Promjenjivost slike sarajevskog atentata u udžbenicima historije Bosne i Hercegovine
Varying Depiction of the Sarajevo Assassination in History Texbooks of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Summary/Abstract: Changes in the constitutional status of Bosnia and Herzegovina, accompanied by changes in the socio political system and the dominant ideological notion, have led to a dynamic historiographical depiction of the Sarajevo assassination, which, depending on the political and ideological circumstances, alternately bears a positive or negative connotation. The reflexion of these cyclical reinterpretations of the past is also noticeable on the example of school textbooks in which the assassination and its perpetrators are differently valued, becoming for some generations an act of national pride and resistance against the foreign rule, while for others a matter of condemnation and an act of terrorism. With a noticeable ideological and political determination, the textbooks of interwar Yugoslavia cautiously depict the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. An effort was made to prevent any reference to the connection or accountability of the Kingdom of Serbia with the assassination by selecting the stated facts and by interpreting them appropriately. In contrast, the textbooks of the Independent State of Croatia, determined by modern foreign policy orientation and Ustasha ideology, insisted on the Serbian involvement in the assassination and on the German legitimate struggle for a new colonial division of the world. In order to strengthen the dominant ideology of brotherhood and unity of that time, socialist textbooks insisted on the Yugoslav orientation of the assassins and their ideological struggle for liberation from foreign rule and unification of the Southern Slavs. For the first time, Mlada Bosna (Young Bosnia) is introduced in textbooks as a youth revolutionary organisation to which the assassins belonged, whose interpretation of political goals, nationally heterogeneous and socially complex composition placed the desirable ideological messages in the full scope. Following the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the introduction of national narratives in school systems in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the interpretation of this event is tailored to fit national ideologies. Under their strong influence, the Sarajevo assassination in textbooks in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is most strongly condemned and qualified as an act of terrorism, Gavrilo Princip becomes a prominent nationalist, while Serbia is the organiser of this act. The same event and figures are interpreted quite differently in textbooks in the Republika Srpska. Conflicting evaluation of the Sarajevo assassination through the prism of qualification and motives of the commission of the act is a product of a strong political and ideological influence on historical science, which becomes an instrument for strengthening the positions of political elite holders and settling the score with the enemy, as well as a means for the desirable ideological education of young generations. Determined by the contemporary political moment and the dominant ideological notion, state textbooks can serve as a valid source for studying the official historical narrative of a country and educational messages that are promoted through the school system.

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