
Keywords: cadastre of Francis I; Mljet; economy; agriculture; wine growing; olive growing; livestock farming; fishing; seafaring; 19th century
Using data recorded in the cadastre of Emperor Francis I established on the island Mljet in 1836 the author reconstructs the economy of the island of Mljet in the first half of the nineteenth century. She pays close attention to the state of agriculture, wine and olive growing as well as other economic activities conducted on the island in the examined period. Although the Austrian cadastre of Emperor Francis I was in the first place a fiscal and legal document, it is also a first-class historical source offering a wealth of interesting and reliable information about conditions and ways of life and of land cultivation as well as about demographic and economic state of Dalmatia in the nineteenth century. According to information gleaned from the cadastre, most residents of the island of Mljet in the examined period lived, mostly, from agriculture. This fact was reflected in the social structure of the population that was dominated by farmers with few artisans and landowners. The agricultural productivity in the nineteenth century was unsatisfactory because islanders did not put enough eff ort into growing specific plant cultures but rather relied on inherited, obsolete (“antique”) mode of agriculture. The situation was additionally worsened by a chronic lack of fertilizers, problems of water supply and agrarian (colonate) land ownership relations. The economic activities of islanders were reflected in their housing. For example, in Babino Polje in 1837 surfaces of residential dwellings were equal or even smaller than surfaces of stables and farm buildings. In an average year, the yield of wine and olive oil was suffi cient for the local needs, and if the crop was abundant then the surplus was sold in the region, mostly in Dubrovnik. Fishing brought certain advantages to the islanders, especially when they were lucky enough to get a large catch.
More...Keywords: parliament of the Kingdom of Serbs; Croats and Slovenians; Fran Barac
The article reseraches the role of priest, theologian and politician Fran Barac (1872-1940) in the political life of Croatia. Barac was, among other, the head of the Zagreb University (1915-1916) and member of parliament of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians.
More...Keywords: Ibrahim Pjanić; Soko; Gračanica; Drugi svjetski rat; Nezavisna država Hrvatska; četnici; ustaše; partizani; Domdo legija; Ustaška vojnica; hrvatska politička emigracija
Ibrahim Pjanić (Soko 1896. - München 1977.) predstavlja jednu od najznačajnijih ličnosti u novijoj historiji Gračanice i njene okoline, o kojoj još uvijek postoje različite, pa i dijametralno suprotne ocjene, te brojne kontroverze i mistifikacije, uprkos činjenici da jedno zaokruženo djelo o njegovom životopisu i povijesnoj ulozi uopće ne postoji. Ovaj rad, napisan u povodu 35. obljetnice smrti, prezentira najosnovnija saznanja o Ibrahimu Pjaniću, njegovom životnom putu i historijskoj ulozi. Pjanićev životopis je prikazan prema razdobljima njegova djelovanja: od predratnog vremena, u kome se ističe kao mjesni aktivist JMO, zatim organizacije odbrane od četničke opasnosti 1941., te njegovog ratnog puta i konačno emigrantskog perioda. U tom razdoblju, Pjanić je bio zapovjednik satnije Gračaničke Domdo bojne, a potom i organizator tzv. “zelenog kadra” u gračaničkom kraju; nakon neuspješnih pregovora sa partizanima (u tri navrata), primio je čin i dužnosti u Ustaškoj vojnici, zapovijedajući odbranom Gračanice sve do proljeća 1945. godine. No, iako je istovremeno obavljao i političku dužnost ustaškog logornika, nije aktivno učestvovao u sprovođenju represivnih niti genocidnih mjera ustaškog režima; naprotiv, svojim utjecajem je čak i spasio neke građane progonjene zbog nacionalne, odnosno rasne pripadnosti.
