A politically incorrect collection about the Balkans was presented in Moscow
At the Moscow Art Theater site. Gorky, a presentation of the journalistic collection “Notes of a Balkanist”, dedicated to the modernity and history of the post-Yugoslav space, took place.
The book is based on articles from the Balkanist portal from 2019 to 2021, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The organizers of the presentation timed the event to coincide with the next anniversary of the start of NATO bombing of the Federal Yugoslavia, starting the event with a minute of silence in memory of three thousand people - civilians and military - who became victims of the aggression of the North Atlantic Alliance.
“I can tell you one important thing - this is a politically incorrect collection,” noted MGIMO professor and regular author of “The Balkanist” Elena Ponomareva, who was present at the presentation. – Now all of Europe is fighting for political correctness, and we are honest people... “Balkanist”, under the leadership of Oleg (Bondarenko - the creator and leader of the project - ed.) tries to call things by their proper names. That is, if something happened in history, then it should be written that way - it happened in history.”
According to the MGIMO professor, such freedom of expression about the Western Balkans, especially about the events of the 90s, is currently possible only in Russia. And she demonstrated this using the example of Balkanist articles about the leaders of Croatian and Bosniak separatists Franjo Tudjman and Alija Izetbegovic, who are presented in the West as heroes and fighters for democracy, and about the hero of the Bosnian Serbs Ratko Mladic, slandered and declared a war criminal in the West.
“For example, we open the “Portraits” section, and what do we read there? “Franjo Tudjman is the great traitor of the Balkan peoples.” Or “Aliya Izetbegovic – the man who drowned Bosnia in blood.” Or “Hero-martyr. Why do people in Russia love General Mladic so much.” Don't waste a word. It is in Russia that it is still possible, and I hope it will be possible to continue to write such things. Honest and politically incorrect. And I think this is very cool,” Ponomareva noted.
English version :: Read in English A politically incorrect collection about the Balkans was presented in Moscow.