Veselin Đuretić (

Serbian Cyrillic The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (, ), also known as the Serbian script, (, ), is a standardized variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language. It originated in medieval Serbia and was significantly reformed in the 19th cen ...

: Веселин Ђуретић; 17 May 1933 – 18 February 2020) was a Yugoslav and Serbian historian.

Early life

Đuretić was born on 17 May 1933 in the village of Mojanovići near

Podgorica Podgorica ( cnr-Cyrl, Подгорица; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Montenegro, largest city of Montenegro. The city is just north of Lake Skadar and close to coastal destinations on the Adriatic Sea. Histor ...

Zeta Banovina The Zeta Banovina ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Zetska banovina, Зетска бановина), was a province ( banovina) of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1929 and 1941. This province consisted of all of present-day Montenegro as well as ...

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 ...

(modern-day Montenegro). He was associate of Balkan Institute of the

Serbian Academy of Science 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 ...

and one of founders of the

Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republika Srpska The Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republika Srpska (Serbo-Croatian: ''Академија наука и умјетности Републике Српске'', АНУРС / ''Akademija nauka i umjetnosti Republike Srpske'', ANURS) is highe ...

(SANU). During 1990's Đuretić was close to

Serbian Radical Party The Serbian Radical Party (, abbr. SRS) is a Far-right politics in Serbia, far-right, Ultranationalism, ultranationalist List of political parties in Serbia, political party in Serbia. Founded in 1991, its co-founder, first and only leader is ...

and member of the International Committee for the Truth About

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 ...

. In 2012 he was a candidate for member of the Serbian academy.

Allies and War Drama

The book authored by Đuretić in 1985 titled "Saveznici i ratna drama"() was first book which rehabilitate Chetniks published in post-war Socialistic Yugoslavia. The effect of this book was compared to the earthquake while rehabilitation of Chetniks it contained was received with big attention among Serbs. Because this work opened taboo topic from the

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 ...

, it was perceived by Yugoslav Peoples Army as an attack to the basic foundations of the communist revolution and its Admiral Branko Mamula publicly condemned Đuretić and its publisher

In this book Đuretić consistently emphasized that Chetniks of

Draža Mihailović Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović ( sr-Cyrl, Драгољуб "Дража" Михаиловић; 27 April 1893 – 17 July 1946) was a Yugoslavs, Yugoslav Serb general during World War II. He was the leader of the Chetniks, Chetnik Detachments ...

were antifascists, persistently rejecting any existence of Greater-Serbian hegemony or ethnicity based exploitation insuring the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

Reactions

Egbert Jahn Egbert Kurt Jahn (born 26 May 1941 in Berlin) is a German political scientist, contemporary historian and peace researcher and is emeritus professor at the University of Mannheim. Life After his Abitur in Wiesbaden, Jahn studied history – s ...

emphasized that before Đuretić published this work the Yugoslav communist influenced historiography promoted a misrepresented image of Chetniks depicted only as "collaborators and traitors". Jahn further underlined that Đuretić's work was a long overdue change of this misrepresented image of Chetniks and also a complete reinterpretation of the recent history of Serbs. According to some sources, Đuretić invested his substantial capabilities to try to fulfill Greater Serbian political ideology. The Serbian Supreme Court confirmed the first level court decision to ban the distribution of all three editions of Đuretić's work.

Death

Đuretić died on 18 February 2020 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 ...

. He is interred at the New Bežanija Cemetery.

Bibliography

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References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Djuretic, Veselin 1933 births 2020 deaths Writers from Podgorica Serbs of Montenegro Yugoslav historians 20th-century Serbian historians