Journal articles on the topic 'Montenegrins'

After the separation from Serbia following a referendum in 2006, the Republic of Montenegro started rebuilding its international image by reinventing its past and present. In fact, through an extensive campaign in both foreign and domestic media, the government attempted to change the perception of Montenegro’s history, focusing especially on the difference between Serbs and Montenegrins. This is understandable considering the minimal numeric superiority of those in favour of the independence, where the national factor was the main determinant. The image of the new Montenegrins, also in light of Montenegro’s route to joining the EU, must be detached from Serbia’s problems (– such as Kosovo) and must divert attention from the ever‑growing problem of international criminal traffic. One of the most emblematic examples of such recreation of virtue are the commercials for Montenegrin tourism, inviting to explore ancient forests, enjoy traditional food and experience “Montenegrin hospitality”: the aim is to send a positive message of non‑nationalistic, Europe‑friendly ethnicity. The purpose is also for Montenegro to be perceived as serene, as opposed to the ex‑partner country, seen largely as wildly nationalistic and ethnically obsessed: therefore, a new form of “soft” ethno‑cultural image has been introduced, incorporating only the best and cleverly minimizing the “non‑acceptable” aspects of its culture and history.

A Concealed Fragment of the History of Montenegro: The Incorporation of Montenegro into Serbia in 1918The circumstances accompanying the incorporation of Montenegro into Serbia in November 1918 were marked by an internal conflict in the Montenegrin nation, which, to be specific, was the conflict between King Nicholas I and his supporters on the one side and the group of pro-Serbian former ministers in Montenegrin governments on the other side. The royal camp aimed at maintaining independence of the Kingdom of Montenegro, while the pro-Serbian camp’s aspiration was unconditional incorporation of the country into the borders of the Kingdom of Serbia and later into the unified South Slavic Kingdom. The pro-Serbian camp tipped the scales in its favour as it organised the illegal National Assembly on the territory of Montenegro, which decided about the unification of Montenegro and Serbia and the dethronement of King Nicholas I. The consequences of this state of affairs led to a significant number of uprisings of the Montenegrins allied with the royal camp. Out of these, the Christmas Uprising gained a rank of a symbol. Montenegrin-Montenegrin and Montenegrin-Serbian fights involved considerable losses on the part of the people of Montenegro and the country’s architectural wealth, yet they solidified the national awareness of the Montenegrins, and the cult of this awareness made it possible to regain independence after 88 years of strong bonds with Serbia.

Another contribution to the stability of the category of nominal gender is a response to the text On a review of the Grammar of the Montenegrin Language (2010), which represents A. Čirgić’s unscientific review of our paper Gender in the grammatical description of nouns (a contribution to the stability of the category of nominal gender). Despite not being engaged in scientific argumentation, as an editor of the journal in which he published his text, Čirgić gave himself permission to qualify it as a “professional paper”. The fact that we have opposed the approach of defining noun gender as a morphological category, which is taken in the Grammar of the Montenegrin Language and textbooks based on it, has been ignorantly interpreted by the co-author of the Grammar of the Montenegrin Language, Montenegrin language for the II grade of grammar school and the editor of the journal Lingua Montenegrina as our disagreement with the “methodological approach to drafting the Grammar of the Montenegrin Language”. Being one of those who do not deal with mere theoretization, here he proves his professionalism by using the strawman argument technique, inventing mistakes and deliberately missing the point, hypothesizing about the territorial identity of Montenegrins who use the forms of zeke, mede... that is to say zeki, medi..., by contemplating our leisure time, but also by speculating about the increase of our “citation rates“... Key words: nouns, grammatical gender, masculine/feminine/neuter gender, dual gender, nominative ending, noun paradigm, grammatical number, modifiers, Grammar of the Montenegrin Language (2010), Adnan Čirgić

The economy of Kosovo entered the period 1974-1981 burdened with numerous problems. Constitutional changes led to the economy of the republics and provinces being divided into special systems. The leaders of Kosovo were adamant about using raw materials instead of the manufacturing sector, which would create more jobs. As a result, agriculture fell further and further behind, so the difference in development between industrial and agricultural municipalities was increasingly visible. Yugoslavia and Serbia generously financed Kosovo through the Development Credit Fund for Economically Underdeveloped Areas and supplementary budget funds. Additionally, Kosovo had the greatest access to International Bank loans of any region. The more developed republics demonstrated little interest in funding Kosovo's extravagant spending and incorrect economic policies, and Serbia was forced to allocate more money for Kosovo than for impoverished towns within its smaller borders. It was a common rumour in Priština that insufficient funds were allocated for Kosovo. The growing lag was not the result of a lack of funds but of the galloping birth rate of the Albanian community. Citizens, especially Albanians, believed that Serbia and Yugoslavia were taking advantage of them, which had political consequences in the 1981 demonstrations. One particular economic issue was unemployment. Given the policy of balancing the total number of employed Albanians with their participation in the population in terms of Albanian birth rates, it reflected more on Serbs and Montenegrins. The proportion of Albanians among the staff rose sharply and continuously, while the proportion of Serbs increased slightly, and the proportion of Montenegrins either decreased or stagnated. Due to the national key policy, one Serb or Montenegrin was employed for every ten Albanians (sometimes up to 20). Albanian separatists were successful in making bilingualism a requirement for employment in job competitions, regardless of whether it was specifically requested or preferred. International relations within enterprises were disrupted. The disorder was manifested through verbal and physical pressures in which the Serbs and Montenegrins, being the few, were inferior. Separatists successfully pursued a policy of removing Serb-Montenegrin cadres and workers to make them leave. In roughly 15% of cases, economic issues were the catalyst for Serbs and Montenegrins to leave Kosovo. The majority of Albanians also left for these reasons, but to work abroad.

In the early twentieth century, cooperation between Russia and Montenegro was not easy. On the one hand, the Russian Empire made great efforts to help Montenegrins in the process of state-building and in achieving the foreign policy objectives by the principality, which had recently been recognized by the international community. On the other hand, relations between officials at various levels were rather tense. Russia and Montenegro permanently had different views a number of controversial issues. The Russian government firmly adhered to the status quo policy in the Balkans. Montenegrin Prince and his entourage hoped to increase their territories, and after 1878 were ready to break the balance in the region. All attempts of the Russian diplomats to control and restrain the activity of the junior partners ended with the increase in tension and mutual discontent. Russian leaders considered the behavior of the Montenegrin elite as ingratitude. However, the problem of constant tension in bilateral contacts was much more complicated. Such factors as the national-psychological characteristics of the Montenegrin people, their specific militant mentality and readiness to fight back anyone who encroached on national independence, played a serious role in the deterioration of the situation. In addition, the surviving remnants of the tribal way of life, extremely low level of education in the Principality, acute shortage of qualified personnel in the public service of Montenegro contributed to increasing frictions between the Russian and Montenegrin diplomats. Scholars involved into a comprehensive study of this small Slavic country understood the particular national character of Montenegrins better. Pavel A. Rovinsky was an excellent expert on Montenegrin mentality. His answers on many seemingly intractable questions one can find in his writings. Based on his research, we can today take a fresh look at the difficulties of the professional dialogue between the Russian and the Montenegrin leaders.

