Some History is Best Forgotten
The grudges we bear and the violence they breed
The 2023 French Open kicked off at Rolland Garros last week, and as expected, it was Novak Djokovic who dominated the headlines. However, it was not Djokovic’s quest for a twenty-third major championship - the most in the history of the men’s professional tour - that was the chief subject of attention, but as has so often been the case with the Serbian athlete, it was an off-court controversy that sparked the most interest.
After his first-round victory against the American Aleksandar Kovacevic, Djokovic participated in a traditional victor’s ritual: writing a message on a camera lens with erasable marker. So far, so normal, but what Djokovic wrote was anything but ordinary.
“Kosovo is the [heart symbol] of Serbia. Stop the violence.”
He was referring to the ongoing unrest in the nation of Kosovo, which unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. Recent attempts to install ethnic Albanian officials in areas traditionally populated by ethnic Serbs have led to significant protests, with NATO peacekeepers getting caught in the fray. Serbia has refused to recognize Kosovo’s independence. So, when Djokovic wrote those words, he was stepping into a political minefield.
Djokovic is no stranger to controversy. During the Covid pandemic, he came out as the world’s most prominent anti-vaxxer, choosing to forgo some of the year’s biggest tournaments rather than receiving an immunization. His wife, Jelena Djokovic, seemed to endorse the idea that Covid was caused by the new 5G network, while his father Srdjan Djokovic posed with pro-Putin protesters at the 2023 Australian Open.
It is the last of those incidents that seems to loom largest now, for Serbians and Russians are both Slavic peoples. This Slavic connection was the main reason the old Russian Empire entered World War I: to defend Serbian nationalists against the might of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. More recently, Russia has joined Serbia in its refusal to recognize Kosovo’s independence, and while the Serbian regime has denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Wagner group of mercenary fighters has been heavily recruiting within Serbia.
When pressed to explain his hastily scrawled political sentiment, Djokovic explained that his father was born in Kosovo, so the region holds a special place in his heart. He also noted that ethnic Serbians living in Kosovo are currently facing discrimination, which is true. But his statement that “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia” seemed to clearly indicate that Kosovo is an integral part of Serbia - indeed, that it belongs to Serbia. It is sentimental language in the service of something darker.
At least, that is how it seems to me at a time when another Slavic country has used similar language to defend its military invasion of a smaller neighbor. I recently had the opportunity (misfortune?) of skimming Vladimir Putin’s 2021 article on the history of Ukraine and why it was illegitimately separated from Russia. I skimmed it because it was ridiculously long, managing to go into great detail while simultaneously leaving important things out. Russians trace the foundation of the Rus dynasty to the city of Kyiv, and Putin seems to regard it as the heart of Russia. This is proof of how the kind of language Djokovic has employed can be used to justify tremendous acts of violence.
Consider why Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian population wants to be independent of Serbia. Back in the 1990s, the Serbian government under Slobodan Milosevic carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, hoping to remove the ethnic Albanians in favor of ethnic Serbs. This is what prompted NATO’s intervention in the area. The Serbian government went through some major changes post-Milosevic, and several Serbian officials who had overseen killings in Kosovo, Bosnia, and elsewhere were convicted by the International Criminal Court. In the same week that Djokovic made his statement, two of these men - Jovica Stanišic and Franko Simatovic - had their prison sentences extended.
Therefore, the desire of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo to break free of Serbia is understandable, as is their antipathy toward ethnic Serbians. (I say understandable, but that does not mean it is justifiable.) Equally understandable is why Serbians should feel some antipathy to the Albanians. Like the Bosnians, whom the Serbian government also targeted in the 1990s, the Albanians are generally Muslims: the only Muslims in a region otherwise populated with Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians.
The presence of the Muslim Albanians is a reminder of the many times the Ottoman Turks invaded southeastern Europe, always attempting to expand their empire. When the Turks were finally forced back to the shores of the Bosporus, they left behind people groups who were adherents of Islam. When the great European empires collapsed under the growing weight of nationalist movements, these historic grievances gave way, horrifically but unsurprisingly, to religious tensions.
That is a long story, but the point is this: the words Djokovic wrote on that camera lens were heavily rooted in history. Much as Vladimir Putin can avidly recite centuries worth of grievances, so the Serbs can make a strong case against their neighbors. But in both cases, they are not really analyzing history in all its nuances and complexities: they are constructing a simplified narrative of goodies and baddies, leaving out any pieces of information that might clash with the emotional case they are attempting to build.
The historian Tom Holland has told those of us in The Rest is History Club that it would be better in some cases for people to simply forget certain bits of history - namely, the historic grudges that lead them to commit acts of violence. I believe what Tom is getting at is something I have often observed: knowing much history leads to wisdom, but knowing only a little history is more dangerous than knowing none at all. Those who know only a little history are typically retaining those bits that reinforce their preferred narrative.
Germany in the 1920-40s was destroyed by a partial knowledge of history peppered with an ample helping of outright lies. Many autocratic regimes have come to power by promoting such a partial version of history. Even the United States is suffering greatly from the fact that its two major political parties promote highly partial versions of American history, allowing each one to paint the other as the baddies and themselves as the goodies. One wonders if any of those politicians will one day dare to ask, in the words of that famous Mitchell and Webb sketch, “Are we the baddies?”
But I am sitting on a pretty high horse here. Do I have a proper grasp of history?
I suspect I have a better understanding of history’s nuances than the average person, but that does not make me immune from the flaws common to all humanity. I too am capable of holding a grudge and neglecting those details that conflict with my personal narrative. There are certain things I would be better off forgetting, if such a thing were possible. However, I am not currently planning to take up arms against those I feel have wronged me in the past. In fact, I am striving to forgive, for I know the danger of bitterness.
I have blind spots, and I hope those are revealed to me over time. I suspect that realizing this is a general human tendency is half the battle: if you know your narrative is driving you and is likely based on a partial version of history, then you can perhaps summon the humility to subject your beliefs to rigorous examination. For while most of us will never start a war against our neighbor, we will take vengeance on them in a thousand smaller ways. The sun total of our grudges is greater even than the bitterness of Putin, and certainly as deadly as the pen of a certain tennis player.
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UPDATE: My article on “History as The Long Defeat” is now available on the Mythic Mind community Substack page. You can read it here.
Apologies, friends. It’s Roland Garros, not Rolland Garros, whoever he is.
Also, sum total and not sun total.