Table Of ContentMODERNITY, MEMORY AND
IDENTITY IN SOUTH-EAST EUROPE
Geography and
Nationalist Visions of
Interwar Yugoslavia
Vedran Duančić
Modernity, Memory and Identity
in South-East Europe
Series Editor
Catharina Raudvere
Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies
University of Copenhagen
Copenhagen, Denmark
This series explores the relationship between the modern history and
present of South-East Europe and the long imperial past of the region.
This approach aspires to offer a more nuanced understanding of the con-
cepts of modernity and change in this region, from the nineteenth century
to the present day. Titles focus on changes in identity, self-representation
and cultural expressions in light of the huge pressures triggered by the
interaction between external influences and local and regional practices.
The books cover three significant chronological units: the decline of
empires and their immediate aftermath, authoritarian governance during
the twentieth century, and recent uses of history in changing societies in
South- East Europe today.
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Vedran Duancic
̌ ́
Geography and
Nationalist Visions
of Interwar Yugoslavia
Vedran Duančić
Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Zagreb, Croatia
ISSN 2523-7985 ISSN 2523-7993 (electronic)
Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe
ISBN 978-3-030-50258-4 ISBN 978-3-030-50259-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50259-1
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To grandparents
A
cknowledgments
As is often the case with publications that emerge from dissertations, the
path to this book has been long and strenuous, yet rewarding in many dif-
ferent ways. Neither doing research, writing, nor revising the manuscript
was a straightforward process. My research focus, methodological
approaches, and even my sub-disciplinary affiliation changed while the
book was in the making. The initial idea for the research germinated in
Budapest a decade ago. The structure of the book emerged in the unfor-
gettable Tuscan hills, at the European University Institute above Florence,
where I was lucky to do my PhD. The research took me to Belgrade,
Zagreb, Ljubljana, Berlin, and Krakow. The bulk of the book was written
in Budapest, revised in Marburg, and then thoroughly, and finally,
in Zagreb.
This has never been an entirely solitary project, as so many people have
contributed to it in different ways. My family provided unconditional sup-
port—Dinko often invaluable technical support in critical moments. An
unusual interest in geography that has run in my family for generations,
and which my father seems to have handed over to me, was not the pri-
mary incentive for this project, but it provided a sense of operating in safe
and known waters. Mirjana was supportive throughout all the stages of
making this book. As the work on the manuscript was coming to an end,
Hela and Mara joined us. Too often they wanted to contribute by hitting
the keyboard whenever it was left unattended for more than a second.
Anna Mazanik, in a way, started all this. Without the encouragement of
Matthias Winkler to apply to the EUI, the project would probably never
be realized. At the same time, without his frequent, albeit welcome,
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
interruptions, the book would likely have been finished sooner. Zrinka
Blažević introduced me to a challenging conceptual apparatus and vocab-
ulary that opened new horizons for me. Discussing similar-yet-different
experiences with Ana Širanović and Antun Bilić in the end, I hope, made
us all feel better. Andrea Talabér and Piotr Kisiel endured reading many
early drafts. Pavel Kolář, my Doktorvater, found a balance between giving
me the autonomy in research and writing, and providing constructive
supervision. Željko Dugac has been as generous a boss as there is, espe-
cially supportive in the late phase of this project. The greatest acknowledg-
ment goes to Dejan Lukić. Knowledgeable about the historical background,
methodological, and conceptual issues regarding the history of science
and many of the sources, for a considerable time he played the role of my
super-ego, providing ruthless yet constructive comments through all
stages of the project. I have greatly profited from discussions—some brief,
others very extensive—with Višeslav Aralica, Fedja Burić, Ivan Čolović,
Dejan Djokić, Ranka Gašić, Maciej Górny, Hannes Grandits, Stipica Grgić,
Peter Haslinger, Stipe Kljajić, Lovro Kralj, Christian Promitzer, Stéphane
Van Damme, George Vasilev, Fernando Veliz, Ivo Žanić, and many, many
others. Clearly, the responsibility for all the mistakes, omissions, and short-
comings in the book lies exclusively with me.
Parts of the book have been published elsewhere. I am grateful to the
Croatian Historical Society, Brill, and the Taylor & Francis Group for
allowing me to reuse some of the material that appeared in Vedran
Duančić, “Obrisi znanstvene mreže u nastajanju: Kanali komunikacije kao
integrativni čimbenik geografije u medjuratnoj Jugoslaviji,” Historijski
zbornik 69, no. 2 (2016): 455–470; Duančić, “Geographical Narration of
Interwar Yugoslavia: Serbian, Croatian, and Slovenian Perspectives,” East
Central Europe 43, no. 1 (2016): 188–214; and Duančić, “Nationalist
Geographies in Interwar Yugoslavia: Manoeuvring Between National and
Transnational Spaces,” European Review of History: Revue européenne
d’histoire 25, no. 3–4 (2018): 588–611.
The stipends and fellowships awarded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central
Europe in Marburg made the book possible. My work on it has been sup-
ported in part by the Croatian Science Foundation under the project
“Croatian Scientific and Philosophical Heritage: Transfers and
Appropriations of Knowledge from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth
Century in the European Context” (IP-2016-06-6762).
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
Geographers as Nation Builders 2
Nationalist Geographical Narratives 4
A Time of Geographers in East Central Europe 8
Multi-leveled Geographies of Yugoslavia 10
Spatial Dimension of a Nation 12
2 The Emerging Geographical Network in Yugoslavia 23
Institutionalization of Geography in the Yugoslav Lands 26
Anthropogeography Between History and Ethnology 30
Trapped Between Primitiveness and Civilization 35
Studying Race 37
Teaching Geography at Universities 38
3 J ovan Cvijić and the Anthropogeography of the Balkans 49
The Center of the Network 51
A Geomorphologist’s Vision of Anthropogeography 55
Shifting Attention from Serbian to Yugoslav Lands 59
The War That Changed the Perspective 65
The Proof That Yugoslavia Exists 72
4 Geographical Narration of Yugoslavia 95
Creating Yugoslavia in Paris 97
Croatian and Slovenian Geographical Narratives of Yugoslavia 102
ix
x CONTENTS
Disillusionment of Cvijić 108
Early Works of Filip Lukas: The Yugoslavist Phase of a Croatian
Nationalist 111
Unity Built on Fragments 116
Slovenian Perspectives on the Geography of Yugoslavia 122
A Beneficial Cohabitation: Slovenia and Yugoslavia 127
If Only Yugoslavia Could Become Like France 132
5 Geopolitical Visions of Yugoslavia 147
Improving the Geographical Literacy of the Nation 149
Ivo Pilar on the Trauma of 1918 151
Embracing the Geopolitik 156
Czechoslovak and Polish Lessons for Yugoslavia 162
The Reluctant Geopolitics of Anton Melik 169
Challenging the Geopolitical Paradigm 175
6 The Fight of Filip Lukas Against Yugoslavia 189
Echoes and Definitions 191
Denaturalizing Yugoslavia, Naturalizing Croatia 195
Toward a Right-Wing Geographical Vision of the Croatian
Nation 203
Ethnology Against Geopolitics 213
Geography in the Time of Fascism 223
7 Conclusion 243
Bibliography 253
Index 279
