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Record: 1 Title: Authors: Source: Document Type: Subject Terms: Geographic Terms: Choosing Traditions in Two Post-Yugoslav Cities. Andersen, Uffe Transitions Online; 8/22/2011, p1-1, 1p Article *STREETS SERBIA YUGOSLAVIA SOVIET Union DJINDJIC, Zoran ALEKSANDAR Obrenovic, King of Serbia, 1876-1903 Abstract: The article offers information on the fall of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. It states that there are 20 boulevards in Belgrade, but there is one particular boulevard, which was named after King Aleksandar Obrenovic in 1896, and after Yugoslavia broke with the Soviet Union, it was called the Revolution Boulevard. It mentions that the name of the Prime Minister of Serbia, Zoran Djindjic, has been a symbol of Serbia's European ambitions. 3386 12141615 65537599 Academic Search Complete

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Choosing Traditions in Two Post-Yugoslav Cities

22 August 2011 Throughout this month, Transitions will present a series of articles marking the anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia BELGRADE AND SARAJEVO | Residents of Lazarevo in northern Serbia are fighting to have their village renamed Mladicevo, after the former Bosnian Serb general who was arrested there in May on suspicion of war crimes. For them, it's a dream; for others it would be a nightmare, bearing the name of an accused mass murderer. So it is all over the former Yugoslavia, where place names come and go on the tides of war and politics. Those names reveal the huge differences in how people in the so-called Yugosphere view history, both ancient and recent, from Skopje's naming of its airport after Alexander the Great, despite strong Greek protests, to honors bestowed on leaders of the wars of the 1990s. Lazarevo itself is already named after a Serbian hero, Prince Lazar, who led the Serbian army in the

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historical but heavily mythologized battle of Kosovo against the Ottomans in 1389. Those village residents who want its name changed don't see Ratko Mladic as a mass murderer but as a contemporary Lazar, a defender of the Serbian nation. Likewise, when councilors in the Croatian city of Split voted in April to name a square after the former general Ante Gotovina, it was obviously to hail him as defender of the Croatian nation rather than, as an international court had judged him, an accomplice in a "joint criminal enterprise" whose aim was the "permanent removal of the ethnic Serb population from the Krajina region" in Croatia. Because the names of Gotovina and Mladic come with loads of ugly international publicity, those renamings will not happen. But thousands of others have taken place across the former Yugoslavia. Plotting those changes on a map, you might get the impression that people are headed in radically different directions. But if you go out into those renamed streets and talk to people, as I did, it turns out that the story isn't that simple. In the former Yugoslavia the name changes are part of a constant rewriting of history and a cheap and easy way of enshrining certain ideologies or values. In theory. But people do not always agree that the old order should be jettisoned or believe in the values of the order proclaimed by the new authorities and their street signs. So the rechristenings often trigger heated debates. But one thing is true of these name changes across the former Yugoslav states: the losers are the heroes of socialist Yugoslavia. The anti-fascist fighters from World War II, especially, have been forced to a hasty retreat. The winners are different from new country to new country. Most new names send messages that - at least to outsiders - are less obvious than Mladicevo and Gotovina Square. But those names nevertheless embody the history that the newly emergent societies tell to and about themselves. I visited a few public spaces in Sarajevo and Belgrade to listen to some of the stories behind those histories. Because the issue is often perceived as "political" or "controversial," most interviewees wanted to stay anonymous. Some gave their first names but very few agreed to be photographed. The versions of history they give are not always indisputable (in fact, mostly quite the opposite) but the ones quoted here do represent major trends in the perception of history in their societies. BELGRADE King Aleksandar Boulevard / Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra Though there are 20 boulevards in Belgrade, when Belgraders say "the Boulevard," this is the one they mean. Named for King Aleksandar Obrenovic in 1896, it kept that name, even through a change of royal dynasties, until after World War II. In 1946, it became Red Army Boulevard, and after

