A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF HISTORY OF MATICA SRPSKA AND THE FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY IN NOVI SAD

Abstract

As an institution with the longest tradition on the territory of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Matica Srpska was in the focus of interest of the party’s leadership in Vojvodina, that is, the Provincial Committee. Members of PC criticised the management of Matica because of their mass conception of work and national colouredness. They recommended to Matica to turn to a more scientific and cultural activity; there was a special evaluation of the work of the Science Department of Matica Srpska, which was reproached for national exclusiveness and for neglecting the history of the labour movement; the roots of those oversights in Matica’s work were above all found in the inseparability of Matica as a cultural institution and its publishing company; Matica was also blamed for the appearance of isolationism among the minorities in Vojvodina. It was also accused of national-Romantic views and thus having created a refuge for ideologists of Great Serbia, and other dissident groups from all over Yugoslavia. The Faculty of Philosophy was first mentioned in the meetings of the PC a year before its establishment. In the following fifteen years the work of this school of higher education in Novi Sad was carefully monitored by the supreme political organ of the communists of Vojvodina. Criticism was usually connected to the lack of Marxist approach in the study of social sciences, and this chronic problem was not solved until the end of the 1960s, despite the constant efforts to rejuvenate the teaching staff and their ideological upbringing. Apart from their ideological weaknesses, the teachers of the Faculty of Philosophy were criticised for other oversights, and sometimes the PC analysed the work of the entire departments (for Serbo-Croatian Language and Yugoslav Literature, History, Hungarian Language, English Language, German Language, etc.).