Frantisek Sistek

František Šístek, "Monuments and Commemorations of Fallen Soldiers from the First World War in Montenegro, 1918-1941", In: Božidar Jezernik - Vijoleta Herman Kaurić - Lijljana Dobrovšak (eds.), Commemorating the First World War in Former Yugoslavia, Ljubljana: Ljubljana University Press, 2023, pp. 117-146

REFERENCE: František Šístek, "The Jews in the Bay of Kotor and the Montenegrin Littoral from the Middle Ages until 1918", LINGUA MONTENEGRINA, vol. XVI/2, nr. 32, Cetinje, 2023, pp. 273-296. ABSTRACT:
The article provides a historical overview of the Jewish presence in the Bay of Kotor and the Montenegrin Littoral from the Middle Ages until 1918. The author first discusses the traces of Jewish presence in available sources from the medieval period and Venetian times. He also mentions the little researched history of the Jewish settlement under Ottoman dominance in the northwestern part of the Bay. Most attention is devoted to the better documented presence of the Jews during the Habsburg rule (1815-1918). Migrations from other parts of the Habsburg Empire led to the establishment of a continuous Jewish settlement and a permanent Jewish community, numbering over a hundred people before the First World War.

František ŠÍSTEK
THE FATE OF THE JEWS IN MONTENEGRO DURING WORLD
WAR II: FROM THE OCCUPATION OF YUGOSLAVIA UNTIL THE
CAPITULATION OF ITALY (APRIL 1941 – SEPTEMBER 1943)
The article focuses on the fate of the Jews in Montenegro during the
Italian occupation in World War II (april 1941 – september 1943), mostly refugees from Serbia, Bosnia and other regions of occupied and dismembered
Yugoslavia. As part of the first wave of refugees from the spring of 1941, several hundred Jews found their way to the Bay of Kotor and the Montenegrin
Coast. After the outbreak of the Thirteenth July Uprising of the Montenegrin
people, Italian occupation authorities arrested most Jewish refugees (192) and
deported them to concentration camps in Albania and later Italy. After the
Thirteenth July Uprising, smaller groups of Jews continued to seek refuge
in Montenegro. The Italian occupation authorities tolerated their presence
and even provided them with help at occasions. At the same time, some Jews
were actively involved in the anti-occupation struggle in Montenegro in the
ranks of the Communist-led partisan forces. Using little known, dispersed and
fragmentary sources and testimonies, the author attempts to reconstruct the
typical refugee trajectories and shed more light on the individual destinies of
Jews hiding in Montenegro. Most Jews indeed managed to find a safer refuge
in Montenegro during the Italian occupation. However, many of them became
victims of the Holocaust during the subsequent period of German occupation
(1943–1944).

REFERENCE: František Šístek, Zemlja bez Jevreja? Crna Gora i Jevreji prije 1918, In: Lingua montenegrina, god. XV/2, br. 30, Cetinje, 2022, pp. 371-395.  ABSTRACT: The article tackles the question of possible Jewish presence in Montenegro before 1918. It is the first scholarly study on the topic. The introductory part summarizes the results of previous research on the presence of the Jews in the Bay of Cattaro (Boka Kotorska) and Montenegrin Littoral (Crnogorsko Primorje). Before 1918, this stretch of Adriatic coast, neighboring the independent principality / kingdom of Montenegro, belonged to the Republic of Venice and later the Habsburg Empire. However, the region maintained multiple lively links with Montenegro. Since the early 19th century until 1918, a small but steadily growing number of Jews (6 in 1811, 124 in 1910) lived in Kotor and other seaside towns. The main part of the text is dedicated to the territory of Montenegro in its pre-1918 frontiers. The research of a wide range of available sources – Montenegrin population censuses, official documents, period press as well as travelogues and other testimonies by foreign visitors – has reavealed no mentions of Jews living in Montenegro proper. However, some Montenegrins did come into contact with the Jews beyond the borders of their homeland. The author then analyzes Jewish traces (including false traces) in Montenegrin toponomy, surnames and folk legends. He highlights the fact that there were no legal restrictions which would prevent Jews from settling in Montenegro or potentially hinder their religious rights. The country was also free of antisemitic prejudice, discourse and politics. The main reasons which prevented the influx of Jews into Montenegro in search of professional opportunities were insecurity (until 1878–80, Montenegrins were frequently engaged in wars and local conflicts with the Ottomans and their Muslim neighbors) and limited possibilities for economic and social advancement in this tiny and underdeveloped land. In the last part of the article, the author pays attention to the Sandžak, continental region with a longer Ottoman past, divided between Montenegro and Serbia only after the Balkan Wars of 1912–13.

RERERENCE: František Šístek, "Lažni Mesije" u Alkumu: ovozemaljski i zagrobni život Šabtaja Cvi u Ulcinju (1673-2022), In: Lingua Montenegrina, g. XV/1, br. 29, Cetinje, 2022, pp. 267-294.

ABSTRACT
"The False Messiah" in Alkum. The Earthly Life & Afterlife of Sabbatai Zevi in Ulcinj (1673-2022)

The article, based on a combination of historical documents, secondary literature and results of field research, focuses on the stay of the "false" or "mystical" messiah Sabbatai Zevi (1673-76) in Ulcinj (Alkum). In the second part of the study, the author discusses possible material traces, places of memory and local traditions related to this enigmatic personality of Jewish history in contemporary Ulcinj, Montenegro. The self-proclaimed messiah Sabbatai Zevi (after his conversion to Islam in 1666 officially known as Aziz Mehmed) lived in the fortress of Ulcinj in the old town, the place of his banishment by Ottoman authorities. He received visitors, maintained contacts with his followers, became a widower, re-married, died and was burried in Ulcinj. For several centuries, his alleged grave represented a discreet place of pilgrimage for his crypto-Jewish followers (dönme). Today, the exact location of his final resting place cannot be established with certainty but it is most often identified with the turbe (Muslim grave) of a holy man known as Murat Dadaj located on a private land owned by an Albanian Muslim family. The author presents a hypothesis, based on a local oral tradition, that a small dönme community might have once existed or exists even today in Ulcinj. Its members could have served as guardians of Sabbatai´s grave. The author further discusses the possible traces of Sabbatai´s presence in the Balšić Tower (Kula Balšića). Finally, he reconstructs the circumstances surrounding the erection of the statue of Sabbatai Zevi in Ulcinj in 2020 which has been serving as a new place of memory as well as a new tourist attraction. 

Keywords: Sabbatai Zevi; Ulcinj; Jews; Albanians; Montenegro; Judaism; Islam; dönme; pilgrimage; places of memory

“IN OUR HOME, WE ALWAYS FELT THE SMELL OF AUSCHWITZ“. Interview with Jaša Alfandari (1946-2018), Founder and First Chairman of the Jewish Community of Montenegro

This text represents a central part of a semi-structured interview with Jaša Alfandari (1946-2018), founder and first chairman of the Jewish Community of Montenegro, conducted by the author on November 22, 2017. This is one of the last interviews with J. Alfandari, who died several months later, on July 12, 2018. To author´s knowledge, it is also the only semi-structured interview conducted with this important personality of post-referendum Montenegro and post-socialist Balkan Jewish life for scholarly purposes, folowing methodological principles used in social and cultural anthropology. The interview includes autobiographic elements of a representative of the first post-holocaust generation, reflections of Jewish identity and holocaust memory as well as his personal version of the story of the birth and first years of existence of the Jewish Community of Montenegro, founded in 2011.