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Yugoslavia's break with the USSR, Revolution Boulevard. So it remained until 1997 - and that's how many people still know it, so much so that authorities have had to again put up signs with this officially defunct name. An elderly man tells me, "The name Revolution Boulevard was correct. It was partisan and communist positive. Now, communism is seen as negative, but back then, the country was destroyed and occupied by the Germans, the fascists. The communists fought them together with the English and the Russians. It was a revolution, and therefore the boulevard was called Bulevar Revolucije." To another man, maybe 40 years his junior, historical background and meanings seem less important, and he and his friends simply call it "the boulevard." "Maybe we'll say 'King Aleksandar Boulevard', but that's really, really seldom," he says. "Anyway, it's all the same to me; I'm really not interested in whether a street is called this or that." Resava Street / Resavska ulica Resava, the name of a river in east-central Serbia, would be an uncontroversial choice had it not replaced, in 1997, the name of General Zhdanov. Vladimir Zhdanov was a Soviet officer who led the Red Army as it and Yugoslav partisans freed parts of Serbia from German forces in late 1944. A grateful Belgrade conferred the street name honor upon him after the war. A fierce debate started in 2009 when the Russian ambassador to Serbia called for the names of Zhdanov and other Russians be returned to the city's street signs. The argument was emblematic of the divide in Serbian society over Russia: many joined the ambassador in his demands while many others called them humiliating and asked him to mind his own business. In 2010, the city council tried to strike a compromise, restoring the names of Russians (including Zhdanov) and the Red Army - but to streets far from the center. The elderly man who insisted that Revolution Boulevard was the "correct" name said the same is true of General Zhdanov Street. "General Zhdanov did get a new street - but on the outskirts which is not correct, no good. But that's how things are: a new system, new powerholders who don't like communists. To them, nothing which was is acceptable. But to me, that's a problem. It's not correct." Svetogora Street / Svetogorska ulice takes its name, which means Holy Mountain, from Mount Athos in Greece, a fellow Orthodox country. From 1946 until 1992, the street was named after Ivo Lola Ribar, a communist who died fighting the Germans in World War II. Miroslav Kostic describes himself as "a believer, and a royalist," and therefore appreciates many of the new Belgrade street names. But a middle-aged man says the change was made in haste. "It happened in the wave when everything referring to socialism was removed. It's as if we said, 'We're not communists anymore! Let's remove the red star and put the Serbian coat of arms in its place!' But as time goes by, and heads cool a bit, people start thinking that, 'Well, it wasn't so bad back then, after all.' Some of those names might just return." King Milan Street / Ulica Kralja Milana connects two main Belgrade squares and is one of the capital's most central boulevards. For that reason, in the Yugoslav era it was named after Tito - but his name

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disappeared together with the country he created. "To some, he was Mother Theresa, to some a tyrant, to some an agent of foreign forces - it all depends on the eyes that see," Ljiljana tells me. "As a child, I loved him, because we'd been taught to do so. But objectively speaking, we may not have much reason to celebrate him. For example, on Tito's order, 200,000 Serbs who were expelled from Kosovo by the Albanian-Bulgarian occupation authorities during World War II weren't allowed back. At the same time, Albanians from Albania were allowed to migrate to Kosovo, and this changed the demographic picture," Ljiljana says. She doesn't want Tito back - but "what does annoy me is that the partisan heroes who gave their lives in the fight against fascism have lost their streets and monuments. That's a disgrace." Zoran Djindjic Boulevard / Bulevar Zorana Dindica Zoran Djindjic was instrumental in toppling Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000, and he served as Serbia's prime minister afterward. In short order, Djindjic led Serbia out of international isolation and started wide-ranging reforms. But his attack on organized crime, which had deeply infected state institutions, led to his assassination in March 2003. Since then, Djindjic's name has been a symbol of Serbia's European ambitions. Olivera, in her 40s, expresses the widely shared sense of opportunities lost after Djindjic's murder. "One of the most beautiful things that could happen to me in life is to live on a street named after such a person. I'm awfully sorry that his life was cut short in such a grim way, and I'm so sorry that all legends, all the best people, leave us so soon. He was a genius of the Serbian people, and if he'd been here today, I'm sure that everything would have been much better." Drazha Mihailovic Bridge / Most Draze Mihailovica This bridge on the Sava River, a couple of kilometers from where it joins the Danube at the center of Belgrade, is only now being built and hasn't been named. But Vuk Draskovic, the leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement - at one point Milosevic s most important rival but also a minister in his government - has suggested that it be named after Drazha Mihailovic. During World War II, Mihailovic was the leader of the royalist chetnik movement and represented the official London-based Yugoslav government. After the war, socialist Yugoslavia pronounced him "enemy of the state No. 1" and sentenced him to death for treason and war crimes. He was executed in July 1946, and buried in secret. It's rumored that his grave is on an island in the river, directly under the new bridge. Some claim Mihailovic's trial was a setup and want his reputation restored. He wasn't a criminal and traitor but the first to fight the fascist invaders, they argue. Others warn that rehabilitation would threaten reconciliation in the region and within Serbia. And all claim to have the facts of history on their side. A woman who gives her name as Snezhana explains: "I was born in 1970, and in school I was taught that the chetniks were our enemies. I'm now realizing that it isn't quite that simple. What my own children are told in school today is that some of the chetniks were all right, whereas others were not. Nothing is only white, or only black - but we need time to make it all fit in our minds. Therefore, I'm against the

