KAJICA MILANOV, BRANISLAV STRANJAKOVIĆ AND THE MECHANISMS OF ESTABLISHING TOTALITARIANISM IN YUGOSLAVIA

Abstract

Eight decades after 1944 as the key year for regime change in Serbia, the thesis that Serbia was liberated then is still dominant. The author examines the definition of the process of change of power that took place at that time. Using the works of Kajica Milanov and Branislav Stranjaković, originally published in emigration as evidence of the methods of establishing totalitarian government in Serbia and Yugoslavia, he presents the hypothesis that one occupation was then replaced by another. The Nazi occupation was replaced by a communist totalitarian system based on the “liberation” of people from private property, human rights and freedoms, the rule of law and elementary security, from family values, religion and tradition, etc. In addition, there are numerous testimonies that the “liberators” perceived Serbia as an occupation zone and its inhabitants as enemies. Based on all that and the results of the rule of the Titoist system, we claim that 1944 cannot be spoken of as a year of liberation.