Savić Marković Štedimlija ( sr-cyrl, Савић Марковић Штедимлија; 12 January 1906 – 25 January 1971) was a Montenegrin writer. He studied the

history of Croatia At the time of the Roman Empire, the area of modern Croatia comprised two Roman provinces, Pannonia and Dalmatia. After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, the area was subjugated by the Ostrogoths for 50 years, before b ...

and was an associate of the Lexicographic Institute in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...

. During his life, he authored more than 20 books and a number of articles, and also worked as a literary critic. Štedimlija is also known as

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of publications promoting the

Croatian Orthodox Church The Croatian Orthodox Church ( hr, Hrvatska pravoslavna crkva) was a religious body created during World War II by the Fascist Ustaše regime in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). It was created in order to assimilate the remaining Serb mino ...

of the

Ustaše The Ustaše (), also known by anglicised versions Ustasha or Ustashe, was a Croatian fascist and ultranationalist organization active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945, formally known as the Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Move ...

regime.

Biography

Štedimlija was born in Stijena Piperska, a small village of the Piperi Highland near

Podgorica Podgorica (Cyrillic: Подгорица, ; lit. 'under the hill') is the capital and largest city of Montenegro. The city was formerly known as Titograd (Cyrillic: Титоград, ) between 1946 and 1992—in the period that Montenegro form ...

in the

Principality of Montenegro The Principality of Montenegro ( sr, Књажевина Црна Горa, Knjaževina Crna Gora) was a principality in Southeastern Europe that existed from 13 March 1852 to 28 August 1910. It was then proclaimed a kingdom by Nikola I, who then ...

. He attended the Gymnasium in

Leskovac Leskovac (Serbian Cyrillic: Лесковац, ) is a city and the administrative center of the Jablanica District in southern Serbia. According to the 2022 census, City of Leskovac has a 124,889 inhabitants. Etymology Leskovac was historicall ...

and moved to

in 1930. There he worked as a journalist and writer who published numerous articles and reviews on

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

in newspapers and

periodicals A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar example is a newspaper, but a magazine or a journal are also exampl ...

. Štedimlija's articles on Montenegrin history complained about lost independence of the

Kingdom of Montenegro The Kingdom of Montenegro ( sr, Краљевина Црна Горa, Kraljevina Crna Gora) was a monarchy in southeastern Europe, present-day Montenegro, during the tumultuous period of time on the Balkan Peninsula leading up to and during World ...

after the

Podgorica Assembly The Great National Assembly of the Serb People in Montenegro ( sr, Велика народна скупштина српског народа у Црној Гори, Velika narodna skupština srpskog naroda u Crnoj Gori), commonly known as the Po ...

in 1918, and his articles on domestic policy of the

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 ...

were influenced by

Croatian nationalism Croatian nationalism is nationalism that asserts the nationality of Croats and promotes the cultural unity of Croats. Modern Croatian nationalism first arose in the 19th century after Budapest exerted increasing pressure for Magyarization of Cro ...

of that time. In 1941, after political changes in the Balkans, he founded the Montenegrin National Committee of the Independent State of Croatia and a year later, he became

of publications promoting the

regime. At the end of 1944 he escaped to the

Ostmark Ostmark is a German term meaning either Eastern march when applied to territories or Eastern Mark when applied to currencies. Ostmark may refer to: *the medieval March of Austria and its predecessors ''Bavarian Eastern March'' and ''March of Pann ...

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, in 1945 he was arrested in the Soviet zone of Austria and deported to a

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. After ten years of detention, he came back to SFR Yugoslavia in 1955, was prosecuted for fascist collaboration and sentenced to 8 years in prison for his political activities during the war. In 1959, he was already released on condition that he accepted the prohibition of publishing works under his name. In the 1960s he was a member of the Yugoslav Lexicographical Institute until he retired into private life. Savić Marković Štedimlija died in 1971 and was buried in Zagreb's

Mirogoj Cemetery The Mirogoj City Cemetery (, hr, Gradsko groblje Mirogoj), also known as Mirogoj Cemetery ( hr, Groblje Mirogoj), is a cemetery park that is considered to be among the more noteworthy landmarks in the city of Zagreb. The cemetery inters members o ...

