Bogoljub Kočović
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Bogoljub Kočović (1920 – February 2013) was a Serbian jurist and
statistician A statistician is a person who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, and statisticians may wor ...
. He undertook the first objective examination of the number of people killed during World War Two in Yugoslavia and published his findings in the 1985 book ''Žrtve drugog svetskog rata u Jugoslaviji'' (Victims of the Second World War in Yugoslavia).


Life and career

Born in
Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...
; his father was a Serb, and his mother French. He received a
Doctor of Law A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL ...
from the
Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...
in 1949 and later after working in the U.S., obtained a MA in economics at
Roosevelt University Roosevelt University is a private university with campuses in Chicago and Schaumburg, Illinois. Founded in 1945, the university was named in honor of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The unive ...
in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
in 1956. He was a research assistant in the French National Center of Scientific Research (
CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...
) from 1947–52. In 1963, he returned to Paris, working as the administrative and financial director for two US firms until his retirement in 1984. Kočović was one of the co-founders of the ''Oslobođenje'' union in Geneva and Paris, a contributor and an editor of ''Naša reč''. He, along with Dr Dragan Pavloviċ, founded the
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
quarterly ''Dialogue''. He was a member of the Association of Serbian Writers and Artists, as well as the Action Committee for the Democratic Alternative.


Work on World War Two casualties in Yugoslavia

Kočović's best known work is ''Žrtve drugog svetskog rata u Jugoslaviji'', published in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
in 1985 in Serbo-Croatian. He compared the
census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...
es from 1921, 1931 and 1948, and, assuming a possible
population growth Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to ...
at 1.1% and
emigration Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...
in that period, obtained the
demographic Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as edu ...
and what he believed were the actual losses of
Yugoslavia during World War II World War II in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia began on 6 April 1941, when the country was swiftly conquered by Axis forces and partitioned between Germany, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and their client regimes. Shortly after Germany attacked the US ...
. He clearly stated that his estimates depended on these assumptions, and that if other population growth were assumed, different results would have been obtained. In fact, the population growth for Yugoslavia for period 1921-1931 was 1.55%, and for Bosnia and Herzegovina 2.1%, numbers widely different than he used, and his assumptions, later presumably used (or plagiarised) by
Vladimir Žerjavić Vladimir Žerjavić (2 August 1912 – 5 September 2001) was a Croatian economist and demographer who published a series of historical articles and books during the 1980s and 1990s on demographic losses in Yugoslavia during World War II and of Ax ...
, were called into serious question. He calculated the actual losses were around 1,014,000 and the demographic losses around 1,925,000. He allowed for a margin of error of 250,000. However, the official number upheld by the Yugoslav communist regime was 1,706,000. Although Kočovic's estimate was rough, his research (along with those of other independent demographers) indicated that the official figure was possibly too high. Shortly after Kočović's work was published, Vladeta Vučković, a professor of mathematics at the University of South Bend, claimed in a London based émigré magazine that he had participated in the calculation of the number of victims in Yugoslavia in 1947. According to Vučković, the number of approximately 1,700,000 was actually an estimate of demographic losses, meaning that the number of real losses would have been significantly lower, probably close to Kočović's estimate. Vučković duly provided scientific reasoning to justify estimating the net demographic loss at 1.7 million, but did not intend for his estimate to be used as a calculation of the number of war casualties as such. Still, Yugoslav Foreign Minister
Edvard Kardelj Edvard Kardelj (; 27 January 1910 – 10 February 1979), also known by the pseudonyms Bevc, Sperans and Krištof, was a Yugoslav politician and economist. He was one of the leading members of the Communist Party of Slovenia before World War II. ...
took this figure as the real loss, conveying it to the Inter-Allied Reparations Agency in 1947. Kočović's book was ignored in his homeland until the
breakup of Yugoslavia The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
, when it was reprinted in
Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...
in 1990. In the 1980s, independently from Kočović, Vladimir Žerjavić in
Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...
, Croatia, used a similar method and obtained similar results. Both had lower figures for their own respective ethnic grouping, which was seen as a proof of their objectivity. Historian
Jozo Tomasevich Josip "Jozo" Tomasevich (March 16, 1908 – October 15, 1994; hr, Josip Jozo Tomašević) was an American economist and military historian. He was professor emeritus at San Francisco State University. Education and career Tomašević was born ...
stated that the calculations of both researchers were free of bias and could be accepted as reliable. Kočović's calculations of World War II victims in Yugoslavia are even lower than those of Žerjavić, however the latter gave a more detailed account of numbers and nationalities of the dead. Kočović confirmed that he considered Žerjavić's work in the field scientifically valid. Kočović wrote a book, ''Nauka, nacionalizam i propaganda'' published in 1997, refuting Serbian statistician Đorđević's efforts to, in Kočović's words, "reinstate hegreat numbers" victims figures which had been dominant during Communist Yugoslavia period.


Books

*''Žrtve drugog svetskog rata u Jugoslaviji'' (Casualties of World War II in Yugoslavia; Biddles of Guilford for Veritas Foundation Press, London, 1985) *''Nauka, nacionalizam i propaganda'' (Science, Nationalism and Propaganda; Paris, 1998) *''Sahrana jednog mita: žrtve Drugog svetskog rata u Jugoslaviji'' (The Burial of a Myth: Victims of World War II in Yugoslavia; Belgrade, 2005)


References


Sources

*


External links


Victims of War between Science and Propaganda
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kocovic, Bogoljub 1920 births 2013 deaths People from Sarajevo Bosnia and Herzegovina people of Serbian descent Bosnia and Herzegovina people of French descent Serbian statisticians Serbian people of French descent Date of birth missing Yugoslav expatriates in the United States Yugoslav expatriates in France Roosevelt University alumni University of Paris alumni