Savic Markovic Štedimlija
Encyclopedia
Savić Marković Štedimlija was a Montenegrin
-Croatia
n nationalist publicist and writer, best known for his revisionist theories on the origins of the Montenegrin people. He actively worked in the fascist Ustaše
movement during World War II
and was tried for Nazi collaboration
after World War II.
, Podgorica
municipality, Montenegro
. He attended the Gymnasium in Podgorica
(the largest in the Kingdom of Montenegro), before attending various schools in Serbia
, then Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He subsequently moved to Zagreb
, where he graduated in Law and Philosophy at the University of Zagreb
, which greatly influenced his later activities. He had remained in Zagreb to the rest of his life. Marković Štedimlija was a great admirer of Croatian historian Ivo Pilar
and dedicated his whole life to Pilar's research and continuation of his work, dedicating to proving the existence of a Montenegrin nation, totally separate from the Serbian. He was also an admirer of Ante Starčević
, Milan Šufflay
and Josip Frank
.
He expressed his theories on origins of the Montenegrins for the first time in early 1937, when he published a pamphlet named "Red Croatia" (Crvena Hrvatska) in Split. He referred to Doclea
, the ancient South Slavic state from the early-to-High medieval ages, calling it a part of Red Croatia
. He explained in his thesis that thus, Montenegrins are descendants of the people that settled the area back then, i.e. the Red Croats. He explained that Montenegrins belonged to the Western world, and that despite many Montenegrins over the past centuries have adopted the Serbian national affiliation, they never in fact left their own Western cultural orientation. Although sympathetic of the Montenegrin sovereignist ideals represented by Sekule Drljević, Stedimlija completely distanced himself from The Greens
and Montenegrin Federalists
.
After the 1941 Axis invasion of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
and the proclamation of an Italian
-controlled Independent State of Montenegro and Independent State of Croatia
during World War II
, Štedimlija joined the Ustaše
. He became one of the closest persons to Ante Pavelić
, also becoming one of the high-ranking men in the Section for Propaganda in the service of NDH Minister of Internal Affairs Andrija Artuković
. In 1942 upon Pavelic's insistence he was appointed manager of the Ustasha-styled Croatian Orthodox Church
. Throughout the war he edited its publishing.
When Sekula Drljević
, a Montenegrin Nazi collaborator, was expelled from the occupied Kingdom of Montenegro, he formed the Montenegrin National Council, a sort-of government in exile dedicated to restoration and preservation of Montenegrin sovereignty. Štedimlija was made his Minister of foreign affairs for his previous experience in the field.
When the Axis were obviously losing the war, they starting withdrawing towards Nazi Germany
northwestwards. The Red Army
caught Štedimlija on the run in Austria
in 1945. He was sent to the USSR and spent ten years in the Gulag
, accused for collaboration. In 1956 the Yugoslav Communist leadership asked the Soviet Union to hand him over. Upon the request of the League of Communists of Montenegro
, he was tried and sentenced to 8 years of prison for his acts during the war. The reason for this minimal sentence was that he had allegedly admitted to all charges and expressed sincere regret and renounced his "irredentist
" research. Late in life he was employed by Miroslav Krleža
at the Yugoslav Lexicographical Institute
.
reintroduced his research into life and founded the Doclean Academy of Sciences and Arts
, dedicated to Štedimlija's studies. In 2004, the Matica crnogorska
published Štedimlija's memoirs, Ten Years in the Gulag.
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
-Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n nationalist publicist and writer, best known for his revisionist theories on the origins of the Montenegrin people. He actively worked in the fascist Ustaše
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
movement during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and was tried for Nazi collaboration
Collaboration during World War II
Within nations occupied by the Axis Powers, some citizens, driven by nationalism, ethnic hatred, anti-communism, anti-Semitism or opportunism, knowingly engaged in collaboration with the Axis Powers during World War II...
after World War II.
Biography
Štedimlija was born in either 1906 or 1907 in StijenaStijena
Stijena is a village in the municipality of Cazin, Bosnia and Herzegovina....
