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Milorad Ekmečić ( sh-Cyrl, Милорад Екмечић; 4 October 1928 – 29 August 2015) was a Yugoslav and Serbian historian. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
he became a member of the
Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian language, Macedonian, and Slovene language, Slovene: , officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odr ...
after the
fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...
Ustaše The Ustaše (), also known by anglicised versions Ustasha or Ustashe, was a Croats, Croatian fascist and ultranationalist organization active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945, formally known as the Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionar ...
perpetrated the Prebilovci massacre, in which 78 members of his family were killed, including his father. He studied 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 ...
and went on to be a professor at the
University of Sarajevo The University of Sarajevo (Bosnian language, Bosnian, Croatian language, Croatian and Serbian language, Serbian: ''Univerzitet u Sarajevu'' / Sveučilište u Sarajevu / Универзитет у Сарајеву) is a List of universities in Bo ...
, and later at the
University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade () is a public university, public research university in Belgrade, Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it me ...
. He was a member of several Yugoslav academies of sciences and arts, the author of more than a dozen historical books, and received several significant national awards. Ekmečić authored several important works in socialist Yugoslavia, including his contribution to the acclaimed ''History of Yugoslavia'' published in English in 1974, and ''Stvaranje Jugoslavije 1790–1918 reation of Yugoslavia 1790–1918' in 1989. According to his obituary in '' Vreme'' news magazine, Ekmečić was considered "a prominent representative of Serbian critical historiography". He adopted
Serbian nationalist Serbian nationalism asserts that Serbs are a nation and promotes the cultural and political unity of Serbs. It is an ethnic nationalism, originally arising in the context of the general rise of nationalism in the Balkans under Ottoman rule, ...
views significantly during the
breakup of Yugoslavia After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, the constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia split apart in the early 1990s. Unresolved issues from the breakup caused a series of inter-ethnic Yugoslav ...
, served as an advisor to
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 ...
later convicted as a
war criminal A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...
when Karadžić was president of Republika Srpska during the 1992–1995
Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...
, and was a founder of Karadžić's radical nationalist Serb Democratic 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 ...
. He was active in the revisionist wave of Serbian historiography from 1991. This involved local historians eschewing the standards of international scholarship and concentrating exclusively on sectarian myths, resulting in the production of what has been described in
historiographical Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...
assessment of the period as " pseudohistory". Ekmečić added a religious flavour to this by claiming that the
Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...
was an enemy of the Serbian nation, and also that it posed the biggest obstacle to Yugoslav unification in 1918. An analysis of Serbian historiography since 1991 concluded that Ekmečić was "complicit in the weaponisation of history, in particular that of the mass atrocities of the Second World War".


Early life

Milorad Ekmečić was born on 4 October 1928 in Prebilovci near
Čapljina Čapljina ( cyrl, Чапљина, ) is a city located in Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located on the border with Croatia a mere from the Adriatic Sea. The rive ...
in the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () has been its colloq ...
(modern-day
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 ...
) to Ilija and Kristina Ekmečić. He attended elementary school in Čapljina, and high school in
Mostar Mostar () is a city and the administrative centre of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the historical capital of Herzegovina. Mostar is situated on the Neretva Riv ...
. When the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () h ...
entered
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
due to the Axis invasion of the country in April 1941, Ekmečić remained in the Čapljina area until 1943. During the invasion, the
Independent State of Croatia The Independent State of Croatia (, NDH) was a World War II–era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Fascist Italy. It was established in parts of Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, occupied Yugoslavia on 10 April 1941, ...
, a
fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...
puppet state A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government is a State (polity), state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside Power (international relations), power and subject to its ord ...
, was established; the new state encompassed Čapljina. On 6 August 1941, the ruling
Ustaše The Ustaše (), also known by anglicised versions Ustasha or Ustashe, was a Croats, Croatian fascist and ultranationalist organization active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945, formally known as the Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionar ...
perpetrated the Prebilovci massacre, in which Ekmečić lost 78 members of his family, including his father and uncle. The surviving members of his family formed a unit of the
Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian language, Macedonian, and Slovene language, Slovene: , officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odr ...
resistance movement in Prebilovci. From October 1944 until July 1945, Ekmečić was a member of the Yugoslav Partisans.