The article analyzes the political development of Montenegro from the state- and nation-building perspective. This process takes place in the context of multi-ethnicity and disagreements about national and religious identity. The concept of center-peripheral polarity by S. Rokkan is used as the main analytical tool. It reveals the influence of relations between centers and the peripheries on state and nation-building. The authors examine the historical aspects of the national identity formation in Montenegro. The article focuses on the factors that complicate the process of state- and nation-building, including the institutional ones. The authors consider problems of different levels that hinder the implementation of a unified national policy in relation to all «non-Montenegrin» groups: the cleavages between Montenegrins and Serbs, between Montenegrins and other ethnic minorities, between the Montenegrin state and the Serbian Orthodox Church. The article analyzes the current stage of nation- and state-building, the peculiarities of the influence of external actors on this process. The results of the 2020 parliamentary elections, when the opposition came to power largely due to the active position of the Serbian Orthodox Church are also discussed. The authors come to a conclusion about the effectiveness of institutions that must provide political decision-making and consensus-building between different ethnic groups.

The village of Lovćenac is located in the region of Bačka, practically halfway between the cities of Novi Sad and Subotica, and has a population of about 4,000. After World War II it was settled by Montenegrins from the region known as "Old Montenegro". Today, the residents of Lovćenac are faced with great challenges of ethnic and national identification. The village is a stronghold of Montenegrin nationalist feeling in Serbia, and the only place where Montenegrin "traditional" culture has been preserved to this day. Having studied Montenegrins in Serbian towns and cities, my intention was to study the identity formula of a rural Montenegrin community in Serbia, and it was with this aim that in 2009 I conducted a study of Lovćenac villagers' identity, using observation and the interview as methodological tools. I paid particular attention to the study of alternative parameters of ethnic identity, specifically the phenomenon of masculinity, which in this case could provide an important analytical instrument. In this particular case, masculinity is manifested through specific and adapted forms of aggresivity, heterosexuality, authoritarianism, laziness etc. These syndroms and concepts are important for self-determination, but also for description, making ethnic boundaries sharper and more distinct. This concept has proved to be especially useful in the case of identification with smaller ethnic (clan) and regional groups, i.e. in intragroup classification. Masculinity has turned out to be an important regulator of interethnic and intraethnic relations, that is, a relational category that is invoked and used when descent, regional affiliation, religion and language are insufficiently clear criteria for ethnic systematization and operationalization.

Montenegrin language at a crossroads. The main directions of language policy in Montenegro after 1991Montenegrin language is the youngest Slavonic language standard. The creation of Monte­negrin language ultimately ended the process of disintegration of Serbo-Croat in the national lan­guages. The current language situation in Montenegro is characterized by heterogeneous language policy. In the country there are three groups of linguists that have radically different views on the past, present and future the speech of Montenegrins. Autonomists A. Čirgić, V. Nikcevic believe that Montenegrin language is genetically and systematically separate entity, whose standard should be radically changed. Evolutionists R. Glušica, I. Lakić treat speech of Montenegrins as a standard code that is part of a polycentric language Serbo-Croatian, which standard only should be modifica­ted. Integrationists J. Stojanović, D. Bojović recognize the Montenegrin language as political being and say that in the Montenegro operates only one standard language — standard Serbian. At the mo­ment, the greatest influence over official language policy have autonomists. Thanks to Montenegrin education authorities the autonomists are officially codifying the Montenegrin language and prepare the curriculum of Montenegrin language for primary and secondary schools.Црногорски језик на раскрсници. Главни правци језичке политике у Црној Гори после 1991. годинe Цногорски језик је најмлађи словенски стандардни језик. Његово проглашење коначно је завршило процес распада српскохрватског језика на посебне, националне стандарде. Дана­шњу језичку ситуацију у Црној Гори каратерише изразито хетерогена језичка политика. У зе­мљи постоје три неформалне скупине лингвиста, које се мећусобно разликују у погледима на прошлост, садашњост и будућност језика Црногораца. Аутономисти Аднан Чиргић, Војислав Никчевић сматрају да је црногорски језик генетски и системски посебан језик, чијег норму треба радикално променити. Еволуцијонисти Рајка Глушица, Игор Лакић сматрају да је говор Црногораца део полицентричног српскохрватског језика и истовремено посебан, стандардни језички код, чијег норму потребно је само модификовати. Интегралисти Јелена Стојановић, Драга Бојовић тврде да је црногорски језик само политичко биће, ана подручју Црне Горе још увек је у употреби само један језицки стандард – стандард српског језика. Чини се да у данашње време највећи утицај на црногорску језичку политику имају аутономисти, који су одлуком црно­горских државних институција добили могућност службене кодификације црногорског језика и припреме школских програма за црногорски језик.

History of the Principality of Montenegro, proclaimed after several centuries of consistent struggle with the Ottoman Empire, was quite short. As an independent state, it existed from 1878 to 1918. The reasons are explained by the political culture and level of professional qualifications of the Montenegrin elite, which had to resolve most difficult challenges dictated by the delayed and accelerated modernization of the country. The goal of this article consists in determination of significant characteristics of the Montenegrin ruling class, which substantiate the successes and failures of the principality. Two most prominent Montenegrin politicians of this time, Crown Prince Nicholas of Montenegro and Foreign Minister Gavro Vuković attempted to assess the results that were achieved, as well as their role in the political processes. A comparative analysis carried out on their narrative heritage, assessments given by the contemporaries, and archival materials led to the conclusion that the supreme leaders of Montenegro to the fullest extent possessed the qualities that were inherent to the people as a whole. Political culture of the Montenegrins, which has not previously become the subject of research within the Russian science, remained patriarchal and retained vestiges of tribal structure that impeded establishment of the state of modern type. Several centuries of hostile encirclement and permanent war, put the Montenegrins noticeably behind with regards to the development of education. Therefore, there was a severe shortage of managerial human resources. The low level of professional competence of the elite was compensated by placing emphasis on the military past and traditional values. However, the excessive warlike attitude led to reassessment of their powers, mismanagement with regards to domestic and foreign policy, as well as impeded the development of statehood of Montenegro. The acquired results may be valuable for culturologists and political scientists as the empirical material for studying such complicated concept as the political culture.

Abstract The aim of this paper is to investigate the position and role occupied by the memory of events of 1918–1919 in shaping and strengthening the national identity of Montenegrins. It begins with a theoretical introduction concerning the role of historical events in shaping national identity. Then it presents in a synthetic manner the situation of Montenegro before the outbreak of the Great War. The subsequent subsection focuses on the analysis of events related to the end of World War i. The last part employs the technique of narrative analysis in order to analyze the contemporary policy of the Montenegrin authorities. This article should be treated as a sketch of the Montenegrin policy of memory, the ways in which the end of the wwi is remembered, and how it is used for shaping national identity.

