A REVIEW
ARTICLE
ROBERT J.
KERNER, ed., Yugoslavia. Chapters by Griffith Taylor et al.
(United Nations Series.) Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California
Press, 1949. XXIV, 558 pp.
WERNER
MARKERT, ed., Osteuropa-Handbuch: Jugoslawien. K๖ln and Graz: B๖hlau Verlag,
1954. XIII, 400 pp.
Yugoslavia. With an
Introduction by Robert F. Byrnes. (East-Central Europe Under the Communists.)
New York: Frederick A. Praeger (for the Mid-European Studies Center of the Free
Europe Committee), 1957. XIII, 488 pp.
To
paraphrase an old saying, the happiest nations, like the happiest women, must
be those about whom no comprehensive manuals have ever been written. On this
scale, the three volumes here are bad omens and, as one would expect, they
contain ample evidence of the poor luck of the Southern Slavs. There is,
however, a second meaning to the same aphorism. Writing about a country as
controversial as Yugoslavia requires a painstaking and continuous effort to
avoid distortions which can make those involved even more unhappy. When the
effort is not made or is unsuccessful, protests of "Hold the thief!"
and "Look who is talking!" are likely to be raised by one or the
other party in the several sets of fundamental disputes dividing that country
and its foreign observers. Since all could be protesting quite justifiably
while nobody is particularly right, a reader merely seeking information may
find the hardest going. Being innocent in the art of penetrating the fog of
Balkan-style facts and artifacts, he can unlike those who can discount and
reinterpret to their own temper of mind only stand confused, unconvinced, and
uninformed.
This is
not to say that the three volumes do not provide, among other things, a wealth
of information. In the first place, we are dealing with some sixty essays
written by nearly two score authors. They discuss matters ranging from geologic
structure, population density, and garden produce to philosophy of education,
"new economic system," and ecclesiastical development; and from
Illyrian Provinces, Serbian Revolution, and Habsburg Empire to people's police,
Yugoslavs in America, and "Moscow Permits Limited Titoism." No matter
how different the quality of treatment given to various subjects, most readers
should be able to profit somewhere along the line. Second, substantial sections
are written as well as could be expected, considering the available sources.
The economic chapters, for instance, which will be discussed first, are, within
the limits imposed by the nature and scope of Communist government statistics,
both informative and important so much so that few students of Yugoslavia can
afford to neglect them.
The last
statement applies, however, chiefly to the two more recent volumes; for the
University of California handbook restricts its economic coverage to foreign
trade and a survey of prewar agricultural problems. The Yugoslav volume of the
Osteuropa-Handbuch series (hereafter, "Handbuch") and the Free Europe
Committee (here-after, "FEC") manual devote to the economy almost
half of their pages, providing a convenient compilation of postwar statistics
not readily available except in the largest libraries, together with comment
which sometimes is illuminating. Among the contributions to the FEC volume,
"General Survey of Yugoslav Economy" (by Egon Neuberger) and
"National Income, and Product" (by Nicholas Spul'-ber) stand out as
attempts to analyze and synthesize, instead of merely rehashing what is already
evident from the statistical tables. There are also chapters on basic and consumer
industries (by Ivan Avsenek and Egon Neuberger respectively) and on other
miscellaneous subjects from "Agriculture" to "Health and Public
Welfare" all descriptive, some spotty, the last one contributed
anonymously. Several contradictions adopted from Yugoslav sources are left
unexplained: the industrial production indices on pp. 291 and 313 do not agree
with each other (and both differ from the figures in the Handbuch on p. 254);
the investments in the economy grow from 75 billion in 1949 to 340 billion in
1953 on page 348, while dropping over the same period from 294 to 266 billion
on page 288. There are repeated references to foreign aid, in various contexts,
but annual figures are given only on loans granted by the International Bank
for Reconstruction and Development, in dollars, opposite Yugoslav investment
figures given in variable dinars; consequently, the role of aid in Yugoslav
budgets remains anybody's guess, although generalizations on this matter are
made elsewhere (of all places, in the chapter on "National
Security"). Moreover, it is impossible to dis-cover how the rate of growth
in the first decade after World War II compares with that after World War I
(discounting foreign aid and reparations in both cases), because the
statistical tables show only one prewar year (1938 or 1939) when they show any.
