Dobrica Ćosić

Ćosić was born as Dobrosav Ćosić on 29 December 1921 in the Serbian village of Velika Drenova near Trstenik to parents father Žika and mother Milka (d. 15 October 1984). Some sources have incorrectly stated his date of birth as 4 January 1922.

Before the Second World War he was able to attend vocational agriculture school in Valjevo. He joined the communist youth organization in Negotin in 1939. When the Second World War reached Yugoslavia in 1941, he joined the communist Partisans.{{cite book |author= Boško Novaković |editor = Živan Milisavac |date=1971 |title=Jugoslovenski književni leksikon |trans-title=Yugoslav Literary Lexicon |publisher=Matica srpska |language=sh |location= Novi Sad (SAP Vojvodina, SR Serbia) |pages=78–79 }} After the liberation of Belgrade in October 1944, he remained active in communist leadership positions, including work in the Serbian republican Agitation and Propaganda commission and then as a people's representative from his home region. In the early 1950s, he visited the Goli otok political prison, where the Yugoslav authorities imprisoned political opponents of the Communist Party.{{cite book |last1=West |first1=Richard |title=Tito and the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia |date=2012 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-57128-110-7 |page=131 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J34leeCdXFQC&pg=PT131}} Ćosić maintained that he did so in order to better understand the Communist system.{{sfn|Miller|2007|p=98}} Ćosić wrote his first novel Daleko je sunce (The Sun is Far Away) in 1951. The novel was a success and made him popular, launching him into a literary career where he could express his revolutionary ideals.{{sfn|Ognjenović|Jozelic|2016|p=109}} By that time, he had quit working professionally for the Communist Party.{{sfn|Ognjenović|Jozelic|2016|p=109}}

In 1956 he found himself in Budapest during the Hungarian revolt.{{sfn|Ognjenović|Jozelic|2016|p=109}} He arrived there for the meeting of the editors of literary magazines in socialist countries on the day when the revolution started and remained there until October 31 when he was transported back to Belgrade on a plane that brought in Yugoslav Red Cross help. It remains unclear whether this was purely a coincidence or he was sent there as a Yugoslav secret agent. Nevertheless, he even held political speeches in favor of a revolution in Budapest and upon his return he wrote a detailed report on the matter which, by some opinions, greatly affected and shaped firm official Yugoslav view on the whole situation. Parts of his memories and thoughts on the circumstances later will be published under the name Seven Days in Budapest.{{sfn|Ognjenović|Jozelic|2016|p=147}}

In late 1956 Ćosić was chosen to participate in the formation of a new program for the Communist Party. Tito and Edvard Kardelj both picked Ćosić to sit on the committee along with other prominent Yugoslav communists. When it was completed in 1958, Ćosić had claimed that he himself wrote parts of it, including the chapter on "Social-Economic System".{{sfn|Miller|2007|p=87}} Ćosić was concerned about the program's neglect of culture and pressed for more attention to be given to the role of culture in socialism but Kardelj, who was the final arbiter, was unresponsive to these concerns.{{sfn|Miller|2007|p=87}}

Until the early 1960s, Ćosić was devoted to Marshal Tito and his vision of a harmonious Yugoslavia. In 1961, he joined Tito on a 72-day tour by presidential yacht (the Galeb) to visit eight African non-aligned countries.{{sfn|Miller|2007|p=97}} The trip aboard the Galeb highlighted the close, affirmative relationship that Ćosić had with the administration until the early 1960s.

