Ivan Stambolic: What the Book Was Meant to Do Deaf Power

The most frequent, or perhaps the only public comment on the book "The Road to Nowhere" which is largely devoted to nationalism, was the question: what was the book meant to do?

The "meddlers" who did not dare, or did not want to read between the covers that the book discussed and was meant to encourage discussion on the Serbian nationalism, reduced the answer to manipulation by my alleged political ambitions and to the washing of their hands. In doing so they reduced everything to a personnel move I had made, as if the role of an individual in history is the only one or, by all means, the decisive one. Persistently avoiding the critical word on what was in the book, they discussed what was not in it.

I take my book only as an incentive, as a piece of litmus-paper which shows our constant refusal to face the chauvinist beast. I take it as such because it was guided by the need to join those who tried to start the process of critical questioning of the reasons, causes and subjects of the political will of the nationalists who have pushed us all into this abyss.

Over the past two decades, nationalism has become the common denominator of political and even personal frustrations of people of all colors - even red - which, until recently, it attacked like a raging bull. Major ideological and political shortcomings and illusions of the past fifty years have developed out of this paradox, such as the conviction that the nationalists had been historically defeated and that their conscience was only a relic in the anachronic and outgrown prejudices and that it can, thus, be no more dangerous for the union of Yugoslav peoples than any other form of "opposition". So, we knew that nationalism was evil, but not that it was this fierce and blood-thirsty!

It surprised even those who had consistently and publicly been warning that an outbreak of nationalism would have a victim more significant than any ideology, the Balkan heritage - Yugoslavia itself.

It is high time the Serbian people roused itself from numbness and realized that there was hope and a way out, but that they will not come from the outside or from the regime. The people must ask themselves where they had stopped before they were overwhelmed by nationalistic frenzy. And they stopped some ten years ago in their own demand for radical changes in the society. That society no longer exists, but the disrupted attempt to change things is even more acute nowadays because this situation which began after the so-called "anti-bureaucratic revolution" is rotten to its core. That society was ready for deep changes, this one is falling apart.

We must be aware that this tragedy will not heal or be cured easily and quickly. The consequences of this fratricide are such that they tragically mark the entire second half of the twentieth century and will certainly, in various forms, spill over to the third millennium. I am talking about this menace because its proportions, too, have caused this collective depression, the lack of will to eventually step out, to turn over the page and at least to halt deterioration. The initial change requires a lot of strength.

We must gather it - each of us in himself first, and then from the factory to the village, from the primary school and university to the Academy of Arts and Sciences, from TV and publishing programs to the institutions of the political and economic system, stadiums, celebrations...

Ivan Stambolic

Interview with the Author

Slow Reading

Everyone is talking about that person (Mira Markovic). I have never talked about her, I did not talk about her in the book and I shall not talk about her now

In the past few issues, "Vreme" published reactions to Ivan Stambolic's book "The Road to Nowhere". There were the reactions of well-known politicians of Stambolic's time - Stipe Suvar, Azem Vllasi, Marko Orlandic, Franc Setinc, Zivan Berisavljevic, etc. In this issue, Stambolic "draws the line" under everything that has been said about his book in this and other media.

What do you think about the fact that the official Serbian media have kept quiet about your book?

It's true that all of them except 'Politika' have kept quiet. I think they are bothered more by the fact that I have started talking than by what I said.

How do you comment on the fact that Mira Markovic talks about you and your book in her journal published in "Duga", though you never mentioned her in "The Road to Nowhere."

Everyone is talking about that person. I have never talked about her, I did not talk about her in the book and I shall not do it now.

Former and present-day officials in Vojvodina and Montenegro say that while you were in power you were no different from Slobodan Milosevic as regards Serbian nationalism.

Well, not only the people from these two leaderships were the victims of various shortcomings and illusions.

Apart from the public's reaction, you have certainly heard some individual reactions to your book. Since the book was published, have you found out anything new, particularly about the role of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) in the preparation for the Eighth Session?

Yes, the book has urged a number of people to contact me to let me know new details about who, when, where and with whom talked, prepared and acted, but this mainly does not refer to JNA. There have been some interesting and new important details and I am sorry I did not know them while I was writing the book.

Could you tell us some of the details now?

Some other time.

When? Are you working on a new book?

The author of this book is life itself. I just tried to be a trustworthy chronicler. Whether time will certify the chronicle is not for me to judge.

The question was about a new book or an extended version of "The Road to Nowhere."

As for a new book, I believe my future life will produce no need for me to write one. Everything that concerned me and interests the public has already taken place. I hope the details we have mentioned will not require a new book.

"Panorama", a Croatian magazine, published Goran Milic's reaction to your book. He found very interesting your formulation "Serbian greater-nationalists," instead of the usual "greater-Serbian nationalists."

I have not quite understood it. Besides, Goran, as far as I can remember, wrote the first newspaper comment on the Eighth Session. It was published in the Sarajevo daily "Oslobodjenje" and was an appraisal of the Eighth Session as the most democratic act.

How do you explain the appearance of two versions of your book: one, which is being sold, published by Radio B-92, and the other which was published in instalments in "Telegraf"?

There is only one version of my book. Now that you have mentioned the one published by "Telegraf", I would like to say this: Had Curuvija (Telegraf's co-owner) and I done anything together, it would have failed. What can I say then about my political biography written by him?

You say you have often been told that the book contains nothing nice. Do you wish to reply to such remarks?

There is little nice in the book. As the ancient Greeks would say - what to say about those whose country is too small for them?

Have you had contacts with the so-called ordinary readers of your book and what did they tell you?

An elderly man in Knez Mihajlova is reading the book from the hands of the street vendor. I ask him - how's it going. "Slowly," says he. "I have no money to buy it so I read a little from each vendor. But I skip nothing." Of course, I bought him the book.