THE JEWS IN MONTENEGRO IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD (1918-1941)

The main aim of this paper is to provide the first overview of Jewish presence in Montenegro in the interwar period (1918-1941). According to official statistics, there were 35 (1921) – 56 (1931) Jews living on the territory of present-day Montenegro, then part of royal Yugoslavia. Most Jews came during the observed period from other parts of Yugoslavia, usually for professional reasons. In the Bay of Kotor on the Adriatic coast, we also find descendants of Jewish families who settled in the area in the 19th century under the Habsburg empire. Apart from a comparative analysis of available demographic data, the article also focuses on the question of religious jurisdiction over the territorially dispersed Jews of Montenegro, who were considered as members of the Dubrovnik Jewish community. In the final section, the paper discusses the professional and life trajectories of several Jewish men and women who lived in Montenegro in the interwar period and left some traces in historical sources. 

Keywords: Jews; Montenegro; interwar period 1918-1941; demography; Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes; Yugoslavia; religious and national minorities; Judaism

František Šístek, "Biblioteka XX vek, c'est moi", In: Dubravka Stojanović (ur.), Pola veka XX veka, Beograd: Biblioteka XX vek 2021, pp. 164-171.

Essay in honor of the 50th anniversary of "Biblioteka XX vek", leading edition of scholarly literature in the field of social sciences in Serbia and former Yugoslavia, founded by political anthropologist Ivan Čolović.

REFERENCE: František Šístek, Prikazi i reinterpretacije Sarajevskog atentata u javnom diskursu u Češkoj, In: Dževad Juzbašić - Zijad Šehić (ur.): Prilozi o historiografiji o Bosni i Hercegovini (2001-2017), Sarajevo: ANUBiH 2020,  pp. 219-243.

SUMMARY
REPRESENTATIONS AND REINTERPRETATIONS OF THE SARAJEVO ASSASSINATION IN CZECH PUBLIC DISCOURSE
Analysis of the representations and reinterpretations of the Sarajevo assassination amid the centenary of the First World War revealed a diverse range of different, sometimes directly opposed, opinions that coexist in contemporary Czech public discourse. We can designate a large part of them, especially in the internet discourse and in the media, for the selective bricolage of historical facts, narratives, misconceptions and prejudices. Different memories of the Sarajevo assassination, its key participants and witnesses reflect the significant ideological plurality of present-day Czech society, as well as the selective interpretation and instrumentalization of modern history in favour of achieving contemporary goals in various spheres (domestic and international politics, tourism, etc.). Many of the interpretations and ideological conflicts we reconstructed on the basis of Czech materials certainly sound familiar to anyone familiar with similar discourses and debates on the Sarajevo assassination which are periodically led in other countries of Central and Southeastern Europe, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia or Austria. In the widespread  laymen  understanding  that  we  can  often  encounter,  especially  in  the  former Yugoslavia, many of the conceptualizations that occur more frequently with regard to interpretations of the Sarajevo assassination are often understood practically as collective and almost predictable attitudes of particular nations. In the “Serb” discourse, Princip’s actions are usually celebrated, endorsed and justified, while in the “Bosniak” and “Croat” (but also “Austrian”) discourse, the assassination is problematized or completely renounced as the act of a nationalistic terrorist. Examples of Czech representations and reinterpretations have shown that, despite the occasional “national colouring”, these are in fact transnational dis-courses. Their Czech variations obviously owe their origin to specific ideological and politi-cal beliefs typical of many other Czech debates about modern history, such as “pro-Western” or “pro-Russian” orientation, “cosmopolitanism” or “Slavdom and nationalism”. In some cases, they obviously draw from discursive arsenals from the deeper past (monarchism, pro-Habsburg loyalism, anti-Habsburg ideology of interwar Czechoslovakia, Pan-Slavism, etc.) or other areas (influence of South Slavic, especially Serbian nationalist interpretations). In the narratives of Sarajevo Assasination, special attention has been paid to individual par-ticipants of the event. One hundred years since the assasination, most attention has been focused on key personalities whose representations have been at the center of this work. An important factor which has contributed to long-term reproduction and reinterpretation of the Sarajevo Assasination in Czech society is the fact that the main participants of this event can be linked with generally well-known places of memory (lieux de mémoire) found on the ter-ritory of the present-day Czech Republic (archduke’s chateau of Konopiště, Princip’s prison cell in Terezín, Lojka’s grave in Brno, the memorial fountain of Sofia Chotek in Prague). In the case of Lojka’s renovated grave and the fountain of Sofia Chotek, these are recently established places of memory (2014 and 2018). This fact further confirms that the Sarajevo Assasination and personalities linked with this important event in the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Europe and the world still attract attention of the Czech public.

CLERICALIZATION OF NATIONALISM /Interpreting the Religious Rivalry Between Serbian and Montenegrin Orthodox Churches, 1989-2009/. This paper provides an overview of the dispute over the status of the Christian Orthodox Church in Montenegro after the break-up of Yugoslavia and the ongoing struggle of both churches for power, influence, political support, spiritual hegemony, places of worship and souls.  In the first section, the two mutually exclusive narratives of history and identity promoted by the rival churches are analyzed and compared with attention to contested periods and issues (such as the key issue of the status of the Orthodox church in Montenegro before 1918) which are interpreted in different ways by both churches and their sympathizers. The second part deals with the wider political and intellectual context during the break-up of Yugoslavia and tries to reconstruct the chain of events at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s which culminated by the establishment of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church in 1993. The following section analyzes the protracted dispute between the two rival churches and their followers since the mid-1990s until the first years after the proclamation of Montenegro's independence in 2006. Two specific issues are discussed in the next two sections: the bitter struggle for the control of places of worship and the problem of alterations, appropriations and re-traditionalization of historical heritage (such as controversial reconstructions of monasteries), conducted largely by the Serbian Orthodox Church. The conclusion provides a summary of the state of the religious rivalry in post-independence Montenegro, which can be best described as a dead-lock, as well as future prospects of both churches in the wider context of Montenegrin political landscape.

REFERENCE: František Šístek, Klerikalizacija nacionalizma, In: Matica, vol. XXI, nr. 81, proljeće 2020, pp. 89-140.  Tema broja: Država i crkva, ur. Marko Špadijer.

First published as "Klerikalizacija nacionalizma. Tumačenje vjerskog rivalstva između Srpske i Crnogorske pravoslavne crkve, 1989-2010," In: František Šístek: Narativi o identitetu. Izabrane studije o crnogorskoj istoriji. Podgorica: Matica crnogorska 2015, pp. 145-202.