By way of contrast, anyone interested can find the exact population of every
single town with over 10,000 people in what happens to be the longest table,
placed in the subsection on economic -and social conditions in the chapter on
"The People."
The
economic section of the German volume starts with a survey of the inter-war
period, centering on foreign trade and agriculture, followed by five chapters
on various aspects of post-war economy. There is, in the Handbuch, an
appearance of more systematic treatment of all subjects, but the advantages of
its economic part are limited. It is generally based on 1946-53 figures and,
here and there, it includes 1954 estimates; but it also occasionally ends (e.g.
in the chapter on public finance) with 1950 or 1951. Since the volume was
prepared soon after postwar Yugoslav statistics first became available in any
detail, and the figures found in regular statistical publications were
supplemented by data released ad hoc by Yugoslav authorities, it is now rapidly
becoming obsolete not so much because of new developments in the economy, as
because subsequent Yugoslav publications disclose that the figures used in the
economic part of the Handbuch were in many cases exaggerated to start with. As
to its mechanics, the inclusion of three prewar years in postwar statistical
tables, which is more than the FEC manual offers, is still insufficient to make
the kind of comparison suggested above. The fact that, in both volumes, prewar
data end with 1938 or 1939 is, incidentally, misleading: this disregards the
1939-41 period of fast growth after the delayed end of the depression and thus
magnifies the accomplishments of the postwar regime beyond their true
proportions.
The
picture of the Yugoslav economy that emerges is, although not nearly as
complete as one may wish, revealing to a surprising degree. While selected
industries expand considerably, the production never seems to be able to catch
up with plans and predictions. The consumer industry, and agriculture run at a
particularly low rate, although not as far behind the planned figures as some
of the items on the basic industry list. Having started from a low base, the
rapid upswing in the latter category occured, nevertheless, chiefly in areas
where a base was available. More recently, the expansion has slowed down in all
fields. This may well be the consequence of the exhaustion of three of the four
sources of capital employed in the ambitious early investment program the
confiscations, the depression of the general living standard, and the
reparations while the fourth source foreign aid had to be used
increasingly for the military and police establishments and for subsistence
consumption. It is also interesting to note that the peasants, squeezed hard at
first, seem to have regained ground in their purchasing power as compared with
other strata, although the agricultural production, compared with the prewar
level, remains the weakest item in the official production statistics. Failing
both to improve the lot of the workers and to approximate the planned increases
in production, the party and some of its foreign supporters may have become
resigned to making a virtue of necessity by calling it
"de-Stalinization." Nevertheless, one should not take lightly the
fact that the growth in the fields of concentration, short as it was of plans,
was little short of phenomenal; and what from the consumer's point of view
appears as a deficiency was in part planned and to that degree, strictly
speaking, was not a failure. In this connection economic statistics are
indicated for their therapeutic effect to all who find in the myth of
totalitarianism's self-destruction their excuse for complacency. Needless to
say, what the statistics do not answer is the question: Was it worth the price
in human suffering to those who had to pay it?
If the
economic part of the manuals can save some legwork to anybody who wants to
pursue the developments in Yugoslavia, the same can hardly be said about all
their other parts. True, for those interested in rocks and trees, mountains,
roads and rivers, climate, and boundaries, there are descriptions, maps, and
more tables, which are as informative as they are inconsequential. All three
volumes have "Land and People" sections; yet in two of them the land
portion is given by far the more adequate treatment. When it comes to the
people, the California handbook treats the reader only to an unenlightening
essay on "Racial History." In the FEC manual the chapter on "The
People" is the second one by an anonymous author. It is based on
miscellaneous demographic statistics on such matters as sex and age
distribution and literacy ratios, but the nationalities hardly a marginal
matter in Yugoslavia are allocated less than one page. The Handbuch gives the
subject two chapters: one on nationalities, ana the other on miscellaneous
demographic data. It has comprehensive tables covering successive censuses and
perhaps the most carefully executed maps on the population structure of
Yugoslavia one can find anywhere. Unfortunately, the maps are, with one
exception, based on prewar statistics, although the text and the tables include
data from both postwar censuses.
