Jovan Rašković ( sr-cyr, Јован Рашковић, ; 5 July 1929 – 28 July 1992) was a
Croatian Serb psychiatrist, academic and politician.
Early life
Rašković was born in
Knin
Knin () is a city in the Šibenik-Knin County of Croatia, located in the Dalmatian hinterland near the source of the river Krka (Croatia), Krka, an important traffic junction on the rail and road routes between Zagreb and Split, Croatia, Split. ...
in 1929. During
World War II in Yugoslavia
World War II in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia began on 6 April 1941, when the country was Invasion of Yugoslavia, invaded and swiftly conquered by Axis powers, Axis forces and partitioned among Nazi Germany, Germany, Fascist Italy (1922–1943), It ...
, after an
Ustasha pogrom
A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of Massacre, massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century Anti-Jewis ...
which resulted in the
deaths of his relatives, he was exiled to
Kistanje
Kistanje (, sr-Cyrl, Кистање) is a village and municipality in Šibenik-Knin County, Croatia. It is located in Bukovica, a region of the Dalmatian Hinterland.
Geography
Kistanje is located in the microregion of Bukovica, in the Dal ...
in
Italian-occupied Dalmatia.
Witnessing, in 1941, the psychological effect of genocide on a bereaved man from
Kistanje
Kistanje (, sr-Cyrl, Кистање) is a village and municipality in Šibenik-Knin County, Croatia. It is located in Bukovica, a region of the Dalmatian Hinterland.
Geography
Kistanje is located in the microregion of Bukovica, in the Dal ...
who had lost his family left a strong impact on his worldview.
He passed his secondary school exams in
Šibenik
Šibenik (), historically known as Sebenico (), is a historic town in Croatia, located in central Dalmatia, where the river Krka (Croatia), Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea. Šibenik is one of the oldest Croatia, Croatian self-governing cities ...
, and graduated 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 ...
. He then studied electrical engineering and medicine at the
University of Zagreb
The University of Zagreb (, ) is a public university, public research university in Zagreb, Croatia. It is the largest Croatian university and one of the oldest continuously operating universities in Europe. The University of Zagreb and the Unive ...
, where he obtained his diploma and a
PhD
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
from the university's medical school.
Career
Before the wars
In the 1960s, he served as director of Šibenik city hospital and later director of the medical center. He was one of the founders of the Medical Research Institute of Neurophysiology in
Ljubljana
{{Infobox settlement
, name = Ljubljana
, official_name =
, settlement_type = Capital city
, image_skyline = {{multiple image
, border = infobox
, perrow = 1/2/2/1
, total_widt ...
. Rašković was a member of the
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (; , SANU) is a national academy and the most prominent academic institution in Serbia, founded in 1841 as Society of Serbian Letters (, DSS).
The Academy's membership has included Nobel Prize, Nobel la ...
, the Academy of Medical Sciences of Croatia and a number of psychiatry associations in the United States,
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
and Italy. He was a university professor in Zagreb and Ljubljana and a visiting professor at the Universities of
Pavia
Pavia ( , ; ; ; ; ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, in Northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino (river), Ticino near its confluence with the Po (river), Po. It has a population of c. 73,086.
The city was a major polit ...
,
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
,
Houston
Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
and
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 ...
. Rašković split his time between his house in
Primošten
Primošten () is a village and municipality in Šibenik-Knin County, Croatia. It is situated between the cities of Šibenik and Trogir, on the Adriatic coast.
History
In the past, Primošten was situated on the islet close to the mainland. Durin ...
and his apartment in Šibenik.
While working at Šibenik, he reportedly had a reputation of "taking pleasure in" administering
electroshock therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatric treatment that causes a generalized seizure by passing electrical current through the brain. ECT is often used as an intervention for mental disorders when other treatments are inadequate. Condit ...
to
Croats
The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...
and Croatian women in particular.
Although he was not a member of the
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (; , SANU) is a national academy and the most prominent academic institution in Serbia, founded in 1841 as Society of Serbian Letters (, DSS).