"The Greatest Hero of the Land of Heroes": Prague Representations of Marko Miljanov

The contribution is devoted to the representations of Marko Miljanov (1833–1901), chieftain of the Kuči tribe from the present-day Montenegrin-Albanian borderland, general and writer. The author borrows his approach from transnational history. Miljanov has been traditionally regarded as the most exemplary epitome of  “Montenegrin humanism and heroism“ (čojstvo i junaštvo). At the same time, he has also been appropriated as a figure of the wider Serb national pantheon on (disputed) ethnic grounds. In the Albanian milieu, he is perceived with ambivalence: as a war enemy of Albanian national aspirations but also as a friend of Albanians and occassionally even as an ethnic Albanian. The author underlines the fact that Prague in the late 19th and the first half of the 20th century represented the most important center of the cult of Marko Miljanov beyond the Balkans. Czech Slavophiles, especially the writer, journalist and translator Josef Holeček (1853–1929), presented a highly idealized image of Marko Miljanov from the 1880s onwards. In 1912, the representations of Miljanov as an examplary Slavic warrior and humanist influenced the early ideological foundations of the Czech Scout movement (Junák). In the 1930s and 1940s, the deeds and virtues of Miljanov found another respected admirer and interpreter – the leading German Slavicist Gerhard Gesemann (1888–1948), professor at the German University of Prague in the interwar period. After the Second World War, the representations of Miljanov´s life, virtues and ideas encountered in the works of Prague authors writing in both Czech and German provide a good example of a process known as „repatriation of a cultural transfer“ in the jargon of transnational history, largely thanks to modern translations of these literary and scholarly works into South Slavic languages.

REFERENCE
Najveći junak zemlje junaka: praške predstave lika Marka Miljanova, In: Novica Vujović (ur.), Cetinjski filološki dani I., Cetinje: Fakultet za crnogorski jezik i književnost 2018, pp. 95-117.

The chapter provides a survey of Czech-Montenegrin relations (especially in the fields of politics, culture, and science) since the 19th century until present. 
REFERENCE: František Šístek, Czech-Montenegrin Relations, In: Ladislav Hladký et al., Czech Relations with the Nations and Countries of Southeastern Europe, Zagreb: Srednja Europa 2019, pp. 141-164.

The article provides an overview of the image of Montenegro after the renewal of independence in the Czech Republic (2006-2017). It focuses especially on the state and national identity of Montenegro, representations of the country as a tourist destination, and Montenegrin culture. REFERENCE: František Šístek, "Das Bild von Montenegro in der Tschechischen Republik nach der Erneuerung der Unabhängigkeit (2006-2017)", In: Macht der Kultur. Politik der staatlichen und kulturellen Identität im Kontext zeitgenössischer internationaler Beziehungen, Podgorica: Kulturministerium Montenegros, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung 2019, pp. 79-92.

The article focuses on the memory of the period 1914–1916 in Montenegro (from the Sarajevo assassination and outbreak of war up to the occupation of Montenegro by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in January 1916) and on two competing (Serbian and Montenegrin) national narratives about the First World War.

Keywords: First World War, Montenegro, narrative, Serbia, memory, discourse.

REFERENCE: František Šístek, "The Contested Memory of the First World War in Montenegro," In: Traditiones, vol. 47, nr. 1, 2018, Cultural Heritage of the Great War / Kulturna dediščina prve svetovne vojne, eds. Božidar Jezernik – Jurij Fikfak, pp. 63-86.

REFERENCE: František Šístek, "Diskurzy o příčinách násilí na moderním Balkáně", In Bedřich Loewenstein - Milan Hlavačka - František Šístek (eds.), Násilí: jiná moderna (Violence: Another Modernity), Praha: Historický ústav 2017, pp. 89-114.

SUMMARY:
Since the 19th century, the Balkans have often been conceptualized as an area where different forms of violence are deeply rooted, more prevalent and even expressed in more ferocious ways than in the supposedly “culturally more advanced” and “civilized” areas of Central and Western Europe. These discourses provide an interesting case of spatialization of violence, attributed to populations which inhabit a specific area. This chapter provides an overview and critical assessment of several types of discourses which link the Balkans with violence and provide different answers to its causes. The author first discusses the stereotypical discourse about the Balkans as an area predetermined to violence by “ancient hatreds” of local populations. This notion represents an important segment of the discourse of “balkanism”, most thoroughly deconstructed and convincingly refuted by Maria Todorova in her book Imagining the Balkans (1997), arguably the most influential work in Balkan studies after 1989. Some authors have also attributed the alleged proclivity to violent behavior to specific “Balkan mentality” and psychological factors. Another current of thought, which evolves around the dichotomy of tradition and modernity, has been far more influential and respectable than the first two in recent decades. Some authors who subscribe to this notion link the causes of violence to the survival of “archaism” and “tradition”. Others are, on the other hand, convinced that violence is a result of modernization and Europeanization, e. g. spread of modern nationalist ideas with their stress on nation states, ethnic homogeneity etc. Both views are based on the shared idea that violence somehow goes hand in hand with modernity. Since the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, “nationalism” has been most often identified as the main culprit for different manifestations of violence in the modern Balkans. After 1989, the idea that religion (disguised as “civilization”, rooted in particular religious foundations) can in fact represent the main driving force of violence in the Balkans has also reappeared, most notably in Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations (1994). Last but not least, some authors have attributed high proclivity to violence to particular social groups. This approach, which has been widespread in popular discourses in the region itself, usually evolves around perceived dichotomies: urban/rural, highlanders/lowlanders etc. In the recent 25 years, the dubious roots of the notion of a “specifically Balkan type of violence” have been thoroughly examined, deconstructed and largely refuted in academic studies of the region.

REFERENCE: František Šístek, "Rat, identitet i egzil u djelu Raymonda Rehnicera", In: Prilozi 45, Univerzitet u Sarajevu - Institut za historiju, Sarajevo, 2016, pp. 315-337.

ABSTRACT:
WAR, IDENTITY AND EXILE IN THE WORKS OF RAYMOND REHNICER

The paper represents a discursive analysis of several recurrent topics in the texts of Raymond Rehnicer (1942-1998). In the spring of 1992, Rehnicer, professor of urbanism and architecture at the University of Sarajevo, found himself trapped in Grbavica, a quarter occupied by Bosnian Serb forces and cut from the rest of Sarajevo by frontlines. He managed to leave the city in the fall of that year in a convoy, composed of Jewish refugees and their family members of various nationalities. The convoy was organized by Rehnicer himself. He spent the rest of his life in exile in Prague, while also teaching at the University of Vienna. Rehnicer´s literary oeuvre consists of two primarily essayist books: Grass and Elephants (published in Czech and French in 1993), a combination of essays and a war diary, and a collection of essays and other texts entitled The Unbearable Lightness of Modernity (published posthumously in Czech in 1999 and Serbo-Croatian in 2004). The author focuses on Rehnicer´s explanations of the causes of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (located primarily beyond the usual nationalism-centered explanations), elaborations of the perceived urban/rural and lowlander/highlander dichotomy, the evolution and role of Rehnicer´s own Jewish identity after the outbreak of the war, his personal experience of exile and, finally, his meditations on Central Europe and multiculturalism.

Český podíl na procesu modernizace jihovýchodní Evropy (Czech Contribution to the Process of Modernization in Southeastern Europe).

The chapter, part of a collective monograph dedicated to multiple transformations and modernization of Czech society in the 19th century (2 volumes), focuses on various contributions of the Czechs and other inhabitants of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown to the process of modernization in Southeastern Europe. It focuses on the lands belonging to the Habsburg monarchy (e. g. Croatia, Dalmatia, Bosnia...) as well as the newly independent Balkan national states (especially Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro).   

REFERENCE: František Šístek, "Český podíl na procesu modernizace jihovýchodní Evropy," In: Milan Hlavačka a kol., České země v 19. století. Proměny společnosti v moderní době, II. díl, Praha: Historický ústav 2014, pp. 355-372.

