‘A SPATIALLY SCATTERED BEING’: IMAGINING SPACE IN BALTIC EXILE LIFE WRITING

Author(s): Leena Kurvet-Käosaar / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2019

The current article focuses on two works of life writing by Baltic exiles: Geography and the Art of Life (2004) by Edmunds Valdemārs Bunkše and Otsekui tõlkes. Teema variatsioonidega [As if in translation. A theme with variations] (2005) by Käbi Laretei. In both works the construction of subjectivity relies, to an important extent, on acts of self-emplacement that proceed via an engagement with different places, landscapes and trajectories of movement that include attempts to create spaces of belonging and of being at home. Rather than being anchored in a firm referential basis, such spaces are often envisioned as imaginative textual constructions elaborated, e.g. via reflections around the concept of home or mediation of the continuous process of seeking a(n ideal) home. In Otsekui tõlkes, Laretei explores the position of an exile through a scrutiny of personal and professional relationships unraveling against the backdrop of a multitude of places and trajectories of travel, as well as the role of music in finding her place in life. Bunkše’s Geography and the Art of Life that is both a memoir and a theoretical reflection in the field of cultural geography reflects upon ways in which spatial imagination guides the formation of (exilic) identity that is premised on the dichotomy of the home and the road in both the figurative and literal sense.

‘Gazeta Warszawska’ on the Russo-Turkish War (the 1789 campaign)

Author(s): Malgorzata Karkocha / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2018

The article presents a selected campaign of the Russo-Turkish War, which Turkey fought with Russia and its ally, Austria, in 1787–1792. The Authoress used the reports of ‘Gazeta Warszawska’ – a leading information magazine, published in 1774–1793 under the editorial supervision of an ex-Jesuit, Father Stefan Łuskina, as the principal source of information. Throughout the entire conflict, Łuskina’s newspaper reported regularly (almost in every issue) on activities on the eastern front. The editor-in-chief was an advocate of pro-Russian position, which did affect the information provided by the publication. The news from the Eastern War published in ‘Gazeta Warszawska’ was selected in such a way as to show the superiority of the Russian army over the Ottoman fleet and army and to prove that the opponents of the Tsaritsa would be inevitably defeated.

‘Masters of Situation’: German and Austro-Hungarian Intervention in Ukraine in 1918 in the Light of Ukrainian Memoirs

Author(s): Grzegorz Skrukwa / Language(s): English / Issue: 113/2016

The article discusses the image of the German and Austro-Hungarian intervention in Ukraine in 1918 in Ukrainian memoirs. While these works generally describe the policies of the Central Powers toward Ukraine as imperialist and dictated by the military and economic interests of the two states, only the most radical leftist writers fail to appreciate the role German and Austrian troops played in the removal of Bolshevik forces from Ukraine. Common and individual portraits of the military and political apparatus of the intervention forces differ depending on the political position of the writer. Those who viewed the repressive policies toward rural Ukraine from the perspective of the elites of Kiev discuss them only in abstract terms. In general, Austro-Hungary’s part in the intervention is described in less favourable terms than that of Germany.

“ARMENIAN GENOCIDE”, A BIG LIE

Author(s): Ali Nazmi Çora / Language(s): English / Issue: 40/2018

The so-called “Armenian Genocide” has been known as one sided story, which for the most part has ignored, dismissed, or forgotten facts about the true story behind these claims: Armenian terrorism, insurgency, revolts, treason, territorial demands and the Turkish and other Muslim losses suffered at the hands of Armenian nationalists (Gunter, 2013, Cora 2013). Most of the historians call attention to the point that the facts of the history straggled behind what the reality is due to the politicians, and rancor of the Armenian Diaspora who has been focusing on one aim, acquiring the lands of current Turkish Republic (Erickson, 2013). These issues that should be left over the historians, are being transformed into tools of interests in the handle of the politicians. (Mango, 2006)

“Gornja Lohinja je oslobođena, Gornja Lohinja je pala, Gornja Lohinja je...”

Author(s): Faruk Delic / Language(s): Bosnian / Issue: 44/2017

As one of direct participants, the author of this paper speaks of the summer of 1992 and the situation when the war-time leadership of the municipality of Gračanica conducted long and toilsome negotiations with the Serbian population in the village of Gornje Lohinje about the surrender of illegal military weapons and recognizing the authorities of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Gornje Lohinje decided to relocate to Ozren, the territory fully controlled by the Serbian aggressor. Along with the author’s memories, the paper presents a copy of original lists of displaced inhabitants of Gornje Lohinje that the author made on the spot.

