Savić Marković Štedimlija

Savić Marković Štedimlija (1906/07, Stijena, Princedom of Montenegro - 1970, Zagreb, Socialist Republic of Croatia, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) was a Montenegrin-Croat nationalist publicist and writer, most known for the confounding the theory of unique Montenegrins's origin: of the Croats, rather than Serbs - the traditional general viewpoint in his time. He actively worked in the fascist Ustaše movement during WWII, tried for Nazi collaboration subsequently.

Štedimlija was born in 1906 or 1907 in Stijena near Podgorica, Montenegro, into the Pipers Clan of Montenegro. He attended the Gymnasium in Podgorica (the largest in the Kingdom of Montenegro), before attending various schools in Serbia, then Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He subsequently moved to Zagreb, where he graduated in Law and Philosophy at the University of Zagreb, which greatly influenced his later activities. He had remained in Zagreb to the rest of his life. Marković Štedimlija was a great admirer of Croatian historian Ivo Pilar and dedicated his whole life to Pilar's research and continuation of his work, dedicating to proving the existence of a Montenegrin nation, totally separate from the Serbian. He was also an admirer of Ante Starčević, Milan Šufflay and Josip Frank.

He expressed his theories on origins of the Montenegrins for the first time in early 1937, when he published a pamphlet named "Red Croatia" ("Crvena Hrvatska") in Split. He referred to Doclea, the ancient South Slavic state from the early-to-High medieval ages, calling it a part of Red Croatia. He explained in his thesis that thus, Montenegrins are descendants of the people that settled the area back then, i.e. the Red Croats. He explained that Montenegrins belonged to the Western world, and that despite many Montenegrins over the past centuries have adopted the Serbian national affiliation, they never in fact left their own Western cultural orientation. Although sympathetic of the Montenegrin sovereignist ideals represented by Sekule Drljević, Stedimlija completely distanced himself from The Greens and Montenegrin Federalists.

After the 1941 Axis invasion of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the proclamation of an Italian-controlled Independent State of Montenegro and Independent State of Croatia during World War II, Štedimlija joined the Ustaše. He became one of the closest persons to Ante Pavelić, also becoming one of the high-ranking men in the Section for Propaganda in the service of NDH Minister of Internal Affairs Andrija Artuković. In 1942 upon Pavelic's insistence he was appointed manager of the Ustasha-styled Croatian Orthodox Church. Throughout the war he edited its publishing. When Sekula Drljević, the Montenegrin Nazi collaborator, was expelled from the occupied Kingdom of Montenegro, he formed the Montenegrin National Council, a sort-of government in exile dedicated to restoration and preservation of Montenegrin sovereignty. Štedimlija was made his Minister of foreign affairs for his previous experience in the field.

When the Axis were obviously losing the war, they starting withdrawing towards Nazi Germany northwestwards. The Red Army caught Stedimlija on the run in Austria in 1945. He was sent to the USSR and spent ten years in the Gulag, accused for collaboration. In 1956 the Yugoslav Communist leadership asked the Soviet Union to hand him over, which occurred shortly. Upon the request of the League of Communists of Montenegro, he was tried and sentenced to 8 years of prison for his acts during the war. The reason for his low penalty was that he admitted to all charges and expressed sincere regret and renounced all of his "irredentist" research. His hardly-spent years at the Gulag also influenced it. Later he was employed by Miroslav Krleža at the Yugoslav Lexicographical Institute. Štedimlija died in 1970 and was buried in Zagreb's Mirogoj Cemetery.

Legacy

In 1998 Jevrem Brković reintroduced his research into life and founded the Doclean Academy of Sciences and Arts, dedicated to Štedimlija's studies. In 2004, the Matica crnogorska published his memoirs titled "Ten Years in Gulag".

Works

*Highlander's Blood - Montenegro 1918-1928 ("Gorštačka krv - Crna Gora 1918-1928"), 1928, Belgrade
*Antikrlezians or How Among Us Were Written "Marxist" Critics ("Antikrležijanci ili kako se kod nas pišu "marksističke" kritike"), 1933, Kragujevac
*Education of Montenegrin Youth ("Školovanje crnogorske omladine"), 1936, Zagreb
*Russia and Balkans (Rusija i Balkan), 1937, Zagreb
*Red Croatia ("Crvena Hrvatska"), 1937, Split
*The Foundations of Montenegrin Nationalism ("Osnovi crnogorskog nacionalizma"), 1937, Zagreb
*Skidanje maske
*Crna Gora u Jugoslaviji
*Auf dem Balkan, Zagreb, 1943
*Zavjere protiv svjetskoga mira
*Ten Years in Gulag ("Deset godina u gulagu"), 2004, Podgorica

See also

* Collaboration during World War II
* Ivo Pilar
* Red Croatia
* Revisionism
* Ustaše
* Dinko Sakic

External links

* [http://www.njegos.org/past/stedimlija.htm Savić Marković Štedimlija]
* [http://www.rastko.org.yu/rastko-cg/povijest/terzic-ideological_roots.html Ideological roots of Montenegrin nation and Montenegrin separatism]