Milan Sovilj, PhD

Research Associate, Institute of History, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

Milan Sovilj is a Research Associate at the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. In 2005, he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade, obtaining a Magister’s degree in 2008. In 2015, he obtained a PhD in General History from the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. Since the beginning of his career, he has been dealing with the history of Yugoslavia (mostly topics regarding culture history, national question and exile) and Yugoslav-Czechoslovak relations, topics about which he has published many studies, including two monographs (2012, 2016). His last publications were collective monographs in Czech: Druhý poločas. Jugoslávie v době vrcholného a pozdního socialismu. Pocta Janu Pelikánovi, Praha 2023 [The Second Half. Yugoslavia at the Time of High and Late Socialism. Tribute to Jan Pelikán] – together with Ondřej Vojtěchovský, Boris Mosković et al., as well as V uniformě nepřítele. Čechoslováci, služba ve wehrmachtu a návrat pod prapory, Praha 2025 [In Enemy’s Uniform: Czechoslovaks, Service in the Wehrmacht, and Return to the Flag] – together with Zdenko Maršálek and Jiří Neminář.

Statement of interest:

The main aim of research connect with the Visiting Fellowship Programme is to map and analyse the perception of the homeland as “home” among emigrants who were forced to leave their country due to complex political developments, and to examine how this perception changed during prolonged exile—particularly in cases where return became impossible because of the post-war political regime. Using the example of the Yugoslav non-communist and democratic political exile community formed partly during the Second World War in Great Britain and active throughout the next decades, the project seeks to explain more broadly what exile meant for these leading Yugoslav politicians, what they expected after 1945, how their political activities in exile were received, and, crucially, how they viewed the post-war evolution of their homeland. Research will include also a wide range of literature—particularly works related to Slovenian emigrants (e.g. Ljubo Sirc) and writings connected to the Democratic Alternative platform—as well as periodicals such as the Naša reč and the journal Jugoslavija, published in London after WWII. The Visiting Fellowship Programme also offers an opportunity to further strengthen the already well-established cooperation between Jurij Hadalin (INZ) and Milan Sovilj.

Selected Publications:

• Sovilj, Milan (2016), Československo-jugoslávské vztahy v letech 1939–1941: od zániku Československé republiky do okupace Království Jugoslávie [Czechoslovak-Yugoslav Relations in 1939–1941: Since the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia until the Occupation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia]. Praha: Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy.
• Sovilj, Milan (2012), U potrazi za nedostižnim. Jugoslovensko-čehoslovačke kulturne veze 1945–1949 [In the Search for Unreachable: Yugoslav-Czechoslovak Cultural Relations 1945–1949]. Beograd: Institut za noviju istoriju Srbije.
• Sovilj, Milan – Vojtěchovský, Ondřej – Mosković, Boris, eds., (2023). Druhý poločas. Jugoslávie v době vrcholného a pozdního socialismu. Pocta Janu Pelikánovi [The Second Half. Yugoslavia at the Time of High and Late Socialism. A Tribute to Jan Pelikán]. Praha: Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy.
• Maršálek, Zdenko – Neminář, Jiří – Sovilj, Milan (2025), V uniformě nepřítele. Čechoslováci, služba ve wehrmachtu a návrat pod prapory [In Enemy’s Uniform: Czechoslovaks, Service in the Wehrmacht, and Return to the Flag]. Praha: NLN – Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR.
• Sovilj, Milan (2023). Balkan States’ Development Immediately after World War II: Through the Eyes of Czechoslovak Diplomats. In: Teodor, Bogdan et al., eds., Old and New Insights on the History of Intelligence and Diplomacy in the Balkans. New York: Peter Lang, 207–232.