The Empire Never Ended

Jumping forward a bit in time to the post-war Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), Boris takes The Empire Never Ended on a quick tour of Partisan Cinema and its historical context. Boris, Fritz, and Rey discuss some of the genre's most iconic films: Slavica (1947), Kozara (1962), Battle of Neretva (1969), Battle of Sutjeska (1973), and the epic Nazi-slaughter romp, Walter Defends Sarajevo (1972). Boris and Rey discuss Tito's cinephelia and his uncommon celebrity, while Fritz describes his favorite scenes and struggles to say "Sutjeska". Also, the uncanny similarities between Battle of Neretva and the Empire Strikes Back, the central role of music in Partisan films, the failure of Chetnik media, and a shitton of terrified horses. Links to the films: Slavica (no subtitles) Kozara (no subtitles) Battle of Neretva (subtitled or dubbed) Battle of Sutjeska (subtitled) Walter Defends Sarajevo (subtitled) This is The Empire Never Ended, the Antifascist Amerikanski-Balkan podcast about (neo) fascist terror, the (deep) state and the alienation, nihilism and desperation produced by the capitalist system. And how to get rid of all that. Something like that... Subscribe to our Patreon for weekly premium episodes! And check out our social media for updates and whatnot: Twitter + Facebook + Instagram + YouTube

Movie night at the TENE compound! In this spiritual sequel to their episode on Yugoslav partisan films, the Empire Never Ended visits Hollywood depictions of Yugoslavia in World War II. The crew watches wartime propaganda flick Chetniks! The Fighting Guerillas (1943), genre-setting Corman B-film The Secret Invasion (1963), boomer dad favorite Force 10 from Navarone (1978), and made for TV movie Dirty Dozen: Fatal Mission (1988). They discuss the extreme swings in Hollywood's attitude toward Chetniks over time, the development of the Dirty Dozen model now followed by The Suicide Squad, Hollywood's shaky handle on history, the trope of the stoic Partizan woman, and the multiple interpretations these films offer their audience. Also: Obama's big day and Krist Novoselic for some reason... This is The Empire Never Ended, the Antifascist Amerikanski-Balkan podcast about (neo) fascist terror, the (deep) state and the alienation, nihilism and desperation produced by the capitalist system. And how to get rid of all that. Something like that... Subscribe to our Patreon for weekly premium episodes! Check out our social media for updates and whatnot: Twitter + Facebook + Instagram + YouTube

TENE interviews the 'Antifa Guy' himself, Mark Bray, to ruminate on the phenomenon of anti-fascism in America and Europe since the timely publication of his book Antifa: and Anti Fascist Handbook following Charlottesville in 2017. He elaborates on the history and limitations of the term 'antifa' itself and comments on ludicrous attempts to connect it to everything from the Capitol Riots to California forest fires. Mark examines the transition from the so-called 'Alt-Right' to Qanon and more terroristic groups and the crew meditates on the differences between coalitions, fronts, and assemblies in confronting such developments. They also discuss left critiques of anti-fascism and its intertwining with mutual aid and anarchist efforts in the US. Also featured: armed Antifa, media spectacle, Tucker Carlson, and Mark handles some inane calls from 'listeners'. This is The Empire Never Ended, the Antifascist Amerikanski-Balkan podcast about (neo) fascist terror, the (deep) state and the alienation, nihilism and desperation produced by the capitalist system. And how to get rid of all that. Something like that... Subscribe to our Patreon for weekly premium episodes! Check out our social media for updates and whatnot: Twitter + Facebook + Instagram + YouTube

To wrap up their second arc of episodes, the TENE Crüe analyzes an extremely interesting Bulgarian documentary / travelogue from 2003 called Whose is this Song? (Chia e tazi pesen? / Чия е тази песен?) which follows the director, Adela Peeva, as she follows the multiple claims on and origin stories for a single song from her childhood. Beginning in Turkey, Peeva travels to Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, and Bulgaria; at each stop locals claim this song as their own, often denying that other nations are even capable of its composition. Rey, Boris, and Fritz show how this journey sums up Arc 2 in many ways. Boris also brings in a couple more songs that took on various and contradictory political meanings depending on their singer. Finally, the fellas give a brief update on the Astral Bone Gnawers' Lodge in the Montenegrian Orthodox Church and tease the coming arc of episodes on Fascist America. This is The Empire Never Ended, the Antifascist Amerikanski-Balkan podcast about (neo) fascist terror, the (deep) state and the alienation, nihilism and desperation produced by the capitalist system. And how to get rid of all that. Something like that... Subscribe to our Patreon for weekly premium episodes! And check out our social media for updates and whatnot: Twitter + Facebook + Instagram + YouTube