Abstract What does transnational humanitarianism look like when considered from the perspective of a “Global East”? Ethnographically studying the disappointment and awkwardness generated by two transnational humanitarian projects illuminates a sense of suspended agency among Montenegrin citizens that was developed after the end of the Cold War. Montenegrins are often simultaneously included in the racialized and class-based humanitarian discourses of the Global North and excluded from actual participation in transnational humanitarian projects due to structural constraints. The article suggests that suspended agency emerges when there is both a sense of belonging to a certain humanitarian endeavor that should enable particular kinds of action (e.g., transnational humanitarianism) and a lack of infrastructure capable of sustaining such a sense.

Abstract The author reviews the basic facts necessary to understand the specific process of Montenegro’s capitalist transformation in the past thirty years or so, a process particularly influenced by certain characteristics of the political system. The survival in power of one political party throughout the period of systemic changes, as well as the more than twenty-year personal rule of Milo Đukanović which continued despite the introduction of liberal-pluralist principles, are primarily explained by the control of the state apparatus by the ruling elite. Alongside that was a low level of economic development. In addition, ambivalent attitudes of the populace to Montenegro’s independence from Serbia and the interethnic relations of Serbs and Montenegrins have played their own role. In the second part, the text displays the leitmotif underlying the contributions to the thematic section on Montenegro in this issue.

Малисорски устанак, који је избио у марту 1911. године услијед незадовољства становника Малесије младотурском владавином, црногорски краљ желио је да искорисити за остварење својих територијалних претензија према сјеверној Албанији, па је Малисорима пружао помоћ сваке врсте. Концентрисање јаких османских снага на црногорско-турској граници ради сламања устанка, изазивало је бојазан код црногорске стране да би могло да дође до напада Турака на Црну Гору, због чега је црногорска војска стављена у стање приправности. Криза је ријешена енергичном интервенцијом Русије, која је присилила Цетиње да предузме мјере, које су омогућиле стабилизацију прилика у Малесији. The Montenegrin King aimed to use the Malissori Uprising, which broke out in March 1911 over the dissatisfaction of the population of Malësia with the rule of the Young Turks, to achieve his territorial pretentions to northern Albania, and therefore provided all kinds of help to the Malissori. As the concentration of strong Ottoman forces on the Montenegrin-Turkish border to suppress the uprising caused concerns among the Montenegrins that the Turks could attack Montenegro, the Montenegrin army was put on alert state. The crisis was resolved with the energetic intervention of Russia, which forced Cetinje to undertake measures, which led to the stabilisation of circumstances in Malësia.

Strategia zapominania bądź przemilczania istotnych wydarzeń i postaci stanowi w ostatnim dwudziestoleciu differentia specifica procesów zachodzących w serbsko-czarnogórskiej kulturosferze. W artykule omawiany jest między innymi najbardziej wyrazisty przykład tej strategii, dotyczący postaci–symbolu – świętego Savy. Podejmowane zarówno przez serbskich, jak i czarnogórskich intelektualistów upolitycznione zabiegi przemilczania/ zapominania vs. sztucznego kreowania wydarzeń z życia tej postaci skutkują szeregiem manipulacji w sferze faktograficznej i wpisują się w świadomie projektowaną politykę kulturową obydwu narodów. The Oblivion/Omission as a Strategy of Creation of Serbs’ and Montenegrins’ National Cultures (Casus of Saint Sava) The strategy of oblivion or omission of significant events and public figures has constituted differentia specifica of the processes occurring in Serbo-Montenegrin cultural sphere during the last twenty years. The article discusses, among other things, the most striking example of this strategy as exemplified by the symbolic figure – Saint Sava. The politicised efforts around oblivion/omission vs. fabulation of some untrue events from the saint’s life, undertaken by both Serb and Montenegrin intellectuals, result in a number of manipulative actions in the factual sphere and fit into consciously projected cultural politics of both nations.

Before the Second World War, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia started from the point of view of the dominance of the so-called of “Greater Serbian hegemonism”, as the main and most important component of the policy of the “Greater Serbian bourgeoisie” in the pre-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia, from which the attitude about the “endangerment” of other peoples and minorities by the ruling Serbian nation stemmed. After the Second World War, the new socialist Yugoslavia was organized as a complex state - a federation. In accordance with the pre-war ideology and policy of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, a new principle of handling the national question was applied in the new state. Milovan Djilas, one of the most influential people of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, was given the task at the end of the war to officially explain the concept of the Montenegrin nation under socialism. He did this in the article “On the Montenegrin national question” in the party newspaper Borba on 1 May 1945. Djilas’ basic position was that Montenegrins have Serbian traditional and cultural origins, but that over time they formed into a separate nation.

The aim of this research is to investigate modes of migrations of Montenegrins into Serbia after the Second World War. Such an aim demands one to investigate how Montenegrins conceptualize living space, the reasons behind migration, their modes and consequences. The first section includes an analysis of modes of individual migrations – namely, the research of individual levels of identification through the analysis of narratives. This was conducted through interviewing a number of persons who were born in Montenegro, but who have during the course of their lives migrated to Serbia. In some cases a biographical method was used, whilst in others interviews were conducted with a set of narrowly formulated questions, supplemented by observation.

The paper studies the importance of demographic processes on the territory of Sandžak in the period of 1948-1991 in the context of demographic causes of Great-Serbian aggression against Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1991 and Serbian military activities in Kosovo and south-east of Serbia (Preševo and Bujanovac districts).It has been presumed that the religious and national structure of Sandžak with a further trend of the increase of absolute number and relative share of Moslems and decreasing number of Serbians and Montenegrins, as well as considering its geostrategic importance to Serbian and Montenegrin interests then those of international power centres, will continue to be the causal space of potential crises and war conflicts not only in the quoted country but in the larger region too. As it is a question of nearer Croatian security environment, the territory of Sandžak is important also from the viewpoint of national security of the Republic of Croatia.

Il presente contributo prende in esame le circostanze in cui nel 1896 fu pubblicata in Montenegro una traduzione dell'ode Piemonte di Carducci, che fino ad oggi è rimasta l'unica versione di questa poesia dal famoso poeta italiano presso gli Slavi del Sud. Inoltre, si tratta dell'unica traduzione dalla lingua italiana del professor Živko Dragović, uno dei pochi traduttori di letteratura italiana in Montenegro fino alla fine dell’Ottocento che non si era formato intellettualmente nelle Bocche di Cattaro o in Dalmazia, dove lingua, letteratura e cultura italiana erano presenti da secoli. La pubblicazione della traduzione dell'ode di Carducci che celebra la dinastia Savoia e la regione piemontese, da cui è stata avviata la lotta per l'unificazione dell'Italia, è legata all'annuncio del matrimonio della principessa montenegrina Jelena Petrovic Njegoš con l’erede al trono italiano Vittorio Emanuele di Savoia, ma anche all'idea del piemontismo montenegrino, che all’epoca era caldeggiata dall’ideologia dinastica e dall’opera poetica del principe montenegrino Nikola I. Nell’articolo approfondiamo anche altri rari contributi su Carducci pubblicati nei periodici montenegrini fino all'inizio della prima guerra mondiale.