Reference: "Obraz Balkánu v českých internetových cestopisech", In: Lidé města (revue pro antropologii, etnologii a etologii komunikace), vol. 16, nr. 2/2005, pp. 43-61.

SUMMARY:

Internet travelogues are very popular with Czech users of the World Wide Web and their number is constantly growing. Czech internet travelogues dedicated to the Balkans constitute an interesting and yet unexplored sources of images of the other, stereotypes and mental maps. The form of these travelogues varies from short descriptions of the trip accompanied by several pictures to extensive accounts of the journey, often based on personal diaries. The identity of the authors and participants is sometimes impossible to establish since they frequently use only their nicknames and do not provide sufficient personal information. However, it is more or less evident that most authors are young people aged 20-29, often college students or just out of school. Most internet travelogues analyzed for this survey identify Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia as countries that constitute the region of the Balkans. Greece and Croatia are not regarded as Balkan countries. Instead, they are viewed as typical destinations of Mediterranean summer tourism. The Balkans means much more than a simple geographic term. The terms Balkans (Balkán) and Balkanic (balkánský) as found throughout the analyzed travelogues signify something dangerous, wild, unpredictable, chaotic, absurd, and disorderly. These meanings are not necessarily negative - for many young Czech authors of the travelogues, the characterization of the Balkans as a wild and unpredictable place is in fact quite attractive. The Balkans is also associated with images of poverty, negligence, and visible reminders of the Yugoslav wars in the western part of the peninsula. However, signs of modernization and development can be described as Balkanic, too. The encounter with modernization in the supposedly wild and backward region is often regarded as something absurd - and absurdity is another notion strongly associated with the Balkans by many Czechs. Most travelogues are dedicated to Romania, Bulgaria and Montenegro. Visitors of these lands are attracted by a combination of wild and relatively unspoiled mountains, historical sights (monasteries, old towns...) and the Black Sea or the Adriatic beaches. Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia have received a more limited attention. These landlocked countries are often closely associated with the images of recent military conflicts. Until recently, the visa regime also made these countries less attractive than the first three for Czech tourists. Albania is definitely viewed as a symbolic heart of the Balkans, a little-known, exotic and dangerous land. For many visitors, however, a trip to Albania was a disappointment in the end  - the country failed to match their highly romantic or negative expectations and turned out to be "too normal" in their eyes.

"Crnogorski Muslimani u radovima Josefa Holečeka", In: Almanah, nr. 15-16, Podgorica 2001, pp. 61-70.

The paper analyzes the ambigous representations of Slavic Muslims living in Montenegro in the travelogues, short stories and other texts written by Josef Holeček (1853-1929), prolific Czech writer, journalist and translator who dedicated much of his oeuvre to the South Slavs.

Background paper presented at a workshop in Budva, January 25, 2002, organized by the European Center for Minority Issues. The paper attempts to identify the principal groups which would be most affected by the possible severance of the freedom of movement between Serbia and Montenegro (still part of the common federal state at the time of writing), the most common threats and fears instrumentalized by the political forces which exploited the issue of the freedom of movement in the debates about the future nature of relations between Serbia and Montenegro as well as the principal groups responsible for raising the tensions. 

REFERENCE:
Frantisek Sistek and Bohdana Dimitrovova, "The Free Movement Between Serbia and Montenegro and its Political Exploitation," In: Florian Bieber (ed.): Negotiation and Capacity Building in Montenegro, Workshop 2: “Freedom of Movement“, Budva, 25 January 2002, Flensburg: European Centre for Minority Issues 2002, pp. 28-38.

Marko Miljanov: kult hrdiny v perspektivě transnacionální historie, In: Dana Bittnerová – Mirjam Moravcová (eds.), Etnické komunity - Hrdinové, šibalové, antagonisté Balkánu, Praha: FHS UK 2017,  pp. 111-172.
SUMMARY: Marko Miljanov: A Hero Cult from the Perspective of Transnational History. The contribution is devoted to the cult of Marko Miljanov (1833-1901), chieftain of the Kuči tribe from the present-day Montenegrin-Albanian borderland, general and writer, traditionally considered as an an epitome of "Montenegrin heroism" (crnogorsko junaštvo). It will primarily focus on the process of establishment of his cult from the perspective of transnational history. Miljanov is primarily a Montenegrin hero, but is also included in the imaginary Serb national pantheon. The image of Miljanov in the Albanian milieu is more ambivalent. Miljanov can be represented as a military foe of the Albanians, but also as their greatest friend among the South Slavs and sometimes even as a person of Albanian ethnic origin. The genesis of the cult of Marko Miljanov as a great hero and exemplary human being has a Prague context as well.  Czech Slavophiles, especially the writer, journalist and translator Josef Holeček, contributed to his glorification already during Miljanov´s lifetime in the 1880s and 1890s. In the 1930s and 1940s, the stories about Miljanov as well as his own writings attracted the attention of the leading German Slavicist Gerhard Gesemann, who taught at the German University in Prague at the time.  In Montenegro itself, the memory of Marko Miljanov was appropriated and instrumentalized by all political regimes throughout the 20th and 21st century. In recent years, Miljanov has been reinterpreted as an advocate of multiethnic coexistence of the South Slavs and Albanians. At the same time, critical efforts to deconstruct his cult have also appeared, especially among historians and contemporary writers.

Bitva u Mojkovce 1916-2106: narativy o první světové válce v Černé Hoře, In: Václav Štěpánek – Jiří Mitáček (eds.), Studia balkanica Bohemo-slovaca VII. Příspěvky přednesené na VII. mezinárodním balkanistickém sympoziu v Brně ve dnech 28.-29. listopadu 2016, Brno: Moravské zemské muzeum, Ústav slavistiky FF MU 2017,  pp.  257-272.

SUMMARY: "The Battle of Mojkovac, 1916-2016: Narratives of the First World War in Montenegro". The contribution focuses on the narratives of the First World War in Montenegro, their transformations and appropriations. It primarily deals with the memory of the period between the Sarajevo assassination in June 1914 and the occupation of Montenegro by the Austro-Hungarian army in January 1916 researched at the time of the centenary commemorations in 2014-2016. Three events have assumed central position in contemporary narratives: Montenegro´s entry into war in 1914, the battle of Mojkovac (January 1916) and the sinking of the boat Brindisi, carrying Montenegrin volunteers from Northern America (January 1916). During the centenary of these events, the battle of Mojkovac assumed the most prominent position in the politics of memory of the First World War in Montenegro. The narratives of the First World War have been affected by the existence of two competing discourses of national identity and history within Montenegro: the ethnically Montenegrin perspective, stressing the perceived national specificity of the Montenegrins and tradition of independent statehood as opposed to ethnically Serb perspective, stressing the perceived Serb identity of the Montenegrins, the importance of their links with Serbia and adherence to Serbian Orthodox Church. The question of Montenegro´s membership in NATO and strained relations between Podgorica and Moscow also left their imprint on competing narratives of the First World War.

Michal Mareš u ratu poslije rata (1945.-1947.): intelektualni otpor izgonu sudetskih Nijemaca, In: Drago Roksandić, Ivana Cvijić Javorina (eds.): Intelektualci i rat 1939.-1947. Zbornik radova s međunarodnog skupa Desničini susreti 2012, dio 2, Zagreb: Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu 2013, pp. 459-473.