In many ways, VMRO (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization) is a quintessential Balkan nationalist group. It not only encompassed a great variety of ideological forms of nationalism, from liberalism, through socialism (including even anarchism) to Stalinism and fascism, they were also the original Chetniks, as well as the group that trained Ustashas to become efficient terrorists. VMRO preferred all forms of struggle that included guns, from guerrilla fighting to terrorism, with an emphasis on assassinations. VMRO leadership also assassinated a lot of VMRO members: like any good anti-imperialist group, VMRO consisted of many factions, as well as factions inside of factions - which at times made things very similar to a meeting of the Peoples Front of Judea trying to figure out the difference between them and Judean Peoples Front and the Judean Popular Peoples Front. In this final free episode of our Balkan arc, TENE tries to make sense of it all and tell an understandable and concise history of the group and their different and changing positions on Macedonian self-determination, from the idea of independent Macedonia as a part of a Balkan Federation, to more vague ideas of Macedonian autonomy. This is The Empire Never Ended, the Antifascist Amerikanski-Balkan podcast about (neo) fascist terror, the (deep) state and the alienation, nihilism and desperation produced by the capitalist system. And how to get rid of all that. Something like that... Subscribe to our Patreon for weekly premium episodes! And check out our social media for updates and whatnot: Twitter + Facebook + Instagram + YouTube

Boris leads TENE through the rise of the Bosniak national idea in the 19th and early 20th centuries to Muslim collaboration in the Second World War. Despite a multiplicity of identities and politics among Musilms in Bosnia, shifting imperial borders and modernizing land reforms spur a nationalist turn among Bosnian Muslim landowners. Enter Mehmed Spaho who attempts to create a single national identity through his Muslim Yugoslav Organization, leaving the project to Džafer-beg Kulenović after his death who will eventually become vice president of the fascist Independent State of Croatia. Boris discusses the on-again, off-again relationship between Ustashas and Muslim collaborationists leading both to the formation of the SS Handschar Division and, believe it or not, Muslim Chetniks. Fritz briefly narrates the Villefranche-de-Rouergue Mutiny of '43 of Muslim SS trainees and Boris recounts the nutty tale of independent warlord Husein "Huska" Miljković who went from the Commies to Fascists and back again. To top it all off, Rey discusses Husein Đozo, SS major, imam and buddy of Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini and Boris discusses the slow momentum of Muslim involvement in the Partizan movement. Also, Fritz fails to differentiate 'đ' and 'dž', Muslim Goths, Rey re-considers serfdom, and hot cadastral stats! This is The Empire Never Ended, the Antifascist Amerikanski-Balkan podcast about (neo) fascist terror, the (deep) state and the alienation, nihilism and desperation produced by the capitalist system. And how to get rid of all that. Something like that... Subscribe to our Patreon for weekly premium episodes! And check out our social media for updates and whatnot: Twitter + Facebook + Instagram + YouTube

In this hybrid between the first and second arc, TENE crew ventures into to the world Yugoslav war music of the 1990s so loved by the edgy memelords of the more smooth-brained corners of the internet. DJ Boris gets on the 1s and 2s and subjects Rey and Fritz to some of the “hits” of the genre while trying to figure out what is so appealing about Ustaša cock rock and genocidal carnival music. This is The Empire Never Ended, the Antifascist Amerikanski-Balkan podcast about (neo) fascist terror, the (deep) state and the alienation, nihilism and desperation produced by the capitalist system. And how to get rid of all that. Something like that... Subscribe to our Patreon for weekly premium episodes! And check out our social media for updates and whatnot: Twitter + Facebook + Instagram + YouTube