“Igniting the East”

The Causes and Consequences of the 1875 Peasant Revolt in Bosnia-Hercegovina1

Author(s): Christer Jorgensen / Language(s): English / Issue: 18/2018

The spark that set off the Great Eastern Crisis (1877–78), the Peasant Uprising of July 1875, is commonly reduced to a short passage, or a mere footnote in general academic studies.2 Yet the uprising is significant in its own right3 and goes a long way towards explaining why the Ottoman Sultanate failed to cling on to her Balkan provinces in the late nineteenth century.

“Kriegsbericht und Memorial” – the first military work of Albrecht Hohenzollern

Author(s): Karol Lopatecki / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2018

Aim: The purpose of the article is to determine the authorship of the manuscript Kriegsbericht und Memorial, which was put up for auction in 2014 by Sotheby’s and the presentation of the manuscript. Research method: A formal analysis of the manuscript supplemented by a review of the literature of the subject matter. Results/Conclusions: As a result of the analysis, it is highly probable that the author of the Kriegsbericht und Memorial is Albrecht Hohenzollern and that it was the initial basis for the creation of the work Kriegsordnung donated to Sigismund August in 1555. This work after the death of the first Prussian duke found itself in the personal library of the wife of Albrecht Hohenzollern – Maria Eleonora Jülich-Kleve-Berg. This book is also recorded in the library registers of the Prussian-Brandenburg rulers from Konigsberg, which were made in the years 1700 and 1720. Probably, the book was owned by Wilhelm Christian Karl, the duke of Solms-Braunfels. The manuscript was known to historians in the first half of the 19th century. In 1845, Ernst Oswald Mentzel noted that the manuscript was in the possession of Hermann von Gansauge.

“Not Quiet on the Front and Not Quiet in the Rear”: Of Social Anger during the First World War (The Bulgarian Case)

Author(s): Snezhana Dimitrova / Language(s): English / Issue: 3-4/2017

This empirical study reveals a different, mostly hidden, reality of historical experience, i.e., the personal fears, dreams, and yearnings of individuals that had the potential to grow into collective emotions. Through the empirical and theoretical design of the study, the author presents Bulgarian society at war in terms of the critical situations of everyday life involving hunger, disease, death, corruption, injustice, and revolt. The author insists that the scenarios for what would become Bulgaria’s post-war reality were first written in the subjective contexts of a specific wartime reality – that of the practical past (in Hayden White’s term) of soldiers at war and their families. The study demonstrates how and why the justly angry soldier brought about conditions for a ‘breakthrough at the frontline’, inasmuch as this anger reveals that ‘the demoralization at the frontline’ was brought about by the soldier’s sensitivity to “things being unfair”. The article discusses the topography of the revolts (the so-called ‘women’s hunger revolts’) of ordinary urban and rural women, which occurred in places where the greatest numbers of men had been mobilized. The author shows that, in the anger of women, there “murmurs the horror of their forced situation” (Marguerite Duras). In analysing these outburst of social anger and the different ways in which different women (of various classes, social strata, and cultural milieus) protested against the war (revolts, petitions, individual and collective letters, addressed by Bulgarian and Turkish women to official institutions), the author thematizes women’s political and civic participation, provoked by total wartime mobilization. The article identifies the new sources of women’s emancipation during the war, including the affective reality of their experience, and thereby emphasizes that women’s public expression of anger was able to reveal the source of corrosion of the social tissue as lying in corruption and the ‘powers that tend to corrupt’. The front and the rear were bound together by anger at social injustice. Moreover: the study shows if the soldier’s wife had dared go that far, it was because she was empowered by the law itself, the law’s regulations aimed at the emancipation of the poor and uneducated woman, the soldier’s mother or wife, in order to restrict the possibility of corruption on the part of local authorities, a possibility that would have endangered the main purpose of the law, civil peace. The study is based on archive materials, still not fully ‘open’, including court martial documentation, women’s letters intercepted by censors, censors’ reports (some of them probably prepared by women), private archives of female Socialist activists, memoirs on women’s revolts, etc. The research methods of the study are developed and operationalized within the interdisciplinary field of microhistory and affect theory.

