Milorad Ekmečić

Milorad Ekmečić
Milorad Ekmečić
	Милорад Екмечић
	Milorad Ekmečić
Born	4 October 1928; Prebilovci, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Died	29 August 2015 (aged 86); Belgrade, Serbia
Nationality	Yugoslav/Serbian
Occupation	Historian
Years active	1952–1994
Known for	contributions to Yugoslav history
Title	Professor
Academic work
Institutions	Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo; Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade
Notable works	History of Yugoslavia (1974); Stvaranje Jugoslavije 1790–1918 [Creation of Yugoslavia 1790–1918] (1989)

Milorad Ekmečić (Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic: Милорад Екмечић; 4 October 1928 – 29 August 2015) was Yugoslav and Serbian historian who was a full professor of history at the University of Sarajevo from 1968 until 1992 and then the University of Belgrade between 1992 and 1994. He was a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republika Srpska, the author of more than a dozen historical books, and received several significant national awards.

While Ekmečić authored a number of important works in socialist Yugoslavia, including his contribution to the acclaimed History of Yugoslavia published in English in 1974, and Stvaranje Jugoslavije 1790–1918 [Creation of Yugoslavia 1790–1918] in 1989, he changed his views significantly during the breakup of Yugoslavia, and according to the Canadian historian David Bruce MacDonald, "went national". He served as an advisor to the convicted war criminal Radovan Karadžić when he was President of Republika Srpska during the 1992–1995 Bosnian War. He was also a founder of Karadžić's radical nationalist Serb Democratic Party in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He was active in the revisionist wave of Serbian historiography from 1991, and an analysis of Serbian historiography since that year observed that he was "complicit in the weaponisation of history, in particular that of the mass atrocities of the Second World War". 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 by several scholars of the period as "pseudohistory". He died in Belgrade at the age of 86.

Early life

Milorad Ekmečić was born on 4 October 1928 in Prebilovci near Čapljina in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina) to Ilija and Kristina Ekmečić. He attended elementary school in Čapljina, and high school in Mostar.[1]

When the Kingdom of Yugoslavia entered World War II due to the Axis invasion of the country in April 1941, Ekmečić remained in the Čapljina area until 1943.[1] During the invasion, the Independent State of Croatia, a fascist puppet state, was established; the new state encompassed Čapljina. On 6 August 1941, the ruling Ustaše 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 resistance movement in Prebilovci.[2][3] From October 1944 until July 1945, Ekmečić was a member of the Yugoslav Partisans.[1][3]

Career

After completing high school in 1947,[1] Ekmečić enrolled in general history undergraduate study at the University of Zagreb, 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, Belgrade, Zadar, and Vienna in Austria. He received his doctorate 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.[3] He visited Princeton University for one year,[1] 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.[4] Along with Vladimir Dedijer, Ivan Božić and Sima Ćirković, he co-authored History of Yugoslavia published in English in 1974. The book was hailed as "one of the most comprehensive histories of Yugoslavia in the English language", despite a tendency towards Marxist historiography and the absence of a detailed examination of the post-World War II period.[5] Shortly after the outbreak of the Bosnian War in 1992, Ekmečić was arrested by the government-loyalist Green Berets paramilitary unit along with his family. Initially held in house arrest at the elementary school in Vratnik, he managed to flee to the Bosnian Serb-controlled proto-state known as the Republika Srpska.[3][1] From 1992 to 1994 Ekmečić worked as a full professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade.[3][4][6] Ekmečić authored a number of important works in socialist Yugoslavia,[7] and retired on 1 October 1994.[1]

During his life 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,[3][4] and the Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republika Srpska from 1996.[3][8] During his career he received the prestigious "27th July Award of Bosnia and Herzegovina for Science" in 1963, the Order of Labour with Golden Wreath in 1965, the "Enlightenment Award" in 1972, and the NIN Award in 1990 for Stvaranje Jugoslavije 1790–1918 [Creation of Yugoslavia 1790–1918], among others. In 2010, the president of the Republika Srpska, Rajko Kuzmanović, decorated Ekmečić with the Order of Honor with Golden Rays.[9]

Ekmečić participated directly during the Bosnian War as an advisor to the convicted war criminal Radovan Karadžić when Karadžić was President of Republika Srpska.[7] As part of his connection to Karadžić, Ekmečić was also a founder of the radical nationalist Serb Democratic Party in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[10][11] According to the historian David Bruce MacDonald, Ekmečić was one of many Yugoslav academics that "went national" during the breakup of Yugoslavia, changing his views considerably from his earlier days.[12]

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 in Denmark, Ekmečić was "complicit in the weaponisation of history, in particular that of the mass atrocities of the Second World War".[7] 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".[7] This view is reinforced by Sabrina P. Ramet, who 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 as an enemy of the Serbian nation.[13]

In 2009, Ekmečić was appointed to the Senate of Republika Srpska.[6] He died after a short illness at a hospital in Belgrade on 29 August 2015 at the age of 86.[1][9]

