Sonja DUJMOVIĆ
Institut za historiju Univerziteta u Sarajevu
How a Revolution Disappeared – The Case of Gavrilo Princip
Abstract: This paper aims to answer the question of why the contemporary discussions of the Sarajevo assassination ignore its revolutionary nature. Furthermore, it tries to explain how the assassination and its perpetrator, Gavrilo Princip, became part of the collective memory, how they were reduced to the requirements of the relevant national-religious narratives, redefined, and reimagined accordingly.
Key words: Gavrilo Princip, Assassination, Revolution, Condemnation, Ceremonial Funeral, Neutralization, Religious and National Construct, Changed Identity, Interpretations, Political Instrumentalization
Summary
Serbian dignitaries were the first to distance themselves from the assassination committed by Gavrilo Princip and the heads of the Serbian Orthodox Church stigmatized and excommunicated him. However, shortly after the end of World War I, already in 1920, Princip’s remains were returned to his homeland, which marked his and his comrades’ symbolic return to their national-religious cradle. At the same time, this meant that the revolutionary nature and potential of the Sarajevo assassination act were neutralized. Sacralization excludes the possibility of reconsideration, and therefore, authorities have claimed their exclusive right to interpret Princip’s mythological-religious identity ever since, thereby isolating their interpretation from the historical reality. Changes in Princip’s symbolic revolutionary image were further disabled by étatist Yugoslav ideology of the 1930s and by constant reconsiderations of the responsibility for the war. In 1939, when Bosnia and Herzegovina were in political turmoil and the war and disintegration of Yugoslavia felt imminent, Princip and his comrades served as means of strengthening the sense of community once again. Nowadays, the principal revolutionary nature of their act has been politically instrumentalized once more. Princip is being reduced to a para-religious figure and turned into a national-political saint with the aim of fostering further political differences between national and religious groups. More importantly, current political use of Gavrilo Princip disables fruitful dialogue, unity, potential youth organizing, and social unrest, while at the same time highlighting religious, nationalistic, and capitalist values and paradigms, and obscuring social exploitation.