Belgrade University Professors after World War II – “Enemies of the People” and “Honest Intelligentsia”
Year: 2024
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: The paper examines the relationship between the Yugoslav communist government and the professors of the University of Belgrade during the first decades after World War II.In the center of attention is the control over the life and work of senior professors who belonged to the "bourgeois" pre-war intelligentsia and the pressure exerted by state and party bodies on them to change their ideological-political orientation, attitudes and habits.They were expected to accept the new political and socio-economic order, to abandon the methodology of "bourgeois", "capitalist" science and adopt and apply the method of Marxism-Leninism in science.In such conditions, a significant part of the teaching staff resisted in various ways, but an equally significant number "gave in" over time, adapted to new conditions, and often changed their position and accepted and advocated the policies of the communist authorities.With the consolidation of the new government and the state, that process gained strength.In the late 1950s and early 1960s, a generational change took place at the University, the older "bourgeois" professors retired as well, and younger teachers who were formed in the new order came to the University in increasing numbers.
Author: Dragomir Bondžić
Language: English
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4406203671