Bücher von Aleksandar Ljubomirovic

Master's Thesis from the year 2022 in the subject Cultural Studies - East European Studies, grade: 1,6, Free University of Berlin (Institute for East European Studies), language: English, abstract: The following article thematizes the newly-established concept of the "Serbian World" which was initially propelled under the media spotlight in Serbia and the region of former Yugoslavia in 2020. Since becoming popular in the media discourse in both Serbia and the region, the term "Serbian world" has not been studied or analysed properly nor has it been the topic of academic research as such. Therefore, the author of the thesis reconstructs the cognitive structure of the Serbian world concept in political discourses in contemporary Serbia and the region, using the methodology of cognitive semantics. Moreover, this article analyses the various meanings and dimensions of the "Serbian World" concept and emphasizes how the concept is used by the various Serbian governments since the dissolution of Yugoslavia in order to develop a unique soft power concept to improve the image of Serbia regionally and internationally. Furthermore, the author analyses the historical roots of the terminology and the concept per se, but also focusses on its relation to the much more famous Russian counterpart - Russkiy mir. Overall, the article gives the first ever overview of the Serbian world concept in which the author concludes that the Serbian world represents a unique multidimensional, but also relatively fluid concept, used by various Serbian and regional social actors, often politicizing and misusing its true meaning.

Seminar paper from the year 2021 in the subject Cultural Studies - East European Studies, grade: 1,3, Free University of Berlin, language: English, abstract: This article seeks to uncover whether and in what way democratic countries engage into autocracy promotion based on the example of US-Yugoslav relations during the famous Tito-Stalin split of 1948 and in association the "Informbiro period". In particular, it will try to prove that even democracies will support authoritarian regimes and consequently promote autocracy, if it is in their national interest as it was in the case of the U.S. during the Eastern Bloc crisis.After Yugoslavia was excluded from the Cominform, a supranational alliance of Marxist-Leninist communist parties in Europe, the United States aided the South Slavic country politically, economically and militarily, because Tito, at that time, became an important international factor in the process of undermining the Soviet Union. Even though Yugoslavia was and remained to be a communist country after being excluded from the Soviet Union, and accordingly was an ideological adversary of the liberal as well as democratic United States, this did not discourage the great power to open its markets and use its international impact to help a former enemy in need. It turned a blind eye on the political repressions which were conducted through the incarceration of political opponents and alleged ¿Stalinists¿ on the Goli Otok and Sveti Grgur islands, additionally helping the autocratic leader of the Yugoslav Communist Party ¿ Marshal Josip Broz Tito ¿ to remain in power.

Academic Paper from the year 2021 in the subject Cultural Studies - East European Studies, grade: 1,7, Free University of Berlin (Osteuropa Institut), course: Regimes of Violence in Post-Socialist Countries, language: English, abstract: The Yugoslav political prison named ¿Goli Otok¿, located on a barren and uninhabited island in the Adria, was one of the worst detention centres in the 20st century, but it has gone rather unnoticed by contemporary scholars. This text aims to unravel the story about the prison on a small island, situated between the Croatian vacation paradises Krk and Rab, which served as the private concentration camp of the Yugoslav Communist Party ¿ or more precisely: of Marshall Tito. It seeks to find solid answers to the question why this top-secret prison was formed in the first place and what purpose it served for the communist elite at the time.Yugoslaviäs ¿Barren Island¿ internment camp was established back in 1949, merely a year after the famous split from the Soviet Union, and it is therefore usually said that this political prison was mainly for the so-called ¿Stalinists¿. Although this is somewhat true, there were also other political enemies who were imprisoned on Goli Otok, mostly after 1955 and the reconciliation between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union when basically all opponents of the regime were brought to the infamous island. Thus, this essay examines the need for political repression in former Yugoslavia, considering the historical background of the time and consequently addressing the question of the detainees on the Yugoslav Barren Island in the period between 1949-1989, when the Iron Curtain began to crumble across Eastern Europe and the detention centre was abandoned.