More...Šefko SULEJMANOVIĆ - ARHIVSKA PRAKSA, br. 18, Izdavač: Arhiv Tuzlanskog kantona i Društvo arhivskih zaposlenika Tuzlanskog kantona, Tuzla 2015. Hatidža FETAHAGIĆ - „RADOVI“ ZBORNIK RADOVA SA 48. SAVJETOVANJA HRVATSKIH ARHIVISTA, Topusko 21-23. 10. 2015, str. 310. Jasmin JAJČEVIĆ - „OSMANSKO OSVAJANJE BOSANSKE KRALJEVINE“ – ZBORNIK RADOVA, Institut za istoriju u Sarajevu, Posebna izdanja, Knjiga 11, Sarajevo 2014, 166. Izet ŠABOTIĆ - Akademik prof. dr. Omer Nakičević „DEFTER (PROTOKOL) GORNJETUZLANSKE NAHIJE“, Sarajevo 2015. Senija MILIŠIĆ - O IZUČAVANJU TEMA IZ DRUGOG SVJETSKOG RATA U BOSNI I HERCEGOVINI (Nad knjigom Elija Taubera, Holokaust u Bosni i Hercegovini) Adnan TINJIĆ - TRAGOVIMA NAŠIH KOMŠIJA: JEVREJI U BOSNI I HERCEGOVINI I HOLOKAUST, Anisa Hasanhodžić, Rifet Rustemović, Institut za istoriju Sarajevo, Sarajevo 2015, str. 433. Elvir SELIMOVIĆ - Hrvoje Klasić, JUGOSLAVIJA I SVIJET 1968, Izdavač: Naklada Ljevak d.o.o. Zagreb, Zagreb 2012, str. 476. Safet BANDŽOVIĆ - Latinka Perović, Dominantna i neželjena elita: beleške o intelektualnoj i političkoj eliti u Srbiji (XX-XXI vek), izd. Dan Graf; Novi Sad: Javna medijska ustanova „Radio-televizija Vojvodine“, Beograd 2015, str. 687
More...Keywords: Croatian historiography;book reviews;
Péter Kovács: Die antiken Quellen zu Pannonien in der Spätantike, Teil I: 284-337 N. Chr., Wien, 2014. (Josip PARAT); Tomislav Bali: Slavonski meandar – Prostor i pojam Slavonije u XIII. stoljeću, Zagreb, 2014. (Danijel JELAŠ); Đura Hardi: Drugeti. Povest o usponu i padu porodice pratilaca anžujskih kraljeva, Novi Sad, 2012. (Marija KARBIĆ); Zorislav Horvat: Burgologija. Srednjovjekovni utvrđeni gradovi kontinentalne Hrvatske, Zagreb, 2014. (Zdenko SAMARŽIJA); Rosana Ratkovčić: Srednjovjekovno zidno slikarstvo u kontinentalnoj Hrvatskoj, Zagreb, 2014. (Vjekoslav JUKIĆ); Ivana Haničar Buljan, Nenad Moačanin, Milan Pelc, Mladen Pešić, Ratko Vučetić: Veliki osječki most: povijesni dossier i suvremena interpretacija / The greatOsijek bridge: historical dossier and contemporary interpretation, Zagreb – Osijek, 2014. (Anđelko VLAŠIĆ); Branko Bešlin: Evgenije Savojski i njegovo doba, Novi Sad, 2014. (Siniša ĐURIČIĆ); Stjepan Sršan i Ladislav Dobrica (prir.): Zapisnici sjednica Srijemske županije / Prothocolla Congregationum Comitatus Syrmiensis, knj. 1: 1745.-1759., Vukovar – Zagreb, 2014. (Milan VRBANUS); Zbornik o Emeriku Paviću – Zbornik radova sa znanstvenog skupa „Emerik Pavić i franjevci u kontinentalnoj Hrvatskoj“, Osijek, 23.–25. svibnja 2013., ur. Pavao Knezović i Marko Jerković, Zagreb, 2014. (Lucija FRAJLIĆ); Pet redaka. Rimski dnevnik svećenika Ivana Tomasa 1943.-1944., prir. Domagoj Tomas, Rim – Osijek – Mostar, 2014. (Miroslav AKMADŽA); Marin Srakić: Cruce et Labore - Križem i radom: Biskup Stjepan Bäuerlein i Đakovačka i Srijemska biskupija (1951.-1973.), Đakovo, 2014. (Miroslav AKMADŽA); Marijan Karaula: Iskušenja Bosne Srebrene: stradanja bosanskihfranjevaca 1944.-1985., Zagreb – Sarajevo, 2014. (Miroslav AKMADŽA); Stipan Trogrlić: Represija jugoslavenskog komunističkog režima prema Katoličkoj crkvi u Istri 1945.-1971., Pazin – Pula, 2014. (Miroslav AKMADŽA); Duvanjski žrtvoslov, prir. Robert Jolić, Jure Krišto, Ante Tadić, Tomislavgrad, 2013. (Šimun PENAVA); Drago Vištica: (Pre)živjeti, spoznati i prihvatiti, Cerna, 2013. (Šimun PENAVA); Hrvati u Kotor Varošu: povodom 20. obljetnice srpske agresije na Kotor Varoš, prir. Ivo Pranjković, Kotor Varoš – Sarajevo – Jajce, 2013. (Šimun PENAVA)