Most
unbalanced, however, are the parts devoted to history, culture, and politics.
Serious doubts are raised not only by the overall scope of coverage and
organization, but also by the methodology and the fundamental values that
underlie several individual contributions. Part of this is, of course, due to
the greater methodological difficulties which have always plagued the
disciplines concerned with those fields and which, consequently, make caution
in criticism imperative. Yet, there is also such a phenomenon as excessive
discrepancy from the ways, however vaguely defined, of selecting, ordering, and
interpreting which make the results of scholarly endeavor meaningful; and there
may be a limit to the acceptability of propositions even when they are,
admittedly, not refutable in the literal sense.
To talk
about coverage first, it is at a glance quite impressive. The California volume
has a part on the historical background proper, another historical part
entitled "Political Development," further parts on "Social
Conditions," "Cultural Development," and foreign relations, each
with from two to four chapters. The FEC manual has a 15-page "Brief
History" and a chapter on "Foreign Relations Since 1945," which
together form its introductory part; and there is a section on "The
Government and the Party" with five chap ters, including one on
"Education" and one on "National Security." In the
Handbuch, "Politics and State" consists of four political chapters
(covering, respectively, the inter-war, war-time, 1945-48, and 1948-53
periods), a chapter on postwar foreign relations, and others on religions,
education, literature, and emigration. Its documentary part covers subjects
ranging from treaties and cabinets since 1918 to current party and government
officials and alternate geographical names. The emphasis varies: the California
volume centers on the past, with only glimpses of the war-time and postwar
developments; the Handbuch purports to cover the period since World War I; the
FEC manual seeks to show "what has happened in Yugoslavia under Communist
rule," but most of its chapters actually start with the inter-war period.
Within
such limits, what was omitted is as impressive as what was included. To the
authors of the California volume, the history of the southern Slavs is mainly
the history of Serbia from about 1830 to 1941 (with apparently no fundamental
break at 1918). In spite of this, no attempt was made to relate the respective
influences of the Serbian-Orthodox church, Byzantine culturเl heritage, and the
tradition of conspirative political techniques to the recent practices in
government and struggle for power, and to collateral matters, such as the
writing of Serbian history. Along the same line, the concept of culture is
conceived so narrowly that nothing beyond language and literature is included
in the part on "Cultural Development" an approach which by-passes
some important and universally comprehensible indices of the depth of the cleft
between the Oriental and the Occidental in Yugoslavia. There is, however, a
brief discussion of the role of secret societies in the prelude to World War I.
in the chapter on the relation of Serbia to the Habsburg Empire (by Bernadotte
Schmitt); and for the lacunae in the cultural part, there is some compensation
in other sections, such as that on "Social Conditions."
The FEC
volume repeats these omissions and adds others. Its introduction properly warns
the reader that among the "most significant and fascinating problems and
factors" which were omitted at the outset are the "viability of
Yugoslavia" in general and the popularity of the Communist regime in
particular (p. vi); later on, such subjects as religion, literature, and labor
had to be left out because "the staff of the Center and the authors were
unable to prepare high-quality, brief chapters" on them (p. vii). This being
the case one may at once begin to wonder what made the publication of this
volume appear worth while, In any event, there is little left that has to be
added to that list of omissions.
Turning to
methodology and organization of the material which was included, one notes
first that signs of vigorous editing are discoverable only in the Handbuch.
Even where its substance, as noted for the economic part, would tend to age
rapidly, the fact that the contributions are reconciled with each other in
their content, quality, and form makes the Handbuch appear superior to the
other two volumes. Another of its valuable features are the notes to the maps
and tables explaining how the incorporated data were computed information
witheld only too often in similar works. Nevertheless, there are flaws in the
organization of the Handbuch: one wonders, why the discussion of inter-war
foreign relations is dispersed among the material on domestic politics (at the
sacrifice of clarity of presentation for both); or, why the literary development
forms part of "Politics and State," unless it is on grounds that
there are no apolitical activities in a Communist state in which case, why
exclude other subjects? The general bibliography at the end of the volume is
classified and numbered, but because it is (as those of the other two volumes)
unannotated, it is) far less useful than the extended `guide to further study'
variety of footnote, which is found at the end of some chapters. One wonders,
why all chapters were not so equipped.