Selected bibliography

Osnove građanske diktature u Evropi između dva rata [Fundamentals of civil dictatorship in Europe between the two wars] (in Serbo-Croatian). Sarajevo, Yugoslavia: Zavod za izdavanje udzbenika. 1965. OCLC 780937894.
Ustanak u Bosni: 1875–1878 [Uprising in Bosnia: 1875–1878] (in Serbo-Croatian). Sarajevo, Yugoslavia: Veselin Masleša. 1973. OCLC 1170287585.
Ratni ciljevi Srbije 1914 [War Goals of Serbia in 1914] (in Serbo-Croatian). Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Srpska književna zadruga. 1973. OCLC 443654430. (Second Edition: 1990)
History of Yugoslavia. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1974. OCLC 489700927. (with Vladimir Dedijer, Ivan Božić and Sima Ćirković)
Stvaranje Jugoslavije 1790–1918 [Creation of Yugoslavia 1790–1918] (in Serbo-Croatian). Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Prosveta. 1989. OCLC 781095861.
Srbija između Srednje Evrope i Evrope 1992 [Serbia between Central Europe and Europe in 1992] (in Serbo-Croatian). Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Politika BMG. 1992. OCLC 28936487.
Ratni ciljevi Srbije: 1914–1918 [War goals of Serbia: 1914–1918] (in Serbo-Croatian). Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Politika. 1992. OCLC 30399588.
Ustanak u Hercegovini 1852–1862 [Uprising in Herzegovina 1852–1862] (in Serbo-Croatian). Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti [Serbian Academy of Science and Arts ]. 1994. OCLC 1015100059. (with Dušan Berić)
Radovi iz istorije Bosne i Hercegovine XIX veka [Works from the History of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 19th Century] (in Serbo-Croatian). Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Beogradski izdavačko-grafički zavod [Belgrade Publishing and Graphic Institute]. 1997. OCLC 607121575.
Encounters of civilizations and Serbian relations with Europe: More than just military allies from 1914 : a contribution to the French scientists' studies on the ethnic character of Yugoslav people. Novi Sad, Yugoslavia: Toma Maksimović Fund for Aiding Serbs. 1998. OCLC 46959451.
Srbofobiǰa i antisemitizam [Serbophobia and Antisemitism] (in Serbo-Croatian). Šabac, Yugoslavia: Beli anđeo. 2000. OCLC 495357046.
Response to Noel Malcom's book Kosovo: a short history: scientific discussion on Noel Malcolm's book "Kosovo. A short history" (Macmillan, London 1998, 492), 8th October 1999. Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti [Serbian Academy of Science and Arts]. 2000. OCLC 48938551. (with Slavenko Terzić)
Dugo kretanje između klanja i oranja, Istorija Srba u Novom veku 1492–1992 [Long Movement between Slaughter and Plowing, History of Serbs in the New Century 1492-1992] (in Serbo-Croatian). Belgrade, Serbia: Zavod za udžebnike [Institute for Textbooks]. 2007. OCLC 890553833.

Footnotes

Vreme 2015.
Judah 2000, p. 127.
SANU 2013.
SANU 2020.
Govorchin 1975, p. 155.
Kurir 2015.
Nielsen 2020.
ANURS 2017.
Blic 2015.
Carmichael 2003, p. 80.
Maksić 2017, p. 118.
Macdonald 2002, p. 97.
Ramet 2007, pp. 41–58.

References

Carmichael, Cathie (2003). Ethnic Cleansing in the Balkans: Nationalism and the Destruction of Tradition. London, UK: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-47953-5.
Govorchin, Gerald Gilbert (1975). "History of Yugoslavia". History: Reviews of New Books. 3 (6): 155. doi:10.1080/03612759.1975.9946950. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
Judah, Tim (2000). The Serbs: History, Myth, and the Destruction of Yugoslavia. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-08507-5.
Maksić, Adis (2017). Ethnic Mobilization, Violence, and the Politics of Affect: The Serb Democratic Party and the Bosnian War. Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina: Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-48293-4.
Macdonald, David Bruce (2002). Balkan Holocausts?: Serbian and Croatian Victim Centered Propaganda and the War in Yugoslavia. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719064678.
"Milorad Ekmečić" (PDF). sanu.ac.rs (in Serbo-Croatian). Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
"Milorad Ekmečić (1928–2015)". vreme.com (in Serbo-Croatian). 30 August 2015. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
"Милорад Екмечић" [Milorad Ekmečić]. anurs.org. Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republika Srpska. 2017. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
"Milorad Ekmečić". sanu.ac.rs (in Serbo-Croatian). Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
Nielsen, Christian Axboe (February 2020). "Serbian Historiography after 1991". Contemporary European History. 29 (1): 90–103. ISSN 0960-7773. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
"Preminuo akademik Milorad-Ekmečić" [Academician Milorad-Ekmečić passed away]. blic.rs (in Serbo-Croatian). 30 August 2015. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
Ramet, Sabrina P. (2007). "The denial syndrome and its consequences: Serbian political culture since 2000". Communist and Post-Communist Studies. 40: 41–58. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
"Umro čuveni istoričar i akademik Milorad Ekmečić" [The famous historian and academician Milorad Ekmečić has died]. kurir.rs. 30 August 2015. Retrieved 20 July 2020.