Religious minorities and state policy in communist Yugoslavia: Towards alternative research methodologies

Abstract

This paper presents the first attempt to review the possibility of using secret police archives as a source for scholarly research on religious minorities in the former Yugoslavia. Unlike in other Eastern European countries, access to the secret police archives in former Yugoslavia is still very limited. Based on archival and ethnographic research conducted in Serbia, I argue that religious minorities represent a valuable resource for analysing relations between the state and religious groups during the communist period. This is especially true with regards to the pacifist Nazarenes and Seventh Day Adventists, because of their international and transnational networks and missionary work. This paper will address the possibilities of using private archives as a possible way in overcoming limited access to some of the state archival sources.