SUMMARY: "Opposing the Post-war Expulsion of the Sudeten Germans from Czechoslovakia: The Case of Michal Mareš".

The expulsion of the large Sudeten German minority from Czechoslovakia after World War II has been an important topic in Czech historiography of the post-Communist period. One interesting aspect of this wide and complex set of problems concerns the way in which the ethnic Czechs reacted to the expulsion. Despite the apparent national consensus that the "ethnic unmixing" and "collective transfer" of the German minority represents the only possible solution for the long-term Czech-German national antagonism, aggravated by the Nazi occupation to the point where further coexistence of the two ethnic groups in one land seemed impossible, some Czech intellectuals already criticized certain aspects of the expulsion immediately after the war. This paper focuses on the personality and discourse of Michal Mareš (1893-1971), left-wing (anarchist) writer and journalist, who systematically criticized the post-war mismanagement of the Czech border areas in the independent weekly Dnešek, pointed out the crimes comitted against members of the German minority and openly questioned the extent and rationality of the near-complete expulsion undertaken by Czechoslovak authorities between 1945 and 1947. In his articles, Mareš portrayed ordinary Sudeten Germans as decent, dilligent workers and farmers whose deportation was not politically justified and could cause serious economic and demographic problems. Mareš faced heavy backlash over a series of his articles published in the Dnešek, especially in Communist-controlled press. In the fall of 1946, he was expelled from the Communist party and faced a trial for alleged defamation of the police forces in his texts. The trial, as well as his previous articles, attracted great public attention. In the summer of 1947, Mareš was finally acquitted of all charges. However, after the final Communist takeover in February 1948, the journalist was soon arrested and tried again. This time, he was sentenced to seven years in prison and a loss of civil rights for 10 years. After his release in 1955, Mareš spent the rest of his life in poverty. His role has been reassesed and his post-war writings and memoirs published only after 1989. From today´s perspective, it is evident that Michal Mareš was the most systematic and outspoken Czech opponent of the expulsion of the Sudeten German minority in the immediate post-war period. Out of a handful of intellectual critics of the expulsion and its methods, he also paid the heaviest price for his courageous and humane reporting.

Češki pisac i novinar Josef Holeček: kritički pogled na austro-ugarsku okupaciju Bosne i Hercegovine, In: Zijad Šehić et al. (eds.): Bosna i Hercegovina u okviru Austro-Ugarske, Sarajevo:  Sarajevski univerzitet 2011, pp.  333-348.

The article analyzes the critical views of Czech writer and journalist Josef Holeček (1853-1929) who opposed the occupation and later annexation of Bosnia and Hercegovina by the Habsburg monarchy. The author argues that his opposition to the Austro-Hungarian presence and the involvement of Great Powers in Balkan affairs in general was decisively influenced by Holeček´s initial experience as the only foreign correspondent who covered the Montenegrin military advance into Hercegovina in 1876 and by his pro-Montenegrin sympathies.

L'image romantique des Monténégrins dans la culture tchèque aux 19e et 20e siècles, In: Igor Tchoukarine (dir.): Entre mythe et réalité: les relations culturelles et politiques entre Tchèques et Slaves du Sud de l´Ex-Yougoslavie aux 19e et 20e siècles, Etudes du CEFRES, N° 11, Prague, Septembre 2008, pp. 9 – 22.


The article focuses on the long-term production of romantic representations of the Montenegrins, usually conceptualized as heroic Slavic warriors who managed to preserve their national identity, mentality and folk culture despite centuries of constant struggles with the mightier Turks, in Czech culture of the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.

Discourse on History and National Identity in Montenegro in the First Decade after ther Renewal of Independence (2006-2016).

The paper focuses on the discourse about history and national identity in Montenegro in the first decade after the re-establishment of independence in 2006. In the first section, the author pays attention to the increased role played by the period of the medieval state of Duklja (10th - 12th century) in the narratives of Montenegrin independence and specificity. The subsequent section represents a short overview of the role of the period of Ottoman rule and Montenegrin attempts to break free from the Ottoman empire from the 17th to the 19th century in contemporary discourses.  Special attention is devoted to the personality of Petar II Petrović Njegoš, Montenegrin ruler and poet from the first half of the 19th century. His central role in Montenegrin narratives of history and identity was repeatedly confirmed during the bicentenary of his birth in 2013. In fact, Njegoš is often presented as an arbiter of identity whose opinions are still relevant, even binding today. In contrast to Njegoš, who is almost universally revered by both ethnic Montenegrins and Serbs, the re-examination of the role of Prince (later King) Nikola I Petrović Njegoš has taken a form of more moderate commemorations and critical discussions which have been markedly less emotional. In the following section dealing with the end of Montenegro´s independence in 1918, the unification with Serbia and the State of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and the interwar period, the author has noted that the glorification of armed struggle against the unconditional union with the Yugoslav state has largely obscured the less spectacular but arguably more important developments of the interwar period, when the collective identity of the Montenegrins was first formulated and modern Montenegrin culture was born. In comparison with Serbia and Croatia, the interest in the events of the Second World War is certainly lower in Montenegro. Finally, the author tackles the ambivalent attitude towards the socialist past, which largely remains to be discovered and integrated into the existing “grand narrative” about national history and identity.

The paper attempts to provide an overview of the dispute over the status of the Christian Orthodox Church in Montenegro after the breakup of socialist Yugoslavia and the ongoing struggle of the Serbian and Montenegrin Orthodox churches for power, influence, political support, spiritual hegemony, places of worship and souls.  In the early 1990s, Montenegro joined the group of several predominantly Orthodox countries of Eastern Europe affected by religious schism. In October 1993, hundreds of Montenegrins gathered in the historical capital of Cetinje to proclaim the (re)establishment of an independent, autocephalous Montenegrin Orthodox Church. Since then, the Christian Orthodox population of Montenegro has been polarized by bitter rivalry between the clergy and adherents of two churches: the Serbian Orthodox Church (Srpska pravoslavna crkva, SPC) and the Montenegrin Orthodox Church (Crnogorska pravoslavna crkva, CPC), both competing for legitimacy, influence, political support and property. The roots of this ongoing conflict are inseparable from questions of national identity and politics. While SPC maintains that Montenegrins represent a mere regional branch of the Serb nation and Montenegro therefore one of the traditionally Serb lands, CPC has promoted the program of a separate Montenegrin national identity and strongly supported independence from Serbia before the referendum of 2006.

"The Duty of an Honest Man": T. G. Masaryk and Montenegro. 