, Podgorica
Podgorica
Podgorica , is the capital and largest city of Montenegro.Podgorica's favourable position at the confluence of the Ribnica and Morača rivers and the meeting point of the fertile Zeta Plain and Bjelopavlići Valley has encouraged settlement...
municipality, Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
. He attended the Gymnasium in Podgorica
Podgorica
Podgorica , is the capital and largest city of Montenegro.Podgorica's favourable position at the confluence of the Ribnica and Morača rivers and the meeting point of the fertile Zeta Plain and Bjelopavlići Valley has encouraged settlement...
(the largest in the Kingdom of Montenegro), before attending various schools in Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, then Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He subsequently moved to Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, where he graduated in Law and Philosophy at the University of Zagreb
University of Zagreb
The University of Zagreb is the biggest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of Southeastern Europe...
, which greatly influenced his later activities. He had remained in Zagreb to the rest of his life. Marković Štedimlija was a great admirer of Croatian historian Ivo Pilar
Ivo Pilar
Ivo Pilar was a Croatian historian, politician and jurist, considered the father of Croatian geopolitics. His book The South Slav Question is a seminal work on the South Slav geopolitical issues.- Early career :...
and dedicated his whole life to Pilar's research and continuation of his work, dedicating to proving the existence of a Montenegrin nation, totally separate from the Serbian. He was also an admirer of Ante Starčević
Ante Starcevic
Ante Starčević , was a Croatian politician and writer whose activities and works laid the foundations for the modern Croatian state.His works are base for Croatian nationalism, he is often referred to as Father of the Fatherland by Croats.-Life:...
, Milan Šufflay
Milan Šufflay
Milan pl. Šufflay was a Croatian historian and politician. He was one of the founders of albanology and the author of the first Croatian science fiction novel.-Life:...
and Josip Frank
Josip Frank
Josip Frank was a Croatian lawyer and politician, a noted representative of the Party of Rights and the Pure Party of Rights in the Croatian Parliament, and a vocal advocate of Croatian national independence in Austria-Hungary.- Early life :Frank was born into a Croatian Jewish family, and he...
.
He expressed his theories on origins of the Montenegrins for the first time in early 1937, when he published a pamphlet named "Red Croatia" (Crvena Hrvatska) in Split. He referred to Doclea
Duklja
Doclea or Duklja was a medieval state with hereditary lands roughly encompassing the territories of present-day southeastern Montenegro, from Kotor on the west to the river Bojana on the east and to the sources of Zeta and Morača rivers on the north....
, the ancient South Slavic state from the early-to-High medieval ages, calling it a part of Red Croatia
Red Croatia
Red Croatia , is a historical term used for the southeastern parts of Roman Dalmatia and some other territories, in including part of present-day Montenegro, greater part of Albania, the Herzegovina part of Bosnia and Herzegovina and southeastern Croatia, stretching across the Adriatic Sea.Another...
. He explained in his thesis that thus, Montenegrins are descendants of the people that settled the area back then, i.e. the Red Croats. He explained that Montenegrins belonged to the Western world, and that despite many Montenegrins over the past centuries have adopted the Serbian national affiliation, they never in fact left their own Western cultural orientation. Although sympathetic of the Montenegrin sovereignist ideals represented by Sekule Drljević, Stedimlija completely distanced himself from The Greens
Zelenaši
The Zelenaši were a group of Montenegrin dissidents, most notable for instigating the 1919 Christmas rebellion and later for supporting the existence of the fascist Kingdom of Montenegro during World War II....
and Montenegrin Federalists
Montenegrin Federalist Party
The Montenegrin Federalist Party or Montenegrin Peasants' Federalist Movement was a Montenegrin political party in the Kingdom of Serbs,...
.
After the 1941 Axis invasion of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
and the proclamation of an Italian
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
-controlled Independent State of Montenegro and Independent State of Croatia
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Štedimlija joined the Ustaše
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
. He became one of the closest persons to Ante Pavelić
Ante Pavelic
Ante Pavelić was a Croatian fascist leader, revolutionary, and politician. He ruled as Poglavnik or head, of the Independent State of Croatia , a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia...