“SVE ŠTO JE U KOZMOSU, NALAZI SE I U DUŠI”: O JAKUB-PAŠI BOŠNJAKU I SUKOBIMA NA PROSTORU IZMEĐU BOSANSKOG SANDŽAKA I KRBAVSKO-MODRUŠKE ŽUPE 1493. U BAHŠIJEVOJ POETIZIRANOJ HRONICI

Author(s): Madžida Mašic,Adnan Kadric / Language(s): Bosnian / Issue: 68/2018

This paper focuses on the particularities of the Tarih-i Yaqub Pasha Chronicle whose manuscript is held by the Uppsala University Library. The manuscript consists of over 5000 verses and deals with the conflicts that took place in the area between the Bosnian Sanjak, the Hungarian (part of the) Bosnian Kingdom and the Krbava-Modruš Parish on the eve and during the Battle of Krbava Field in 1493. Special attention is devoted to Bahşi’s conceptualisation of the events in the Chronicle held in Uppsala. Namely, the appendix to the Chronicle also emphasises the spiritual aspect and symbolism of the Battle in line with Sufi literary discourse, broadly conceived, this being one of the main particularities of the Chronicle.

“ГОРКИТЕ ПОМАЦИ”

Author(s): Ayshe Kayapanar / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 2/2019

The present work represents a translation of a brochure named “Poor Pomaks” from Ottoman Turkish to Bulgarian. This brochure gives very interesting information about the forced conversion in Christianity of the Pomaks in 1913. Printed in the publishing house "Hayriye and its associates", the only surviving copy of the brochure is preserved in the archive of the Ottoman Bank in Istanbul. There are a number of brochures printed by this publishing house. Between the years 1912-1915, 4 brochures with the similar topics were published. The brochure “Poor Pomaks” is the fourth one. The author of the “Poor Pomaks” brochure is not known. The brochure consists of 29 pages. The first 8 pages of the text contains the author's opinion about Bulgarians and Turkish-Bulgarian relations. In the other twenty-two pages, the author gives a place for stories about the torture and cruelty experienced by 150,000 Pomaks who were subjected to forced conversion in 1913. The important thing in this account, which is a valuable source of conversion, is that it testifies to real-world events, villages, and sacrifices. The territorial coverage of the conversion in the regions with numerous Pomaks populations and mainly the villages of today's Plovdiv, Smolyan, Pazardzhik, Kardzhali and Blagoevgrad regions in Bulgaria and the northern parts of Western Thrace in Greece are clearly outlined. The last two pages of the brochure include a letter and an epilogue. In the epilogue, the author makes a critical assessment of the behavior of the big states and of the Balkan allies during the Balkan War. Two photos are also featured in the brochure, one of which has a great historical value because it is one of the few preserved to our day authentic photographs of the victims and the baptists.

„A kiváló erdélyi fejedelem” - A török elleni hosszú háború (1593–1606) a relaciones de sucesos tükrében

Author(s): Rubén González Cuerva / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 04/2016

The “relaciones de sucesos”, a humble precedent of modern journalism, offer a very rich source yet to be investigated by Hispanic modern history. At the end of the 16th century, the interest in the fight against the Turkish Empire was focused on the “long war” of Hungary (1593–1606), with the emperor Rudolph II and the prince of Transylvania, Zsigmond Báthory facing the Ottoman Empire. We will analyze in detail the mechanisms of news diffusion to the Sevillan press of Rodrigo de Cabrera, where the majority of the relations were released, and the role of the Jesuits, who also acted as creators and transmitters of opinion. This provides a common contextual background to the embassy of the prince of Transylvania to Philip II in 1596 and the premiere of The prodigious Transylvanian prince, attributed to Vélez de Guevara. The play not only offers a model image of the Christian prince, but also its sources were clearly these relations of events.