Language and Identity: The Case of MontenegroThe Montenegrin language was established as the official language of newly independent Montenegro in 2007. However, the idea of a separate Montenegrin language remained dormant until the mid-1990s, when a small group of Montenegrin pro-independence intellectuals, aiming to reconstruct all the trappings of a separate Montenegrin identity, started to emphasize the distinctiveness of the language of Montenegrins. How did it happen that once being a marginal idea, Montenegrin became the native language for almost 37 percent of the Montenegrin population in 2011? This article is an attempt to answer this question. It provides a brief overview of the language situation in Montenegro from the time of socialist Yugoslavia to the independence era, paying attention to the changes in the political elites’ attitudes towards the language issue. The standardization process of the Montenegrin language is described by focusing on the aspects, which are considered most significant from the perspective of identity. The paper also describes how the Montenegrin language is being narratized so that the language narrative is being produced as a part of the broader narrative about the Montenegrin identity. Finally, an analysis of the last two censuses’ data reveals changes in the population structure in Montenegro according to nationality and mother tongue between 2003 and 2011, i.e. the period when the issues of identity and language became extremely politicized. Język a tożsamość: przypadek CzarnogóryJęzyk czarnogórski został uznany za język urzędowy niepodległej Czarnogóry w 2007 roku. Temat odrębnego języka w Czarnogórze został nagłośniony dopiero w połowie lat 90. ubiegłego wieku przez niewielką grupę zorientowanych niepodległościowo intelektualistów, dążących do rekonstrukcji wszystkich aspektów odrębnej tożsamości czarnogórskiej. Podstawowe pytanie, na które artykuł odpowiada, brzmi: jak to się stało, że choć idea odrębności językowej była początkowo marginalna, język czarnogórski był w 2011 roku językiem ojczystym dla prawie 37 proc. ludności Czarnogóry? Artykuł przedstawia krótki zarys sytuacji językowej w Czarnogórze od czasów socjalistycznej Jugosławii do czasów niepodległości, z uwzględnieniem ewolucji w podejściu elit politycznych do kwestii języka czarnogórskiego. Omawia też przebieg i kluczowe aspekty procesu standaryzacji języka czarnogórskiego, uznane za istotne z punktu widzenia tożsamości. Kolejnym aspektem jest narratyzowanie języka czarnogórskiego i będąca jego wynikiem narracja o języku czarnogórskim jako części szerszej czarnogórskiej narracji tożsamościowej. Wreszcie – analiza danych spisów ludności z lat 2003 i 2011 ukazuje przemiany, które zaszły w strukturze narodowościowej i językowej w Czarnogórze w omawianym okresie, kiedy kwestie tożsamości i języka uległy silnej polityzacji.

The purpose of the study is to show the prerequisites and the process of the emigra- tion of Herzegovinian rebels to the territory of Tavria province aft er the defeat of the liberation struggles in Herzegovina and Montenegro in the 60s of the 19th century. Th e research methodo- logy is based on the principles of concrete historical approach or historicism, objectivity, and systematicity. Th e quantitative methods of research, historical-comparative method, and general scientifi c methods of analysis and synthesis have been used in the research. Th e scientifi c novelty lies in the fact that a little-studied page of the history of the Zaporizhzhia region is analyzed – the resettlement of emigrants to the villages of Obitochne and Saltychiya of the Berdyansky district of the Tavria province. Some aspects of the policy of the imperial government, which encouraged the migration of southern Slavs to the territories of southern Ukrainian lands, are reviewed. Th e prob- lems and main directions of activities of the immigrants, their adaptation to new economic condi- tions, and the diffi culties that befell Herzegovinians and Montenegrins in their new homeland are traced. An attempt has been made to obtain statistical calculations of the migration movement to the villages of Berdyansk County and Tavriysk Governorate on the basis of archival sources. Th e biography of Voivode Luka Vukalovych (1823-1873), the national hero of Montenegro, the leader of the Herzegovinian and Montenegrin insurgents, and the initiator of the emigration movement to the Russian Empire, is thoroughly examined. Th e closest associates of Luka Vukalovych are mentioned. Conclusions. Having moved to the lands of Tavria province in the fi rst half of the 1860s and living here compactly until the fi rst quarter of the 20th century, Herzegovinians and Montenegrins left their mark in the history of the Zaporizhian lands. Th e reconstruction of the history of the presence of the southern Slavs in the territory of modern Ukraine provides an op- portunity to study our past more deeply. Th e positive aspect of the article is the use of archival data, oral historical sources, and memories of the descendants of the fi rst settlers – the participants of the national liberation movements in Herzegovina and Montenegro.

Although travelogue is a marginalized literary genre, its role in imagological research is enormous and it cannot be disputed that as a media for studying relations between cultures, it mediated vast knowledge and information that was often taken as the only authoritative one. German travel writings of the 19th century about Montenegro were very scarce until Petar II Petrović Njegoš came to power, and with the change of government in Montenegro, the attitude of foreigners towards it also changed, so travel writers from Germany headed to this South Slavic country. Translations played a great role in arousing the interest of German writers, especially the translation of Karadžić's work "Montenegro and Montenegrins", but also the visit of the Saxon King Frederick Augustus II. The time of Njegoš's rule can be considered the blooming of German travel literature about Montenegro and the time when closer ties were established between these two cultures, which will affect the situation after Njegoš's death, when the most important travel writers of the 19th century came to Montenegro from the German-speaking area. In the German travelogues of Njegoš's time, the writers dealt with numerous topics that clearly reflected the image of the other and not all had the same approach and view of certain phenomena in Montenegrin society. However, the personality of the Montenegrin ruler united them and they all wrote hymns about Njegoš, without exception. He was the personification of kindness and hospitality, erudition and wisdom, masculine beauty and prudence in the German travelogues of his time, he was a reformer and an enlightener, and in every respect he was a symbol of progress.

Abstract This research addresses challenges of the intercultural business encounters of Slovenian and Montenegrin business partners with a focus on the non-verbal communication (NVC; body language, physical appearance, proxemics, haptics, chronemics, oculesics) during intercultural business meetings between partners. Analysis was built on the theoretical framework on the basis of Hofstede's six dimensions of culture. The comparison between the two countries was performed, showing that there are no significant differences except for the masculinity–femininity aspects, but when considering the Indulgence and Long Term Orientation, Slovenia exhibits equally dispersed traits of both extremes. This comparison served as a starting point for developing a research structure. Before conducting the qualitative study, nine managers from Slovenian and Montenegrin companies were sampled using snowball technique, conveniently being from partner companies in both countries. They were interviewed by the semi-structured interview technique, which addresses differences and similarities within NVCs: their posture, eye contact, physical appearance, chronemics and proxemics during onsite business meetings. The research data findings demonstrate that respondents did not perceive significant differences, which could impact the quality of NVC or lead to greater conflicts. In the comparative analysis of two business cultures, several aspects were identified within two areas, namely paralanguage and chronemics: Montenegrins are reported to be more talkative, louder and fast-speaking, more gesticulating, and rushing decisions and discussions, while Slovenians are reported to be more reserved, calm, less expressive during the meetings, and taking more time for decisions and discussions. Analysis also revealed that both sides show a relatively low level of awareness of the NVC and not paying enough attention to these specific NVCs and their impact during intercultural business communication. The findings indicate that some cultural differences exist between the cultures; however, respondents showed a low level of awareness and reported no ability to approach or manage NVC during the business encounters.

Montenegro is a country with a valuable and long tradition of everything related to life, especially death. Posthumous culture is remarkably detailed and significant for the people, most importantly in the earlier period when it represented the only foundation that held society together in difficult historical moments. This type of partially morbid way of self-expression of people has its roots in the deep and troubled past, often difficult and cruel to the inhabitants of Montenegro. The attention was pointed at the many traditional aspects, unwritten rules, and customs different from place to place, but in general, preserving the same function. From the type of clothes for the deceased, the eulogies uttered at the gravesite, to the male and female roles at the commemorations – the article handles the typical funeral processes. The aim of this paper is to acquaint the reader with the manner of behaviour of the Montenegrins towards the phenomenon that occurs when a person in the community dies and how a typical family handles the situation. For the sake of the research, interviews with two subjects providing their own perspectives were conducted. The significance of the study is personified by the sometimes contradictory stances of the people on death and the inevitable merging of secular and religious life.

Ethnic jokes are a form of comical narration extremely widespread throughout the social life of various nations. They generally centre on neighbouring nations and reveal a positive assessment of one's own ethnic group, usually negatively evaluating other nations. The subject of the analysis is jokes about Montenegrins, who are known in the Balkans for their laziness and slow lifestyle. However, they are able to transform this unfair stereotype into an advantage, a cultural identifier, which is reflected in popular culture, numerous jokes and tourist promotion of the country.

Thousands of books have been written on Yugoslavia's dissolution and the wars that followed in the 1990s. Most of them, however, deal with relations among the main ethno-nations of Yugoslavia, i.e., Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Bosniaks (Muslims), Montenegrins, Macedonians and Albanians, and the effects on them of the dissolution and wars. Hungarians and Italians of Yugoslavia also suffered, and the wars affected their destiny; but these peoples have rarely been mentioned in the context of this history. It is the aim of this article to fill the gap.

This article explores why the Arabs chose to keep a common language, while the Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks and Montenegrins chose not to. The study argues that the main reason for this can be found in the ideological constrains resulting out of the salience and interaction between different religious and ethnic group building projects in former Yugoslavia and the Arab states. Political elites in both regions favored the ethnic and religious category to different extents. Language planning reflected and implemented the respective ideological imperatives resulting out of these processes. This led to different approaches in defining the common language and its subsequent standardization.

In this paper we are investigating the political and social effects of Montenegro joining NATO. This issue is highly controversial and follows the political divisions in Montenegro, which motivated us to apply social cleavage theory. As method, we applied logistic regression clustered for standard error. We found that besides socio-demographic variables (ethnic division between Montenegrins and Serbs), the main line of the cleavage indicated by support of, or opposition to NATO membership falls along the issues of the independence of Montenegro, its relationship with the EU vs. Russia, as well as the attitude toward political power and party identification.

The article is dedicated to the issue of the participation of the officials and public organizations of Russia in the selection of candidates for education in our country among Montenegrin youth in schools and higher educational institutions. Russian officials were interested in creating a number of specialists in the Slavic lands of the Balkan Peninsula, connected with Russia, who knew and loved Russian culture. Today, such a policy is called “soft power”, and in the XIX and early XX centuries this was a manifestation of pragmatism and strategic calculation in the foreign policy of the empire. Montenegro, which received international recognition after the Berlin Congress of 1878, became a privileged partner and client of Russia. Monarch Nikola Petrovich managed to convince the Russian government that in case of military complications in the Balkans, the Montenegrins would be able to assist Russia in the hostilities. In the last third of the XIX — early XX centuries Russian autocracy paid substantial subsidies to the Montenegrin authorities for the modernization of the state apparatus and the armed forces. Benefits were constantly increased and added up to huge sums. However, the ruler of Montenegro turned out to be an obstinate ward, inclined to forget about the support provided and ignore the political recommendations of the Russian tsar and his entourage. At the beginning of the twentieth century relations between the two countries were strained, and the behavior of Nikola Petrovich often seemed unpredictable. He easily broke his own promises, from time to time he showed a willingness to change Russian patronage for the friendship of Western Europe. Many Russian diplomats and public figures saw a way out of this impasse in preparing as many highly educated specialists as possible for Montenegro, who would join the political elite of the principality and become more reliable allies than the greedy older generation. Moreover, in Montenegro, which had recently switched from a tribal way of life to state life, there was neither a complete secondary school in the European sense, nor higher educational institutions. The calculations of the Russian leadership were only partially justified. However, in this small Balkan country, graduates of Russian educational institutions, sincerely grateful and devoted to Russia, did live and work.

The paper discusses the political activity of the Montenegrin ruler Nikola I Petrovic Njegos and his government towards the Ottoman Empire in connection with Montenegro’s claims to Northern Albania. It shows that the focal point of Cetinje’s aspirations to occupy the border parts of the Ottoman Empire, whose withdrawal from the Balkans was obvious, lied in expanding the Montenegrin state to this area. However, all attempts by Montenegro in that direction were unsuccessful.

