The Balkans: a century-old trial of nationalism thwarted

(Photo source: Panoramic Vision) Su Qi/Text In 1995, Bosnian film director Emil Kusturica, who went to Cannes, France to receive the Palme d'Or, was involved in a dispute at the dinner party During a fight with a has-been rock star in the former Yugoslavia, fearing that the French police present might take "unfavorable" measures against Kusturica, his wife shouted in desperation: "In 1934, you were This allowed the Ustasha to kill our king Alexander, right here in Marseilles! " Regardless of whether this comparison is appropriate or not, Kusturica's wife inadvertently opened a profound historical scar. The so-called "Ustasha" refers to the Croatian pro-German armed organization during World War II, which was later conquered by Serbia. People use it to refer to Croatian separatists in general, just as Croatians and Bosnians use "Chetniks", the Serbian pro-German armed organization, to refer to pan-Serb chauvinists in their minds. In 1934, Croatian separatists in France's assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia announced the failure of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to integrate ethnic groups such as Serbia and Croatia after World War I, and also foreshadowed the disintegration of Yugoslavia during World War II. It was this incident that prompted British women to Writer Rebecca West and her husband conducted an "in-depth tour" of the former Yugoslavia in the 1930s, and left behind the immortal masterpiece "Black Sheep and Gray Eagle". When it comes to the Balkan conflict, people People who like to use the geopolitical bargaining chips of big countries to describe the helplessness of small countries' fate is certainly a powerful explanation, but emphasizing the perspective of external forces often makes people ignore the ""fraternal enmity"" dimension in conflicts. It is in this dimension that we can explore On the book, Rebecca West is the most profound and successful. Through her endless observation and description of history and reality, Rebecca reveals the roots of tension within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Balkans and even Europe as a whole. In "Black Sheep and Gray Eagle", not only the ethnic conflicts in the ""World War II"", but even the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 1990s were expected, and Kusturica would never utter ""I am here" again. "Where is the history?" lament. Because the history of nationalist trials is a history that Yugoslavs and even the Balkans have been unable to get out of. It is still lingering in the conflict between Greece and Turkey, as well as news related to Kosovo and Macedonia. So It is said that it is full of historical fatalism, but the late-developing areas are forced to be involved in the trials of nation-states, and killings and conflicts seem to be unavoidable dramas. The ethnic groups who are among you and I are among you can only face the demand for national self-determination. After the mold of a nation-state is pressed, ethnic minorities will inevitably be artificially created within the mold. In fact, the so-called major ethnic groups are also artificially constructed to a large extent. This undoubtedly makes the rights demands of both parties different. The pale and unreasonable side. Every territorial adjustment is a redistribution of interests after bloody fighting, and it also sets the stage for a new round of conflict. This is not only the fate of the Balkans, but also the fate of all late-developing nation-states. Fate. For example, even today, the identity of the Russian ethnic group in eastern Ukraine is still a source of conflict. Compared with the trials of nationalism in the Middle East and Africa, the Balkans are not satisfactory after the storm, unlike the latter where they are still struggling. In the throes of the crisis, we may even regress back to the tribal age if we are not careful. In fact, those pioneers of nation-states have gone through many generations of bloody storms before they finally found a model of harmonious coexistence like the European Union. In recent years, they have faced disintegration. With the challenges facing Europe and the rise of populism in member states, its ultimate direction is not optimistic. In addition to the geopolitical competition between external powers and internal ethnic conflicts, if conflicts of civilizations are superimposed, the situation will become even more complicated. This is precisely the conflict model that the Balkans have been trapped in for a long time. ""Clash of Civilizations" seems to have become a politically incorrect term, but it is indeed a true portrayal of the long-term history of the Balkans. Being at the forefront of the conflict between Eastern and Western civilizations for a long time has made the Balkans an out-and-out frontier region, where , people's conflicts are in front of them, but their loyalties are far away. No one can describe this situation more accurately than Bosnian writer and Nobel Prize winner Ivo Andrica. The only person who truly understands the complex relationship between Islam, Catholicism and Orthodoxy writes: Their love is so far away, and their hate is so close. Muslims look at Istanbul. , the Serbs are looking at Moscow, and the Croats are looking at the Vatican. Their love is there, and their hatred is here. Behind this amazing statement, there is a sense of helplessness and the bitterness of history. From time to time, the pain of suffering will trigger people's nostalgia, and looking back at the imperial era when multi-ethnic groups "lived harmoniously" will also become a fashionable gesture from time to time. Whether it is Jane Morris's "Trieste" or Frank Sissy Kingsley Hutchinson's "Slow Travel in the Balkans 1908" is full of women's melancholy and mourning for the peace in the Balkans under the Austro-Hungarian Empire before World War I. In hindsight, Austria The foreign minister's warning in 1853 seemed prescient: ""The idea of ??a new nation based on nation is the most dangerous of all utopian projects. To make such a claim is to break with history.