Between 1961 and 1962, Ćosić got involved in a lengthy polemic with the Slovenian intellectual Dušan Pirjevec regarding the relationship between autonomy, nationalism and centralism in Yugoslavia.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aGy3dO_aDisC&pg=PA183| title=State Collapse in South-Eastern Europe: New Perspectives on Yugoslavia's Disintegration|author=Cohen, Lenard J. & Jasna Dragovic-Soso|date=1 October 2007|publisher=Purdue University Press| isbn=9781557534606}} Pirjevec voiced the opinions of the Communist Party of Slovenia which supported a more decentralized development of Yugoslavia with respect for local autonomies, while Ćosić argued for a stronger role of the Federal authorities, warning against the rise of peripheral nationalisms. The polemic, which was the first public and open confrontation of different visions within the Yugoslav Communist Party after World War II, ended with Tito's support of Ćosić's arguments. Nevertheless, actual political measures undertaken after 1962 actually followed the positions voiced by Pirjevec and the Slovenian Communist leadership. Precipitated by a slow economy, opposing sides came to use Ćosić and Pirjevec as proxies in their battles for a competing vision of Yugoslavia in the early to mid-1960s.{{sfn|Miller|2007|p=98}}

As the government gradually decentralized administration of Yugoslavia after 1963, Ćosić grew convinced that the Serbian population of the state was imperiled. In May 1968, he gave a celebrated speech to the Fourteenth Plenum of the Central Committee of the Serbian League of Communists, in which he condemned the then-current nationalities policy in Yugoslavia. He was especially upset at the regime's inclination to grant greater autonomy to Kosovo and Vojvodina. Thereafter he acted as a dissident. In the 1980s, following the death of Tito, Ćosić helped organize and lead a movement whose original goal was to gain equality for Serbia in the Yugoslav federation, but which rapidly became intense and aggressive. He was especially enthusiastic in his advocacy of the rights of the Serb and Montenegrin populations of Kosovo.

Ćosić was a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and is considered by many to have been its most influential member. While Ćosić has been credited with writing the Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, which appeared in unfinished fashion in the Serbian public in 1986, he in fact was not responsible for its writing. In 1989 he endorsed the leadership of Slobodan Milošević, and two years later he helped raise Radovan Karadžić to the leadership of the Bosnian Serbs.{{cite web |title=The Rise and Fall of the 'Butcher of Bosnia' - Transitions Online |url=http://www.tol.org/client/article/19791-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-butcher-of-bosnia.html |website=www.tol.org |date=22 July 2008 |access-date=13 November 2018 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Karadzic: From Dissident Poet to Most Wanted |url=http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/karadzic-from-dissident-poet-to-most-wanted/1458/142 |website=balkaninsight.com |publisher=Balkan Insight |access-date=13 November 2018 |language=en}} When war broke out in 1991, he supported the Serbian effort. In 1992, Ćosić wrote that Bosnia and Herzegovina was a "historical freak" and he considered that with the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the Serbs were forced to find a state-political form of resolving their national question and he supported the idea that all Serbian ethnic areas should become part of the federation of Serbian lands.Safet Bandažović; (2019) Nedovršena prošlost u vrtlozima balkanizacije (in Bosnian) p. 53; Centar za istraživanje moderne i savremene historije, Tuzla [https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=812147]

File:Stevan Kragujevic, Mian Panic i Dobrica Cosic,Skupstina.JPG with Prime Minister of FR Yugoslavia Milan Panić in the Yugoslav parliament building]]

In 1992, he became the president of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which consisted of Serbia and Montenegro. On Eastern Orthodox Christmas Eve of January 1993, Ćosić appeared on Serbian television to warn of demands for “national capitulation” from the West: "If we don't accept, we are going to be put in a concentration camp and face an attack by the most powerful armies of the world". These outside forces, he said, are determined to subordinate "the Serbian people to Muslim hegemony."[https://web.archive.org/web/20090327161459/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,977561,00.html "Serbia's Spite"], Time, 25 January 1993. His support was important in the rise to power of Serbian nationalist leader Slobodan Milošević. Liberal Serbs saw Ćosić as one of the key people behind the Greater Serbia project, an idea pushed forward by Serbian nationalists who wanted to unite Serbia with Serb-populated areas of Croatia and Bosnia.{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-0523-dobrica-cosic-20140523-story.html | title=Dobrica Cosic dies at 92; author and Yugoslavian president |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=May 22, 2014 |date=May 22, 2014 |language=en}} Later, Ćosić turned against Milošević, and was removed from his position for that reason.

In 2000, Ćosić publicly joined Otpor!, an underground anti-Milošević organization.{{cite web |url=https://www.istinomer.rs/clanak/1744/I-Dobrica-Cosic-u-Otporu-6-deo |author=Istinomer.rs |title=I Dobrića Ćosić u Otporu |access-date=2019-03-24 |date=2016-10-17 |language=sr}}

File:Dobrica_Ćosić_2021_stamp_of_Serbia.jpg

In 1947, he married his wife Božica (née Đulaković) (1929–2006), with whom he had a daughter named Dr Ana Ćosić Vukić.{{cite web |url=http://www.politika.rs/sr/clanak/346370/U-radnoj-sobi-Dobrice-Cosica |author=Politika |author-link=Politika |title=U radnoj sobi Dobrice Ćosića |access-date=2019-03-24 |date=2015-12-31 |language=sr}}[https://www.novosti.rs/vesti/kultura.71.html:493220-Dobricini-koreni-dunoko-u-Drenovini "Dobričini koreni duboko u Drenovini"]. Novosti.rs, 25.5.2014.

In 2006, Ćosić received support for his proposal for a partition of Kosovo by Noam Chomsky. In a Serbian television interview, Chomsky was asked what the best solution for Kosovo's final status is. He responded:

My feeling has been for a long time that the only realistic solution is one that in fact was offered by the President of Serbia [i.e. Dobrica Ćosić, then President of Yugoslavia] I think back round 1993, namely some kind of partition, with the Serbian, by now very few Serbs left but the, what were the Serbian areas being part of Serbia and the rest be what they called "independent" which means it'll join Albania. I just don't see…I didn't see any other feasible solution ten years ago.{{cite interview |last=Chomsky |first=Noam |subject-link=Noam Chomsky |interviewer=Danilo Mandic |title=Noam Chomsky about Serbia, Kosovo, Yugoslavia and NATO War |type=8 parts |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9JpEaZ6EU8&t=2m25s&list=PLE39E7DE9EC5F2D06&index=8 |access-date=2020-07-12 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211219/l9JpEaZ6EU8 |archive-date=2021-12-19 |url-status=live |format= |work=YouTube |publisher=RTS Online |date=2006-04-25 |at=pt 8, 2 min, 25 sec}}{{cbignore}}

File:Dobrica Ćosić grave.jpg

File:Dobrica Ćosić street.jpg was named after Ćosić]]

Dobrica Ćosić died on 18 May 2014 in his home in Belgrade at the age of 92.{{cite web |url=https://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2014&mm=05&dd=18&nav_category=12&nav_id=849557 |author=B92 |author-link=B92 |title=Preminuo Dobrica Ćosić |access-date=2018-05-30 |date=2014-05-18 |language=sr}} He was interred in a family plot at the Belgrade New Cemetery next to his wife on 20 May 2014.{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraf.rs/vesti/1080069-u-senci-poplava-sahranjen-dobrica-cosic-foto |author=Telegraf |title=U SENCI POPLAVA: Sahranjen Dobrica Ćosić |access-date=2019-03-24 |date=2014-05-20 |language=sr}}

In March 2019, a street in Belgrade was named after him.{{cite web |url=http://www.politika.rs/sr/clanak/424070/Dobrica-Cosic-i-Milorad-Ekmecic-dobili-ulice-u-Beogradu |author=Politika |author-link=Politika |title=Dobrića Ćosić i Milorad Ekmečić dobili ulice u Beogradu |access-date=2019-03-24 |date=2019-03-04 |language=sr}}

{{colbegin}}

• Dаleko je sunce (1951)
• Koreni (1954)
• Deobe I-III (1961)
• Akcija (1964)
• Bаjkа (1965)
• Odgovornosti (1966)
• Moć i strepnje (1971)
• Vreme smrti I-IV (1972–1979)
• Stvarno i moguće (1982)
• Vreme zlа: Grešnik (1985)
• Vreme zlа: Otpаdnik (1986)
• Mića Popović, vreme, prijatelji (1988)
• Vreme zlа: Vernik (1990)
• Promene (1992)
• Vreme vlаsti 1 (1996)
• Piščevi zаpisi 1951—1968 (2000)
• Piščevi zаpisi 1969—1980 (2001)
• Piščevi zаpisi 1981—1991 (2002)
• Piščevi zаpisi 1992—1993 (2004)
• Srpsko pitаnje I (2002)
• Pisci mogа vekа (2002)
• Srpsko pitanje II (2003)
• Kosovo (2004)
• Prijаtelji (2005)
• Vreme vlаsti 2 (2007)
• Piščevi zаpisi 1993—1999 (2008)
• Piščevi zаpisi 1999—2000: Vreme zmijа (2009)
• Srpsko pitanje u XX veku (2009){{Cite book |last=Ћосић |first=Добрица |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/%D0%A1%D1%80%D0%BF%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE_%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%9A%D0%B5_%D1%83_XX_%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%83.html?id=8eY-AQAAIAAJ |title=Српско питање у XX веку: лична историја једног доба |date=2009 |publisher=Службени гласник |isbn=978-86-519-0371-0 |language=sr}}
• U tuđem veku (2011){{Cite book |last=Ћосић |first=Добрица |url=https://plus.cobiss.net/cobiss/sr/sr/bib/183791116 |title=У туђем веку: лична историја једног доба: од 4. јануара 2000. д0 15. марта 2003. |last2=Ćosić |first2=Dobrica |date=2011 |publisher=Службени гласник |isbn=978-86-519-0768-8 |editor-last=Ћосић-Вукић |editor-first=Ана |series=Библиотека Посебна издања |location=Београд}}
• Prijatelji moga veka (2011){{Cite web |title=ПРИЈАТЕЉИ МОГА ВЕКА {{!}} Службени гласник |url=https://www.slglasnik.com/biblioteka-svedoci-epohe/prijatelji-moga-veka |access-date=2025-01-26 |website=www.slglasnik.com}}
• Bosanski rat (2012){{Cite book |url=https://klubglasnik.com/0acbfa14-7d8e-4941-843f-988bae3a60c1/%D0%91%D0%9E%D0%A1%D0%90%D0%9D%D0%A1%D0%9A%D0%98-%D0%A0%D0%90%D0%A2.aspx |title=Službeni Glasnik {{!}} Klub čitalaca {{!}} Књига {{!}} БОСАНСКИ РАТ}}
• Kosovo 1966-2013 (2013){{Cite web |title=Kosovo 1966-2013 |url=https://vukoticmedia.rs/proizvod/kosovo-1966-2013/ |access-date=2025-02-27 |website=Vukotić Media |language=sr-RS}}
• U tuđem veku 2 (2015){{Cite web |title=U tuđem veku II - Dobrica Ćosić {{!}} Laguna |url=https://www.laguna.rs/n2785_knjiga_u_tudjem_veku_ii_laguna.html |access-date=2025-02-27 |website=www.laguna.rs |language=sr}}
• Knjiga o Titu (2023){{Cite web |title=Knjiga o Titu - Dobrica Ćosić {{!}} Laguna |url=http://www.laguna.rs/n6110_knjiga_knjiga_o_titu_laguna.html |access-date=2024-07-27 |website=www.laguna.rs |language=sr}}