The Academy's membership has included Nobel Prize, Nobel la ...
at the time of its drafting, at least one source claimed that he was extensively consulted from his home in Croatia by Serbian nationalist intellectual
Dobrica Ćosić when the controversial 1986
SANU Memorandum was being developed.
Moreover, later in 1990, Rašković was formally inducted into the organisation.
Sometime in 1990, Rašković published a book entitled ''Luda zemlja'' (A Mad Country), in which he fused
Freudian psychoanalysis with a
Serbian supremacist worldview:
In this book, he also argued that the lack of
collective guilt
Collective responsibility or collective guilt is the responsibility of organizations, groups and societies. Collective responsibility in the form of collective punishment is often used as a disciplinary measure in closed institutions, e.g., boa ...
on the part of Croats for the genocides during World War II, which had left Serbs
traumatised, had brought about "asymmetrical memories of recent history," which would bring conflict between the two ethnic groups.
In February 1990, Rašković went into politics and founded and led the
Serb Democratic Party (SDS), which took part in the
first Croatian democratic elections.
He noticed that there was no equivalent party in
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...
so he contacted
Radovan Karadžić
Radovan Karadžić ( sr-Cyrl, Радован Караџић, ; born 19 June 1945) is a Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian Serb politician who was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal ...
, a colleague, to suggest for him to establish one. The two, both psychiatrists by profession, gave lectures in Bosnia-Herzegovina from the period of 1990–1991, in which they tried to incite "hatred and militancy" among the local Serbs there,
working them into a "state of frenzy and paranoia."
Onset of violence
In August 1990, the "first act of organized violence" to erupt among Croatian Serbs occurred under the leadership of Rašković, when local Serbs confiscated weapons from a Knin police station and murdered the Croatian police stationed there. After consultation with Yugoslav and Serbian president
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević ( sr-Cyrl, Слободан Милошевић, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the President of Serbia between 1989 and 1997 and President of the Federal Republic of Yugos ...
, who promised to supply arms for the Croatian Serbs, the local Serbs militias set up blockades in the Krajina region, signalling the outset of the so-called
Log Revolution.
Although the SDS won relatively few seats in the 1990 elections, it quickly began to increase its power, and Rašković was soon perceived as a leader of Serbs by
Franjo Tuđman
Franjo Tuđman (14 May 1922 – 10 December 1999) was a Croatian politician and historian who became the first president of Croatia, from 1990 until his death in 1999. He served following the Independence of Croatia, country's independe ...
and
his new government. That led to direct negotiations between the two about the future of
Serbs in Croatia. During one meeting, Rašković remarked, "Serbs were crazy people" who would not listen to him.
Tuđman's chief political advisor,
Slaven Letica
Slaven Letica (28 June 1947 – 25 October 2020) was a Croatian author, economist, commentator and politician.
Biography
A native of Podgora, Letica graduated from the University of Zagreb Faculty of Economics in 1971. In the 1980s, Letica was ...
, had the words secretly taped and leaked the transcript to
Croatian media to discredit Rašković among his people and then replace him with someone more acceptable to the
Croatian government
The Government of Croatia (), formally the Government of the Republic of Croatia (), commonly abbreviated to Croatian Government (), is the main executive branch of government in Croatia. It is led by the president of the Government (), infor ...
. That backfired, as, instead of rejecting Rašković, many Serbs lost any trust in Croatian government and embraced extremism and then
armed conflict
War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...
.
Later in 1990, Rašković, who was seen as a "moderate" that recognised Croatian
sovereignty
Sovereignty can generally be defined as supreme authority. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within a state as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person, body or institution that has the ultimate au ...
, but wanted to negotiate in favour of autonomy and national rights for the Serb minority, was removed from power by "more radical, hard-line
Serb nationalists" such as
Milan Babić, who advocated armed autonomy and went on to create the
Republic of Serbian Krajina
The Republic of Serbian Krajina or Serb Republic of Krajina ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Република Српска Крајина, Republika Srpska Krajina, separator=" / ", ; abbr. РСК / RSK), known as the Serbian Krajina ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Српск� ...
