Rolul orașului în formarea identităţilor naţionale în Balcani
The Role of the City in the Formation of National Identities in the Balkans

Summary/Abstract: In its present form and extent, “The Role of the City in the Formation of National Identities in the Balkans” is part of a more ample dissertation, which puts forward the thesis of the conspicuous role which class struggle had to play in Balkan statehood and nation formation, ever since the Slavs settled in the Peninsula, through to the emergence of the Balkan nation‐states. Upper classes, of variable character, have evolved on the constant stage of the city. The city of Belgrade serves as a case study, lying at the centre of Serb national awakening, whose majority of agents and heroes are shown to form an ethnically heterogenous, alien, wealthy elite, wielding the levers of power and controlling the process of Serb national identity formation in the early decades of the Serbian state. The root of the argument is traced back through the centuries, down to the medieval multi‐ethnic slav czardoms, which were themselves the expression of a political consensus among the equals of the upper classes. Ottoman conquest and rule dispelled the medieval aristocracies, concentrating all power in the hands of a central government and replacing aristocracy with a meritocratic bureaucracy. Subsequently, the rise of bourgeoisie capitalism against the corrupted checks and controls of the decrepit Empire in the firm grip of decay, empowered a new, wealthy, educated and modern elite to yank the reins of power from the ruling class. Class loyalty, self‐interest and class struggle are shown to have pervaded the making and breaking of nations and empires, and it is imperative to study them at work throughout history in order to predict how they will yet play out in an era where we move away from the ideals of the nation‐state.

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