in some parts of SEE). Hitler Germany had special, but not fully developed idea, for the region. After WWII the Communist “empire” was created in the biggest part of SEE. As the Soviet controlled system it was reduced first after the Yugoslavs left in 1948, then the Albanians in the 1960’, but it nevertheless remained “red”. Even more, the Yugoslavs for a short period forged an military alliance with the two NATO members, Greece and Turkey. Transition that followed the end of the Cold War resulted in, probably for the first time ever, the same aim of all countries in the region - to join or to remain – part of the European Union. Student is expected to acquire a sound knowledge of the most relevant historical events in the 20th century Balkans, to develop an in-depth knowledge of integrative and disruptive factors, the role of communism and nationalism, the impact of the external factors and agencies in the regional stabilization/destabilization.

Course contents

Lecture 1:

Introduction. Russia in the Balkans. The impact of Islam and Orthodoxy. Montenegro and Serbia, Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Drama in Bulgaria. Has history special meaning in the Balkans? How do we research history of SEE in 21^st Century? History of the Balkans as part of the world history. Wars (Balkan Wars, The Great War, The Second World War, The Cold War, the Wars of Yugoslav Succession). Empires: Ottoman and Habsburg Empires, USSR and USA, European Union. Minorities. Assassinations. Dream of Europe.

Lecture 2:

SEE in early 20th century. Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908. The founding of Albania. The Balkan Wars. Bulgarian Empire. Greater Serbia. Enlarged Montenegro and Greece. Are the lessons from the Balkan Wars important today?

Lecture 3:

The Great War and the end of Empires.

Lecture 4:

The Interwar period. Bulgaria in Crisis. Little Antante (Yugoslavia, Romania, Czechoslovakia), the Albanian question. (conversation).

Lecture 5:

The rise of Germany, crisis in the SEE. The right-wing groups in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Italian imperial plans. Agrarian parties. (conversation; lecture).

Lecture 6:

The World War Two and the new Empires. Nazis and Slavs. German/Italian fascist system in SEE. Quisling regimes.

Lecture 7:

Soviets in SEE. Partisans in Albania, Greece and Yugoslavia.

Lecture 8:

After the War, before the Cold War. Superpowers as new imperialists? Yugoslav-Bulgarian-Albanian-Greek alliance-to-be? The Truman Doctrine. Yugoslav 1948 and Tito's «no» to Stalin.

Lecture 9:

Socialist and liberal systems. SEE divided: the Nonaligned Yugoslavia, Stalinist Albania, semi-independent communist Romania, pro-Soviet Bulgaria, “democratic” Cyprus and Greece, Turkey. The Chinese and the Soviets in SEE. «Big ideas, small nations”: the non-alignment of Yugoslavia and integral independence of Albania. Détente in the Balkans. Decline of Communism.

Lecture 10:

End of Cold War, end of Communism. The Break up of Yugoslavia. United in “transition”. Towards another – European – Empire? Is liberal capitalism collapsing in the Balkans? Where are we today? How to solve Bosnia-Herzegovina? Where is Kosova?

Readings/Bibliography

1. BEREND, Ivan 1998. Central and Eastern Europe 1944-1993: Detour from the Periphery to the Periphery. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
2. GLENNY, Misha 2001.The Balkans. Nationalism, War and the Great Powers 1804-1999. London: Penguin Books.
3. LAMPE, John R. 2006. Balkans into Southeastern Europe. A Century of War and Transition. London: Palgrave Macmillan. (You can choose between Lampe or Glenny).
4. MACMILLAN, Margaret 2002. Paris 1919. Six Months that Changer the World. New York: Random House. (Part III; chapters 9-12).
5. MAZOVER, Mark 2002. The Balkans. A Short History. New York: The Modern Library.
6. MAZOVER, Mark 2008. Hitler’s Empire. Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe. London: Penguin Books. (pages 327-368).
7. RAMET, P. Sabrina 2023. Deast Central Europea and Communism. Politics, Culture and Society, 1943-1991. Routlidge Open History. 

Articles:

1. Connelly, John, Nazis and Slavs: From racial Theory to Racist Practice. Central European History, vol. 32, no. 1, 1999. (1-33)
2. Gibianski, Leonid, The 1948. Soviet-Yugoslav Condlict and the Formation of the “Socialist Camp” Model. Odd Arne Westad, Sven Holtsmark, Iver B. Neumann (ed), The Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, 1945-1989. St. Martin’s Press 1994.
3. Jakovina, Tvrtko, Tito's Yugoslavia as the Pivotal State of the Non-Aligned; 391-406. In: Tito:viđenja i tumačenja, Beograd 2011, ur. Olga Manojlović Pintar, Institut za noviju istoriju Srbije i Arhiv Jugoslavije.
4. Swain, Geoffrey, The Cominform: Tito’s International? The Historical Journal 35, 3 (1992), 641-663.
5. Ristović, Milan, The birth of “Southeastern Europe” and the Death of “The Balkans”. Thetis, Mannheimer Beiträge zur Klassichen Archäologie und Geschicthe Griechenlands un Zyperns. Herausgegeben von Rinchard Stupperich und Heinz A. Richter, Band 2, Mannheim 1995.

Additional reading:

1. ABRAHAMS, Fred 2015. Modern Albania. From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe. New York University. 
2. CRAMPTON, R.J. 2002. The Balkans Since the Second World War. London: Longman.
3. DIMITROV, Vesselin 2008. Stalin’s Cold war. Soviet Foreign policy, Democracy and Communism in Bulgaria, 1941-1948.
4. IATRIDES, John. O. 1968. Balkan Triangle. Birth and Decline o fan Alliance Across Ideological Boundaries. The Hague: Mouton. (selected chapters).
5. JUDT, Tony 2007. Postwar. A History of Europe since 1945. London: Pimlico. (selected chapters)
   
6. MITROVIĆ, Andrej 2007. Serbia’s Great War 1914-1918. London: Hurst and Company.

 

 

Teaching methods

Lectures, discussions.

Assessment methods

Written exam (essays) and class participation.

Class participation is always welcome, but substantial, meaningful contributions have positive value in the assessment of students work.

Teaching tools

Power Point presentations, video-clips

Office hours

See the website of Tvrtko Jakovina