Поглед на прошлост Београдског универзитета после Другог светског рата – стварање нове традиције
A Postwar Perception of History of the Belgrade University: Inventing a New Tradition

Author(s): Dragomir Bondžić
Subject(s): Politics, History, Anthropology, Politics of History/Memory
Published by: Етнографски институт САНУ
Keywords: University; students; national heroes; plaques; monuments
Summary/Abstract: After the Second World War, fostering of the revolutionary tradition and of achievements of the People’s Liberation Struggle was taking place at Belgrade University, due to the strong interwar leftist movement at this institution, as well its importance for the entire postwar cultural policy of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. Revolutionary tradition was fostered through the installment of monuments and plaques of the students who died in war and the wartime national heroes, which were positioned in the buildings of University and in the students’ dormitories. Dormitories, as well as workers’ brigades and cultural and artistic societies were named after them. Regular manifestations and ceremonies held after the war were dedicated to the events and personalities from the “glorious past” of the University, as an attempt to present it to the public as a grandiose mythology. Alongside with the commemoration of victims and fighters and fostering of the revolutionary tradition and history of the Party, particularly important was the creation of the revolutionary tradition of the ‘red University’ and imposition of such tradition as a key segment of the existence, work and future tasks of the highest scientific and educational institution in Serbia. This process commenced immediately after the liberation of Belgrade in 1944, and was under way during the entire period of socialism. The results persisted even after the collapse of the one-party socialist system. The names of the dormitories remained the same (with the exception of the “Ivo Lola Ribar” dormitory, whose initial name “King Alexander I” was reinstalled in 2005). Plaques and monuments of the heroic students remained in the University buildings and corridors of dormitories, although somewhat neglected, with their names and faces mostly forgotten. The Day of the Students of the Belgrade University is still celebrated on April 4, the day when a revolutionary student by the name of Žarko Marinović was killed in massive student demonstrations in 1936.

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