More...Keywords: Balkan wars; 1912-1913;
Teško da je ijedan istorijski značajan datum tako „prećutan“ kao što je to stogodišnjica balkanskih ratova. Da li razlog tome leži u ćinjenici što je, upravo tada ovaj prostor tek izlazio iz „novog balkanskog rata (1991-1995) u kojem nije bilo „pobjednika“, ili u saznanju da su u takvim sukobima svi „poraženi“ za sada je teško reći. U svakom slučaju, uočava se da nije bilo euforije, niti previše entuzijazma, kako kod akademskih institucija (instituti, fakulteti, akademije) tako ni kod političkih elita koje su se obavezno uključivale i u mnogo manje značajne jubileje. Naprotiv. Izgleda da je 100 godina kasnije, akumulirano istorijsko iskustvo pokazalo da se istorijski procesi ponekad čine toliko očiglednim kao da vrijeme stoji. Srbija i Crna Gora su tamo gdje su bile i poslije balkanskih ratova, jednako pred izazovom da li da se konačno uključe u evropski politički i ekonomski prostor, Bugarska i Grčka su naizgled rijesile taj problem ali ne i sve traume balkanskog istorijskog nasljedja.
More...Review of: Ivo Goldstein, Jasenovac (Zaprešić; Jasenovac: Fraktura; Javna ustanova Spomen-područje Jasenovac, 2018) 958 str., [32 str.] s tablama: ilustr., zemljop. karte ; 24 cm; Slaven Ružić, Djelovanje „Vlade Republike Srpske Krajine” 1991.-1995. (Zagreb: Hrvatski memorijalno dokumentacijski centar Domovinskog rata, 2017), 277 str.; Miroslav Akmadža, Biskupi, komunisti i svećenička udruženja (Zagreb; Sarajevo: Synopsis; Hrvatski institut za povijest, 2018), 450 str.; Alex J. Kay, David Stahel, ur., Mass Violence in Nazi-Occupied Europe (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2018), 307 str.; Pauline Fairclough, Classics for the Masses: Shaping Soviet Musical Identity under Lenin and Stalin (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2016), 283 str.; Aleksandar Jakir, Dalmacija u međuratnom razdoblju 1918. – 1941., Hrvatska povijest u 20. stoljeću, 2. svezak (Zagreb: Leykam international, 2018), 302 str.; Obilježavanje 80. godišnjice smrti dr. Ante Trumbića (1864. – 1938.), Split – Zagreb, 15. – 22. studenog 2018.
More...Keywords: East Herzegovina; violence; civil victims; ethnic cleansing; Ustashe; gendarmes; Domobrani; Muslim militia;
The article seeks to test a thesis - that was set during the Second World War and gradually grew into an unquestionable fact in a part of historiographical literature - "foreign Ustashe", primarily those from the western parts of Herzegovina, were the most responsible for crimes committed over Serbian-Orthodox community in the East Herzegovina during 1941. The article is composed of two parts: analytical elaboration in the first part and appendices containing extracts from documents of the District Court in Mostar.