, also becoming one of the high-ranking men in the Section for Propaganda in the service of NDH Minister of Internal Affairs Andrija Artuković
Andrija Artukovic
Andrija Artuković was a Croatian politician and a member of the Ustaše movement. Artuković was convicted of war crimes committed against minorities in the Independent State of Croatia during World War II...
. In 1942 upon Pavelic's insistence he was appointed manager of the Ustasha-styled Croatian Orthodox Church
Croatian Orthodox Church
The Croatian Orthodox Church was a religious body created during World War II by the Ustasha regime in the Independent State of Croatia .The reason for formation of this church was that Orthodox Christian Churches are state-based...
. Throughout the war he edited its publishing.
When Sekula Drljević
Sekula Drljevic
Sekula Drljević, also transcribed as Sekule Drljević , was a WWII Montenegrin Nazi-fascist collaborator....
, a Montenegrin Nazi collaborator, was expelled from the occupied Kingdom of Montenegro, he formed the Montenegrin National Council, a sort-of government in exile dedicated to restoration and preservation of Montenegrin sovereignty. Štedimlija was made his Minister of foreign affairs for his previous experience in the field.
When the Axis were obviously losing the war, they starting withdrawing towards Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
northwestwards. The Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
caught Štedimlija on the run in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
in 1945. He was sent to the USSR and spent ten years in the Gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
, accused for collaboration. In 1956 the Yugoslav Communist leadership asked the Soviet Union to hand him over. Upon the request of the League of Communists of Montenegro
League of Communists of Montenegro
The League of Communists of Montenegro was the Montenegrin branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the sole legal party of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1990...
, he was tried and sentenced to 8 years of prison for his acts during the war. The reason for this minimal sentence was that he had allegedly admitted to all charges and expressed sincere regret and renounced his "irredentist
Irredentism
Irredentism is any position advocating annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession, actual or alleged. Some of these movements are also called pan-nationalist movements. It is a feature of identity politics and cultural...
" research. Late in life he was employed by Miroslav Krleža
Miroslav Krleža
Miroslav Krleža was a leading Croatian and Yugoslav writer and the dominant figure in cultural life of both Yugoslav states, the Kingdom and the Republic . He has often been proclaimed the greatest Croatian writer of the 20th century.-Biography:Miroslav Krleža was born in Zagreb, modern-day...
at the Yugoslav Lexicographical Institute
Yugoslav Lexicographical Institute
The Miroslav Krleža Lexicographical Institute is Croatia's national lexicographical institution. Based in Zagreb, it was originally established in 1950 as the national lexicographical institute of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...
.
Legacy
In 1998 Jevrem BrkovićJevrem Brkovic
Jevrem Brković is a Montenegrin writer , historian and a cultural activist...
reintroduced his research into life and founded the Doclean Academy of Sciences and Arts
Doclean Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Doclean Academy of Sciences and Arts is a scholar's academy in Montenegro...
, dedicated to Štedimlija's studies. In 2004, the Matica crnogorska
Matica crnogorska
Matica crnogorska is a Montenegrin cultural institution. The name can be literally translated into English as the "Montenegrin queen bee," which is a metaphor meaning "the parent body of the Montenegrins."...
published Štedimlija's memoirs, Ten Years in the Gulag.
Works
- Highlander's Blood - Montenegro, 1918-1928 (Gorštačka krv - Crna Gora, 1918-1928), 1928, Belgrade
- Antikrlezians or How Among Us Were Written "Marxist" Critics (Antikrležijanci ili kako se kod nas pišu "marksističke" kritike), 1933, Kragujevac
- Education of Montenegrin Youth (Školovanje crnogorske omladine), 1936, Zagreb
- Russia and the Balkans (Rusija i Balkan), 1937, Zagreb
- Red Croatia (Crvena Hrvatska), 1937, Split
- The Foundations of Montenegrin Nationalism (Osnovi crnogorskog nacionalizma), 1937, Zagreb
- Skidanje maske
- Crna Gora u Jugoslaviji
- Auf dem Balkan, 1943, Zagreb
- Zavjere protiv svjetskoga mira
- Ten Years in the Gulag (Deset godina u gulagu), 2004, Podgorica