Yugoslavia (History)

"The construction of New Belgrade as the new capital of socialist Yugoslavia was the most symbolic modernizing act initiated by the country's communist government. Yet, its precise meanings were suspended between the complicated and permanently transitory concepts of socialist Yugoslavia's federalism and its international aspirations. Focusing on three characteristic “snapshots” of the city's physical development, this paper analyzes how New Belgrade and its most important buildings represented the shifting concepts of socialist Yugoslavia as a multiethnic community and its even more changeable place in the world. The first snapshot deals with the years immediately following World War II, during which New Belgrade was conceived as the seat of a centralized Stalinist state in close alliance with the USSR. The second deals with the effects of Yugoslavia's break from the Soviet bloc in 1948, especially its rapprochement with the West and the start of the decentralization of the federal state. Finally, the third explores the late socialist period: the dwindling of New Belgrade's role as the political heart of the federation, and at the same time its emergence as a locus of Yugoslavia's ambition to play a leading role in international relations, especially through its activity in the Non-Aligned Movement.
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Članek obravnava šesti kongres Komunistične partije Jugoslavije, ki je potekal v novembru 1952. Kongres je bil prelomna točka za KPJ, saj se je tedaj partija preimenovala v Zvezo komunistov Jugoslavije in s tem tudi simbolično napovedala svojo novo vlogo na lastni socialistični poti. Vendar pa na kongresu ni vse potekalo gladko. S svojim nastopom je Ljubodrag Đurić želel opozoriti na nemoralno obnašanje nekaterih partijcev, vendar so stvari stekle svojo pot. Zaradi incidenta so zahodni mediji Sixth Congress preimenovali v Sex Congress.

Late antique identities from the Western Balkans were transformed into new, Slavic identities after c. 600 AD. It was a process that is still having continuous impact on the discursive constructions of ethnic and regional identities in the area. Building on the new ways of reading and studying available sources from late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, the book explores the appearance of the Croats in early medieval Dalmatia (the southern parts of modern-day Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina). The appearance of the early medieval Croat identity is seen as a part of the wider process of identity-transformations in post-Roman Europe, the ultimate result of the identity-negotiation between the descendants of the late antique population and the immigrant groups.

There has been a tendency to view the history of the Balkans as essentially determined by historical legacies. Whether in scholarly literature or in popular discourse, the Ottoman or Habsburg pasts are thought to be accountable for a large variety of phenomena ranging from democratic culture (or the lack thereof) and adaptability to a free market economy to nepotism and the filthiness of public facilities. By contrast, the papers in this volume demonstrate that "legacies" are not unchanging determinants. Instead, they are very much open to constant reinterpretations and re-assessments depending on conditions in the present; they are, in short, as much shaped by the present as they are by the past.

"Transcending Fratricide: Political Mythologies, Reconciliations, and the Uncertain Future in the Former Yugoslavia elaborates on issues that are specific to the post-war situation in the former Yugoslavia. The most general question all the contributors are trying to answer is how to transcend the cleavages left by the Yugoslav fratricide. The central emphasis is on reconciliation and post-conflict resolution. Such focus is shaped by the understanding that the success of future integrative processes will depend on the ability and willingness of both the elites and the communities to initiate and complete the reconciliation. This book explores a possibility of simultaneously accomplishing reconciliation, and maintaining political stability in societies that are divided on the issues of war guilt and responsibilities for crimes committed. While analysing the modes of striking a crucial balance between these two aims, the contributors to this volume try to identify and employ various models of seeking the truth and assessing responsibility for past mistakes.

With contributions from: Ron Adams | Ian D. Armour | Stefano Bianchini | Lenard Cohen | Wladimir Fischer | Andrew Gilbert | Dejan Guzina | Hariz Halilovich | Branka Marijan | Srdja Pavlovic | Nebojsa Petrovic | Tanja Petrovic | Isabel Ströhle | Mitja Velikonja | James Waller"