More...Keywords: World War II; collaborationism; historiography; revisionism; politics;
At the end of the 20th century, the perception of peoples and states on their own past changed profoundly in the Balkans as well, with major geopolitical changes. Its processing and instrumentalization are encouraged by the complex permeation of the global relationship between national and ideological forces and local ruling interests. Every political and ideological victory, "must find its legitimate stronghold in the past." The disintegration of the ideological paradigm and the Yugoslav state union was accompanied by a balancing of the past from the outside, in accordance with the interests of the time and dominant politics, the accelerated construction of new national identities, the outbreak of a "civil war between different memories", the reversal of consciousness. These processes in the post-Yugoslav countries, in "transitional historiography", along with the new "reduction of totality", led to "retraditionalization", to the problematic waves of historical revisionism especially related to the Second World War, the correction of the so-called historical injustices, normalization of collaborationism, nationalization and relativization of the notion of anti-fascism. National historiographies in these countries have made a turn from the former glorification of the People's Liberation Movement (NOP) to its relativization, as part of the general trend of radical "re-nationalization". None of them carried out such a "thorough confrontation with the anti-fascism" of the NOP as Serbia. Numerous historians, with the participation of parascientific formations, give legitimacy to constructions of devaluing the anti-fascist legacy and rehabilitating Quisling forces. The falsification of history has also led to the relativization of their responsibility at the expense of those who have in part confirmed themselves as anti-fascists. Revanchist historiography imposes alternative truths. There is a real consensus on the definition of "good" nationalism, which for many is "elementary patriotism". Various nationalist currents are portrayed as anti-fascist. The collaborationist forces defeated in 1945 became "misunderstood victims of historical destiny." Their actions are placed in the context of their anti-communism, promoted in reasonable national politics. Derogating from anti-fascism also led to "anti-anti-fascism". He relativizes the crimes of fascists and collaborators, re-evaluates victims and executioners. It is not common practice for "historical truths" to be written in parliaments and promulgated by law, as has happened in Serbia. Courts and parliaments cannot valorize someone’s historical role. Historical science can do that. Revisionism is based on selective forgetting and the construction of a "desirable history", it is "a reworking of the past carried by clear or covert intentions to justify narrower national or political goals." The obvious expression is "political culture in a society, that is, it speaks of the dominant political value orientations in it". Judicial rehabilitation is understood as an ideological and political measure of revision of history. A distinction should be made between the individual rehabilitation of innocent victims of persecution by the authorities after 1945 and a light revision of history. The political and ideological aspects of rehabilitation, with the support of the media and the pseudo-legal mechanism, include manipulating a number of topics to delegitimize the system that changed social, economic, political and national relations after 1945 - characteristic of monarchist Yugoslavia. In revisionist historiography, communists are treated as opponents of Serbian national interests ("red devils"), intruders in national history, and the socialist revolution as an excess. With the adoption of certain laws and the application of a whole arsenal of rhetorical means and concealment of a number of historical facts, the notion of Draža Mihailović's Chetnik movement in Ravna Gora was especially reworked, neglecting and relativizing his criminal practice, to make this "new anti-fascist" side a desirable "pre-communist ancestor". "authorities. This collaborationist movement is also relieved through anti-communism, it is marked as patriotic and anti-totalitarian. His rehabilitation in Serbia has multiple meanings and consequences in its social life, but also in regional relations.
More...Keywords: Serbs; Sisak; war crimes; Wolves; killings; abduction;
The article describes war crimes committed against Serb civilians in Sisak during the 1991 war. It describes the circumstances and events that turned the multiethnic environment of Sisak into a place of death for more than a hundred Serb civilians. It also describes the aggravation of the political situation in Banija and Croatia in the period from the 1990 elections until the outbreak of the war, and as part of that it analyzes in more detail the aggravation and the policy of confrontation and separatism led by the SDS. It analyzes the role of the state in the liquidation of Serbs, especially the police and police units involved in the abduction and liquidation of Serbs, and the slowness and inefficiency of the judiciary in prosecuting perpetrators.
