ABSTRACT: The article describes how the authorities in Serbia, as part of their attack on the SANU Memorandum, attempted in early 1987 to discredit General Gojko Nikoliš—one of the academicians who defended the Memorandum—by publishing a highly offensive text titled “Vojko and Savle” in Politika. It also explains how that text was later used in the internal showdown within the leadership of the League of Communists of Serbia after the Eighth Session of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Serbia.

KEYWORDS: Serbia, SANU Memorandum, General Gojko Nikoliš, Dragiša Pavlović, Belgrade City Committee, humorous piece

SUMMARY: In late September 1986, Večernje Novosti published articles sharply attacking a document of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts concerning the Yugoslav crisis and the position of Serbia and the Serbian people in Yugoslavia. Referred to as the Memorandum, the text had neither been completed nor formally adopted by SANU. It was Yugoslav-oriented and democratic, critical of the role of Tito and the League of Communists in Yugoslavia. It advocated changing Serbia’s position within Yugoslavia, arguing that under the 1974 Constitution the republic was not equal to the other republics. It also addressed the suffering of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija and the curtailment of their political and national rights in Croatia. The authorities in Serbia launched a political and media campaign against the document and its authors, accusing them of Serbian nationalism. On December 18, 1986, the SANU Assembly rejected those accusations. Among the academicians who prominently defended the Memorandum was General Gojko Nikoliš. As part of the attacks on the Memorandum and SANU, the Serbian leadership initiated the publication in Politika of a highly offensive text about General Nikoliš and his family. This was the humorous piece “Vojko and Savle” published in January 1987. However, such a move was met with public condemnation and criticism from numerous journalists and intellectuals. When conflict erupted in the summer and autumn within Serbia’s ruling circles—during which Slobodan Milošević, President of the Presidency of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Serbia, defeated Ivan Stambolić, President of the Presidency of Serbia—the “humorous piece” was used in the reckoning with Stambolić and his supporters, particularly Dragiša Pavlović, President of the Belgrade City Committee of the League of Communists, under accusations that they had been behind it.