The Making Of A Nation In The Balkans

The nineteenth century was the epoch of nation building for the Bulgarians under Ottoman rule. In this book, comparisons and analogies are made between the Bulgarian Revival and other regions, epochs, ideological trends, and events. These latter are taken from two major areas—Western Europe ("Renaissance," "Enlightenment," "Romanticism," the French Revolution, and national liberation movements), and Russia (the "agrarian question," "populism" and "utopian socialism," "revolutionary democrats," and the Russian Revolution of 1905). Historical facts about the Revival were instrumentalized for political purposes, such as the fostering of national and state loyalties through the reproduction of identities, or, directly, as the legitimating/contesting of a current political regime under the guise of disputes over historical legacy. Ideological mobilization took place in the form of nationalism, right-wing authoritarianism (shading into fascism), and communism. The author sets in relief some of the mechanisms and logic of the two grand narratives under the sign of nationalism, and of Marxism.

Anthems are symbolic means through which nations present themselves to the world. Accordingly, creating seven new nation states out of the bones of Yugoslavia required new anthems. Why did these new states opt for century-old national songs or, failing this, for the anthems without words? What are the images and symbols that each of these states chose as their 'national signatures' and how were these chosen? This book explores a variety of images of nationhood (or the absence of them) in the lyrics of the official anthems and of competing national songs and traces their historical trajectory from the time of their conception to their legal entrenchment. This is the first full-length study into the symbolic representations of nationhood in the recently created nation states of the Balkans."

With more than 25 years since the collapse of communism, the end of the wars and billions of dollars in aid, the Balkans are still characterized by corruption, state capture, and decidedly unmodern states that are often either weak or authoritarian. Taking the contemporary Balkans as a starting point, Making and Remaking the Balkans studies the region's history combined with observations based on more than twenty years of field experience. Primarily concerned with current issues in the Balkans since 1989, this book explains why the region has endured such a prolonged and fraught transition to democracy and eventual membership in the European Union. The young and educated have largely left. Governmental crisis and economic stagnation is the norm and much-needed regional cooperation has been suppressed by renewed nationalism. Wars on corruption have proved to be largely rhetorical. Making and Remaking the Balkans offers a systematic study of the issues the entire region faces as it struggles to complete the European integration process at a time when the European Union faces bigger problems elsewhere.

'Live, live the spirit of the Slavs' (1834) : 'Hey Slavs' from 1942 to 2006 -- Loving one's homeland : Croatia 1835 -- A toast to a cosmopolitan nation : Slovenia 1844 -- Praying for one's people : Serbia 1872 -- A love of mountains and mothers : Montenegro 1836(?) -- A fight for rights : Macedonia 1941 -- To sing or not to sing? Anthems and anti-anthems : Bosnia and Herzegovina 1995/99 -- Wishing to be one with Europe : Kosobo 2008 -- Epilogue : what do these anthems tell us?.

Journalists and policy-makers in the West have often assumed that the religious and ethno-national heterogeneity of the Balkans is the underlying reason for the numerous problems the area has faced throughout the twentieth century. The multiple and turbulent political transitions in the area, the dynamics of the interaction between Christianity and Islam, the contradictory and constantly shifting nationality policies, and the fluctuating identities of the diverse populations continue to be seen as major challenges to the stability of the region. By exploring the development of intricate religious, linguistic, and national dynamics in a variety of case studies throughout the Balkans, this volume demonstrates the existence of alternatives and challenges to nationalism in the area. The authors analyze a variety of national, non-national, and anti-national(ist) encounters in four areas—Bosnia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Albania—traditionally seen as “hot-beds” of nationalist agitation and tension resulting from their populations' religious or ethno-national diversity. In their entirety, the contributions in this volume chart a more complex picture of the national dynamics. The authors recognize the existence of national tensions both in historical perspective and in contemporary times, but also suggest the possibility of different paths to the nation that did not involve violence but allowed for national accommodation and reconciliation.

"If the Balkans hadn't existed, they would have been invented" was the verdict of Count Hermann Keyserling in his famous 1928 publication, Europe. Over ten years ago, Maria Todorova traced the relationship between the reality and the invention. Based on a rich selection of travelogues, diplomatic accounts, academic surveys, journalism, and belles-lettres in many languages, Imagining the Balkans explored the ontology of the Balkans from the sixteenth century to the present day, uncovering the ways in which an insidious intellectual tradition was constructed, became mythologized, and is still being transmitted as discourse. Maria Todorova, who was raised in the Balkans, is in a unique position to bring both scholarship and sympathy to her subject, and in a new afterword she reflects on recent developments in the study of the Balkans and political developments on the ground since the publication of Imagining the Balkans. The afterword explores the controversy over Todorova's coining of the term Balkanism. With this work, Todorova offers a timely, updated, accessible study of how an innocent geographic appellation was transformed into one of the most powerful and widespread pejorative designations in modern history.

Four main themes are concentrated on in this text, the construction of historical memories; the sites of national memory; the transmission of national memory; and the mobilisation of national identities.

This is a contemporary 20th century history of the Balkans, and the volatile political situation that helped spark World War I.