Radoje Pajović

Radoje Pajović
Radoje Pajović
Born	Радоје Пајовић (1934-04-14)April 14, 1934 Drenovštica, Nikšić, Zeta Banovina, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (modern-day Montenegro)
Died	June 2, 2019(2019-06-02) (aged 85)
Nationality	Yugoslav, Montenegrin
Occupation	Historian
Notable work	Kontrarevolucija u Crnoj Gori: četnički i federalistički pokret 1941—1945 Pavle Đurišić: kontroverzni četnički vojvoda Crna Gora kroz istoriju

Radoje Pajović (14 April 1934 2 June 2019) was a Yugoslav and Montenegrin historian who worked at the Institute of History at the University of Montenegro for forty years. Internationally, he has been dubbed "the most prominent historian of the [World War II] period in Montenegro" and one the most prominent Montenegrin historians in general. He received the "13 July Award" from the Parliament of Montenegro and "19 December Award" from the city of Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. His most notable works were Kontrarevolucija u Crnoj Gori: četnički i federalistički pokret 1941—1945 [Counterrevolution in Montenegro: The Chetnik and Federalist Movements 1941–1945] published in 1977, Pavle Đurišić: kontroverzni četnički vojvoda [Pavle Đurišić: Controversial Chetnik Duke], first published in 1987 and then supplemented and expanded and re-published in 2005, and Crna Gora kroz istoriju [Montenegro Through History] also published in 2005. He was the author or co-author of 12 books, and the editor of more than twenty. He was among those Montenegrin historians who refused to engage in historical revisionism to rehabilitate the World War II collaborationist Chetniks, despite this being a trend in the 1990s.

Early life, education and family

Radoje Pajović was born on 14 April 1934 in the village of Drenovštica in the Nikšić municipality of Zeta Banovina in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the son of Ilija and Stana (née Perunović). He did not remember his mother because she died when he was young. His father later married a woman named Ljubica. He completed elementary school in Drenovštica. His family was actively involved in the anti-fascist struggle in Montenegro during World War II, and in his childhood associated himself closely with the movement on an emotional level. He completed high school in Nikšić, then in 1957 commenced studying at the Department of History at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy. He also spent that year working in the archives of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Montenegro, before commencing work the following year at the Institute of History at the Pedagogical College in Cetinje (later Faculty of Philosophy, University of Montenegro). He received his doctorate from the University of Belgrade in 1970.

Pajović married Ljilja, and they had two children: a daughter, Tanja; and a son, Neven. Ljilja died in 2013 and the loss affected him a great deal.

Career

Pajović worked in Institute of History for forty years until his retirement in 1997. As a historian, he mainly concentrated on the modern history of Montenegro, specialising in World War II, for which he was "highly esteemed both at home and abroad". In his later career, he explored the earlier history of Montenegro, including the medieval Duklja state and Zeta province. He authored or co-authored twelve books which have stood the test of time, the most notable of which were Kontrarevolucija u Crnoj Gori: četnički i federalistički pokret 1941—1945 [Counterrevolution in Montenegro: The Chetnik and Federalist Movements 1941–1945] published in 1977, Pavle Đurišić: kontroverzni četnički vojvoda [Pavle Đurišić: Controversial Chetnik Duke], first published in 1987 and then supplemented and expanded and re-published in 2005, and Crna Gora kroz istoriju [Montenegro Through History] also published in 2005. The first two works were especially appreciated in scientific circles. He participated in the writing of the history of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia and the history of the League of Communists of Montenegro, was the president of the Association of Historians of Montenegro and a member of the presidency of the Association of Historians of Yugoslavia. He was also a member of many expert panels, committees and commissions. He was awarded the "13 July Award" for science from the Parliament of Montenegro in 1978. He was awarded the "19 December Award" from the city of Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, and was a member of the Doclean Academy of Sciences and Arts.

He has been praised for his objective writing about collaborationism in Montenegro during World War II without being affected in his research by his family's active involvement in the struggle against fascism. In the 1990s, in the countries that emerged from the dissolution of Yugoslavia, a politically motivated, popular trend in historiography was the historical rehabilitation of World War II figures, who were pro-Nazi/Italian collaborators and were involved in massacres of civilians during the war. According to the Montenegrin historian Živko Andrijašević, Pajović was one of the historians who refused to engage in historical revisionism in favor of the collaborationist Chetniks, despite it being a trend in the 1990s. In the political struggles that followed, he actively opposed to any attempt to rehabilitate the Chetniks, including attempts to erect a monument in honor of Pavle Đurišić, a collaborator with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany who committed many massacres in the Sandzak region of Montenegro. Internationally, Pajović has been acknowledged as the most prominent historian of the events of World War II in Montenegro.

Pajović belonged to a group of Montenegrin historians who consistently advocated for the independence of Montenegro and affirmed Montenegrin ethnicity. He also claimed that historical evidence confirms the existence of an autocephalous Montenegrin Orthodox Church. In January 2019, Pajović stated that Serbian clero-nationalist circles were spreading false information claiming that the human rights of great Serbs in Montenegro were in danger. He accused the same groups of historical revisionism against the anti-fascist struggle in Montenegro and its legacy. The revisionist Serb historian Bojan Dimitrijević claimed that Pajović belongs to a group of Communist Party historians who more than the other members of this group published many detailed works about Chetniks as treacherous counter-revolutionaries, without explaining the causes of the civil war in Montenegro and without presenting information about the communist massacre of prisoners from Montenegro in May 1945. He died on 2 June 2019, and was buried the following day at the Čepurci cemetery in Podgorica.

Legacy

He has been dubbed "the most prominent historian of the WWII period in Montenegro", and one the most prominent Montenegrin historians in general.

Selected bibliography

• Kontrarevolucija u Crnoj Gori: četnički i federalistički pokret 1941—1945 (PDF) (in Serbo-Croatian). Cetinje: Obod. 1977. OCLC 567448476.
• Pavle Đurišić (in Serbo-Croatian). Zagreb, Yugoslavia: Centar za informacije i publicitet. 1987. ISBN 978-86-7125-006-1.
• Pavle Đurišić: kontroverzni četnički vojvoda (in Serbo-Croatian). Grafo Crna Gora. 2005. ISBN 978-86-85499-01-2.
• Crna Gora kroz istoriju. Cetinje, Montenegro: Obod. 2005. OCLC 234157553.

Sources

• Dimitrijević, Bojan (2019). Chetnik Golgotha (in Serbo-Croatian). Vukotić Media. ISBN 978-86-89613-99-5.
• Đureinović, Jelena (2019). The Politics of Memory of the Second World War in Contemporary Serbia: Collaboration, Resistance and Retribution. Milton, UK: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-00-075438-4.
• Miljić, Marijan Mašo (2019). "IN MEMORIAM - Radoje Pajović (1934-2019)". Montenegrin Journal for Social Sciences (1): 159–163. OCLC 1003892306.