The chapter focuses on T. G. Masaryk´s views of Montenegrin political life, the role of Montenegro´s political elite in the wider context of South Slavic affairs before the First World War, and Masaryk´s attitudes towards the future status of Montenegro during the process of Yugoslav unification. Masaryk did not pay much attention to Montenegrin affairs in the last decades of the 19th century. However, due to his increasing interest and personal involvment in South Slavic political questions in the first decade of the 20th century - which culminated during the so-called "Zagreb high-treason trials" - Masaryk became aware of the role of the Montenegrin court and government in wider South Slavic affairs. In the spring of 1909, as a deputy of the Imperial Diet in Vienna, he accused Montenegrin Prince Nikola of providing the pretext for the Zagreb trials by handing the key documents, including the so-called "Revolutionary Status", to Austro-Hungarian authorities. In the ensuing polemics that lasted for several weeks, Masaryk and his sympathizers portrayed the prince and his government as despotic reactionaries and supporters of "anti-Slavic" policies of the Habsburg monarchy. In September 1909, Masaryk visited Cetinje, where he held talks with Prime Minister Lazar Tomanović and several other leading personalities. The prince, however, declined to meet the Czech politician. In the following years, Masaryk persisted in harboring negative views of Nikola´s regime as a conservative obstacle on the road to democratization and South Slavic integration. In the process of Yugoslav unification, he therefore unequivocally supported Serbia´s position towards Montenegro.

Čija je Rumija (To Whom Does Rumija Belong?)

The paper examines a protracted dispute, caused by an attempt
at physical appropriation and ethnocentric reinterpretation of an
important multicultural place of memory: the peak of Rumija
Mountain (1594 m) towering over the Adriatic port of Bar in
Montenegro. The county of Bar represents an ethnically and reli -
giously mixed region in which the followers of Christian Orthodox, Catholic and Islamic communities live side by side. In 2005,
a helicopter belonging to the army of the State Union of Serbia and
Montenegro installed a tin chapel, belonging to the Serb Orthodox
Church, on top of the hill without permission from the Montenegrin authorities. Efforts at the removal of the chapel installed
unilaterally and in violation of Montenegrin laws have been going
on since 2005 until the time of writing more than a decade later.

This paper attempts to outline the dominant conceptualizations of South Eastern Europe in Czech discourses about the region since the 19th century until present. It focuses on academic, political and media discourses in a long-term perspective. The ideology of Slavic mutuality and kinship had a decisive influence on the development of Czech conceptualization of much of Eastern Europe in the 19th century. The South Slavs were correspondingly constructed as "distant relatives" of the Czechs, with a tendency to glorify their national struggles and perceived cultural authenticity. As this Slavic ideology gradually lost its prominence and appeal during the 20th century, the positive stereotypes of the (Slavic) Balkans receded into oblivion as well. The post-1989 attempts to construct the contemporary Czech identity as traditionally "Western" have found their expression in frequent representations of the dangerous, non-Western and inferior Balkan "Others" who are essentially different from "Us."

Book Review of: Saša Brajović, Lujo Davičo. Fragmenti života, Beograd: Clio 2019.

Reference: František Šístek, Saša Brajović, Lujo Davičo. Fragmenti života, Beograd 2019, In: Slovanský přehled / Slavonic Review, vol. 107, nr. 1/2021, pp. 237-243.

Book Review of František Šístek (ed.), Imagining Bosnian Muslims in Central Europe: Representations, Transfers and Exchanges (New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books 2021) by Dejan Jović

REFERENCE: Jović, Dejan. "František Šistek (ur): Imagining Bosnian Muslims in Central Europe: Representations, Transfers and Exchanges." Tragovi 4, br. 1 (2021): 197-206.

Tragovi : časopis za srpske i hrvatske teme, Vol. 4 No. 1, 2021, pp.

Book Review of Momčilo Pavlović – Tetsuya Sahara – Predrag J. Marković (eds.): Guerilla in the Balkans: Freedom Fighters, Rebels or Bandits – Researching the Guerilla and Paramilitary Forces in the Balkans, Tokyo: Institute for Disamrament and Peace Studies; Belgrade: Institute of Contemporary History, Faculty for Security Studies 2007. REFERENCE: František Šístek, "Balkánské gerily v komparativní perspektivě. Momčilo Pavlović – Tetsuya Sahara – Predrag J. Marković (eds.): Guerilla in the Balkans: Freedom Fighters, Rebels or Bandits – Researching the Guerilla and Paramilitary Forces in the Balkans," In Slovanský přehled - Slavonic Review (Prague), vol. 94, nr. 4/2008, pp. 608 – 613.

Book Review of Jiří Kuděla - Branka Dimitrijević - Ivo Vacík: Arhitekt Karel Pařík: Čeh koji je gradio evropsko Sarajevo / Architekt Karel Pařík: Čech, který stavěl evropské Sarajevo / Architect Karel Pařík: a Czech who built the European Sarajevo. Sarajevo: Ambasada Češke Republike u Bosni i Hercegovini - Muzej Sarajeva, 2007. ISBN 978-9958-9250-16. 214 pgs.

REFERENCE: František Šístek, "Architekt Karel Pařík (1857 – 1942): Čech, který stavěl evropské Sarajevo", Slovanský přehled / Slavonic Review (Prague), vol. 94, nr. 2/2008, pp. 287 – 289.

Book Review. 
REFERENCE:
František Šístek: "Jelena Milojković-Djurić (ed.), Balkan Cultural Legacies. Historical, Literary and Fine Arts Perceptions, Boulder, East European Monographs 2010", In: Slovanský přehled / Slavonic Review (Prague), vol. 100, nr. 1/2014, pp. 186-190.

František Šístek, Jevreji u Crnoj Gori od antike do Holokausta /The Jews of Montenegro since Antiquity until the Holocaust/, Cetinje: Fakultet za crnogorski jezik i književnost 2022, 360 pgs. The book provides the first overview of Montenegro’s previously largely hidden and unknown Jewish history. The work first discusses the archaeological evidence and historical sources documenting the earliest traces of Jewish presence on the territory of Montenegro in antiquity and the Middle Ages. The author then dedicates special attention to the enigmatic personality of Sabbatai Zevi, the most famous “false messiah” of modern Jewish history who spent the last years of his life in banishment in the town of Ulcinj on the Montenegrin coast and was buried here in 1676. The following chapters focus on the presence (as well as absence) of the Jews in the independent Montenegrin monarchy before 1918, the Jews on the Ottoman territory of the Sandžak of Novi Pazar and the small but growing Jewish community of the Bay of Kotor and the Montenegrin Coast under the Habsburg monarchy. After the discussion of Jewish demography, religious organization, and destinies of notable personalities of Jewish origin living in Montenegro under royal Yugoslavia in the interwar period, the book provides a detailed analysis of the destiny of the local Jews and Jewish refugees from other parts of Yugoslavia during the Second World War. After the initial Italian fascist occupation (1941–43), Montenegro was occupied by Nazi Germany (1943–44) which quickly extended its anti-Jewish measures and genocidal plans to this corner of Europe. Over a hundred Jews hiding on Montenegrin territory were captured and later perished in Nazi concentration camps as victims of the Holocaust, but several hundred more Jews survived the war in Montenegro thanks to the help of the local people and the Yugoslav Partisan forces that also included many Jewish fighters. Reviewers: prof. Ivo Goldstein (University of Zagreb), dr. Elijas Tauber (University of Sarajevo). The manuscript was awarded the 2nd prize of the 65th Literary Competition of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Serbia for Manuscripts on a Jewish Theme in 2021 in Belgrade on December 9, 2021 (jury: prof. Milan Ristović; prof. Filip David; Bogdan A. Popović).

REFERENCE: František Šístek, "Tomaš G. Masarik, crnogorsko pitanje i Prvi svjetski rat", In: Dragan Radulović (ur.), Crna Gora u Prvom svjetskom ratu. (Zbornik radova sa međunarodnog naučnog skupa „Crna Gora u Prvom svjetskom ratu“, Cetinje, 15. i 16. oktobar 2014), Cetinje – Podgorica: Matica crnogorska 2015, pp. 169-201.