„Apsimetinėjo banditais“: kriminalinių gaujų mimezės 1945–1957 metais Lietuvoje analizė

Author(s): Darius Indrišionis / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 43/2019

During the 1940s–1950s, the Supreme Court of the Lithuanian SSR solved 44 criminal cases of “banditry” (Article 59 part 3 of RSFSR Criminal Code of 1926) with some noticeable facts of mimesis: these bandits, during their raids, were trying to create an illusion to their victims that these raids were performed by Lithuanian partisans (freedom fighters) or by some Soviet officials (militia officers, the “defenders of the People,” or Soviet army personnel). This article focuses on the mimesis of various criminal groups in Soviet Lithuania of the 1940s–1950s. The first issue to solve in this research is the problematic terminology used by the Soviets: the term bandit was often used in Soviet ideological discourse: an attempt to intertwine anti-Soviet partisan operations (“political banditry,” according to Soviet terminology) and the activities of “simple criminals” (burglars, raiders, rapists, murderers – any of such organized groups were referred to as “criminal bandits” by Soviet terms) under a single dubious term – the banditry. An analysis of criminal raids performed by fake partisan (or fake Soviet) bandit groups showed that criminals were more often inclined to appear as if they were Soviets rather than partisans (21 bandit group used the mimesis of partisans, and 27 bandit groups used the mimesis of Soviets, while there were also 4 bandit groups that used both roles: fake partisans during one raid and fake Soviets during another). This can be explained by the bandits’ avoidance of becoming the targets of partisan revenge or by a large number of various criminals that migrated to Soviet Lithuania from the eastern republics of the Soviet Union. It may also be explained in terms of simpler imitation: for these criminals, it was more difficult to imitate Lithuanian partisans than Soviet militia. The real widespread effect of this phenomenon cannot be easily revealed. As there several few different types of courts (Soviet military courts, the “People’s” courts) that could solve the criminal cases of various criminal bandits, it is not even possible to give a real number of all mimetic bandits that were active in Soviet Lithuania. Also, not every raid case was documented by the Soviet side; not every raid case was even reported to the Soviets. Sometimes, Lithuanian partisans used to catch and punish these criminals themselves – all these circumstances makes the task of stating the real number of bandit groups who used various mimesis techniques an unsolvable one.

„Było błędem nie uwzględniać psychologii serca młodzieńczego wojownika…” Arcybiskupa Józefa Teofila Teodorowicza krytyka NKN i Legionów

Author(s): Renata Król-Mazur / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2017

The text presents political opinions of one of the leading politicians of the early twentieth century – the last Armenian Catholic archbishop – Józef Teofil Teodorowicz. His attitude towards the irredentist movement developing in the Polish lands is analysed, and then his choice of a political option at the outbreak of the Great War together with his attitude towards the Supreme National Council (SNC). Archbishop Teodorowicz’s views on the most important events occurring in the Polish lands up to the end of 1917 are presented.

„Domnul fie lăudat [...], turcii au predat cetatea”. Cucerirea Lipovei otomane de către transilvăneni, în 25 august 1595

Author(s): Liviu Cîmpeanu / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 26/2018

The quotation in the title comes from the post scriptum of a letter, sent by the two commanders of the militia from the Transylvanian-Saxon town of Bistritz / Besztrece / Bistrița, to the council of their hometown, in the same day that the Transylvanian army conquered the Ottoman fortress of Lippa / Lipova. The unpublished document, kept in the Romanian State Archive of Cluj, in the collection of medieval documents of the Bistrița Townhall, reveals unknown data about the military operations of the Transylvanian army under the walls of Lipova (20-25 august 1595), as well as an interesting description of the fortified town and of the fortress of Lipova. The aim of our study is to reveal this military operations in the context of the Transylvanian-Ottoman war in the summer of 1595, and the role of the Transylvanian-Saxons in the military organization of the Transylvanian Principality. For the first time, we offer in the Appendix a whole transcription of the document, along with its Romanian translation.

„GARNIZONY ROZPROSZONE”? KILKA UWAG O TERENACH GRUPOWANIA I MOBILIZACJI ARMII WANDALSKIEJ NA TLE POZOSTAŁYCH GERMAŃSKICH ŚRÓDZIEMNOMORSKICH „KRÓLESTW SUKCESYJNYCH” W V I VI WIEKU

Author(s): Marek Wilczynski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 4/2018

Principles of the troops dislocation and providing for the upkeep of the armies of the barbarian kingdoms in the Roman West in the 5th and 6th centuries are still under discussion. In the mid-19th century E. T. Gaupp claimed that the basis of barbarian settlement was assigning them one third of the cultivated land in provinces they settled. More than a century later, W. Goff art and J. Durliat completely denied and modified Gaupp’s theory. In their opinion, the upkeep of the barbarian foederati was to be provided for from one-third of the provincial fiscal revenue allocated to the maintenance of the armed forces. However, a more thorough analysis of the source material proves it impossible to develop any universal pattern of settlement for all barbarian tribes. Military settlement of Vandals in Africa escapes the framework of the Gaupp model, but also that of the Goff art and Durliat model. King Gaiseric had completely seized the property of the Roman landowners in the vast area around Carthage and handed it over to his warriors, creating a strong garrison scattered over many square kilometers. The Vandal ‘scattered garrison’ maintained full mobilization efficiency and fulfilled all the functions of a garrison. The warriors were not paid wages, but granted the sustainable tax-free agricultural property. The article describes its functioning and compares it with solutions adopted in the other barbarian countries.

