Against Totalitarianism: the Serbian Ć©migrĆ© review āNaÅ”a reÄā, 1948-1990
The review NaÅ”a reÄ (āOur wordā) was published in Paris from 1948 to 1958, then in London until 1990. NaÅ”a reÄ was printed in Serbian, initially every six weeks and from 1951 ten times a year. Democratically-oriented Yugoslav emigrants produced this journal for like-minded fellow emigrants in Western Europe and North America who opposed communism at home.
Although NaÅ”a reÄ advocated strongly against the communist political system imposed in 1945, it did not argue for a return to the pre-1941 regime in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Instead, it pleaded for a new democratic country as a community of free nations willing to live together in a federal state which would guarantee human rights and civil, social and religious freedoms to all citizens. NaÅ”a reÄ strongly believed in a western model of parliamentarian multi-party political system with a free press and free vote at its core. Its editors thought that the one-party system could be replaced by compromise and reform in a peaceful democratic transition. NaÅ”a reÄ provided a platform for political debate not only for Serbs but also for all Yugoslavs, and welcomed contributions from outside Ć©migrĆ© communities.
As an open, independent, democratic and liberal, often unapologetically Serbian and yet genuinely Yugoslav phenomenon, NaÅ”a reÄ was unique among other South Slavonic emigrant publications published in Britain and in the west in this period.
Issue of NaÅ”a reÄ for 1 September 1949. (P.P.3554.nzs) with title header in Cyrillic.
Permanent columns in NaÅ”a reÄ besides the editorial were Yugoslav and international politics, history and current affairs, topics from emigrĆ© life, book reviews, opinions and polemics, and letters to the editorial board as well as useful information about the review and its contributors over time. The review was open to political and cultural contributions in general.
Front cover by Budimir D. ToÅ”iÄ from Dvadeset godina stave i rada Saveza OsloboÄenje (London, 1970) X.709/10307, a special edition of NaÅ”a reÄ
NaÅ”a reÄ was published by an alliance of Serbian political, social and cultural emigrant organisations in Western Europe called cooperatives. The membership of these cooperatives included the Young Democrats, the youth section of the Democratic Party, a major party in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The Union OsloboÄenje (āLiberationā) was founded in 1949 as an umbrella organisation for the Western European and North American cooperatives. NaÅ”a reÄ was its official newspaper, funded mainly by the membership, but also by subscriptions, sales and donations.
Cover of Božidar VlajiÄ, Svodjenje raÄuna i preispitivanje (London, 1960) W.P.7433/7. No. 7 of the series NaÅ”e delo published by OsloboÄenje
The majority of OsloboÄenjeās members were young people born in the 1920s and 1930s. They belonged to the generation traumatised by enemy occupation and the ensuing civil war in Yugoslavia during the Second World War. OsloboÄenje organised biannual conferences and published political programmes abroad, but its ideas, ideology and plans were designed for the country it intended to change. OsloboÄenje wholeheartedly supported Yugoslav dissidents and gave them a voice in NaÅ”a reÄ, and over time collaboration was extended to democratically-minded people in Yugoslavia. After the death of the Yugoslav communist leader Tito in 1980, NaÅ”a reÄ began receiving contributions from that country, and by the late 1980s it was being discreetly distributed in Belgrade.
Ethnographic map of Yugoslavia according to the 1921 and 1931 censuses and 1946 administrative division. From Desimir ToÅ”iÄ, Srpski nacionalni problemi (Paris, 1952) W.P.7433/1-4.
By creating a political model for a future multi-party system in the country, contributors to NaÅ”a reÄ were drawing on free thought, independent information, experience of public debate and critical media reporting in Britain. Between 1952 and 1988 the Union OsloboÄenje published 17 books on Yugoslav political, historical, cultural and literary topics in the series NaÅ”e delo (Our work). While the review NaÅ”a reÄ was published solely in Roman script, giving the newspaper a Yugoslav character, the series NaÅ”e delo enabled authors to publish in both Roman and Cyrillic scripts.
Cover of Kosta Stevan PavloviÄ, Ženidba Kralja Petra Drugog: prema Britanskim dokumentima (London, 1975.) Series NaÅ”e delo no. 11. X.909/40358
In addition to the review and the series, NaÅ”a reÄ printed 15 special editions as offprints or separate publications between 1964 and 1990. These were mainly works and pamphlets by Yugoslav dissidents and writers such as Milovan Äilas, Mihajlo Mihajlov, Miodrag IliÄ, Gojko Äogo and others.
Leading figures of the Union OsloboÄenje were behind all its publishing activities. Desimir ToÅ”iÄ was the sole editor of NaÅ”a reÄ and the chief writer of editorials together with Božidar VlajiÄ, a pre-war politician and prominent member of the Democratic Party.
A major permanent subject of political debate in NaÅ”a reÄ was the national question in Yugoslavia. NaÅ”a reÄ advocated a compromise and sought a solution that would command the support of the majority in each of the Yugoslav nations. The preferred option for NaÅ”a reÄ was a federal multi-party parliamentary state such as Switzerland, but it was also open to a Yugoslav confederation, self-rule or independence for the Yugoslav nations. The standpoint of NaÅ”a reÄ and the Union OsloboÄenje in this matter was that the nations of Yugoslavia, not its constituent republics, should decide on the future form of government and state.
In the end NaÅ”a reÄ didnāt find an answer to the key question of the first and the second Yugoslavia, but believed in the future of the āThird Yugoslaviaā, a democratic country of free and equal nations and citizens. With the renewal of the multi-party system in Yugoslavia in 1990 NaÅ”a reÄ ceased publication, and the Union OsloboÄenje was able to transfer its ideas and experiences into the newly-founded Democratic Party in Serbia. In his last editorial ToÅ”iÄ declared that the journal had completed its mission but the struggle for democracy continued at home.
The last issue of NaÅ”a reÄ. (No. 420, December 1990) with a header in Roman type against a stylized Cyrillic backdrop
NaÅ”a reÄ is an indispensable source for studying the questions of liberal and totalitarian ideologies during the Cold War, the problems of interwar and post-war politics in Yugoslavia, and the topic of nationalism in general. In 43 years, NaÅ”a reÄ had over 300 hundred contributors and published a total of over 6,000 pages. The British Library holds an almost complete set of NaÅ”a reÄ in 420 issues; the missing issues are 1-3 (1948) and 137 (1963).
Milan Grba, Lead Curator South-East European Collections
References:
Dejan ÄokiÄ (editor), Nesentimentalni idealisti. Desimir ToÅ”iÄ, Božidar VlajiÄ i uvodnici Äasopisa NaÅ”a reÄ (Belgrade, 2013) YF.2014.a.25606.