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bridge being named after Drazha Mihailovic - mostly for the sake of my mom and dad and their generation." A man around Snezhana's age takes a much less gray-hued view, saying only, "Drazha Mihailovic only caused this people suffering!" Milan, in his 30s, may have hit on a solution: he says he's heard of a movement to have the bridge named after Novak Djokovic, Serbia's international tennis champion. "I support that: He s a great Serb and a man of the world." Gavrilo Princip Street / Ulica Gavrila Principa Gavrilo Princip was a Bosnian Serb born in 1894 and a member of the underground organization Young Bosnia, which aimed to unite the South Slavs into one state. A primary obstacle to this was the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which in 1878 had taken over administration of Bosnia-Herzegovina from the ailing Ottoman Empire, and in 1908 annexed it. In June 1914, Princip assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne on his visit to Sarajevo, an event widely blamed for starting World War I. At the time, Austria accused Serbia of plotting the assassination - many still do. Although the assassination of the archduke might have effectively liberated Bosnia from Austrian rule, Princip's motives still divide people here: did he strike a blow for the unification of the South Slavs - or for the unification of all Serb-inhabited lands, being a precursor to the infamous Greater Serbia project of Slobodan Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic? "You can be sure that Gavrilo Princip was a hero to people back then," a man in his 50s tells me. "If someone somehow subjugates and terrorizes you, you'll suffer, and suffer, and suffer - and then, all at once, you just can't stand anymore, and have to at least try to escape your intolerable position. And Princip's still a hero here because nothing has basically changed, and because he back then stood up against those who oppressed him." SARAJEVO Latin Bridge / Latinska cuprija When the Austrians left Sarajevo after the collapse of their empire at the end of World War I, the bridge that stands a few meters from where Gavrilo Princip in 1914 had fired at Franz Ferdinand was named for Princip. But as soon as Bosnia-Herzegovina left Yugoslavia in 1992, the bridge regained its pre-1918 moniker, "Latin Bridge." Crossing it takes you to Austrian Square. A man who identifies himself only as Mr. Seidiu, 61, has little sympathy for Princip. "Princip was a member of the Red Brigades," in an apparent reference to the Black Hand, and not the Italian terrorist organization of the 1970s. The Black Hand was a secret pre-World War I society of mainly Serbian army officers. "Princip didn't have the right to come here to a foreign country to assassinate anyone," Seidiu says, rejecting the commonly accepted view that Princip was from Bosnia. "He was sent to

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represent the interests of his state, Serbia, and that's why I see him as a negative figure." Ferhadija Street Ferhadija is Sarajevo's main pedestrian street and central to the city's life. It connects the old, "Turkish" part of town, with its traditional workshops, to the modern center, with its boutiques and Austrian and Turkish banks. After World War II, the street had carried the name of a partisan fighter, Vasa Miskin, but in 1992 it was rechristened for a 16th-century mosque. The renaming is part of a trend away from anti-fascist freedom-fighters to those supposedly more relevant in the era after the Yugoslav wars. It has not met with universal approval. "Streets named after people who fought fascism definitely ought to have kept those names," says thirtysomething Dzevad. A man a couple of decades older is more resigned. "It's true that, apart from Tito, most of the partisans have lost their streets. But why call streets after people from a war 60 years ago when it's only 15 years since you had a war? After World War I, new names came - after World War II, new names came - and after the latest war, new names came. There'll be other new names." Alija Izetbegovic Square / Trg Alije Izetbegovica Alija Izetbegovic was a Bosnian Muslim who served as the first president of post-Yugoslavia Bosnia. He was then a member of the three-part presidency from 1995 until 2000. He died in 2003. Many Croats and Serbs say he wanted to create an Islamic state and was responsible for war crimes. And many observers agree (while still others disagree) that only death saved Izetbegovic from being indicted by the tribunal in The Hague that adjudicates crimes committed during the Yugoslav war. In 2005, the country's Bosniak majority decided to name the Sarajevo airport after Izetbegovic, but the diplomat who serves as the country's overseer under the 1995 Dayton peace agreement nixed the move, saying it would threaten reconciliation. Still, a park in the center of Sarajevo was renamed for Izetbegovic, and a move is afoot to do the same for what is now Marshall Tito Street. Aida, in her 30s, said it was not Izetbegovic, but his Serb and Croat counterparts, Slobodan Milosevic and Franjo Tudjman, who were saved from judgment by their deaths. "[B]oth Tudjman and Milosevic had their guilt proved, whereas Izetbegovic didn't." Please, she continued, "don't insinuate anything negative in connection with Alija Izetbegovic. I'm very touchy when it comes to those things - for if it weren't for him, this state wouldn't even exist." Green Berets Street / Ulica Zelenih Beretki The Green Berets (Zelene beretke) was a paramilitary organization founded in Sarajevo in early 1992 and incorporated into the newly established Bosnia-Herzegovina army later that year. Some Croats and Serbs accuse them of war crimes. Bosniaks like Aida hotly reject that claim.