.
For his part, Tuđman, an ardent
Croatian nationalist, rejected Rašković's more moderate demands, thus legitimising the rise of more radical Serbian nationalist resistance forces.
The most important of these demands was the continued recognition of Serbs as a
constituent people of Croatia, which Tuđman's government rejected; in December 1990, a new Croatian constitution was passed which, although it granted cultural autonomy to Serbs, said that Croatia was legally the "national state of the Croats" only.
To make matters worse, Rašković was also receiving pressure from
Belgrade
Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...
, which
political scientist
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...
Nina Caspersen argued was more instrumental in increasing tensions than Tuđman's hardline stances.
To begin, the Serbian government pressured Rašković to reject Tudman's offer of a position in his government.
Moreover, Rašković, an
anti-communist
Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...
nationalist, publicly opposed Serbian president
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević ( sr-Cyrl, Слободан Милошевић, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the President of Serbia between 1989 and 1997 and President of the Federal Republic of Yugos ...
, whom he referred to as "a big
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
, a communist, and a tyrant to the tips of his toes."
He also tried competing electorally in Serbia against
Milošević, whereas the more militant Milan
Babić showed unreserved support for
Milošević and, in turn, received support from him.
To back this up, Caspersen made note of a poll from December 1990 indicating that 86% of Serbs held positive views of Rašković, whereas it was only 54% for Babić. Additionally, the overwhelming majority of SDS's main board still supported Rašković over Babić by February 1991. Taken all together, Caspersen argued that this outside support from Belgrade provided the necessary means of shifting the orientation of Croatian Serbdom from "democratic to non-democratic resources."
Soon after Babić founded the more radical SDS Krajina party, Rašković said that "for the first time, I warned that this radical group, which wanted to take over the SDS, is a danger for us, and that war will definitely result if they exacerbate things."
Rašković retired from politics in 1991, after the
Plitvice Lakes incident
The Plitvice Lakes incident ( or ''Plitvički krvavi Uskrs'', both translating as "Plitvice Bloody Easter") was an armed clash at the beginning of the Croatian War of Independence. It was fought between Croatian police and armed forces from the ...
.
Rašković later expressed fear about the collective state of mind of Serbs, saying that "Serb myths have entered the Serb spirit, but with a dose of poison, spite, vengeance,
ndregression," which he believed needed to be "controlled in order to make less poisonous."
In early 1992, Rašković gave an apologetic statement on
Belgrade
Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...
television:
Death and legacy
Rašković died in
Belgrade
Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...
from a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...
on 28 July 1992 at the age of 63.
Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadžić
Radovan Karadžić ( sr-Cyrl, Радован Караџић, ; born 19 June 1945) is a Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian Serb politician who was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal ...
, who was a friend and colleague, considered Rašković to be "his main role model and inspiration."
He is interred in the
Alley of Distinguished Citizens in the
Belgrade New Cemetery. In addition, there are streets in
Trebinje
Trebinje ( sr-Cyrl, Требиње, ) is a city and municipality in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the southernmost city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and is situated on the banks of the Trebišnjica river in the region of East Her ...
,
Prijedor
Prijedor ( sr-cyrl, Приједор, ) is a city in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it had a population of 80,916 inhabitants within its administrative limits. Prijedor is situated in the northwestern part of the Bosanska ...
,
Banja Luka
Banja Luka ( sr-Cyrl, Бања Лука, ) or Banjaluka ( sr-Cyrl, Бањалука, ) is the List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the largest city in Republika Srpska. Banja Luka is the tr ...
and
Novi Banovci named in his honor as well.
References
External links
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raskovic, Jovan
1929 births
1992 deaths
People from Knin
Serbs of Croatia
Serb Democratic Party (Croatia) politicians
Serbian psychiatrists
Serbian anti-communists
Serbian nationalists
Yugoslav physicians
Yugoslav psychologists
Yugoslav politicians
School of Medicine, University of Zagreb alumni
Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Politicians of the Croatian War of Independence
Political party founders
Narcissism writers
Burials at Belgrade New Cemetery