If it is implemented in any part of Europe, it will shake the foundation of a solid organized national order and will subvert and disrupt the European continent. " This kind of nostalgia has a reasonable aspect. The prosperous era of the empire is indeed full of chapters of multi-ethnic and multi-cultural harmony, but it also obviously intentionally or unintentionally blocks the main theme of imperial autocracy and oppression. It is not so much Austrian The ""unfortunate"" disintegration of the Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire and the excessive ideal of national self-determination led to the birth of a number of ""small and unstable political systems", thus causing the Balkans to fall into long-term unrest. Rather, it is the empire itself here. It has been difficult to maintain and the rule has become increasingly repressive long ago, and its long death and struggle have made the post-imperial era full of uncertainty. It seems far-sighted, but in fact it is more due to the lingering fear of the 1848 Revolution. In terms of the fate of the Jews, the relatively tolerant environment of the Ottoman Turkish Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was much better than that of later nation-states. However, until World War II, systematic persecution and even massacres of Jews were rare. . In Mark Mazoll's book "Five Hundred Years in the Balkans", the main actors and dramas of this thousand-year conflict in the Balkans change again and again, but they all think of themselves as the righteous side, representing God or Allah. Or the recognition of the correct direction of history is immutable. When discussing the rise of Balkan nationalism, one factor that cannot be ignored is the long-standing guilt of the Western world, which is that the Balkans fell to the alien and pagan rule of the East. Although the Orthodox and Catholics are at odds with each other, and the Slavs are considered "friendly savages", they all belong to the Christian world, and the ethnic groups in the Balkans that believe in Catholicism and have Latin or Germanic blood are looked down upon. At the same time, unlike future generations who have experienced the bloody trials of nationalism, national liberation and independence represented the direction of history at that time, whether it was Petofi in Hungary or those who went to support the independence of Greece. Byron were all idols in people's minds. Even within the Ottoman Empire, it was the Turkish nationalists led by Kemal who finally won. In other words, in the eyes of people at the time, only nation-states were the only ones in the post-imperial era. It is a temporary choice to achieve modernization and progress. The game of great powers or the ambition of small powers alone is not enough to explain why national liberation and founding will arouse such great enthusiasm and energy. In fact, the so-called intervention of great powers is often a passive act. They themselves are sometimes manipulated, and there are many cases of being dragged down by small countries. The rising tide of nationalism within their countries also forces them to sometimes intervene in situations that are far away and have little to do with their real geopolitical interests. This was even more obvious in Russia and Austria, which were swayed by Pan-Slavism and Greater Germanism. In addition, the policy of minimizing tolerance for ethnic minorities in the newly created countries in order to maximize assimilation was common at that time. In their eyes, only conservative princes who insist on treating their subjects as subjects do not need to interfere excessively with their religious affiliations, as long as they are handed over for worship on time. , he is formulating policies for national modernization. In the process of modernization, only through positive social and economic reforms through strong central power can the country be brought into the 20th century as soon as possible. After all, the Balkans lag behind the rest of Europe by all measures, such as literacy rates, grain production, and life expectancy, making the task of modernization very difficult. Therefore, they oppose ethnic minorities having their own schools to avoid creating cultural divisions, and favor the establishment of more national schools so that ethnic minorities can learn the language of the majority ethnic group, so as to integrate into the mainstream society of the country as soon as possible and form a modern country with the central government as the core. of combined force. According to Mark Mazoll, liberal progressives are not just suspicious of ethnic minorities. They target any group that may escape control, whether they are autonomous ethnic minorities, Christian churches, thieves, or groups that may rebel. worker or farmer. So in the final analysis, the core of the problem is not why the Balkans have been in turmoil for hundreds of years, but whether nationalism and nation-states are necessarily indispensable tools for realizing modernization and progress, and whether mastering this tool must pay a painful price, and this price Is it worth it. So far, human society, including people in the Balkans, still does not have a definite answer to the above questions. Or maybe this is the real tragedy of history. However, one thing that is certain is that due to the huge pain caused by the last round of nationalism, people in the Balkans have become pessimistic about the prospect of multi-ethnic coexistence. The reason why Balkan countries generally reject immigrants and refugees from North Africa and the Middle East this time is largely due to the pain caused by long-term nationalism. After finally struggling with blood and tears, a relatively homogeneous "ethnic unity" was achieved. It is estimated that deep down in people's hearts, they definitely don't want to face the test of multi-ethnicity and multi-culture.