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Nor does a middle-aged woman waiting at a bus stop see a problem in giving the controversial name to a central street in a declared multiethnic city. Referring to the arms embargo against Bosnia during the war, she said, "That name is not controversial. For who else thought, back then, of siding with the people who didn't have any weapons? They're people who love this country." Tahmiscina Street Before the war in the 1990s, Sarajevo was one of Yugoslavia s relatively few truly multiethnic cities. Since then, it's become less so, and most Croat and Serb names have effectively disappeared from the city map. But a middle-aged woman walking nearby doesn't see it that way. "What about Vuk Karadzic? Was he a Muslim, perhaps?" she demands. He wasn't. Karadzic, the 19th-century linguist who codified the Serbian language, is a lion of Serbian culture and literature. In Yugoslav times, Vuk Karadzic Street ran through central Sarajevo, just behind the cathedral. His name now adorns a suburban street, leaving the heart of the city without any streets named for Serbian intellectuals. The same has happened to many streets named after Croats or Serbs, like Tahmiscina Street, which used to bear the name of Branislav Nusic. Nusic was a late-19th to early 20th-century Serbian writer in particular known for targeting the petit bourgeoisie and the corrupt political class in his comedies, which are still described as sadly relevant. His plays were popular all over Yugoslavia, and in the 1920s, he became the first director of Sarajevo s National Theater. This summer, for the first time since the war, one of his plays was staged by the institution he once led. Today, however, the street named after him lies on the periphery of the city. Marshall Tito Street / Ulica Marsala Tita Josip Broz Tito led the partisan fight against foreign and domestic fascists in World War II. After the war, he took the post that eventually became president for life of Yugoslavia. Back then, Tito's name graced central and important streets and squares in most towns and cities, but in the 1990s, his name was wiped off of most of them. In Sarajevo, however, only a small part of Marshall Tito Street was renamed (after a local 18th-century Muslim writer). Most Sarajevans support keeping this monument to Tito, even as they revere politicians who helped dismantle Tito's Yugoslavia. As one man around 50 says, "Both Tito and Izetbegovic did a lot of good for this people. If I had to compare them, I couldn't say who was better. Both of them have their place - each in his period of history." "I'm not old enough to remember him myself, but most people who are a bit older remember him more for the good than for the bad," he says. "Comparing the situation in which people today live with how they lived before, regarding the quality of life, it was definitely better in Tito's time."

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An old address plaque still bears the street's former name, for Ivo Lola Ribar. Liljana has begun to question her love of Tito, inculcated in childhood, but she is adamant that the anti-fascist fighters do not deserve to have their names removed from Belgrade's streets. 11 Gavrilo Princip Street. The lionization of Princip divides many in Serbia and Bosnia even today. Sarajevo's Latin Bridge, near where Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, leads to Austrian Square. These days, signs along it proclaim the opening of a new McDonald's. Edin is a generation younger and sees a very pragmatic reason that Sarajevo street signs carry Tito's name. Edin, who understands an older generation's fondness for Tito, says politicians change street signs, like many things, because they see some benefit in it and because ordinary people don't speak up in protest. ~~~~~~~~ STORY BY Uffe Andersen, Freelance journalist in Smederevo, Serbia; Photos by Uffe Andersen, Freelance journalist in Smederevo, Serbia Copyright of Transitions Online is the property of Transitions Online and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

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