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 Theory, theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private sector, private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, a ...
. 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
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; his father was a Serb, and his mother French. He received a Doctor of Law from the Sorbonne in 1949 and later after working in the U.S., obtained a MA in economics at Roosevelt University in
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
in 1956. He was a research assistant in the French National Center of Scientific Research ( CNRS) 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 city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
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 city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
in 1985 in Serbo-Croatian. He compared the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
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. The World population, global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to aroun ...
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 and what he believed were the actual losses of Yugoslavia during World War II. 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, 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 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, when it was reprinted in
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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, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...
, 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 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