ABSTRACT - "Tomáš G. Masaryk, the Montenegrin Question and the First World War"
This paper is dedicated to Tomáš G. Masaryk (1850−1937)
and the development of his views on the Montenegrin political
circumstances and the matter of Montenegrin statehood
immediately before and during the First World War. Considering
his increasing engagement in hot topics of the political life of the
South Slavs which culminated in the time of the so called “High
Treason Trial” in Zagreb, Masaryk also turned his attention to
the role of the Montenegrin court, government and political
opposition in the broader Yugoslav context. Based on his previous
experience and also because of his wartime collaboration with
official Serbia, he supported in principle positions of the Serbian
government towards the Montenegrin issue. By the end of the
war, in America he personally met with the official representative
of Montenegro A. Gvozdenović, and at the same time he was
also contacted by the Montenegrin unionists. After creation of
the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and Czechoslovakia
he never dealt with the Montenegrin issue again. In this
presentation we will point out the fact that Masaryk, as well as
other representatives of Czech intelligence formed their negative
attitude towards the regime of King Nikola I and the political
options represented by his followers, including the defense of
the Montenegrin political specificity in the new Yugoslav state,
mainly before the war under the influence of their conception
of the political situation in Montenegro after the institution of
parliamentary system.

REFERENCE: František Šístek, Junáci, horalé a lenoši. Obraz Černé Hory a Černohorců v české společnosti, 1830-2006. Praha: Historický ústav 2011.  292 pgs.

ABSTRACT
The aim of this work is to present an overview of the main elements of the Czech discourse on Montenegro and the Montenegrins and its protagonists from the 1830s until the reemergence of Montenegro as an independent nation in 2006. We analyze the most characteristic images of this country and its inhabitants. We also discuss the role that these images played in the service of national mobilization of the recepient society. Finally, we try to situate the Czech discourse within a larger, European context, as an example of a positive, “heroic” and inclusive discourse on the Balkans and the South Slavs.

FOR A SUMMARY IN ENGLISH, SEE:  pp. 259-268.

Introduction and Contents (Uvod i sadržaj), in: František Šístek, Jevreji u Crnoj Gori od antike do Holokausta /The Jews of Montenegro since Antiquity until the Holocaust/, Cetinje: Fakultet za crnogorski jezik i književnost 2022, pp. 1-15. 

The book provides the first overview of Montenegro’s previously largely hidden and unknown Jewish history. The work first discusses the archaeological evidence and historical sources documenting the earliest traces of Jewish presence on the territory of Montenegro in antiquity and the Middle Ages. The author then dedicates special attention to the enigmatic personality of Sabbatai Zevi, the most famous “false messiah” of modern Jewish history who spent the last years of his life in banishment in the town of Ulcinj on the Montenegrin coast and was buried here in 1676. The following chapters focus on the presence (as well as absence) of the Jews in the independent Montenegrin monarchy before 1918, the Jews on the Ottoman territory of the Sandžak of Novi Pazar and the small but growing Jewish community of the Bay of Kotor and the Montenegrin Coast under the Habsburg monarchy. After the discussion of Jewish demography, religious organization, and destinies of notable personalities of Jewish origin living in Montenegro under royal Yugoslavia in the interwar period, the book provides a detailed analysis of the destiny of the local Jews and Jewish refugees from other parts of Yugoslavia during the Second World War. After the initial Italian fascist occupation (1941–43), Montenegro was occupied by Nazi Germany (1943–44) which quickly extended its anti-Jewish measures and genocidal plans to this corner of Europe. Over a hundred Jews hiding on Montenegrin territory were captured and later perished in Nazi concentration camps as victims of the Holocaust, but several hundred more Jews survived the war in Montenegro thanks to the help of the local people and the Yugoslav Partisan forces that also included many Jewish fighters.

Reviewers: prof. Ivo Goldstein (University of Zagreb), dr. Elijas Tauber (University of Sarajevo). The manuscript was awarded the 2nd prize of the 65th Literary Competition of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Serbia for Manuscripts on a Jewish Theme in 2021 in Belgrade on December 9, 2021 (jury: prof. Milan Ristović; prof. Filip David; Bogdan A. Popović).

THE JEWS OF MONTENEGRO FROM ANTIQUITY UNTIL THE HOLOCAUST.  František Šístek: Jevreji u Crnoj Gori od antike do Holokausta, Cetinje: Fakultet za crnogorski jezik i književnost 2022, 360 pgs.  The first overview of the Jewish history of Montenegro.

Reviewers: prof. Ivo Goldstein (University of Zagreb), Dr. Elijas Tauber (University of Sarajevo) 

Editors: prof. Adnan Čirgić, prof. Boban Batrićević, doc. Aleksandar Radoman (Faculty for Montenegrin Language and Literature, Cetinje)

Publisher: Faculty for Montenegrin Language and Literature, Cetinje

Design by Dejan Batrićević (Cetinje)

The Manuscript of this book was awarded II Prize of the 65th Literary Competition of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Serbia for Manuscripts on a Jewish Theme in 2021 (65. nagradni konkurz SJOS za radove sa jevrejskom temom za 2021. godinu, II. nagrada) by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Serbia in Belgrade, December 9, 2021.  Jury: prof. Milan Ristović, prof. Filip David, Bogdan A. Popović.

Rukopis ove knjige nagrađen je u Beogradu 9. decembra 2021. II nagradom 65. nagradnog konkursa Saveza jevrejskih opština Srbije za rukopise na jevrejsku temu za 2021 godinu. Žiri su činili istoričar prof. dr Milan Ristović, književnik prof. Filip David i književni kritičar Bogdan A. Popović.

The chapter provides the first historical overview of Jewish presence on the territory of Montenegro from antiquity until the end of WWII. 

František Šístek, "The Jews in Montenegro: From Earliest Traces until the End of WWII," In: Boban Batrićević, In the Claws of the Jewish Dragon. Antisemitic Propaganda in Montenegro during WWII, Cetinje: Faculty for Montenegrin Language and Literature 2021, pp. 10-79. 

REFERENCE: František Šístek, "Jevreji u Crnoj Gori: od najstarijih tragova do kraja Drugoga svjetskog rata", In: Boban Batrićević, U kandžama jevrejske aždaje. Antisemitska propaganda u Crnoj Gori u Drugome svjetskom ratu, Cetinje: Fakultet za crnogorski jezik i književnost 2021, 10-79.

Filip Tesař - František Šístek - Gyorgy Lederer, Islám a jihovýchodní Evropa /Islam and Southestern Europe/, Praha: Občanský institut 2009.

A collection of three studies on Islam and Muslims in Southeastern Europe, based on a conference Jihovýchodní Evropa, islám a EU (Southeastern Europe, Islam and EU) - Liechtenstein Palace, Prague, October 6, 2008, organized by the Civic Institute (Občanský institut) with the support of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Filip Tesař, Albanians and Islam: A Triple Perspective, p. 5

František Šístek, The Muslims in Montenegro: From a History of Conflict to a Relatively Successful Integration, p. 29

Gyorgy Lederer, The Islamists and Public Security Interests in Eastern Europe, p. 45.

