For Croats I was a Serb and a unitarian from the beginning. To Serbs, a Frankist [radical Croatian nationalist] and Ustaša; to Ustaše a dangerous Marxist and communist; to Marxists a salon communist; to clergy and believers, the antichrist who should be nailed to a shameful pillar. For the bourgeoisie after the war I am …
Jelena of Serbia, described as “plain”, but also quiet and amiable by the nanny of the Romanov children whose friendship she shared, was not what the rest of Europe’s nobility pictured when told of someone demanding the release of the Tsar and his family. And yet, Jelena was the only member of the Royal Family …
On the front of Westminster Abbey in London are the statues of the 20th Century Martyrs. Amongst them is a Ugandan Archbishop who refused to leave his post to save his life and fell victim to one of the most savage regimes of the 20th Century. His death proved the turning point in the regime …
When the pre-eminent Russian poet Alexander Pushkin died on 10 February 1837, it was in a tragic echo of an incident of the life of his great-grandfather, Avram Petrovich Gannibal (also written as Hannibal). Pushkin was killed by his brother-in-law in a duel over Pushkin’s wife Natalya, a parallel to the first marriage of Gannibal, …
When King Cetshwayo died on 8 February 1884, the circumstances were suspicious. Officially his death was due to a heart attack, but not even the British representatives who observed his autopsy could agree on whether or not the last independent king of the Zulu had been poisoned. Cetshwayo’s life was remarkable in many ways. His …
As is emblematic of Balkan countries, when the Greek Prime Minister and head of the Fourth of August Regime, Ioannis Metaxas, died of septicemia from a throat abscess on 29 January 1940 there were whispers of a dark conspiracy of assassination. The whispers seemed to converge on the arrival of a British medic who …
In February 1979, Joe Biden – the future American president – attended the funeral of Edvard Kardelj in Yugoslavia. Kardelj, although scarcely remembered outside the former Yugoslavia, was a figure of enormous importance in his time. An early adopter of communism (at age 16 in 1926), he spent time in a Kingdom of Jugoslavia jail …
The events of this novel draw on the infinite well of human memory, whose treasures may be brought to the surface in any period, including our own. In view of this, any resemblance between the characters and circumstances of this tale and real people and events is inevitable. –Ismail Kadare Published first in 2003 (in …
Always bear in mind that the people are not fighting for ideas, for the things in anyone’s head. They are fighting to win material benefits, to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward to guarantee the future of their children. When Amilcar Cabral was shot by his own men on 20 …
It was pretty much a requirement that politicians of a certain age in Yugoslavia have served as Partizans during World War II, and Džemal Bijedić was no exception to that rule. Raised by Muslim parents in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, by 1939 Bijedić had joined the League of Communists. He was arrested at least four …