On Tuesday and Wednesday 8/9 July the Centre for the Renewal of Culture and the Brussels-based New Direction think tank are holding a two-day international conference to discuss what the end of the Second World War meant in South-East, Eastern and Central Europe. 8 May 1945 is celebrated as VE – Victory in Europe – day in the West. But how should the arrival of the Partisans in Zagreb that day be remembered? As Liberation? Or as the start of 45 years of Communist Party oppression? The same question applies in all those countries where in the immediate Post-War period the Communists came to power.
“Good Old Days of Socialism”
Nor is this just a matter for specialist historians or for those obsessed with paying off old grudges. Not a day goes by either in Croatia or other former Communist countries without some display of nostalgia for the “good old days of socialism”. There are unremitting attempts to glorify or at least excuse the actions of the Party and vilify or obliterate the memories of those who opposed it.
Monuments to real or imagined events perpetuate the Leftist mythology. A new generation of cultural Marxists proudly embraces an antifascism created by the Party to conceal its true nature. In the countries of the former Yugoslavia, but in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe too, old Party security networks have been put to good use to line the pockets of a post-Communist elite which claims to be best qualified to rule in today’s free and democratic world. A world which their predecessors did nothing to create, and which they in their hearts, too, secretly despise. So, what really happened all those years ago when the Communists took over is relevant to all of us – whether we like it or not.
Liberation or Enslavement: Exceptional Contribution by Lithuania and Poland
The two-day international conference in Zagreb will be addressed by the best historians in their fields on a wide range of topics. Experts will speak about Tito’s (and Stalin’s) personality cult; the organisation and actions of the Yugoslav secret police; the camps and prisons in which political detainees languished; foreign impressions of the Partisans; the persecution of the Church; the Party’s treatment of the Italian and German minorities, and of the Muslims; the special case of Dubrovnik; the Bleiburg massacres, the Križni put, and the latest evidence about the mass graves in Slovenia and Croatia.
The discussions will not just be focused on Croatia, or even Yugoslavia. Visiting historians from Lithuania and Poland will speak of the different, but parallel, experiences of their nations after the Soviets and the Communist Party took over. The Lithuanians and Poles have done far more than either Croatia or any of the countries of the former Communist Yugoslavia to explore, explain and publicise that dark past. Their scholarship and their museums are exceptional. We can and should learn from them.
Entrance to the conference is free. The venue is Hotel Dubrovnik in the centre of Zagreb and registrations are available here.
Written by: Robin Harris, the President of COK and author of Croatia: A History – From Revolution to Independence.
Conference Agenda
Day 1 (Tuesday)
5.00 – Opening remarks
Robin Harris, president, Center for the Renewal of Culture – COK
Branka Lozo, Board member of New Direction
5.15 Lecture 1
What the Communist Revolution in Yugoslavia entailed
(Robin Harris, COK)
5.35 Lecture 2
“With Tito and Stalin, two heroic sons of the people”: Perception and presentation of “comrade” Stalin and “brotherly” Soviet Union in Croatian/Yugoslav media and propaganda after the WWII
(Mario Jareb, historian, Croatian Institute of History)
5.55 Lecture 3
VOS, OZNA and UDBA – Communist Secret Police – in Slovenia, 1941-1990
(Igor Omerza, writer – Slovenia)
6.15 Coffee break
6.30 Lecture 4
Communist-Soviet terror in Lithuania in 1944-1953
(Arunas Bubnys, Genocide and resistance research centre of Lithuania)
6.50 Lecture 5
Communist revolution in post-war Europe. The Polish perspective and experience
(Grzegorz Wołk, Institute of National Remembrance, Poland)
7.10 Lecture 6
Considering and confronting memories of the communist past
(Rasa Čepaitienė, Institute of Lithuanian History)
7.30 Panel discussion: The Reality of Communism
(Moderator: Robin Harris, COK)
Day 2 (Wednesday)
10.00 Opening
10.15 Lecture 1
Evelyn Waugh and the Partisans
(Mario Jareb, historian, Croatian Institute of History)
10.35 Lecture 2
Persecution of the Church in Croatia
(Jure Krišto, historian)
10.55 Lecture 3
Liquidations and terror in Dubrovnik
(Robin Harris, COK)
11.15 Panel discussion: Communist Aims and Methods
(Moderator: Hrvoje Čapo, historian, Croatian Institute of History)
12.00 LUNCH
13.30 Lecture 4
Yugoslav state terrorism against the Croatian emigration
(Bože Vukušić, Croatian Way of the Cross Association)
13.50 Lecture 5
Communist repression of the Islamic community – Zagreb case study
(Zlatko Hasanbegović, historian, former Minister of Culture, Ivo Pilar Institute)
14.10 Lecture 6
The fate of the Italians in Dalmatia and Istria
(Marino Manin, historian, Croatian Institute of History)
14.30 Lecture 7
The Fate of the German Minority in Croatia and Yugoslavia at the End of the Second World War and the Immediate Post-war Period
(Vladimir Geiger, historian, Croatian Institute of History)
14.50 Panel discussion: The Victims of Communism
(Moderator: Hrvoje Čapo, historian, Croatian Institute of History)
15.15 Coffee break
15.30 Lecture 8
Liquidations and mass graves in Slovenia
(Mitja Ferenc, historian, Slovenia)
15.50 Lecture 9
The Consequences of Bleiburg: Mass Graves in the Republic of Croatia
(Amir Obhođaš, historian, Croatian State Archives)
16.10 Lecture 10
OZNA repression and persecution in Herzegovina in 1945
(Hrvoje Mandić, historian, University of Zagreb)
16.30 Lecture 11
Two models of retribution in Europe
(Hrvoje Čapo, historian, Croatian Institute of History)
16.50 Panel Discussion: Bleiburg and the Way of the Cross
(Moderator: Mate Ćurić, COK)
Concluding Remarks
