The Other Serbia or the Second Serbia ( sr, Друга Србија, Druga Srbija) was a term used in Serbia during the 1990s, to denote groups of intellectuals, who identified as
anti-war, anti-nationalist and
pro-democracy
Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a full ...
, united around their opposition to the regime of
Slobodan Milošević, media consensus, war, nationalism, and the rhetoric surrounding it.
History
In 1991, the
Yugoslav Wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from ...
began in Slovenia and Croatia before spreading in 1992 to Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Serbia anti-war intellectuals started to unite around their opposition to the dictatorship, media consensus, the growth of nationalism and war.
In 1992 the
Belgrade Circle published a book edited by Ivan Čolović and Aljoša Mimica, called ''The Other Serbia;'' the book contained 80 speeches and essays, made during ten public forums that took place from April 11 to June 20, 1992 at the
Student Cultural Center.
The participants of those forums which raised its voice against war, hatred, extermination, and ethnic cleansing (mostly university professors, writers, artists, journalists, activists, and anti-fascists) became known as the Other Serbia.''
'' Their main activity were the
anti-war protests in Belgrade in 1991-1992, which were led by
Women in Black
Women in Black ( he, נשים בשחור, ''Nashim BeShahor'') is a women's anti-war movement with an estimated 10,000 activists around the world. The first group was formed by Israeli women in Jerusalem in 1988, following the outbreak of the Fi ...
, the Centre for Anti-War Action and the Belgrade Circle.
According to
Filip David, the opponents of Other Serbia were "nationalist elites who declared us enemies and traitors".
The Other Serbia took part in all the
1991–1992 anti-war protests in Belgrade. Some of its main figure were philosopher
Radomir Konstantinović, who participated in the founding of the Belgrade Circle of Independent Intellectuals and before that the ''Association of Independent Writers'', and Serbian historian and politician
Latinka Perović
Latinka Perović ( sr-Cyrl, Латинка Перовић; 4 October 1933 – 12 December 2022) was a Yugoslav communist leader, historian and politician. During the existence of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Perović was a secre ...
.
According to historian
Florian Bieber, Other Serbia fulfilled at the time an important symbolic function in "challenging the seeming homogeneity in intellectual and popular support for extreme nationalist policies".
In 2002 the
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia published the book ''The Second Serbia - ten years after (1992-2002)''.
Notes
References
{{reflist
Political terminology
Politics of Serbia