The California
volume incorporates foreign trade of 1918-41 in the part on "Economic
Conditions," but the postwar continuation of the same subject is found,
along with prewar diplomatic history, under "Yugoslavia Among the
Nations"; "Constitutional Development" and "Yugoslavs in
America" add up to "Political Development" (the connection is
not shown, and no other chapter is included); there is an amassing and well
written chapter on the language (by G. R. Noyes), followed by a summary discussion
of the literature which repeats much of the same material. There are scores of
major and minor factual errors, ranging from "fifteen hundred years of
common historical experience" of the "Yugoslav people" (p. 107)
to the consistent substitution of Karlovac for Karlovci by three different
authors (pp. 38, 245, 296). Furthermore, while the volume abounds with sweeping
statements, documentation is almost entirely absent: foot-notes, if any are
relegated to the back of the volume and, in some instances, they substitute for
bibliography; for the "Selected Bibliography" selects the sections of
the book for which bibliographical information is included.
In the FEC
manual, the three political chapters ("The Constitutional System,"
"Politics and Political Organization," "The Government")
are repetitive, although listed under the same author (Alexander Rudzinski);
and altogether they hardly begin to scratch the surface of the problems they
promise to deal with. On what principle the material presented was divided into
three chapters is a puzzle in itself. Each begins with a summary of past events
already summarized in the introductory historical chapter. Each goes on to
expound several aspects of the formal governmental structure, paying little
attention to the political forces and processes which predetermine and give
actual content to the governmental framework. There are assurances in all three
chapters that the Yugoslav Constitution was adopted for propaganda purposes;
yet the main support to the thesis that the Constitution is a sham is taken
from the vagueness of, and the contradictions in, the wording of that document
a method which can prove little except that Bel-grade Communists are poor
propagandists. A similar overemphasis of structure in political analysis can be
found in the other two volumes; neither went overboard, however, to include
three essays by the same author on the same and least important feature of
government. Compared with this throwback to the primeval era in political
science, other defects in method and organization might appear as mere
technicalities. Documentation is, for instance, as deficient as in the
California volume; the bibliography fails to register, in addition to other
important works, the German manual reviewed here; and the basis of selection of
the "leading Communists" whose biographies are appended is not
disclosed (several has-beens are included, but only one of the six presidents
of the Executive Councils of the Republics Bakarić and only a
sprinkling of the Central Committee and of the Federal Executive Council). More
damning, however, there is obvious plagiarism, including the verbatim
transcript of a passage rationalizing, in part, the Yugoslav regime under the
dictatorship of Alexander I (Cf. p. 132, FEC manual, with p. 126 of the California
volume).
There
remains to be discussed the problem of fundamental values and propositions
which are implicit or explicit in the contributions to the three volumes. Short
of writing a manual on the manuals, what can be done with reference to this problem
is, mainly, to refer to some of the more conspicuous examples of positions
taken in various chapters which one would normally not expect to find in
current writings of Western scholars. If a broad generalization can be made, it
is that too many of the included essays suffer from that combination of
neo-Hegelianism and romanticism which places a premium on such concepts as
"The State," "Unity," "Leadership,"
"Authority," and "Military Virtue" at the expense of human
dignity, individuality, liberty, and self-government. Applied to the level of
the concrete sets of conflicts permeating the Yugoslav scene, such fundamental
values would tend to support, or to justify the activities of, the successive
ruling circles representing centralization, state security, and charismatic
splendor against the "disturbances" ascribed to the uncooperative
underdogs. Thus, among the contributors to the Handbuch, two disclose their
fondness for Serbian authoritarians formerly allied with Germany and, more
generally, impatience with opposition and complacency towards dictatorial
methods of government. (See von Reiswitz, p. 79 on "state-political
destructiveness`" of opposition, p. 82 on the "necessity" of
dictatorship, pp. 93-96 on the greatness of Stojadinović; and the kind words
of Professor Matl for Nedić, Ljotić, and Mihajlović all three
devoted to "humanitarian tasks" on pp. 109-112.) The California
volume is in places quite outspoken in its support of authoritarian methods.