More...Keywords: Rikard Vikert; biography; police; Kingdom of SHS/Yugoslavia; Independent State of Croatia;
Rikard Vikert (1889–1941) was the last chief of the Zagreb police before the beginning of World War II in this region. He remained at this post only for a short time. Despite this, immediately after the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia, he was declared one of the most wanted persons of the new regime. The reasons for this were related to his earlier policing activities, especially his performance as the head of the Sarajevo police (1935–1940), when he was responsible for the cruel treatment of political dissidents of the old Yugoslav regime.He was trained to perform police duties as early as the time of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, acting as part of the armed forces, i.e. the gendarmerie, immediately after the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He was well-accepted in centralist circles because he voluntarily left the Austro-Hungarian army and joined the Serbian army at the very beginning of the Great War. In this way, he gained the trust of Belgrade’s political elites, which found him suitable for larger police tasks, due to the fact he was an educated officer. From 1923, he was employed by the Ministry of the Interior, and climbed the administrative ladder within the police apparatus. He experienced a professional zenith when he became the chief of the Zagreb police, where he tried to oppose the increasingly strong attempts of members of the Ustasha and communist movements to break the old order. After the entry of German forces into Yugoslavia and the proclamation of the puppet Independent State of Croatia, he and his associates fled Zagreb, trying to find refuge in Sarajevo. There, at the end of April 1941, he committed suicide while resisting an attempt of the Ustasha police to apprehend him.
More...Keywords: Independent State of Croatia (ISC); Holocaust; Auschwitz; Jasenovac; detention camp in Vinkovci; Syrmia; Bijeljina;
In August 1942, five transports were sent to the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau from the territory of the Independent State of Croatia (ISC), with approximately 5,000 Jews. One of them was sent from Vinkovci with circa 1,000 Jews. It left the territory of the ISC on 19 August, and arrived in Auschwitz on 22 August. The transport has been only partially researched, mostly regarding victims from the Serbian part of the Syrmia region, without taking into account the complete picture, and with various omissions and mistakes. Documents scattered in numerous archival and other heritage institutions, many of them unknown to research communities in Croatia and Serbia, compared with statistical data for inhabitants of the settlements included in the analysis, reveal what was going on with Jewish communities not only in the wider region of Syrmia (Srijem), nowadays in Croatia and Serbia, but also in Bijeljina in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from where Jews were also incorporated into that transport. The analysis includes not only Jews who were sent to Auschwitz via the detention camp in Vinkovci, where they were kept during July and August 1942 (Jews from Vukovar, Županja, Ruma, Sremska Mitrovica, Bijeljina, Ilok, Šid, maybe some from Stara Pazova), but also those who were sent to the concentration camps in Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška from May to August 1942 (Jews from Vinkovci and Zemun, most of the Jews from Stara Pazova, maybe/probably some of those from Ilok and Šid). The paper also includes a review of the destiny of Syrmian and Bijeljina’s Jews during 1941 and in the earlier period of 1942. The Holocaust was almost complete in those areas in August 1942. The only exemption was granted to Jews in mixed marriages and their children, those employed in medical services, and individuals who were exempt on some other basis. Most of them perished in the next wave of deportations in May 1943. The results of the research give a clearer picture of the flow of Holocaust in that part of the territory of the ISC and can be used for the correction and supplementation of the data about victims, not only of the individuals who perished in Auschwitz, registered in the death books from the camp or confirmed as victims of that camp by other sources, but also of those who perished in the concentration camps Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška. Regarding the Croatian part of Syrmia, some new results refer to the victims from Vukovar and Ilok who perished in Auschwitz but were previously linked to the Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška camps. Some of the victims, e.g. those from Županja, were not registered at all, and were mostly deported to Auschwitz. The data for Jews from Vinkovci and Zemun, almost all of whom perished in Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška from May to July 1942, can also be updated from the transfer lists of the Ustasha Surveillance Service (Ustaška nadzorna Služba, UNS) used in this research.
More...Keywords: Senj; fire fighting;
Naš današnji Senj jedan je među najstarijim hrvatskim gradovima i od njegova postojanja minula su četiri tisućljeća. Osnovan je točno na razmeđi obronaka Velebita i Kapele, na pogodnom zemljopisnom položaju, pa je od davnine bio predodređen da bude političko, gospodarsko i kulturno središte Hrvatskog primorja. Zahvaljujući tom svom položaju Senj je oduvijek bio i ostao do danas naša najkraća prirodna prometnica koja povezuje unutrašnjost naše zemlje s Primorjem.
