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A Grave for a Grave
| Article
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20537 |
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Section : |
BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
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11 / 1992 |
4,738 Words |
| Author
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Dragan Milivojevic
Dragan Milivojevic is professor of Russian language and
literature at the University of Oklahoma. |
NOZ
Vuk Draskovic
Belgrade: Nova Knjiga, 1982
281 pp.
RUSKI KONZUL
Vuk Draskovic
Belgrade: Nova Knjiga, 1988
398 pp.
Draskovic's novels offer insight into the forces that are now tearing apart the former Yugoslavia.
A deep national and religious fault line lies astride the middle of former Yugoslavia. Its center is in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Another smaller fault line runs through the south of Yugoslavia between Muslim Albanians and Christian Serbs. The Bosnian fault line is of ancient origin and goes back to the division of the Roman Empire into the western and eastern parts. It gained strength from the division of the Catholic Church into the Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. The Turkish occupation of the Balkan peninsula in the Middle Ages coincided geographically with the original borders of the Roman Empire division and, in addition, produced Slav converts to Islam, who now constitute the majority of Bosnia's population. In the nineteenth century, with the decline of the Turkish empire, Austro-Hungary annexed Bosnia, and the region that was to become Yugoslavia (in 1918) was again divided.
It is the comparatively recent history, from 1941 to the present, that has seen the widening and deepening of the national and religious fault lines between two Christian faiths, Croatian Catholic and Serbian Orthodox (as well as within each one, in particular Serbian Orthodox) and between Christianity and Islam. How one prays-whether one crosses with three cupped fingers, with the outstretched fingers of one's palm, or kneels five times a day in the direction of Mecca-has identified a person as a Serb, a Croat, or a Muslim. Along the fault lines of different religious practices and traditions, fissures of intolerance and hatred have arisen, which were facilitated and promoted by big European powers. The Nazi invasion and conquest of Yugoslavia in 1941 resulted in the formation of the so-called independent State of Croatia, run by Nazi-controlled fascists called Ustasha, which included areas with Serbian and Muslim populations. Many Croats and Muslims, probably the majority, welcomed the formation of a new state, where they could play a prominent role. (Some Croats felt that between 1918 and 1941, Serbs had an upper hand in the Yugoslavian government,
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