This project will explore the main features of political ideology and activities of the Serbian right wing from the assassination of King Alexander in October 1934 to Yugoslavia’s involvement in WW2 in April 1941, looking into the entire spectrum of right-wing politics.
It will analyze the (Serbian section of) Yugoslav Radical Union (JEREZA) which underpinned the regime of Prince Paul, a makeshift coalition/party consisting of the established conservative parties across Yugoslavia and the extreme/fascist parties such as the Yugoslav People’s Party (Combatants) and ZBOR ‒ also the short-lived conservative Serbian Radical Party led by the former president of JEREZA, Milan Stojadinović.
Moreover, the project will look into the right-wing attitudes of a number of prominent Serbian intellectuals, namely writers and clerics. In theoretical terms, the project will depart from influential analytical paradigms from the fields of fascism and nationalism studies, with the ambition to offer fresh insights against the background of the Serbian case. It will benefit from multidisciplinary approach as the project team consists of three historians, a literary historian and Christian Orthodox theologian.
The main research results will be presented in the form of an edited volume and the Serbian right-wing people database, both of which will operate on the open access basis ‒ other dissemination and promotion activities will also share the research output with scholars and the general public alike. The project ambition is to produce a first and comprehensive review of the topic, contribute immensely in terms of empirical exploration ‒ through research of previously untapped archival material ‒ especially since most of the themes (objectives) have not been, or have been poorly, served by historians, and probe for the first time the relation between right-wing ideology and politics, on the one hand, and the specific experience of Yugoslav nation-building, on the other.