Montenegrin History & Politics - Featuring Big Bad Serbia!

The first thing you should know about Montenegro is that a lot of folks - including many within the country itself - believe there is no such thing as "Montenegro." That it is, rather, Serbian, belongs (or should belong) to Serbia, and that the Montenegrin language is simply a regional dialect/bastardization of Serbian. IMHO, from what I've seen/heard/read, while the latter has a grain of truth to it, the former does not. Montenegro has a fascinating history - as do the Balkans in general - and I highly encourage anyone with any interest in history to learn more.

The second thing you should know is that Montenegrins are very proud of the fact that in their approximately 1,000 year history as what could be construed as "Montenegro" in various forms/shapes/sizes/names, they have "never" been "fully" conquered. This is a bit specious and I've had interesting discussions about this with one of the other PCVs here who is also a history major with much more knowledge of the history of the Balkans. The crux of the claim lies in the mountains that are nearly impossible to completely control. And Montenegro DOES have a history of often getting "autnonomous" status within varous entites that otherwise controlled the surrounding area(s) - e.g., the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire.  While you can read more about Montenegro's history HERE, the long and short of it is:

• Initially called Duklja, it gained independence from the Byzantine Roman Empire in 1042
• In the mid-14th century, it was called Zeta (the name of the river that flows through Danilovgrad and also Montenegro's newest state/province - carved last year out of the Podgorica province) and operated as a theocracy for a few hundred years 
• It was in the 15th century that it first became referred to as Montenegro (Crne Gora in the local language, which literally means Black Mountain)
• In the mid-19th century it became a secularized Principality and was "officially" recognized as independent by the Treaty of Berlin on July 13, 1878
• In 1910 it became a Kingdom, ruled by King Nikola (already ruling the Principality) - their first and only king, as:
• After World War I, it became a part of Yugoslavia, and after WWII, a Socialist Republic within the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia.
• After the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992, it became a federation state with Serbia known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
• After a referendum in 2006, with barely around 55% voting yes, the country for the first time became officially known simply as Montenegro. Thus, it is one of the newest countries in the world - also one of the most striking:

I'm not going to recount in detail the horrific Bosnian and Croatian wars of the 90s - you can get more than enough of a taste from the link above. But suffice it to say, it was NOT a proud moment in the country's history - and to their credit, many locals admit to a deep sense of shame and trauma over many of the events that happened during that time.  In 1996, Milo Dukanovic/Montenegro's government DID sever most ties with Serbia and the war criminal Slobodan Milosevic and started on the path to independence.

Today, about 45% of the population actually identifies as Montenegrin, while around 30% as Serb (and about 9% Bosniak and 4% - 5% as Albanian).  For me personally, I've always found the notion of "pride" in your "nationality" as silly. It's simply a matter of luck of the draw as to where your particular seed emerged from a womb. I consider myself a human. A human born in one place, lives and has lived in others, etc.

Anyway, this continues to be an issue as the country has been fighting over a new census for some years now. It was last done in 2011, was planned again for 2021, and has been postponed 4 times since then.  There is concern that a majority of citizens will identify as Serbian and/or speaking Serbian and that the language will then "have to be" reintroduced into schools.  There ARE actually differences, albeit minor, and even a slightly different alphabet - just as there are differences between Croatian and Bosnian. But the joke in PC is that when we return to the states we can claim we speak Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian, AND Montenegrin, say a few sentences, lopping the endings off of some words, changing the emphasis and/or vowel pronunication in some others, and of course no 'Muricans are going to know the difference!  :)

Montenegro became part of NATO in 2017, despite (surprise!) Russian attempts to interfere and stop it. You will probably also be unsurprised to hear that pro-Russian Serbs are believed to be behind a lot of the continuing drama over the notion that Montenegro is not a "real" country or nationality, is simply Serbian, etc. Seriously, it will be a happy day when Putin dies and Russia grows up and tries to be a decent world player.

Even now, it's hard to say where the Prime Minister and most of the government's sympathies lie. Again, see the link above for more details, but the past few years have seen the long-time leader finally voted out, to be replaced by a pro-Serbian prime minister, who was bounced in a no confidence vote after just a few months, to be replaced by a coalition government of pro-European parties and pro-Serbian parties.  And Russia continues to meddle/push for Serbian control.  I need to read more about Serbian history and its peoples to better understand where they get off thinking they're all that.  Honestly.  They seem like the Germany of the 30s and 40s.  Maybe I'll change my mind as I learn more.  Maybe.

Disclaimer: Any thoughts, observations, opinions, etc. are of course mine and not necessarily the views of Peace Corps.