„Gazeta Warszawska” o wielkiej wojnie wschodniej (kampania 1789 roku)

Author(s): Malgorzata Karkocha / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2018

The article presents a selected campaign of the Russo-Turkish War, which Turkey fought with Russia and its ally, Austria, in 1787–1792. The Author used the reports of „Gazeta Warszawska” – a leading information magazine, published in 1774–1793 under the editorial supervision of an ex-Jesuit, Father Stefan Łuskina, as the principal source of information. Throughout the entire conflict, Łuskin’s newspaper reported regularly (almost in every issue) on activities on the eastern front. The editor-in-chief was an advocate of pro-Russian position, which did affect the information provided by the publication. The news from the Eastern War published in „Gazeta Warszawska” was selected in such a way as to show the superiority of the Russian army over the Ottoman fleet and army and to prove that the opponents of the Tsaritsa opponents would be inevitably defeated. // Artykuł przybliża wybraną kampanię wielkiej wojny wschodniej, która toczyła się w latach 1787–1792 między Turcją a Rosją i sprzymierzoną z nią Austrią. Źródłem informacji wykorzystanych przez Autorkę są doniesienia „Gazety Warszawskiej” – czołowego pisma o charakterze informacyjnym, ukazującego się w latach 1774–1793 pod redakcją eks-jezuity, księdza Stefana Łuskiny. Przez cały okres trwania konfliktu łuskinowska gazeta regularnie (niemal w każdym numerze) relacjonowała działania na froncie wschodnim. Ksiądz redaktor był zwolennikiem orientacji prorosyjskiej, co nie pozostało bez wpływu na treść przekazywanych informacji. Publikowane w „Gazecie Warszawskiej” wiadomości z wojny wschodniej dobierał w taki sposób, aby wykazać wyższość oręża rosyjskiego nad flotą i armią osmańską oraz dowodzić nieuchronności klęski przeciwników carycy.

Југословенски представници у Чехословачкој 1945-1949.

Author(s): Slobodan Selinic / Language(s): Serbian / Publication Year: 0

The most important Yugoslav representations in Czechoslovakia after WWII were the Embassy in Prague, Consulate in Bratislava, Military Mission, Commercial Delegation and the Department of the Social Attache. Due to the developed cooperation with Czechoslovakia in all spheres of life (politics, culture, economy, education of Yugoslav apprentices and students), there were several hundred Yugoslav representatives in that country. The most important persons in these missions were ambassadors Darko Čemej and Marijan Stilinović, attache Zdenko Štambuk, social attache Jovan Petrović, coimnercial delegate Ivan Barbalić, consul Ivan Mahulja, chairman of the Investment Commission Milan Bulja and the military delegate Miladin Ivanović. Apart from them a number of delegates of Yugoslav companies and agencies should be mentioned, particularly Milena Spasojević, the delegate of the Main Administration of the Federal Motor Industry and Oldrih Strelecki, the delegate of the Motor Industry Rakovica.

Југословенско искуство са мултиетничком армијом, са посебним освртом на Босну и Херцеговину

Author(s): Mile Bjelajac / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 2/2008