Freedom of education is associated with "strongly nationalistic"
measures rather approvingly as an "interesting" and
"appropriate" development (Severin K. Turosienski on p. 231);
"praetorian nationalism" serves to rationalize murder and
dictatorship and to make a "National Revolution" out of a coup d'้tat
(Malbone W. Graham on pp. 116, 126, and 133); parliamentary government is
"unessential," "obsolete," and charged with "empty
paper maneuvers" (id. on pp. 128, 123, and 133); and to oppose "the
positive tradition" (of unity and authority) is to show "particularist
mentality" and to exploit "the disputatious possibilities of a
theological trinitarianism" (id. on pp. 121 and 120).
If the FEC
manual avoids such extremes, it is, in part, because it skips over the most
important issues; yet it also attempts to achieve objectivity by mechanically
balancing claims and accusations and distributing blame and praise to all
parties in dispute. When "the warlike attributes" of Serbs and
Montenegrins are exalted, the Croats and Slovenes are allowed the dubious honor
to "share the same military virtues" (Bernard Ziffer, p. 145). After
a "strongly centralistic constitution," pushed through "with the
aid of pressure and bribery," has had its day and is supplanted by a
decree "which legalized the dictatorship without significantly altering
its essence," the opposition forces are labeled "chauvinistic,"
whereas the supporters of the central dictatorship become "patriotic"
(Thomas T. Hammond, pp. 12-13). The three political essays criticize the prewar
regime as one characterized first by police powers "in practice with-out
limit" in spite of "customary phrases of Western liberalism" (p.
94), second by "the insistence of the Serbian politicians ... on ruling
Yugoslavia with little regard for the interests of the other peoples" (p.
112,) and third, by a government structure which since its inception to its end
"reflected extreme centralism, autocratic rule, corruption, and political
instability. (p. 131). Yet, such criticism is, as in other parts of the volume,
moderated by its being directed chiefly against human errors in execution of
what is still assumed to be a sound scheme. It is a criticism of the failure of
the dynasty and its advisers to provide "effective political
leadership" (p. 112) and of the "unconstructive" attitudes of
party leaders emphasizing "factional and regional interests" (p.
113), of centralism and "separatism" and "particularism"
alike not a recognition of the intrinsic inability of the Yugoslav scheme to
satisfy fundamental democratic values. When the last of the three political
chapters reverts to a rationalization of the dictatorship (p. 132), it only
demonstrates too well that a blending of claims from both sides of the fence
does not by itself constitute objectivity and scholarship.
In
conclusion, it is only proper to point out that there is necessarily an
impressionistic factor present in reviewing such multi-authored volumes. Since
the more conspicuous methodological and ideological aberrations tend to mar the
overall picture more than warranted, it may be permissible to recall at the
risk of stating the obvious that there are exceptions to the general
impression among the many individual contributions, all of which could not be
discussed. To sum up, the Handbuch, needs its statistics brought up to date; in
its other parts, provided it is read with caution, it should be useful to many
even as it stands now. The FEC volume, to become serviceable beyond economics,
would require the inclusion of what its introduction lists as omitted and the elimination
of the methodological inadequacy of its political part. To believe that in its
present form "this volume reflects the state of American scholar-ship and
of Western scholarship generally, on developments within Communist
Yugoslavia" (p. vii) would be unkind to American and Western scholarship.
The California handbook should be of use principally to those interested in the
opinions on Yugoslavia during World War II and its aftermath; what it has to
offer on its subject matter is of little consequence and is overshadowed by
unacceptable propositions. For that matter, the volume is appropriately
described as part of a series started as a "contribution to the war
effort" and being continued as an offer "to the peace effort"
(p. vii); only it should be hoped that in any future attempts of a similar
nature, the scholarly tradition of knowing before fighting will be given a more
prominent role.