Career

After completing high school in 1947, Ekmečić enrolled in general history undergraduate study 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 ...
, from which he graduated in 1952. In the same year he took up an assistant position at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo. Ekmečić conducted research in archives 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 ...
,
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 ...
,
Zadar Zadar ( , ), historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian, ; see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Croatia. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar ...
, and
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
in
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
. He received his
doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...
in history from the University of Zagreb in 1958 upon defending his dissertation entitled ''The uprising in Bosnia from 1875 to 1878'', which has been published in three editions and translated into German. He visited
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
,
New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
, in 1961, and then continued his academic career as a professor of history at the University of Sarajevo where he worked as a full professor from 1968 until 1992 teaching "General History of the New Age" and "Introduction to the Science of History" courses. During this time he also spent some time as a visiting professor at the
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
in
Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...
. During the time of socialist Yugoslavia, Ekmečić authored several important works. Along with Vladimir Dedijer, Ivan Božić and Sima Ćirković, he co-authored ''History of Yugoslavia'' published in English in 1974, having already appeared in
Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...
in 1972. The book was hailed as "one of the most comprehensive histories of Yugoslavia in the English language", despite a tendency towards
Marxist historiography Marxist historiography, or historical materialist historiography, is an influential school of historiography. The chief tenets of Marxist historiography include the centrality of social class, social relations of production in class-divided s ...
and the absence of a detailed examination of the post-World War II period. In this book, Ekmečić drew upon nineteenth-century developments to challenge the decentralists within Yugoslav historiographical thought who supported the separate national entities of the South Slavic nations. Instead, Ekmečić asserted that unitarian assimilation was to be preferred, saying that nationhood based on language was the only concept which was acceptable from both a rationalist and romanticist perspective. He also concluded that religion was to blame for the push towards decentralisation. According to the Croatian-American historian, Ivo Banac, Ekmečić's approach betrayed a double-standard, whereby he criticised only non-Serb South Slavic nationalism. The Serbian historian
Bojan Aleksov Bojan Aleksov (born in 1971) is a Serbian historian, and anti-war and human rights activist. He is best known as a voice against the Yugoslav Wars through his engagement with the Center for Anti-War Action, Women in Black and Conscientious Objec ...
points out that Ekmečić suggested that the Serbian Orthodox Church had consistently maintained and protected a separate identity for Serbs, and for this reason their susceptibility to alternative formulations of nationhood was low, especially in the nineteenth century. In 1989, Ekmečić published ''Stvaranje Jugoslavije 1790–1918'' reation of Yugoslavia 1790–1918 According to the historian Jasna Dragović-Soso, in this book Ekmečić advanced the idea that Serbian national ideology was the "main integrative and pro-Yugoslav force", and blamed what he claimed was an "inherently obstructionist Croatian national ideology", based partly on "virulently anti-Serb Catholicism", for Yugoslavia's problems and its ultimate disintegration. This construction was also criticised by Banac, who asserted that "religion played virtually no part" in the development of Croatian national ideology. According to his obituary in '' Vreme'' news magazine, Ekmečić was considered "a prominent representative of Serbian critical historiography". Shortly after the outbreak of the
Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...
in 1992, Ekmečić was arrested by the Bosnia and Herzegovina government-loyalist Green Berets paramilitary unit along with his family. Initially held at the elementary school in Vratnik, he was then transferred to house arrest, from which he managed to flee to the Bosnian Serb-controlled proto-state known as the
Republika Srpska Republika Srpska ( sr-Cyrl, Република Српска, ; also referred to as the Republic of Srpska or Serb Republic) is one of the two Political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, entities within Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other bein ...
. From 1992 to 1994 Ekmečić worked as a full professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. He retired on 1 October 1994. Ekmečić was a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) from 1978, and a member of its presidency from 2004, and served on five of its specialist committees. He was also a member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1973, the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts from 1993, and the Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republika Srpska from 1996. During his career he received the prestigious " 27th July Award of Bosnia and Herzegovina for Science" in 1963, the Yugoslav Order of Labour with Golden Wreath in 1965, the "Enlightenment Award" in 1972, the NIN Award in 1990 for ''Stvaranje Jugoslavije 1790–1918'' reation of Yugoslavia 1790–1918 and the Order of St. Sava First Class from the
Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodox Church#Constit ...
, among others. In 2010, he was decorated with the Order of Honor with Golden Rays by Republika Srpska. Ekmečić was a member of the Senate of Republika Srpska. He died after a short illness at a hospital in Belgrade on 29 August 2015 at the age of 86, and was buried in the Alley of Distinguished Citizens at the Belgrade New Cemetery. In February 2019, the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, proposed that a street in Belgrade be named after Ekmečić, and this was carried out a month later. In October 2022, Ekmečić's collected works were launched, and Vučić praised Ekmečić, stating that his books should be in every Serb's home.