More...Keywords: mountaineering; environmental protection; Liburnia; Opatija; “Orljak” Mountaineering Club;
Activities of the “Orljak” Mountaineering Club from Opatija (hereinafter: the Club) are underrepresented in the history of Croatian mountaineering. However, a quarter of a century of existence and notable activities in Liburnia justify the need to document such an important episode in local, regional, and even national mountaineering history. This paper, therefore, explores work and activities of the Club from its earliest days in the form of “Orljak” Mountaineering Section within “Opatija” Mountaineering Club (as of 1980), the establishment of independent Club (1984), the period of growth and intensive activities in the 1980s, gradual fading out in the 1990s up to final notable activities in the first decade of the 21st century. The paper is based upon a thorough analysis of unpublished archival resources from several funds. This data is supplemented by interviews with people who were active members of the Club during a certain period, and with secondary literature. This data is little known, even within mountaineers’ circles; therefore, the objectives of this research are to save from oblivion the work and activities of a mountaineering club and to adequately valorise its work as a lasting heritage of local, regional, and national (mountaineering) history.
More...59th International Academic Week of the Southeast Europe Association Memory Cultures since 1945: German-Southeast European Entangled History Organizers: Southeast Europe Association (Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft) / Akademie für Politische Bildung Tutzing Hybrid event: Tutzing and per ZOOM, 4 –8 October 2021 Zehntes Dr. Fritz-Exner-Kolloquium zur Südosteuropaforschung Südosteuropa ist tot? Lang lebe Südosteuropa! Positionierungen in einem interdisziplinären Forschungsfeld Veranstalter: Fritz und Helga Exner-Stiftung / Schroubek-Fonds Östliches Europa / Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft in Kooperation mit der Europa-Universität Viadrina, Universität Regensburg (Graduiertenschule für Ost- und Südosteuropastudien) und Universität Leipzig, Frankfurt/Oder, 13. – 15. Oktober 2021 Internationale Online-Konferenz für junge Wissenschaftler:innen Innovationswege in der Albanologie Veranstalter: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in Kooperation mit der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena und der Südosteuropa Gesellschaft, online via Zoom, 14./15. Oktober 2021 Podiumsdiskussion Die Insel Zypern vor der endgültigen Teilung? Eine aktuelle Bestandsaufnahme Christiane Schlötzer-Scotland im Gespräch mit Banu Güven und Dr. Ronald Meinardus Die Podiumsdiskussion fand am 21. Oktober 2021 in der Geschäftsstelle der Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft in München statt und wurde live übertragen. Interdisziplinäres Symposium Nomen est omen – Die Bedeutung von Namen in südosteuropäischen Kulturen Veranstalter: Balkanologenverband e.V., Europäische Akademie Berlin, Schroubek-Fonds Östliches Europa sowie Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft, Berlin, 28. – 30. Oktober 2021 Fachtagung zu Energieversorgung und Energiepolitik in Südosteuropa Lines of Power: The Politics of Energy in Southeast Europe Kooperationsveranstaltung der Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft, der Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung, Büro Athen, und dem Ostausschuss der deutschen Wirtschaft, Athen, 2. November 2021
More...Keywords: collective memory; academic historiography; founding myth; Yugoslavia;
The author contemplates the complex question of the relation between the categories "collective memory" and "professional (academic) historiography" in contemporary Croatian frameworks, showing the negative influence the developed ideological complex in Socialist Yugoslavia had on the latter category. Starting from the founding myth of the order of the time, the "standard narrative" of the "people's liberation war and socialist revolution," the author warns of the clearly expressed orientation towards the mythic version of the past even within the professional historiography of the time. Analyzing the case of the Ustaše crime committed in Croatian Blagaj on May 8, 1941, the author depicts how the true course was mythologized within the "collective memory," with the key element of historiographic knowledge, the process of contextualization, being omitted. Thus, the established mythic version of the past with all its elements said very little about real events but explained and justified real social and political relations in Yugoslavia after 1945. The author cautions that the mythic version of the past has maintained its presence in the public space even after the (formal) fall of socialism and the disappearance of Yugoslavia in 1991, concluding that such a situation will continue until real social and political relations change.
