Can one draw a parallel between recent German history and the even more recent history of Serbia?
Many in Serbia consider such comparisons inappropriate and offensive to Serbia and the Serb people, especially when it is said that Serbia too must undergo a process similar to the one through which Germany passed after its defeat in World War II. The fact that you have posed the question to me as a historian also determines my answer. Analogies never hold. I believe we are a specific case, a specific case in Eastern Europe. For it should not be forgotten that, at the start of the crisis of an order that had exhausted itself historically, we effectively underwent a political revolution whose results are still with us. This then leads to the question of whether a comparison can be made with Germany. We would simply be comparing things of a different order. Everything depends on the size of a nation. In a small nation dictatorship burns up everything, whereas in a large one something is saved. Think of the Russians in the 20th century. The German nation too is a large nation, and its cas