Historiographical publications

He published his central theory on the origin of the

Montenegrins Montenegrins ( cnr, Црногорци, Crnogorci, or ; lit. "Black Mountain People") are a South Slavic ethnic group that share a common Montenegrin culture, history, and language, identified with the country of Montenegro. Genetics Accordi ...

for the first time in his books ''Red Croatia'' and ''Basics of Montenegrin Nationalism'' from 1937. He explained in his

fringe Fringe may refer to: Arts * Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival, known as "the Fringe" * Adelaide Fringe, the world's second-largest annual arts festival * Fringe theatre, a name for alternative theatre * The Fringe, the ...

theory that Montenegrins were descendants of the " Croatian people", who would then have settled the old Montenegrin territory of

Red Croatia Red Croatia ( la, Croatia Rubea; hr, Crvena Hrvatska) is a historical term used for the southeastern parts of Roman Dalmatia and some other territories, including parts of present-day Montenegro, Albania, the Herzegovina region of Bosnia and He ...

. In his view,

Montenegrin language Montenegrin ( ; cnr, label=none, / ) is a normative variety of the Serbo-Croatian language mainly used by Montenegrins and is the official language of Montenegro. Montenegrin is based on the most widespread dialect of Serbo-Croatian, Shtokavi ...

would therefore have been "but a

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

of Croatian". The final point of that theory resulted in his assertion that the population had gradually been Serbianized over the following centuries. This theory was not Štedimlija's original idea, but its ideological roots go back to the late 19th century in the intellectual history of Croatian irredentism.

Selected bibliography

*''Gorštačka krv: Crna Gora 1918-1928'' ( Highlander's Blood: Montenegro 1918–1928), Belgrade 1928. *''Školovanje crnogorske omladine'' (Education of Montenegrin Youth), Zagreb 1936. *
Crna Gora u Jugoslaviji
' (Montenegro in Yugoslavia), Zagreb 1936. *''Crvena Hrvatska'' (

), Zagreb 1937. *
Osnovi crnogorskog nacionalizma
' (The Basics of

Montenegrin Nationalism Montenegrin nationalism is the nationalism that asserts that Montenegrins are a nation and promotes the cultural unity of Montenegrins. From the beginning of the 18th century, the population of Montenegro was torn between variants of Montenegrin a ...

), Zagreb 1937. *''Rusija i Balkan'' (Russia and the Balkans), Zagreb 1937. *''Crnogorsko pitanje'' (The Montenegrin Question), Zagreb 1941 *''Auf dem Balkan'' (German; In the Balkans), Zagreb 1943. *''Verschwörungen gegen den Frieden'' (German; Conspiracies Against Peace), Zagreb 1944. *''Partizani o sebi: izvorni dokumenti o političkom podrijetlu partizana i o njihovom prebacivanju iz inozemstva na području Nezavisne Države Hrvatske'' ( Partisans About Themselves: Original Documents on the Political Origins of the Partisans and Their Transfer to the Territory of the Independent State of Croatia from Abroad), Zagreb 1944. *''Deset godina u gulagu'' (Ten Years in the Gulag),

Matica crnogorska Matica crnogorska ( cnr, Матица црногорска, ) is a Montenegrin cultural institution. It was founded in 1993 as a non-governmental organization which promotes Montenegrin national and cultural identity and the Montenegrin langua ...

, Podgorica 2004.Bibliography
at National Library of Croatia

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Markovic Stedimlija, Savic 1906 births 1971 deaths Writers from Podgorica Montenegrin writers Montenegrin male writers Montenegrin nationalists Montenegrin people of World War II Montenegrin fascists Montenegrin politicians Montenegrin collaborators with Fascist Italy Montenegrin collaborators with Nazi Germany Montenegrin independence activists Foreign Gulag detainees Pseudohistorians People of the Independent State of Croatia People convicted of treason against Yugoslavia Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery