Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The concept of a Balkan socialist federation emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century from among left, socialist, and communist political forces in the region. The idea sought to synchronize the strivings of the Balkan people by articulating questions of national liberation with class struggle, anti-imperialism against foreign domination, and the struggle against capitalist exploitation and economic colonization. The central aim was to establish a new political unity: a common federal republic unifying the Balkan Peninsula on the basis of internationalism, political solidarity, and economic equality. The underlying vision was that despite social, economic, and cultural differences among the Balkan peoples, the historical need for emancipation was a common basis for unification. This critical political concept went through three successive historical phases in its development. In the first phase, the idea of the Balkan federation was articulated as a response to the political crisis in the Balkans caused by the collapse of the Ottoman empire at the beginning of the twentieth century – this sequence could be framed between the First Balkan Social Democratic Conference (1910) and the end of World War I. In the second phase, mostly through the interwar period (1919–35), the dream of the Balkan federation was taken up by the Balkan communist parties. The third phase, characterized ... log in or subscribe to read full text