Since the end of the 18th century, the so-called “Eastern question” has become one of the key issues in international relations of Eastern European countries and in the Middle East. The “Eastern question” for most Russians was primarily a “Slavic” question. The progressive part of Russia considered the development of the national liberation movement of the Balkan peoples from Turkish enslavement as the most important moral support of Russia’s foreign policy. The participation of writers in the coverage of the Slavic question made the political situation nationwide. One of these writers, who consistently defended the interests of the Slavic peoples in the fight against their oppression by Turkey for many years, was Egor Petrovich Kovalevsky. This article explores Kovalevsky’s role in solving the Slavic question. This role was manifested in his diplomatic activities and expressed in his writings, as well as his influence on the reflection of the Slavic problem in works of writers of the second half of the 19th century. The main result of Kovalevsky’s stay in the Balkans was his literary works. The essays Four Months in Montenegro (1841), which earned him the fame of a “Montenegro Columbus”, introduced Kovalevsky as a writer to readers. Interest in the lifestyle and socio-historical structure of the “Slav brothers” was also reflected in the 3rd and 4th parts of The Wanderer by Land and Sea: “The Carpathians” (1845), “The Lower Danube and the Balkans” (1849). “The Life and Death of the Last Ruler of Montenegro, and the Events That Followed” (1854), “Travel Notes on the Slavic Lands” (1859), “An Episode From the War of Montenegrins with Austrians” (1864) - all these works are interesting not only from the point of view of the Slavic question and its influence on the socio-political thought in Russia, but also from an artistic point of view. The main problem that Kovalevsky raises in his works is the problem of the nation. The national identity of Montenegrins is shown in their struggle for independence against the Turkish yoke. Defending their right to the Orthodox faith, they heroically fight with all those who encroach on their freedom. Four Months in Montenegro is the first work in the cycle about the Slavic lands that raises these questions. Episodes of the historical confrontation between Turkey and Montenegro - Christians and Muslims - run through the entire work. In Kovalevsky’s narrative, imbued with both realistic details of Montenegrins’ life and customs description in the spirit of the “natural school”, and a romantic perception of their way of life, the reader gets acquainted with the customs of the Asian tribe. Kovalevsky’s book Four Months in Montenegro increased interest in the Slavic question and brought it closer to the progressive circles of society. Appointment as director of the Asian Department allowed Kovalevsky to consistently pursue a policy that meets the interests of the Slavic world. Kovalevsky’s works had a direct and indirect influence on Russian writers both in terms of content and form. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

Analysis of ethnically mixed marriages in the Former Yugoslavia, for the period 1970-2005, shows that after 1990 in all former Yugoslav republics and provinces (except Montenegro) degradation of inter-ethnical relationships induced a fall of inter-ethnical relations, especially at the beginning of 1990. Vojvodina is still singled out (even if there is a decreasing trend after 1990) as a territory with the highest share of exogam marriages (around 25%), while Kosovo and Metohia represent a territory with the lowest shares during the entire period of observation. The most exceptional changes after 1990 occurred in Croatia where the share of ethnically mixed marriages decreased from 19% to around 7% which was mostly a reflection of changes in behaviour of the majority group towards ethnically mixed marriages. The group that was most 'open' on the territory of the Former Yugoslavia were the Serbs in Vojvodina until 2001 and after that the Montenegrins, with the highest percentage of interethnic marriages (more than 15%) while all other majority groups are characterized by certain reticence in marrying other nationalities. Concerning the differences between men and women towards ethnically mixed marriages, it shows that women are, in general, more endogam than men, meaning that they seldom marry outside their group. This is especially characteristic for the Montenegrin's women in Montenegro. When observing the degree of interethnic relations between minority groups and the majority group, it follows that there have not been any changes. In general, degree of integration is higher, meaning that the inter-ethnic relations are more frequent between nationalities that are closer in cultural, religious and linguistic way. Unlike that, during all the period of observation, there is a highly marked segregation between nationalities that belong to different cultural and religious circles, which is especially emphasised in Macedonia. .

Il presente contributo si propone di esaminare le opere di tematica montenegrina del conte Eugenio Barbarich, ufficiale italiano che visitò il Montenegro nel dicembre del 1896, successivamente al matrimonio del principe ereditario italiano Vittorio Emanuele con la principessa montenegrina Jelena Petrović Njegoš. Oltre a illustrare il contesto della sua visita e ad analizzare le attività e impressioni dell’autore relative a questo viaggio, il nostro intervento prende in esame anche gli articoli di carattere storico e militare che Barbarich scrisse sul Montenegro, nonché la sua attività di traduttore, grazie alla quale il pubblico italiano ebbe l’occasione di conoscere l’opera letteraria del principe montenegrino Nikola I Petrović-Njegoš.

The issue of the status of languages that emerged on the basis of the Serbo-Croatian language after the collapse of Yugoslavia remains relevant until now. The standard Serbo-Croatian language arose in the 19th century as a common language of Serbs, Croats, Bosnians and Montenegrins and existed in two main variants, “western” and “eastern”, from the very outset. These variants were close enough to maintain free communication, and at the same time, each variant had symbolic significance as a marker of the corresponding ethnic group. This article provides an outline of the history of the Serbo-Croatian language from its origin to the collapse of Yugoslavia in the light of two social functions of the language, communicative (language as a means of exchanging information) and symbolic (language as a symbol of national identity).

AP Kosovo and Metohija is a unique geographical area in Europe, during which the most complex demographic processes, caused by: political conflicts, the NATO bombing of 1999, and took place during the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st century: killing, ethnic cleansing, persecution and segregation of the population. Since June 1999, about 220,000 people were displaced from Kosovo and Metohija. Most of them were Serbs, followed by non-Albanian populations: Montenegrins, Gorans, Roma and Ashkali. The mass persecution of the Serb and other non-Albanian populations has resulted in tremendous changes in the ethnic structure of the Province. Previously, heterogeneous settlements became ethnically homogeneous with a dominant Albanian population. With 93% of the total population Albanians is dominated, while other ethnic communities have a participation of 7%.

After the Second World War, Serbo-Croatian was formally declared on the basis of the so-called Novi Sad Agreement (1954). Its demise is connected to the demise of the Yu-goslav Federation (1992). The sociological, historical, political and ideological rea-sons of the rejection of this glossonym (and with it the rejection of the common lan-guage) were clearly the decisive factor, but they were not always the same. The Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks and Montenegrins had specific reasons for this. These reasons can be revealed, inter alia, by analyzing a number of declarative, proclaiming, explanatory, defending, shorter or longer texts on the language generated by all the above-mentioned national communities which used Serbo-Croatian as their first (mother) tongue after 1990. The most recent Declaration on the Common Language (2017) is unique in this sense.

Last act of political cooperation of Slavs on the Balkans. Balkan alliance, 1912 The deep changes on the political map of the Balkan Peninsula, which followed after the Congress of Berlin in 1878, opened a new chapter in the relations between the nations inhabiting this region. Although the arbitrary decisions taken by the great powers increased the rivalry between the Balkan Slavs, the fact that most of the European territory of Turkey had been left within its borders undoubtedly encouraged the Bulgarians, Serbs, Montenegrins and Greeks to take measures aimed at mutual rapprochement and finding the ultimate solution to the so-called Turkish issue. Despite numerous problems, these ideas were implemented in 1912, through creating the Balkan League, but as it soon turned out, it was the last act of political cooperation between the Slav nations in Southeastern Europe.

Abstract The author analyses the everyday life and lifestyles of social classes in Montenegro based on a survey conducted on a randomized, proportional, and stratified sample of 805 respondents. The survey covers the topics: consumption; family and professional life; citizens’ attitudes towards society and the state; leisure time; cultural practices; value orientations; time management; and general satisfaction with various aspects of life. The theoretical approach accords with Pierre Bourdieu’s. The everyday life of the Montenegrins emerges as having the following characteristics: restriction to necessities only in purchases; high deprivation; family conflicts brought about by poor financial circumstances; stereotypical leisuretime activities; a low opinion of governmental and social institutions fuelled by perceptions of nepotism and job allocation based on political party membership; differentiation of cultural practices from the dominant mass culture; value confusion; and a focus on everyday routines. The basic line of differentiation turns out to be social class, as all the listed characteristics are much more pronounced in the lower social strata.

