Sarajevo mysteries
TIBOR SZAMUELY
The Road to Sarajevo Vladimir Dedijer (Mac- Gibbon and Kee 63s)
Probably more people have heard of Sarajevo than of the country in which it is situated.
Already by 1939 some 3,000 books and pam- phlets had been published dealing with the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
Since then there have been many more. The latest contribution comes from the pen of the Yugoslav Professor Vladimir Dedijer. He has written an enormous book, based on a great deal of information, much of it previously un- known. As a source of facts on early twentieth century Balkan history, particularly South Slav revolutionary history, and of colourful detail about the assassination, it is of undoubted value. As an interpretation of the mysteries surrounding the Sarajevo plot (and this is what Mr Dedijer promises) it is unsatisfactory.
To begin with, there is the question of sources and documentation. With fully sixty pages of notes buttressing his statements. the author would seem to have scrupulously ob- served the historian's first commandment. Yet upon closer examination serious doubts arise. When dealing with non-Balkan countries Pro- fessor Dedijer tends to take his sources at second and even third hand. This leads to some ludicrous errors: for instance, he inserts a passage, derived at second hand, from an Eng- lish historian named H. A. Gibbons—tinder the conviction that he is actually quoting Edward Gibbon.
Similarly, his numerous references to Russia are often completely garbled—as is his spell- ing of Russian names and words (not surpris- ingly, since he prefers using- Serbian reviews of Russian books. to the books themselves). He discusses non-existent Russian revolutionaries and imaginary Russian folk traditions: calls General Skobelev, for some unearthly reason. the 'Torquemada of modern Russia': names the revolutionary. Nechaev as one of the or- ganisers of aid to the Bosnian uprising of 1875, whereas Nechaev had been in prison since 1872, and so on. Such mistakes are inexcusable. Professor Dedijer is also insufficiently critical of his sources, drawing no distinction between documentary proofs and mere rumour. Thus, he speaks of the execution of a number of Serbian peasants in reprisal for the assassina- tion as if it were well-established fact---and as proof cites only a story told him forty years later by one of the conspirators.
These rather casual methods of research have a considerable bearing on the substance of the author's case. For what he is putting forward is a case; a case for the assassination having been the exclusive work of a group of fear- less, dedicated, intensely patriotic Young Bos- nians, inspired by their national traditions and by the ancient doctrine of tyrannicidc. It is a highly romantic picture. But is it a true one? In a certain sense—yes. Gavrilo Princip and his associates fully meet this description. But what needs establishing is whether these courageous, pure-minded young men acted on their own, or were used as cat's-paws by other. much more sinister and powerful forces. This is the crux of the matter, and here Professor Dedijer fails us.
His book is bursting with facts. We are told a great deal about mediaeval Serbia and nine- teenth century Bosnia; a separate chapter is devoted to a blow-by-blow account of the Berlin Congress of 1878; three whole chapters deal with the personality, the policies and the private life of the Archduke himself, etc. It is all quite interesting—but completely irrelevant. The conspirators. for instance, knew nothing about Franz Ferdinand—they were even un- aware that he was a family man—and couldn't care less. Then why have seventy pages about him? The conspirators, too: no detail of their short lives, their parentage, background and upbringing is too minute to be recorded. We have pages and pages of their juvenile poems and school essays. None of this is of the slightest significance.
But when he gets down to the shadowy men behind the scenes Professor Dedijer is suddenly tieht-lipped. And it is only from one or two sinister, extremely casual remarks interspersed within the vast mass of insignifi- cant minutiae that we can find out the salient features of the assassination: that the assassins received their weapons from the Serbian In- telligence Service, and were guided across the border and to their destination in Sarajevo by officers and agents of the Serbian Army.
The last eighty pages—or one sixth of the
narrative—are devoted to analysing the various rumours and allegations raised about the Sara- jevo assassination. Actually one question, and one question only, needs answering: were the Serbian authorities responsible for Sarajevo— as Austria had claimed-- and if so, which authorities and to what extent? The author certainly poses the question —and declines to answer it. Yet it is here. smothered in layers of irrelevant material, that sse suddenly notice a few random facts which cast a somewhat different light on the whole business.
Take that splendid revolutionary organisa- tion, the Black Hand. Its guiding principle, it seems, was olliciall■ formulated as follows: 'Instead of the political parties of today, which are neither statist, nor nationalist, nor mili- tarist, nor even cultural in the modern sense of the word, we must organise a party with pure statist principles . . . Only this kind of movement . . . strong in statism. nationalism and militarism, will succeed in bringing happi- ness to the Serbian people.'
Sounds familiar. doesn't it? But the marxist professor, usually so discursive, has nothing to say about this curious proto-fascist ideology of the organisation he so much admires.
Finally, Professor Dedijer reaches his grand conclusion: 'The hypotheses according to which the Sarajevo assassination was instigated by the secret agencies of Russia, France and Britain, or similar bodies in Germany, Hun- gary and Austria, either directly or indirectly through cover organisations, have not been confirmed by historical research.' Jolly good, one thinks, and what about Serbia? Well, nothing—Serbia is not even mentioned. Serbia has somehow completely faded out of the pic- ture, and we are back where we started: with a little band of Bosnian schoolboys. The book describes how at one point the imprisoned con- spirators decided to blame it all on the Freer masons: 'It can't do us any harm and will draw 9ff attention from Serbia.' Professor Dedijer's book also draws off attention from Serbia. This may, of course, be sheer coincid- ence—another enigma added to the mystery of Sarajevo.
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