Stručni rad
Sociology of a Forgotten War
Josip Županov
Sažetak
In the analytical review of the “forgotten” (partisan) war based on the personal memory from a distance of half a century, the author applies sociological frame of reference on his memories. In the study the author sheds a light on some still relevant issues. In the chapter “Army or partisanship” the author considers the problem of transformation of partisan units to “real army”. He puts greater stress on the strong, egalitarian orientation and the “decentralization” of decision making in action, on the first lines of battlefield, which came out of it than on the modern armament and “paperwork” (bureaucratization) of the chain of command.
The first indications of transformation (on the territory of Dalmatia) took place in the fall of 1944 (during Knin operation) but the author was put out of action due to his injuries. Today, we could consider the contrary transformation (“army” - JNA - paramilitary units). As a professional sociologist the author considers (in a chapter “Social structure and combat moral”) the key problem of every army: the combat moral and the efficacy connected with it. Contrary to usual and “proven” stereotypes the author proofs that the main determinant of moral and efficacy is social structure, in other words social distance in military hierarchy. In the situation of existential stress, the essential reduction of stress and the improvement of moral and efficacy is achieved by minimizing the social distance. The author explains the mechanism of stress reduction with the Merton’s term of latent function.
Although, the egalitarian climate was still dominant in the 26th Division on Vis in 1944, the first cracks and conflicts between higher levels of command (brigade, division) and lower levels were starting to show. September, 1944, during the Sumartin offensive the mutiny almost broke out (the whole battalion refused to follow the order because of a silly order from the above). The division between higher rank officers, who have been taking care of their own promotion and careers and the soldiers and lower commanding officers who did not accept to be sacrificed as an expandable human material became quite visible. The author “caught” the moment when the fated solidarity from the first war years definitely fell apart in partisan army and he described that in the chapter “Rebels with a cause”.
Ključne riječi
social structure; combat moral; combat efficacy; stereotype, social distance; latent function
Hrčak ID:
202472
URI
Datum izdavanja:
22.12.1998.
Posjeta: 1.413 *