The majority of Croats in Montenegro are the native population traditionally living in the Bay of Kotor, the town of Budva and Bar and its surroundings. A minority of them are immigrants or their descendants. As early as during the Austro–Hungarian rule over the Montenegrin coast, and especially during the Yugoslav period, they inhabited the area of today’s Montenegro, mostly its inland towns. This paper primarily aims to present and analyse the size of the Croatian population in Montenegro in general and at the level of its administrative units. To do so, it uses data from the censuses conducted from 1948 to 2011, which recorded national affiliation, among other things. In the context of those censuses, one can argue that, during their conduct, it was possible to declare oneself as a Croat, and that a major share of the population avoided declaring themselves as such although they could, based on their ethnic characteristics. Accordingly, the second aim of the paper was to attempt to determine, in the context of the 2011 census, which is a source of plenty of relevant data, not only the number of declared Croats but also those who were undeclared as such, but could certainly be considered to belong to the same linguistic, religious and cultural community as Croats. For this paper, that wider unit was termed the Slavic Catholic community (Slavic–Catholic), which is already recognised in language as the Central South Slavic area (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro), among other things as a certain “opposite” of the Slavic–Orthodox and Slavic–Muslim communities of the same spatial scope. To better understand the position of Croats in Montenegro, and especially their reluctance to declare Croatian national affiliation, which is more and more evident over time, an integral part of the paper is an appropriate presentation of historical circumstances that have framed their past and present identity positioning. The first data on the presence of Croats in today’s Montenegrin area refers to the period of Slavic settlement of South-east Europe, which took place until the beginning of the 7th century. According to the work of the Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus (945–959), “On the Governance of the Empire”, during their settlement, Croats occupied the former Roman province of Dalmatia (which, according to the author, “started from the surroundings of Durrës and Bar and stretched to the Istrian mountains and to the river Danube in width”), as well as Pannonia and Illyricum. According to the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja, probably written by the (Arch)Bishop of Bar Gregory in the period 1177–1189, upon settlement the Slavs had founded a state, the backbone of which was on the coast, between Istria and today’s northern Albania. According to the Chronicle, that coastal belt was divided into White and Red Croatia, which stretched from Duvanjsko Polje further south. Besides, Byzantine 11th- and 12th-century writers mention Croats and Croatia in the context of the area of today’s Montenegro. However, from the beginning of the 9th century, that is, the point in time from which one can continuously follow the political development in the Adriatic–Dinaric belt, or the area of the former Roman Dalmatia, it is certain that four smaller Slavic principalities existed between the rivers Cetina and Bojana: Neretva, Zahumlje, Travunia and Duklja. In the mid 11th century, Duklja, Travunia and Zahumlje were united into a state at the initiative of the rulers of Duklja. The expanded state of Duklja, ruled by the Vojislavljević dynasty, gained international acknowledgement since the papacy recognised it as a separate kingdom and a strong lever for maintaining its own identity, manifested in the existence of a state religious centre in the form of the Catholic metropolis of Bar. Such circumstances could have suggested the emergence of a much wider state unit, located approximately between the rivers Neretva and Drim on the one side and the Adriatic and the river Tara on the other, which would have implied the formation of an ethnic body. However, events unfolded in a different direction. Since the mid 12th century the state of Duklja had been losing ever more power, completely falling under the ruler of neighbouring Orthodox Serbia at the end of the same century. During that time the Schism of 1054 acquired full significance. The 1204 establishment of the Latin Empire, with its seat in Constantinople, led to a strong polarisation between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. In such conditions, upon establishment of its own church in 1219, the Serbian dynasty of Nemanjić began to carry out mass Orthodoxisation of the Zahumlje and Duklja areas to ensure their loyalty. Primarily exposed to religious conversion were Slavic Catholic people, who, at that time, shared many similarities with the neighbouring Orthodox in the entire area of the Adriatic–Dinaric belt in terms of external manifestations of their Christian identity, significantly marked by the tradition of Cyril and Methodius. Coastal, communal centres in the area of today’s Montenegro, Kotor, Budva and Bar, at the time still largely Romanesque, but eventually Slavicised, and their “belonging” or gravitating Slavic population, as well as the Albanian population located next to gradually Albanianised Ulcinj, along the river Bojana and in Malesia, were left Catholics. The territorial relations between Catholics and Orthodox established at the time have largely remained relevant until modern times. In the area of today’s Montenegro, the Slavic Catholic population was in principle reduced to a distinct minority concentrated in and around the coastal communes. As the Serbian state weakened from the mid 14th century, those communes gradually merged with the western states, and ultimately with the Venetian Republic. They remained under its rule until the end of the 18th century. After that, they were mainly part of the Austrian Kingdom of Dalmatia until 1918. Under those conditions, sharing the social climate with the population of the eastern Adriatic coast, who spoke the same language and shared the same religion, from the mid 19th century the Slavic Catholic population of today’s Montenegrin coast became involved in the processes leading to the constitution of the Croatian nation. The political and social development of the Orthodox population in Montenegro took a different course. By integrating into the de facto Serbian Orthodox Church, they began acquiring Serbian ethnic characteristics. However, given the disintegration of the Serbian state on a part of today’s Montenegrin territory, a new state emerged in the form of Zeta, centred in sub-Lovćen Montenegro and ruled by the Balšić dynasty and the Crnojević dynasty. During the Ottoman rule, which began in the late 15th century, sub-Lovćen Montenegro retained a certain autonomy, which became the basis for the formation of the Montenegrin state close to its current borders in the late 17th century. While the Montenegrin population “remained” in the identity sphere of proto-national Serbs due to Orthodoxy, imbued with the cult of the Nemanjić dynasty, its peculiar development enabled them to acquire own ethnic consciousness. The dichotomy between the Montenegrin and Serbian sense of identity has not been overcome to this day, which is becoming increasingly clear in the division of the Orthodox population between the national Montenegrins and the national Serbs. With the disintegration of Austro–Hungary and the emergence of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, that is, Yugoslavia, the Slavic Catholic population in the area of today’s Montenegro found itself permanently separated from the political, or at least administrative framework defined by the Catholic majority, after almost five hundred years. Instead, it became a distinct minority group in an environment that was continuously exposed to strong Serbian influences, even after Montenegro gained independence. Over time, following the processes of migration towards the coast, it also became a minority in settlements where it once represented the only or majority population. Under those conditions, strongly marked by latent or real contradictions in the relations between Croats and Serbs and often radical manifestations of Serbian identity in their environment, for the Slavic Catholic population in Montenegro, the declaration of Croatian identity became a kind of burden that not everyone was ready or able to bear. In that context, among other things, it is worth looking at the data presented, which points to a decline in the share of Croats in Montenegro. Equally, attention should be paid to the data from the 2011 census, which indicates a kind of mass declaration of “alternative” forms of ethnicity on the part of the Slavic–Catholic population. According to the first census, the one of 1921, which covered the population of all parts of today’s Montenegro, 313,432 inhabitants lived on its soil, of which between 11,380 and 12,145 were Croats and other members of the Slavic–Catholic community. According to that census, which took no account of the national determinant, but recorded the religious and linguistic ones, the share of members of that community in the total population inhabiting the area of today’s Montenegro was between 3.6% and 3.9%. The censuses after 1945, which, as pointed out, covered the national determinant and were conducted in socialist Yugoslavia (1945–1991), Federal Republic of Yugoslavia / the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro (1991–2006) and in independent Montenegro (since 2006) recorded the following shares of Croats in Montenegro: 6,808 (in 1948), 9,814 (in 1953), 10,664 (in 1961), 9,192 (in 1971), 6,904 (in 1981), 6,244 (in 1991), 6,811 (in 2003), and 6,021 (in 2011). It is evident from the first censuses that part of the Slavic–Catholics in Montenegro did not declare themselves as Croats. This is primarily the case in Bar and its surroundings, where the declaration of Montenegrin nationality has permanently prevailed. Since 1971, a large number of people formerly declared as Croats began to declare themselves as “Yugoslavs”. Following the disintegration of Yugoslavia, in the 2003 and 2011 censuses, that type of declaration lost significance. However, no “return” to the declaration of Croatian national affiliation occurred, but rather the adoption of Montenegrin identity, rejection of the declaration of nationality, declaration of regional affiliation, etc. The analysis conducted in the context of the 2011 census shows that only a small part of the total Slavic–Catholic community in Montenegro declared themselves as Croats. Basically, only 5,931 people did so, if the total share of Croats (6,021) is reduced by 90 Orthodox who are probably registered as Croats for family reasons. At the same time, 29 Bosnians, 5,667 Montenegrins, 68 Yugoslavs, three Muslims, 569 nationally undeclared persons, 376 regionally declared persons, 112 Serbs and one Serb Montenegrin declared their affiliation with Catholicism. According to the insight into the share of the native Slavic Catholic population in Montenegro in 1921 and the share of Croats in the 1953–1971 censuses, it can be stated with a high level of certainty that those 6,825 respondents belonged to the Slavic Catholic population. The total share of the Slavic Catholic population in Montenegro in 2011 was larger than the sum of Croats (5,931) and the mentioned 6,825 persons, which amounted to 12,756, given that it should be increased by a certain number of respondents, primarily among Bosnians, Montenegrins, Yugoslavs, nationally undeclared and regionally declared who declared themselves as agnostics, atheists, unidentified Christians or refused to declare their religion. Primarily based on a comparison of the share of such persons within the municipalities of Boka Kotorska (Herceg Novi, Kotor, Tivat), where it is extremely high, with their shares in other Montenegrin municipalities, it could be argued that in 2011, the total share of Croats and other members of the Slavic–Catholic community amounted to approximately 15,000 or 2.4% of the population of Montenegro.

