Parallel History

Written by Đorđe Šćepović 

While the civilized world celebrates the defeat of fascism, its counterparts around the globe – including the Montenegrin regime, led by the Serbian Orthodox Church – are celebrating fascism itself. They honor a war criminal, Pavle Đurišić, a Nazi collaborator who was decorated for his service. A butcher whose biography reads like a catalogue of atrocities, including the mass slaughter of Muslims during World War II, and who was awarded Hitler’s Iron Cross for his actions.

It’s a bitter irony that Russia under Putin now commemorates the victory over fascism with pomp and grandeur, even as its military parade on Red Square increasingly resembles a summit of the world’s dictators. Putin’s Russia, long a symbol of modern fascism, has become completely disconnected from its own World War II legacy.

Fascism, you see, is also when the greatest historical victims of fascism and the Holocaust kill 50,000 people in Gaza. When the victim becomes the executioner. I’m not sure if my understanding of fascism aligns with the definitions in dictionaries and foreign glossaries, but this is fascism at its darkest.

As for Montenegro, it seems that Amfilohije Radović was, in a way, right when he endlessly preached about “Brozomor”. Admittedly, his concept of “Brozomor” differs from the version we suffer from today. But despite the varied interpretations and meanings, Radović’s linguistic flair remains strikingly relevant.

It seems there's a deliberate effort to reshape Montenegrin collective memory, as if it were a lump of clay to be molded into something new. Leading this movement, once the symbol of Tito’s legacy, is Jovan Markuš. Formerly a devoted Tito loyalist, a committed member of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, and the mayor of Cetinje, Markuš has, since the early ‘90s, transformed into an outspoken Serbian chauvinist, a close ally of warlord Arkan, and a self-proclaimed man of God who supposedly discovered religious “truth” after the so-called anti-bureaucratic revolution. Today, he stands as one of the most toxic voices in Montenegrin public life, having held this position for decades. With almost monastic dedication, he now reveals to us the "truth" about Tito.

Or, as this former SKJ (League of Communists of Yugoslavia) member now describes it, the “truth” about the man he believes is Montenegro’s destroyer. And Markuš isn’t alone in this. Vučić’s propaganda tabloids have become echo chambers where Markuš spreads a barrage of lies about an ideology he once defended passionately – back when it suited his interests.

So much has been written and said about Tito lately that it almost feels like the “Tito Case” is now more important than memorials to war criminals or the glorification of Chetnik murderers under the guise of martyrdom and heroism. Now we find ourselves asking: Was Tito truly an anti-fascist? Did we even need him in the first place? Was he a criminal?

The same media outlet that once proudly sponsored the so-called freedom marches and “litije” now hosts roundtable discussions to debate who the real criminals of World War II were.

Clergy from the Serbian Orthodox Church and other political voices of the Ravna Gora movement justify the bloodshed committed by Pavle Đurišić with the excuse that “others committed crimes too”. Really? Were those “others” the people who saved Yugoslavia from destruction? The ones who, even before the Yugoslav anti-fascist struggle, went to fight in the Spanish Civil War against Francisco Franco’s murderous phalanges? The same Franco who, among others, ordered the killing of poet Federico García Lorca?

It is recorded that in 1936, Lorca was taken to a place called Barranco de Víznar, along with three anarchists, and executed. Eyewitnesses report that the firing squad vented their rage on Lorca’s body, spitting on him before throwing him into an unmarked mass grave. Many of the others were also communists who had been wounded in Spain – Peko Dapčević and Veljko Vlahović among them.

So, those must be the “others”.

It’s the same story, just with a different name. The same narrative used today to whitewash Pavle Đurišić’s crimes was once used to deny the genocide in Srebrenica – and to celebrate the convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić. We’ve seen this movie before. We’ve lived through it. Nothing new along the shores of our “Dead Sea”.

Tito’s legacy – and that of the entire anti-fascist movement – has been reduced to ashes. And that’s not Tito’s fault. It’s ours. We failed to preserve and defend the values for which the partisans bled and died. If you ask me, Tito deserves a monument in every town in Montenegro. Especially because of people like Jovan Markuš and others like him – people who would rewrite history if they could, twisting it with lies just as they’ve rewritten their biographies.

And because of those who want Tito’s statue removed from Podgorica. Especially them. And especially the mayor of Podgorica, who joins the so-called St. Mark’s Day procession while awaiting the city council’s vote on whether to relocate Tito’s monument. The mayor says he wouldn’t touch it – but if the majority decides otherwise, then the statue’s fate could be just as uncertain, maybe even as tragic as that of the “Bather”.

And the city council’s majority? Oh, they’re real fans of Tito and everything that anti-fascist Yugoslavia stood for. So, no need to worry about the future of that statue. Not one bit.
Amid the celebration of Chetnik butchers and shameless historical revisionism, the self-proclaimed guardians of mountains, hills, cypresses, and beaches wail over the late Montenegro – a country for whose grave they each dug at least a handful of earth. The very same people who once sacrificed their lives for freedom on the yellowed pages of Vijesti, only to heroically die a few more times on their private portals, are now busy normalizing what they’re shedding crocodile tears over today.

All this, while the regime-controlled Public Broadcaster, headed by its regime-appointed and unlawfully installed director, remains silent in the face of the raw hatred spewing from the mouths of church leaders. While the ruling parties quietly applaud the rehabilitation of the monster Pavle Đurišić, whispering to themselves, “Glory to him”. While Gojko Perović lectures us on a hymn to murderers written by Joanikije Mićović, and Mićović’s hateful rhetoric is repackaged as a language of love, because the problem isn’t with the author, it’s with us, the ignorant ones, who are misreading praise for a killer.

And maybe it is on us. Because our memory lasts just about as long as that of Tihomir Dragaš and the other PES spokespersons – people who, like Kafka’s characters, went to bed as members of DPS and woke up as members of PES. Now they hate what they once were. They hate their former selves.