MEMORANDUM OF THE SERBIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND ARTS

'The Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts' was a draft document produced by a committee of the Serbian Academy from 1985 to 1986. In September 1986, the draft was leaked to the public. The Memorandum immediately became well-known in Yugoslavia, since it gave voice to some controversial views on the state of the nation and argued for a fundamental reorganization of the state. Among many in Yugoslavia, including Serbia, it was deemed to be an expression of Serbian nationalism.
The document was not consistent, as it was the work of a committee of men who did not necessarily agree with each other. It had two sections: one on the current state of Yugoslavia, the other on the situation of Serbia within Yugoslavia. The first section focused mostly on the economic and political fragmentation of Yugoslavia that followed the promulgation of the 1974 constitution. The second section focused on what the authors saw as Serbia's inferior status in Yugoslavia, and used the status of Serbs in the province of Kosovo and in Croatia to make its point.
It argued that at the end of World War II, Tito deliberately weakened Serbia by dividing up majority of its territory at the time which included, present day Serbia,Montenegro,FYROM,Bosnia and some small parts of Croatia with majority Serb populations. It also argued that Tito gave Serbia at its already reduced status, two autonomous provinces (Kosovo/Vojvodina) of which non of the other five Yugoslav Republics had to share.
Within the Memorandum, one can find discrete contributions by Kosta Mihajlović on the economy, Mihailo Marković on self-management, and Vasilije Krestić on the status of the Serbs of Croatia, among others. The document as a whole is often wrongly ascribed to Dobrica Ćosić, who took part in discussions about it but was not on the committee that produced it.
The Memorandum was proclaimed by some non-Serbs to be a virtual act of aggression against Yugoslavia. Serbs sympathetic to the aims of the Memorandum's authors have long argued that it should not be considered any such thing, as it was never edited for public consumption.
The document is often referred to as "the SANU Memorandum " with SANU being the Serbian abbreviation for the Academy.

Contents

Memorandum points

See also

External links

Memorandum points

★ Albanians are committing genocide against Serbs in Kosovo (page 41 and 56 of memorandum)

★ Slovenia and Croatia are taking control of the Serbian economy. Yugoslavia is taking industry out of Serbia (page 42)

★ There is need for constitutional changes of Yugoslavia because of its unfair mistreating and weakening of Serbia. (page 46)

★ There is great discrimination against Serbs that it is very similar to genocide (page 50)

★ Serbia has given 2 500 000 victims for Yugoslavia (World War I and World War II) and now is victim of this state (page 52)

★ Between 1690 - 1912 500 000 Serbs have escaped from Kosovo where Albanians are committing genocide (page 56)

★ There is great discrimination of Serbs living in Kosovo and in Croatia (page 58)

★ Serbs in Croatia are now in danger like never before (if we do not look the Independent State of Croatia period) (page 62)

★ All writers of Serb nationality from Bosnia are Serbs and not Bosnian writers (page 65)

★ Serbs question will not be solved before creation of full national and cultural unity of Serb people without importance where they live (page 70 - 73)

★ During last 50 years (1935 - 85 ?) Serbs have been two time victims of destruction, assimilation, changing of religion, cultural genocide, ideological indoctrination and saying that they do not have any importance. (pages 70 - 73)

★ If Yugoslavia falls, Serbia must look for her national interest (page 73)

See also

★ Dobrica Ćosić

★ Mihailo Marković

★ Vasilije Krestić

★ Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts

External links

★ Full Memorandum SANU on serbian language (73 pages)

★ An English translation of the memorandum - on an Kosovo Albanian site

★ Translation and discussion on Balkan Archive This site is quite often down but very complete.