More...Keywords: Banija; exhodus 1943; witness statements; people's liberation struggle; suffering of civilian population;
In the Archive of Serbs in Croatia (Adam Dupalo Fund) the author found a transcript of interviews made on the occasion of the filming of a documentary film on the mass exhodus of civilian population in Banija in the first months of 1943. This article presents and interprets the document, together with author's explanation and interpretation of the circumstances that led to the exhodus, as well as with general remarks on this event. The document contains statements by participants/ victims of the event of which some were used in the documentary film that was completed in 1983 to mark the 40th anniversary of the exhodus.
More...Keywords: Vladimir Jurčić; NDH; Bosnia; Bosniak literature; Croatian literature; national spirit; racial-biological thesis;
The study of Bosniak literature in the period of the Independent State of Croatia has been marginalized in previous literary-historical studies, and the reasons for this were ideological and political in nature, and not scientific. This work deals with the status of Bosniak literature in the literary-critical horizons of Vladimir Jurčić, the bellwether of the Ustasha national ideology in Bosnia and Sarajevo, in the period from 1941st to 1945th. As a professor, editor of daily and periodical publications, he wrote about Bosniak literature and its canonical writers in the light of the ideological and political worldviews. He propagated theses about socio-political function of literature that extends „people's spirit”, „racial-biological” and „national” features. Jurčić attributed to literature a mediating role in transmitting the deep identity of the Croatian people, and developing a thesis on the Croatian national identity of Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) he treated Bosniak writers as the most representative reflectors of Croatian national consciousness in Bosnia. In addition to individual studies on Bosniak writers, Jurčić stated that they were separate units of the unpublished book Muslims in Croatian Literature. Jurčić's literary critical habitus is a product of socio-political and intellectual circumstances in Croatia - in the narrower sense and in the SHS - in the broader sense, which were used as a starting point for the production of certain ideological, political and cultural values in the NDH. As a follower of the ideological platform of Radić's HSS (peasant movement) and its reflections on discursive practices, especially in the social - humanities sciences (Dvorniković, Radić, Tomašić, Lukas), he interpreted literature in accordance with these practices, reducing its meaning only to ruling ideologues. He valorized Bosniak literature as a component of Croatian literature, applying several criteria: collective, linguistic, territorial and religious, which he sought to include the widest possible range of identity features and thus support the thesis of Croatianness Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks). In literary criticism, he promoted theses on racial, ethical and eugenic superiority, then on the national spirit, linguistic and stylistic specifics of Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) as an „organic“ part of the Croatian people. He emphasized the „poljodjelski“ character of Bosniak writers between the two world wars, while in older literature, especially in the oral literary tradition- and all that for need of ideological manipulation in the time of the Independent State of Croatia - war, he emphasized the highland (tribal) character that manifested itself in the epic-agonal consciousness. All these theses arose from the idea of unity and continuity of the „organic nation“, but did not find a stronghold in Bosnia because it was cultural and historical terms different from the native Croatian space, which was in principle a fundamental obstacle to its realization. Aware of the insurmountability of the cultural, literary and historical uniqueness of Bosnia, Jurčić constructed and established the literary-historical construct „literary Bosnia“ which was based on the theory of the history of regional / provincial literature. By „literary Bosnia“ he meant everything that was its „provincial features“: folk history, genealogy, specific speech (dialect - ikavica), lifestyle (Muslims), and the canonical line consisted of Bosniak writers from Safvet-bega Bašagić, Musa Ćazim Ćatić, Edhem Mulabdić, Ahmed Muradbegović, to Alija Nametk, Enver Čolaković, Murat Šuvalić etc. Since in this period the pretensions towards Bosnia and Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) were also part of the Serbian national ideology, Jurčić's „literary Bosnia“ can be understood as a counterbalance to the then established Kršić's literary-historical construct „narrative Bosnia“. Unlike Kršić's „narrative Bosnia“, whose canonical line was mostly made up of Bosnian Serb writers (Ćorović, Kočić, Andrić, Ćopić, etc.), Jurčić's „literary Bosnia“ was made up of Bosniak writers as „the purest element of the Croatian people“.
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