Contextualizing and historicizing the 1968 demonstrations in Kosova

Abstract

The paper explores the ideological background and political goals of the Revolutionary Movement for the Unification of Albanians, and their role in the 1968 demonstration that took place in Kosova. The paper contextualizes and historicizes the event by placing it within a spatial and chronological timeframe. By drawing from a historical narrative that describes the position of Albanians within socialist Yugoslavia, the paper traces the formation of the Revolutionary Movement for the Unification of Albanians and their ideological tenets, and posits them within a global historical Zeitgeist of the 1968 worldwide demonstrations. The paper also trails how the events of 1968 in Kosova fueled the radicalization of dissident and anti-systemic movements in Kosova that would take a central role in the historical developments of the 1970s and 1980s.