1
Images of Romania, Croatia and Serbia in the post-communist era
Images of the multi-national Yugoslavian state
Case Studies: Dimitriadis, Boutos, Chatziprodromidis
Images of the Balkans
Tenth Lesson
Lecturer: Petros Marazopoulos
petrosmarazopoulos@gmail.comr
2
The historical context
• Collapse of Balkan socialism
• Fragmentation of the multi-ethnic Yugoslav state
• Civil war between Serbs and Croats
• Extremely volatile political and social situation in Albania, Bulgaria and Romania after
the political change
• Did the political situation normalise?
• Efforts for transition to a western-style democracy: a difficult endeavor
• Historical events that shake the European continent
3
The post communist Balkans in the Greek literary
production
• The modern Greek literary production and the analogies with the Western depictions for the Balkan
Peninsula
• Post-communist Balkans as an extremely widespread narrative framework for contemporary Greek
fiction.
• Main ideas found in the literary texts of the period: 1. Convergence between Greece and the West 2.
Production of a discourse with clear orientalist characteristics 3. unifying the Balkans
• Stereotypes regarding the Other and images of the Self
4
Andrew Hammond- Passage for discussion
The West’s response to the Yugoslav wars was to set the tone for the conceptualization of
the whole peninsula. The understanding of Yugoslavia as a collection of fractious,
malevolent entities was central to the wider discursive recovery of Victorian balkanism,
the assessments and accusations that marked western commentary on the nation
quickly spreading to encompass all post-revolution societies, and helping to make the
Balkans once again a byword for mendacity and savagery. Indeed, for western
commentators working elsewhere in the peninsula, the representation of Yugoslavia
formed a pre-arranged interpretative framework which needed very little modification
when accounting for Romanian orphanages, Bulgarian poverty, Albanian antigovernment
protests, or any of those other post-communist crises on which western
journalists and travel writers dwelled
5
Describing the ethnicities emerged after the Yugoslavian
Fragmentation
• The Greek interest in the Croats and Bosnians should be considered limited
• Brief references regarding Bosnia and Slovenia
• The ‘Greek-Serbian’ friendship: a traditional, mysterious bond
• The deep interest for the Serbian Other: from the negative connotations during the
Balkan Wars to the contemporary images (proud, homogeneous, brave and friendly to
Greece nation)
• Imagology, literary texts, politics and religion
• Associating the Serbian Other with backwardness, anti-European lifestyle, lack of
modernization and nationalist brutality
• The motif of ‘incomplete nations’ (19th century)
6
The ‘Greek-Serbian friendship’ explained
• The Greek attraction to the Serbian area and the traditional positive images of the
Serbian Other
• Slogans describing an ‘Orthodox brother'.
• Until 1860 the rhetoric of the 'brotherhood' of the two nations was based on the
common struggle for independence
• Moments in history when the Greek image of the Serbian Other takes a negative turn
(national rivalry in the region of Macedonia)
• The role of an ‘Eastern Federation’
• The Greek dilemma between the Slavic Orthodox world and modernized West
7
Leonidas Chatziprodromidis: Images of Yugoslavia before
and after fragmentation
• Balkan national myths serving as an ‘escape from the grim reality’
• Serbian- Croat civil war conflicts in the Balkan region are considered among the most
violent and bloody in the 20th century
• Intense editorial interest in the region
• The Balkans were once again becoming the epicenter of the world, both for the
international community and for Greece
• Various international studies of historical and political nature (examining the reasons for
the conflict, searching for ways of stabilizing the region, or presenting images of the
tragic Yugoslav civil war, are appearing, attempting to shed light on aspects of the
tragic events
• Similar publishing tendency can be found on the modern Greek production
8
Leonidas Chatziprodromidis: Images of Yugoslavia before
and after fragmentation
• The testimony of Leonidas Chatziprodromidis (journalist, anti-dictatorial action): ‘Τhe
explosion of nationalism’ (1991-collection of articles)
• Correspondent in Belgrade
• Journalistic language, exploring the Yugoslav problem from various angles
• Vivid depictions of the explosive atmosphere in the multi-ethnic Yugoslav state before
fragmentation
• Tension and general controversy, focus on the political-economic aspect of the
Yugoslav problem.
• Highlighting the process of rising nationalist tendencies
• Exploration of how nationalism ‘operates’ in the Balkans
• Examining the correlation between Balkan national myths and the social, political and
economic problems of the Balkans
9
Leonidas Chatziprodromidis: Images of Yugoslavia before
and after fragmentation
• A ‘mosaic’ of nationalities and minorities
• Polarization, alienation from Western civilization
• The constant involvement of foreign interests in the region
• Testimonies, historical texts and literature. Travel literature as historical document
• Historising the growing tension and the multifaceted economic, social, political and
national problems within Yugoslavia
• Gradual loss of control of the state by the central authorities
• Despite the above-described complex relations within the country, even in the early
1990s the author seems to consider fragmentation as unlikely event
10
Chatziprodromidis and his definition of nationalism
• The phenomenon of nationalism is studied as the evolution of the communist past
• The positive elements in the Yugoslav socialist regime ('bright moments in the Stalinist
middle ages’)
• Identifying the regime with the delay of modernization
• Defining nationalism as the 'last stage of communism’.