During the last two decades, this issue has been frequently discussed and written about, both in academic articles and in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. Experts in the prosecutors’ and defense office as well as historians discussed it. Even though many claimed that “The Great Serbia” project started at the beginning of the 1980s through perfidious cooperation between the Serbian political elite and the Yugoslav Peoples Army (YPA) and led to war and destruction, the ICTY itself gave up on that part of President Milosevic’s indictment on August 25, 2005 due to evidence that proved the opposite. Yugoslavia’s breakdown and subsequent wars enabled the natural development of a historiography related to civil-military relations within Yugoslav history and an examination of the interaction between the Army and society. Historians remain divided. One side has tried to prove that Yugoslavia was a bad experience for “their” people, while the other, under pressure not to be labeled as “unacceptable”, continued to objectively perceive the reality of the state which lasted for 73 years. Under the united state, all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina were equally involved in all segments of defense. The most powerful Territorial Defense formation in Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) was established in this republic during the 1970s. Bosnia and Herzegovina evolved from an undeveloped Turkish and Austro-Hungarian province to become the central strategic zone in the new state and that fact had specific consequences for development in general. As many new roads were built and railways extended in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia before the war as after 1945. Heavy industry rose in Zenica, capacities were extended in Vareš, mines were opened, and electrical power plants built. One of the largest military industrial complexes to produce ammunition and top gun pipes was built near Sarajevo just before WWII; it also produced clothes and other military products. After 1945 factories in Sarajevo were renovated and expanded, with new ones built in Bugojno, Goražde, Konjic, Vitez, Travnik, Banja Luka, Mostar etc. Part of the production was transferred from Serbia to Bosnia in 1945. The YPA and its construction firms built airports, 11 housing areas for 10,000 workers, schools, administrative buildings and institutions. In B&H there were 11,000 employees in 1949. By 1985 130,000 apartments were built. The YPA was active in the construction of a water supply system in many cities and settlements. During the 1980s, 23.83% of B&H’s income on average was foreign currency income that came from industrial military exports (or $1.131 billion in the period 1986-1990). The military medical and veterinarian service was actively involved in monitoring dangerous endemic contagious diseases. As far as we know, shortly before the civil war and while planning a military coup d’état as a solution for the crisis, the YPA acted alone, independent of nationally-oriented parties. It wanted to cooperate with and guide Nijaz Duraković’s reformed communists. They hesitated and, ultimately, refused the offer. The YPA was unprepared for Yugoslavia’s breakdown and the consequences of the Western countries’ recognition of B&H’s independence. The most important losses were installed industrial capacities and individual strategic infrastructure, as well as war reserves’ storehouses. The most important military industrial firms and war storehouses were based in territories where Muslims and Croats were in the majority, so were completely or partially surrounded and under the control of paramilitary formations of these two nations. At the time of the breakup, all finished products in the factories were worth $704 million, together with reserves of $1.650 mil. The Headquarters’ order to withdraw that capital came late. The Presidency of the SFRY (rump Presidency) decided that Serbian, Montenegrin and Macedonian officers and soldiers of the YPA should be withdrawn from Bosnia and Herzegovina and that its citizens, mainly Serbs, should return to their native republic. At the end, after the recognition of B&H’s independence, the YPA’s units and institutions included only 15% of members from other republics of the former SFRY.

Људске и материјалне жртве Србије у Првом светском рату (12. јул 1914 – 1. јул 1916)

Author(s): Momcilo Isic / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 2/2014

In the report of the Ministry of armed forces from December 1917 drafted as a respond to Serbia's Prime Minister Nikola Pašić request from September 1916, a list of Serbian human and material causalities have been presented. Fom 12 July 1914 (first day of mobilization) till 1 July 1916 (last day of Serbian troops reorganization on Salonica front) Serbian army suffered losses of 323.634 killed in action – as much as 45,75% of all mobilized man, while some 231.881 remained in captivity. Overall war damage in material and live stock counted 933.339.115,56 dinars while in direct damage (in cash) it ammounted 519.394.246,06 Serbian dinars.

Ћеле-кула између мита и историје: Процес уобличавања једног места сећањa

Author(s): Igor Borozan / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 1/2015

The “Skull Tower” has played a significant role in Serbian collective memory. This unique material and memorial topos, constituted as a pledge of remembrance of the conflict between the Serbian and Ottoman combatants (as well as a warning by the Ottomans), was continuously shaped during the 19th century along the lines of the existing ideological and cultural patterns. Raising the Skull Tower like an anti-civilization topos, the triumph of the Ottoman Army and the defeat of the Serbian troops at Battle of Čegar in 1809, had been “eternally” visualized. The defeat of Serbian rebels near the village of Kamenica (close to the city of Niš), marked the beginning of a process of shaping a two-fold memory of the great battle. The Ottoman and Serbian memories of the Battle of Čegar were sublimated into the very Skull Tower via the skulls of Serbian rebels embedded its walls. Keeping the memory of the famous monument alive, as well as its modification from the Ottoman to the Serbian memorial theme, points to the development and use of the collective memory in the 19th century.