Yugoslavia

12/04/2011 07:07:00

The waves of demonstration which had characterised 1968 in the Balkans also affected Yugoslavia November 1968 Student Protests in Kosovo o Granted an independent Albanian language university: the language being the clear point here Very important to nationalism This university produced too many graduates to be employed in government services. o As such, the unemployed intelligentsia that had created the nationalist movement in Pre-War conditions were being recreated However, in the 1970s it would seem that Croatian nationalism would pose the greatest threat to Yugoslavia Economists argued that Croatian needed more control over its own economy Historians fuelled old fashioned cultural nationalist disagreements o Began to affect the Croatian political parties: forced Tito to hold a crisis conference after which he forcibly removed the leaders: The Croatian Spring ended in 1971 Anti-liberal purges spread beyond Croatia to other parties in Yugoslavia In the 1980s economic issues reduced the populations faith in the system. Croats still resented the suppression of the Croatian Spring Most active though were the Albanians in Belgrade, mainly due the unemployed intelligentsia

Counter Protests 100,000 Albanians gathered to protest against the arrest of two Kosovo party leaders in response, an estimate 1 million Serbs gathered to protest the alleged discrimination of Serbs in Kosovo A decade of devolution had failed to satisfy the nationalism of non-Serbs and increased that of the Serbian people. Death of Tito prompted the crumbling of the system

The Serbs within Kosovo and Croatia were concerned that the destruction of the federal state would leave them without a nation

Romania

12/04/2011 07:07:00

Romanian Partys 1964 Declaration marked the start of its public deviation from Soviet plans Ceausescu starts quoting from famous Romanians of the past (i.e. National Heroes) Ceausescu accorded the socialist nation, not the working class, as central to furthering world progress Alongside this came an extended period of the purging of Muscovite influences in the Romanian Communist Party Meant that an ethnically Romanian party emerged Can be argued that the party was forced onto the nationalist line by intellectuals, with whom it could not engage in any other manner For Ceausescu, nationalism was the main instrument for legitimising his rule in the face of his subjects because he enjoyed less initial popular support, Romania was more susceptible to anti-Russian sentiments In the 80s, Ceausescu attempted an assault on the cultural institutions as it attempt to monopolise culture Used literary means to impose its nationalist culture o i.e. Schoolbooks etc

Can be argued that nationalism in Romania during this time did not so much emerge because the party wanted it to Other ideas launched by the party did not enter the social consciousness as nationalism did Must see that in some aspects it is the human beings, specifically the intelligentsia who impart this, not only the government o The interest of the ordinary folk play a key role In the case of nationalism, it can be seen as a tool that maximises the resources available in a given nation Almost like protectionism, nationalism emphasises the local production of resources o Specifically highlighted in Romania with chauvinistic appeals

Jowitt argues that nationalism can be seen in terms of consolidation of power. Whereas Krushchev moved from consolidation to inclusion, Ceausescu moved to inclusion and then back to consolidation with a symbolic-ideological movement.

Any nation that opted for a mode of decentralisation may not be expected to develop nationalist ideals i.e. the Hungarian and Czechoslovak national ideologies that were crushed in 1956 and 1968. In cases of high centralisation such as East Germany, they did not have the history that Romanians had o Institutionalised national ideology through centralisation made Romania different

Legitimacy Argument

12/04/2011 07:07:00

Like in Romania, can be seen that nationalism generally increased in the 1980s as a means to legitimise the government of the day Following the Prague Spring in 1968, many of the more liberal reforms were repealed in the face of the Soviet purges Consumerist societies became a major facet of the legitimation of socialist regimes o i.e. in Czechoslovakia, having a country cottage became a massive status symbol However, can be seen that the increase of nationalism was not a Europewide event. In Czechoslovakia, movements such as the Charter 77 gained around 1000 members in Prague Other examples such as Solidarity in Poland highlight the radical elements ignoring nationalist sentiments portrayed by the governments of the period.

4/12/2011 7:07:00 AM Romania Anti Semitism, chauvinism,