TENE welcomes friend of the show, Pinto, to take them on a detour from their usual theme of fascists and Nazis and explore a fascinating period in the history of Jews in the Balkans. Hear about Sabbatai Zvi, the false prophet who bucked Kosher law, advocated polygamy, and changed Jewish history. Learn the Serbian connection to proto-Zionism with Rabbi Alkalai who called for 19th century Jews to return to Israel to await the return of the messiah in 1840 and who, despite messing up the date and declared heretical in his own time, made a lasting impression of the development of Jewish nationalism. Meet David Albala, Serbian military officer and Jewish community leader who inspired Serbia to be the first country to endorse the Balfour Declaration. Also, the political and philosophical differences between Ashkenazi and Sephardic groups on the Zionist question, the Herzl family's connection to Zemun in today's Belgrade, the Sephardic partisans and Spanish Civil War volunteers, the weird brand of anti-Zionism of the only Hasidic dynasty in Yugoslavia, and Pinto's love of whacky colonization schemes. This is The Empire Never Ended, the Antifascist Amerikanski-Balkan podcast about (neo) fascist terror, the (deep) state and the alienation, nihilism and desperation produced by the capitalist system. And how to get rid of all that. Something like that... Subscribe to our Patreon for weekly premium episodes! And check out our social media for updates and whatnot: Twitter + Facebook + Instagram + YouTube

For those of you who haven't had enough of the Chetniks, the Dude abides! TENE welcomes historian Stevan Bozanich to dig even deeper into the 'movement' which, despite remaining at the forefront of ideological struggles in the Balkans today nonetheless remains riddled with questions. Boris, Fritz, and Rey ask Stevan about the early Chetniks and their relationship to the Black Hand and the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO/VMRO) and how a group infamous for regicide produced the ostensibly monarchist Chetnik movement. The crew then moves to the '20s and '30s, discussing the Chetnik's connection to Yugoslavism and their steady move towards anti-union violence and arguably proto-fascist politics. Stevan fills in the gaps of Draža Mihailović's story and the foundation of the Ravna Gora movement, as well as its connections to Chetniks outside of Serbia. Inevitably, the discussion turns to World War II, touching on the Chetnik relationship to Partizans, domestic fascist Dimitrije Ljotić, and deals with the Nazis and Ustaša. Stevan offers a fascinating and intimate glimpse into figures like Momčilo Đujić, Pavle Đurišić, and Dragiša Vasić as well as the formative Serbian Cultural Club. Finally, TENE and Stevan discuss the amnesty of Chetniks at the end of the war and their integration into the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as well as the impact this integration has on dominant historical and political narratives today. It's a long one but a necessary piece of an often frustrating historical puzzle. Stevan Bozanich's upcoming doctoral dissertation is entitled Towards Collaboration and Genocide: Serbian Chetnik Ideology, 1903-1946. Follow him on twitter @stevanbozanich This is The Empire Never Ended, the Antifascist Amerikanski-Balkan podcast about (neo) fascist terror, the (deep) state and the alienation, nihilism and desperation produced by the capitalist system. And how to get rid of all that. Something like that... Subscribe to our Patreon for weekly premium episodes! And check out our social media for updates and whatnot: Twitter + Facebook + Instagram + YouTube

Rey returns to the UDBA archives to unearth some more tales of dumb Nazi shit from wartime Yugoslavia: the misadventures of Serbian Nazi 'Stay-Behind' units! Meet Branko Gašparević, a singing school teacher for refugee children and inept saboteur for the Nazis who can't seem to pull off a successful mission to save his life (literally). Rey tells the story of Gašparević's trajectory from an ideologue of the quisling Zbor organization of Dimitrije Ljotić, through his time as a deputy commander of the anti-resistance Serbian Volunteer Corps, and finally to the establishment of his own "Hunter Group" under the auspices of Nazi intelligence. These haggard 'failnazis' try time and time again to prove their worth to the occupier, and each time completely fuck it up. Grab some popcorn and enjoy! This is The Empire Never Ended, the Antifascist Amerikanski-Balkan podcast about (neo) fascist terror, the (deep) state and the alienation, nihilism and desperation produced by the capitalist system. And how to get rid of all that. Something like that... Subscribe to our Patreon for weekly premium episodes! And check out our social media for updates and whatnot: Twitter + Facebook + Instagram + YouTube