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145 CHAPTER FIVE The Preparations for the Great People’s Assembly in Podgorica By the fall of 1918, the Great Powers were in full agreement about the future of the Montenegrin state. The idea of establishing a unitary South Slav state based on the principle of self-determination of “one nation with three names” (Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes) acquired full international support. By late 1918, it was clear that Nikola’s fate as ruler of an independent and sovereign Montenegro had been decided by his former allies and that the political agenda advocated by the Serbian government and the Montenegrin unionists had prevailed. Bearing in mind all of the activities of the Serbian government toward unification , the Great Powers’ support of this concept, and the divided Montenegrin political body, it was unlikely that the tiny kingdom could have influenced the process of South Slav unification in a significant way. The Serbian historian Andrej Mitrović pointed out that from the Serbian perspective the establishment of a unified South Slav state meant “the transformation of the country into a new state.”1 For politicians in Belgrade, the transformation of Serbia into a “new state” and the introduction of the new system of relations represented the positive aspects of Serbia’s power in the region, proper compensation for its war effort, and a reflection of its contribution to the final act of unification. This perception of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Serbian political, military, and economic power behind it made it possible for the ruling political elite in Belgrade to secure primacy when deciding on the nature and the constitutive principles of the future state. For many Serbian politicians and scholars of the period, the new state represented Serbia’s generous gift to other South Slavs living in the region.2 From the Montenegrin perspective, however, the program for unification of the South Slavs looked very different and meant surrendering the country’s statehood and independence, as well as renouncing the Petrović dynasty. The model of the future South Slav state designed by Belgrade and supported by 146 ◆ CHAPTER FIVE the Great Powers did not allow for any expressions (constitutional or otherwise) of Montenegrin distinctiveness. Indeed, the centralized power structure excluded the possibility for any particular region to have autonomy within the new state, so any political manifestation of Montenegro’s former statehood and independence was out of the question. Officials in Belgrade applied the same principle to other nations and ethnic groups living in the territory of the newly formed kingdom. The negative effects of this policy were particularly visible in the region of Kosovo. In order to get around the general obligations of the 1919 Treaty on the Protection of Minorities, the officials of the new state maintained that there was no such thing as an Albanian minority in Kosovo.3 Despite all the efforts of King Nikola and his government to internationalize the question of Montenegrin independence and sovereignty, the Great Powers remained convinced that the issue had to be settled within Serbia as part of the process of the South Slavic unification. Faced with a formidable opposition to the idea of renewing his country’s independence, King Nikola decided to modify his political stand and adopt the Yugoslav rhetoric. His earlier insistence on the preservation of Montenegrin sovereignty and even on the territorial expansion of Montenegro was replaced by his acceptance of a decentralized model for the future state. In his public addresses, Nikola advocated the establishment of “a federal state in which all its constitutive elements would preserve their autonomy.”4 This proposal by the ailing Montenegrin king was in opposition to the unification concept defined by the Corfu Declaration and was contrary to the principles of centralism, which were the main organizational principles of the future South Slav state. On October 7, 1918, Nikola wrote an open letter addressed to all Yugoslavs in which he claimed that his declaration of war on Austria-Hungary in 1914 was the crucial step toward the unification of all Yugoslavs. It is interesting to observe that this open letter to all Yugoslavs indicated yet another political turn because it referred to the future state not as a federation but as a confederation. Brothers! With great enthusiasm, happiness and joy I today solemnly declare my desire—and I am convinced that my loyal Montenegrins share the same desire—that our beloved Montenegro become a...

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