• Balkan nationalism as an antidote to the fundamental problems plaguing the Balkan
region
• The Balkan national myths perceived as 'an escape from reality, a means of putting
aside economic and social problems'
11
Chatziprodromidis’ texts for Yugoslavia
• The reproduction of certain well-known stereotypical patterns associated with the
Balkan region
• The differences between the Yugoslavian and the Western culture
• ‘Perhaps in the Balkans the most manly solution is civil war’ (illustrating the strong Balkan
temperament)
• The construction of the Serbian nation as the most friendly Yugoslavian nation to
Greece
• Contemporary aspects of ‘The Macedonian Question’: ‘FYROM’, ‘Republic of
Macedonia’ and the slogans regarding Macedonia’s Greekness
12
‘The assassination of Yugoslavia’ (1999)
• Attempts to focus on the chaos by the fragmentation and the civil war in the country
• Images of a ‘people in confusion’, powerless, and under crisis of values
• Modern depictions of the Balkan Other as ‘a man in decline’
• Misery, fear, tension and doubt: society facing a deep political crisis
• Politicians and their relationship with the underworld
• The international community's heavy responsibility for the Yugoslav problem
• The 'peculiar Balkan fascism'
13
‘The assassination of Yugoslavia’ (1999)
'
• The belief according to which the nation-states that emerged had returned to medieval
living conditions
• Losing contact with European reality and modern civilization
• Images of the contemporary Balkans as synonymous with primitivism, savagery, fluidity,
dark forces and violence will
• The construction of a relative narrative framework
• Absence of state structures, brutal criminality, sexual exploitation and the extremely
close interconnection of the political scene with the underworld
14
‘The assassination of Yugoslavia’ (1999)
'
The criminal gangs, who are now fighting for national ideals, are accused of coming to
the front basically to steal and are fighting precisely to take over areas for looting. [...]
The war has accelerated to the utmost the phenomenon of the social rise of the
underworld, which is now becoming the new economic nomenclature.
All the old Belgrade underworld, smugglers and patrons become owners of businesses,
companies, entertainment centers, where the cheap sexual power of girls from the
former Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Romania, together with the loot during the war,
serve for the primary accumulation of capital.'
15
Pavlos Dimitriadis text for Romania
• ‘Romania- The revolt of the people’ (early 1990s)
• Dimitriadis- journalist in the conservative newspaper Apogevmatini
• Romania’s image under Ceausescu: isolationism, persecution and constant surveillance
• A documentary concerning the crucial, revolutionary days against the regime
• Recording a series of testimonies that at times seem to hover between truth and myth
• Travel literature, personal ideology and propaganda
• Systematic recording of the historical events, accompanied by the quotation of unpublished
personal stories told to the author by Greek students
• Dimitriades forms an extremely negative picture of the Romanian regime
• Misery, conspiracies of power, violation of human rights, and the horrible torture of dissidents
16
Pavlos Dimitriadis text for Romania
• Romania is presented as a state in which every movement is monitored and controlled
• Personal freedom: a thing of the past
• Accusing the regime even of genocide against part of the Romanian nation,
• Images of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu in Western and Greek imaginary
• The journalistic language of the text and the revolution perceived as an "authentic
movement“
• Propaganda and tyrannical aspects of the regime
• The 'Timișoara massacre’ and the historical truth
• Ceaușescu and the popular base
• The notion of isolationism- total ignorance regarding Western civilization and
contemporary European history
17
Pavlos Dimitriadis text for Romania
• The contrasting image that the regime attempts to present abroad in comparison with
the actual image of the state
• The regime's propaganda is active through diplomacy, international activities or even
sporting successes
• Exporting an image of prosperity to the international community
• Depictions of poverty, oppression and terrorism
18
Pavlos Dimitriadis text for Romania
"No, the Romanians did not follow the example of the Eastern Europeans. They were not
influenced by them. Besides, they had learned very little about foreign developments, since the
regime's media reported whatever they wanted.
The fall of the Berlin Wall was not known in Romania...[...] The people could not take it any longer.
Propaganda, promoted sports, foreign diplomacy and international activities, moves made to
create the image of an advanced state and a prosperous society, could no longer fool them.
The reality was harsh and irrefutable. Poverty, food rationing, hunger, black market and
humiliation. Oppression, terrorism, discrimination and the law of the absurd. All these were 'thorns'
that bled the heart of every Romanian'.
19
Pavlos Dimitriadis text for Romania
• The fully directed life of the citizens
• The terrible shortages of raw materials
• The terrifying activity of the regime's secret intelligence service (the legendary
Securitate)
• A widespread climate of fear among the Romanian people
• Comparing Romanian and Greek reality
20
Pavlos Dimitriadis text for Romania
‘’She comes closer and she closes the curtains. No lights allowed. The men of the ‘Securitate' may
shoot...I'm coming down immediately.
It's Roxanne, a girl who works at the hotel. She starts asking me how life is in Greece. I don't know
what to answer her. Despite all my complaints when I'm back home, here where I am I think
Athens is wonderful.
If I tell her about my country, she won't believe it. She lives like all Romanians so far behind.
Nevertheless, I do mention some things. She's impressed. [...]
'Run - run and see'. Roxanne stands in front of the TV and looks impressed. She's watching 'Mickey
Mouse' for the first time. The Romanian borders has begun to open'.
21
Pavlos Dimitriadis text for Romania
• The violent fall of the socialist regimes and the corresponding Greek reality:
consolidating the superiority complex through relative comparisons
• The fall of the communist regimes and the Balkan myth
• West and Europe Vs isolationism, political persecution, instability and propaganda
• The described instability after the fall of Ceasuscu
• Black market, extradition and shortages of basic food
• Uncertainty and fear- The Romanians as unaware of the basic connotations of the term
‘Democracy’
• The image of the Ceausescu regime and the relative Western images
• The creation of an ‘apolitical’, tired and frightened generation of citizens
22
Πέτρος Μαραζόπουλος
petrosmarazopoulos@gmail.com
December 2024