As a Slavic-speaking religious and ethnic “Other” living just a stone’s throw from the symbolic heart of the continent, the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina have long occupied a liminal space in the European imagination. To a significant degree, the wider representations and perceptions of this population can be traced to the reports of Central European—and especially Habsburg—diplomats, scholars, journalists, tourists, and other observers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This volume assembles contributions from historians, anthropologists, political scientists, and literary scholars to examine the political, social, and discursive dimensions of Bosnian Muslims’ encounters with the West since the nineteenth century.

https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/SistekImagining

Predgovor (Introduction), In: Boban Batrićević, Bog našeg nacionalizma. Recepcija, reinterpretiranje i korišćenje Njegoševa lika i djela u političkoj propagandi i diskursu vlasti u Crnoj Gori od 1851. do 2013. godine, Cetinje - Podgorica 2018, pp. 11-15.

Book Review of František Šistek, Naša braća na jugu. Češke predstave o Crnoj Gori i Crnogorcima 1830-2006. Cetinje-Podgorica: Matica crnogorska, 2009, 304 pgs.

REFERENCE: Mensur Ramulj: František Šistek, Naša braća na jugu (Češke predstave o Crnoj Gori i Crnogorcima 1830-2006), In: Prilozi (Sarajevo), nr. 40, 2011, pp. 415-417.

Review of the exhibition "Monte Bianco Negro" by Montenegrin illustrator and designer Dejan Batrićević, Prague, November - December 2019. 

The exhibition was part of the accompanying cultural program of the international and interdisciplinary conference in Balkan studies "Balkan Express 2019: Living together – Tolerance, Coexistence, Reconciliation." The conference took place at the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences on November 8-9, 2019.  The opening of the exhibition Monte Bianco Negro on November 8 started with a speech by anthropologist Alenka Bartulović (University of Ljubljana) and text by professor of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Cetinje Janko Ljumović, former minister of culture of Montenegro. Dejan Batrićević, author of the visual identity of the Balkan Express 2019, also designed the conference program and other materials.  After the conference, the exhibition was transferred to the cultural club  "Lastavica – Association for the citizens of former Yugoslavia", organization promoting tolerance, multicultural understanding, and cultivation of links and exchanges between the countries of former Yugoslavia and the Czech Republic. The new opening at Lastavica on November 11 started with an opening speech by František Šístek (Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague).

REFERENCE: František Šístek, Izložba ilustratora i dizajnera Dejana Batrićevića u Pragu, In: Identitet, vol. 2, nr. 2, proljeće 2020, pp. 13-18.

http://www.eu.avcr.cz/cs/aktuality/Balkan-Express-2019-Conference-Report/

THE IMAGE OF MONTENEGRO IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC AFTER THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF INDEPENDENCE.  The paper analyzes the representations of Montenegro in the Czech Republic since the re-establishment of independence of Montenego in 2006. Subsections of the article are devoted to the topics of tourism, culture, gastronomy, politics, and the position of Montenegro in the wider context of the Balkans and the Mediterranean.

REFERENCE: František Šístek, Slika Crne Gore u Češkoj nakon obnove nezavisnosti, In: Identitet (Cetinje), vol. 1, nr. 1., 2019, pp. 15-26.

The article focuses on the problems of young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the aftermath of the war (1992-1995) in that country.
REFERENCE: František Šístek, Bída i naděje - bosenská mládež dva roky po válce, In: Děti a my, vol XXVII., nr. 6., Prague, December 1997, p. 25.

REFERENCE: Ladislav Hladký: "Problémy interpretace dějin Černé Hory", In: Český časopis historický, vol. 17, nr. 1, pp. 123-138.
ABSTRACT: Ladislav Hladký:  "The problems of interpretation of the history of Montenegro.
The article is a response to the review of the historian Jan Pelikán of the book by František Šístek Dějiny Černé Hory (The History of Montenegro, Praha 2017), which was published in the second issue of the Czech Historical Review in 2018 in the section “Discussion”. The main idea of the repartee is the rejection of the opinion of the reviewer that F. Šístek provided a tendentious, romanticizing image of the history of Montenegro, which suits current Montenegrin historiography and that insufficiently explains to the Czech reader the complex process of the national emancipation of the Montenegrins. The author of the repartee first elucidates the differences between the Serbian and Montenegrin narratives of the history of Montenegro and subsequently proves that F. Šístek made one of the critical themes of his book the analysis of the process of the formation of an independent Montenegrin nation, in whose identity both components of regional Montenegrinism and components of cultural Serbism appeared in parallel over the long term in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. Šístek described and explicated this problem in great detail and objectively. Some other high-quality parts of the examined monograph were also valuable, particularly its erudite interpretation of the specifics of the tribal society in Montenegro in the 15th–19th centuries and an exceptionally interesting chapter on the history of Czech-Montenegrin relations. Key words: history of Montenegro – historical stories – narratives – national identity – Montenegrins – Serbs

In this article, published by the Montenegrin weekly Monitor, historian Boban Batrićević provides a summary of Czech relations and fascination with Montenegro before 1918, based largely upon my book "Naša braća na jugu: češke predstave o Crnoj Gori i Crnogorcima, 1830-2006", Cetinje - Podgorica: Matica crnogorska 2009.

REFERENCE: Boban Batrićević, Česi i Crnogorci, In: Monitor (Podgorica),  nr. 1383, April 21, 2017

Article from the Montenegrin daily "Pobjeda" (Podgorica, Saturday, May 30, 2015), announcing the publication of a new book: František Šístek, "Narativi o identitetu. Izabrane studije o crnogorskoj istoriji", Podgorica: Matica crnogorska 2015.

Review of the Photographic Exhibition “Four Seasons in the Silver Valley: Srebrenica through the Lens of Locals and an Anthropologist”, Authors: Markéta Slavková, Ibro and Ibrahim Begić, Charles University Jinonice Building, U Kříže 5, Prague 5 (main hall), February 2018.

Reference: František Šístek, "Srebrenica: Four Seasons in the Silver Valley", Blog KRVS (Department of Russian and East European Studies, Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague), February 11, 2018. Link: https://krvs.fsv.cuni.cz/KRVS-242.html

"Černá Hora trochu jinak", In: Mezinárodní politika, vol. XXV, nr. 10/2001, pp. 33-35. Polemics with the article "Černá Hora a Srbsko", In: Mezinárodní politika, vol. XXV, nr. 7/2001, pp. 8-11, written by Jiří Dienstbier (1937-2011), Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the Situation of Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Conference Report: František Šístek and Markéta Slavková, "Conference "Bosnia and Herzegovina: Post-Colonial and Post-Conflict Heritage of a European State" , (Prague, November 10, 2022)". Slovanský přehled / Slavonic Review (Prague), vol. 109, nr. 1/2023, pp. 141-145.

Book Launch Invitation: František Šístek, "A History of Montenegro" (Istorija Crne Gore, Podgorica: Matica crnogorska 2022, 804 pgs.). Podgorica, Wednesday, April 19, 2023, 19:00. Organized by the Embassy of the Czech Republic and the publisher - Matica crnogorska. Speakers: HE Janina Hřebíčková, ambassador of the Czech Republic, prof. Dragutin Papović - historian, prof. Adnan Prekić - historian, Novica Samardžić - book editor, František Šístek - author, Ivana Mrvaljević - actress and moderator.