{{colend}}

• Pesnik revolucije na predsedničkom brodu, (1986) - Dаnilo Kiš
• Čovek u svom vremenu: rаzgovori sa Dobricom Ćosićem, (1989) - Slаvoljub Đukić
• Authoritet bez vlаsti, (1993) - prof. dr Svetozаr Stojаnović
• Dobrica Ćosić ili predsednik bez vlаsti, (1993) - Drаgoslаv Rаnčić
• Štа je stvаrno rekаo Dobrica Ćosić, (1995) - Milan Nikolić
• Vreme piscа: životopis Dobrice Ćosićа, (2000) - Rаdovаn Popović
• Lovljenje vetrа, političkа ispovest Dobrice Ćosićа, (2001) - Slаvoljub Đukić
• Zаvičаj i Prerovo Dobrice Ćosićа, (2002) - Boško Ruđinčаnin
• Gang of four, (2005) - Zorаn Ćirić
• Knjigа o Ćosiću, (2005) - Drаgoljub Todorović
• Moj beogradski dnevnik: Susreti i razgovori s Dobricom Ćosićem, 2006–2011, (2013) - Darko Hudelist
• Bosanski rat Dobrice Ćosića (2013) — Muhamed Mujkić{{Cite web |last=www.novimagazin.rs |date=2013-02-21 |title=Popov: Dobrica Ćosić treba da odgovara za rat |url=https://www.novimagazin.rs/vesti/31838-popov-dobrica-cosic-treba-da-odgovara-za-rat |access-date=2024-07-27 |website=Novi magazin |language=sr}}
• Ogledalo Dobrice Ćosića (2014) — Milivoje Pavlović[http://www.politika.rs/rubrike/Srbija/Cosiceve-poruke-iz-boce.sr.html Ćosićeve „poruke iz boce” („Politika“, 26. april 2015)]
• Dominantna i neželjena elita (2015) — Latinka Perović{{Cite news |last=Cvetković |first=Ljudmila |date=2015-06-10 |title=Dominantni i neželjeni: Od Ćosića do Konstatinovića |url=https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/dominantni-i-nezeljeni-od-cosica-do-konstantinovica/27064410.html |access-date=2024-07-27 |work=Radio Slobodna Evropa |language=sh}}
• Dnevnik o Dobrici Ćosiću (2017) — Stojan Berber{{Cite web |title=Дневник о Добрици Ћосићу |url=https://www.prometej.rs/prodavnica/posebna-izdanja/dnevnik-o-dobrici-cosicu/ |access-date=2024-07-27 |website=Прометеј |language=sr-RS}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|first=Nick |last=Miller|title=The Nonconformists: Culture, Politics, and Nationalism in a Serbian Intellectual Circle, 1944-1991|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uCgLcMmhQBAC|year=2007|publisher=Central European University Press|isbn=978-963-9776-13-5}}
• {{cite book |last1=Ognjenović |first1=Gorana |last2=Jozelic |first2=Jasna |title=Titoism, Self-Determination, Nationalism, Cultural Memory: Volume Two, Tito's Yugoslavia, Stories Untold |date=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-13759-747-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V_iODAAAQBAJ }}

{{Commons}}

• {{cite book|author=Slavoljub Đukić|title=Čovek u svom vremenu: razgovori sa Dobricom Čosićem|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JaxKAAAAMAAJ|year=1989|publisher=Filip Višnjić|isbn=9788673630861}}
• {{cite book|author=Jasna Dragović-Soso|title=Saviours of the Nation?: Serbia's Intellectual Opposition and the Revival of Nationalism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ruiZyNgIII8C|year=2002|publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers|isbn=978-1-85065-457-5}}
• {{cite journal|last=Miller|first=Nicholas J.|year=1999|title=The Nonconformists: Dobrica Ćosić and Micá Popović Envision Serbia|journal=Slavic Review|volume=58|issue=3|pages=515–536|doi=10.2307/2697566|jstor=2697566|s2cid=161960476 }}

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{{Succession box|title=President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|before=New title|after=Zoran Lilić|years=1992–1994}}

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{{Succession box|title=Chairperson of the Non-Aligned Movement|years=1992|before= Branko Kostić|after=Suharto}}

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{{President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia}}

{{NAMSecretary-General}}

{{NIN Award winners}}

{{Serbian literature}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cosic, Dobrica}}

Category:1921 births

Category:2014 deaths

Category:People from Trstenik, Serbia

Category:Presidents of Serbia and Montenegro

Category:Serbian political philosophers

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Category:Serbian atheists

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Category:Burials at Belgrade New Cemetery

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