Nationalism and revisionism

During the Bosnian War, Ekmečić was an advisor to the president of Republika Srpska,
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 later convicted of
genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
,
crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...
and
war crimes A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hos ...
by the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars, war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to tr ...
(ICTY). As part of his connection to Karadžić, Ekmečić was also a founder of the radical nationalist Serb Democratic Party (SDS) in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1990, and was one of three academics from the University of Sarajevo who were offered the leadership of the SDS but declined. In a book published by the Serbian politician and academic Uroš Šuvaković in 2011, Ekmečić was quoted as saying that he was "not eager to be a member of the Serb Democratic Party, utwas in the closest circle in which it was conceived". In the same book, Ekmečić is quoted as stating that "Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina are now a religious minority in a foreign country. As in 1914, Serbia is for us the only guarantor of our freedom, and Belgrade remains our capital". Ekmečić was also one of the main ideologues of the SDS. The historian David Bruce MacDonald has highlighted that Ekmečić was one of many Yugoslav academics that "went national" during the
breakup of Yugoslavia After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, the constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia split apart in the early 1990s. Unresolved issues from the breakup caused a series of inter-ethnic Yugoslav ...
, changing his views considerably from his earlier days as a unitarian, and this is reinforced by the scholar Igor Štiks who described Ekmečić as a "leading Serb nationalist historian", and the academic Aleksandar Pavković who asserts that Ekmečić adopted a "rather non-rationalist version of Serbism". In the early 1990s Ekmečić spoke about "German Europe", which he said was dominated by an "invasion of clericalism", while in 1992 he claimed that the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was a "new Serbian struggle" and a continuation of the "work that the Serbs began in 1804 by expelling the Turks from Serbia". Later he claimed that the concept of a
Bosniak The Bosniaks (, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia (region), Bosnia, today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and who sha ...
people was an artificial construct created by Americans. According to the Serbian historian Olivera Milosavljević, Ekmečić believed that the Serbian nation "must unite to a higher degree than it is now. The rest of Yugoslavia, which would add Serbian parts from
Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
, as a separate body, is one of the closest solutions". Ekmečić took part in the negotiations of the party with the multi-ethnic, non-nationalist Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the early 1990s. Ivo Komšić was a member of the collective leadership of the SDP and a member of the delegation in the negotiations with the SDS. He recalled that during the negotiations, Ekmečić described the plan of the SDS regarding the formation of a single Belgrade-controlled "new Yugoslavia" created from all regions claimed by Serbia. The SDP delegates asked Ekmečić if he realised that this plan would lead to war. Ekmečić replied, "Of course we know, but this cannot be avoided. No European state was made without bayonets, so this one too will be made with bayonets". When the SDS leadership asked him how many lives this would cost, Ekmečić laughed, saying, "but it is not much to sacrifice a hundred or two hundred lives for a state. A mere nothing." Before the Bosnian War broke out, Ekmečić promoted Serb victimhood, stating that "only the Jews have paid a higher price for their freedom than the Serbs". MacDonald has described this narrative as "victim-centred propaganda" intended to portray one's own nation as a victim of genocide comparable to
The Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
. According to an analysis of Serbian historiography after 1991 in the journal '' Contemporary European History'' by Christian Axboe Nielsen, an associate professor in the School of Culture and Society at
Aarhus University Aarhus University (, abbreviated AU) is a public research university. Its main campus is located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Group, the Guild, and Ut ...
in Denmark, Ekmečić was "complicit in the weaponisation of history, in particular that of the mass atrocities of the Second World War". This trend involved local historians eschewing the standards of international scholarship and concentrating exclusively on sectarian myths, resulting in the production of what has been described by several scholars of the period as "pseudohistory". Sabrina P. Ramet observes that Ekmečić was part of the revisionist wave in Serbian historiography, to which he contributed a religious flavour by claiming that the Catholic Church was the greatest obstacle to the unification of Yugoslavia in 1918, and casting the
Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...
as an enemy of the Serbian nation. Ekmečić was expected to appear as a defence witness during the ICTY war crimes prosecution of former 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 ...
, but Milošević died before Ekmečić was called to give evidence. After Milošević died in custody in 2006, Ekmečić described him as a "righteous man" who "paid with his head".


Selected bibliography

* * * (Second Edition: 1990) * (with Vladimir Dedijer, Ivan Božić and Sima Ćirković) * * * * (with Dušan Berić) * * * * (with Slavenko Terzić) *


Footnotes


References


Books

* * * * * * * *


Journals and dissertations

* * * * * * *


Web

* * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * (an interview with Ekmečić) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ekmečić, Milorad 1928 births 2015 deaths 20th-century Serbian historians Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Members of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republika Srpska Members of the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts Members of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina People from Čapljina Academic staff of the University of Sarajevo University of Zagreb alumni Academic staff of the University of Belgrade Serb Democratic Party (Bosnia and Herzegovina) politicians 21st-century Serbian historians