The empirical analysis in this paper deals with establishing humour examples based on script opposition patterns in online comments regarding Montenegro’s accession to NATO. It is established that the opposing scripts prevailing in the comments on political setting in Montenegro are heavily dependent on Montenegro’s turbulent history and dominant collective scripts such as pride and bravery. As online comments are an emerging genre, a reference to the influence of computer-mediated communication was also made, where pragmatic interpretation called for the help of critical discourse analysis. The results show that the script opposition parameters enable not only linguistic but also pragmatic revelations about Montenegrin people and their chief values or scripts. Script opposition examples within commenters’ standpoints are explained with reference to diachronic level and the modern values in Montenegro.

Abstract The Serbo-Croatian language was but one of the casualties of the wars of the Yugoslav secession, as it was discursively forcefully split into first two, then three, and recently four allegedly separate languages. The first line of division was promoted by Serbian and Croatian nationalist linguists during the early nineties, soon to be followed by the invention of a standalone Bosnian language, even though contemporary linguistics agrees that Serbo-Croatian, with its regional varieties (as a standardized polycentric language), is a single language. Coming late into the fray, nationally-minded linguists from Montenegro achieved the state-driven proclamation of Montenegrin as a separate language to be in official use within the state only in 2007. Backed by the state, a coterie of nationalist literary theorists and linguists started discursively promoting Montenegrin in academic and public spaces, mostly via the dubious quasi-academic journal titled Lingua Montenegrina. This article explores the manners in which Montenegrin nationalist linguists discursively created what they dub to be a language entirely separate from all variants of Serbo-Croatian, which are mostly contained in encomiastic texts about key nationalists, attempts to classify several allophones and phonemes as well as to assert the purported primordial character of the language.

Images of national characters and humorous characters of the Balkan peoples of South Slavia through the prism of their stereotypical reflection in modern anecdotes. This article reviews one of the small forms of folklore – anecdote and, more specifically, ethno-anecdote (ethnic joke) as a way of reflecting national specifics, national colour, a form of expression of the most characteristic features of the mentality and way of life of a certain people, nation, social group. Based on texts of anecdotes that are most typical and widespread in the area of the Slavic Balkans, the characteristics of representatives of the so-called “Serbo-Croatian dialect continuum” are explored. National specific qualities reflected in ethnic jokes and stereotypes are discussed. It is concluded that ethnic jokes, as a special thematic kind of anecdote, contain, among other things, important extralinguistic information and can become an objective source when studying the ethnolinguistic and culturological characteristics of a particular country and its inhabitants. Keywords: anecdote, national stereotypes, view of the world, Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Montenegrins, image, symbol, national character

The study of Orthodox Yugoslavs (Serbs, Montenegrins, Macedonians, Bosnians, and Herzegovinians) at the Kyiv Theological Academy (KDA) during 1900-1918 was a continuation of the tradition laid down in previous centuries by the priority acquisition of higher education in the southern territories of the Russian territory. . Not only the Yugoslavs studied at the Kiev Academy, but also the Bulgarians, Romanians, Syrians, Czechs, Greeks and other Orthodox foreigners. However, when choosing an educational institution, these students tried to choose the ones that were on the territory of Ukraine. Officially, this position was explained by warm climates that more closely resembled their native nature. However, the positive comments that spread abroad about South Russian (Ukrainian) educational institutions were also important. That is why the Yugoslavs studied mainly in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odessa educational institutions. At the beginning of the twentieth century. the teaching of foreigners on the territory of the Russian Empire The Russian Orthodox Church and government officials continued to attach great importance. Authorities have increased control over all areas of study of foreign students. Special attention was paid to the Orthodox Slavs.