User talk:Peter Z./Notes on the former Yugoslavia

The former Balkan State Yugoslavia is indeed a complex affair. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall evidence has emerged that portrays this country in a totally different light.

The region has had a truly tragic history since the creation of Yugoslavia in 1918.

• Parliamentary assassination of Stjepan Radic in Belgrade (1928)
• The Jasenovac concentration camp of World War Two
• Way of the Cross, Bleiburg and Foibe massacres (1945/46)
• Srebrenica massacre of the early 1990s during the Bosnia War (1992–1995)

Dictatorships:

• King Alexander I
• Josip Broz Tito

Croatia and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia

Croatia and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia is a subject that is not on today’s Western Scholars minds, at all. Yet the Communist Party of Yugoslavia had a profound effect on the region. So much so that it’s created today’s political and cultural scene.

The events of post World War Two are of Biblical proportion. As stated by Joze Dezman a noted Slovenian Historian (Slovenia a former republic of Yugoslavia).

'"Killing civilians and prisoners of was after Second World War is the greatest massacre of unarmed people of all times in Slovenian territory. Compared to Europe, the Yugoslav communist massacres after the Second World War are probably right after the Stalinist purges and the Great Famine in the Ukraine. The number of those killed in Slovenia in spring of 1945 can now be estimated at more than 100,000, Slovenia was the biggest post- War killing site in Europe. It was a mixture of events, when in Slovenia there are retreating German units, collaborator units, units of Independent State of Croatia, Chetniks and Balkan civilians; more than 15,000 Slovenia inhabitants were murdered as well. Because of its brevity, number of casualties, way of execution and massiveness, it is an event that can be compared to the greatest crimes of Communism and National Socialism."

The events were best documented in the European Public Hearing on “Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes" held in Brussels in April 2008. The commission was mainly the work of Brussels European Union and the Government of Slovenia.

Hague

Centre for History, Democracy and Reconciliation-Hague:

• Myths and stereotypes of communism and nationalism which are still alive in our region (former Yugoslavia). Some historians still use these myths and stereotypes in their scientific work. CHDR will encourage researchers on the project "Myths in politics and modern history" to challenge these controversial aspects of the past which have been repeatedly manipulated for political purposes.

(Link: http://www.centerforhistory.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=37)

Korcula was part of Dalmatia

In 1918 Korčula (then called Curzola) was part of Dalmatia. Dalmatia was a province in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and was already more than a century old (Dalmatia itself as a region, dates back to the Roman Empire). According to the Austrian censuses it was predominately made up of Croatians and Italians (and other minorities). With the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, Serbia started occupying the region (Italy did the same). This was part of the Treaty of Versailles. It was interpreted back then as the formation of the Kingdom of Serbia, Croatia & Slovenia.

The new kingdom had the support of Great Britain and France, who were the superpowers of the day. In retrospect this was a tragic move, one that the United States was against. The effects of this political stupidity are still felt today. It is interesting how this newly created state “Kingdom of Serbia, Croatia & Slovenia”, which later became better know as the ill fated Yugoslavia, was given a lot of support over the succeeding decades. This part of European history surely needs more academic attention.

Concerns

A large proportion of information (books,articles) concerning the former Yugoslavia reminded me of the Yugoslavian encyclopaedias of the 1970s. The encyclopaedias were written in the same style as the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.

• William Benton, (publisher of the Encyclopedia Britannica), stated that: "about the second edition of the encyclopedia that the encyclopedia had a political bias and claimed that its purpose was a propaganda weapon". Sections of the Yugoslavian encyclopaedias were also used as a propaganda weapon to show the superiority of Titoism and the Socialist Yugoslavia to other societies and political systems.

Additionally Slavicization of non Slavic regions in Yugoslavia was continued as government policy under the Communist Party of Yugoslavia after World War Two. The regime removed ethnic populations (Germans, Italians & Hungarians). This information can be sourced from reliable scholars.

Information was and still is being presented to the world, an historical perspective of former communist Yugoslavia that was written by a Totalitarian political system.

European public hearing on “Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes”& former Yugoslavia"

• Reports and proceedings of the 8th of April European public hearing on “Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes”, organised by the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (January–June 2008) and the European Commission, stated the following: Totalitarian machines

Let us mention briefly Fascism, National Socialism and Titoism in Italy, Austria and Slovenia (a former republic of Yugoslavia). Three Christian nations, with nationalist tendencies, were infected with totalitarianism. The descent into barbarism has comparable structural elements:

• Abuse of national sentiment to carry out racial and class revolutionary projects;
• Cult of a great leader, who permits his fanatics to murder, steal and lie;
• Dictatorship of one party;
• Militarisation of society, police state – almighty secret political police;
• Collectivism, subjection of the citizen to the totalitarian state;
• State terrorism with systematic abuses of basic human rights;
• Aggressive assumption of power and struggle for territory. (page 197.)

Wikipedia & former Yugoslavia

This is funny, Wikipedia states:

• "The post-World War II Yugoslavia was in many respects a model [citation needed] of how to build a multinational state."
• "The ethnic violence was only ended [citation needed] when the multiethnic Yugoslav Partisans took over the country at the end of the war and banned nationalism from being publicly promoted. "
• "Most notable of the victories against the occupying forces were the battles of Neretva and Sutjeska."

Editor's notes: Victories?

• "Yugoslavia solved the national issue of nations and nationalities (national minorities) in a way that all nations and nationalities had the same rights."

Editor's notes: Thru the Way of the Cross, Bleiburg and Foibe massacres (1945/46)

Now thanks to the Internet, this pseudo historical perspective that once was only know to Tito's Yugoslavia, has gone World Wide. This is truly disturbing because the former communist Yugoslavia encompassed peoples descendant of the Roman Empire, Republic of Venice, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and so and so forth.

Additional: There was some good academic work done during the Communist era ( & post Communist). Experience has taught me that these writings are usually hardish to obtain and the information is generally disregarded by hot headed nationalism or Neo-Communists. Peter Z. 01:55, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

Media links

• Press Agency: Columnist Says Silence on Post-War Killings Needs to End (Interview). Ljubljana, 1 April (STA) - Alenka Puhar, an author who has written extensively about Slovenia's Communist past (a former republic of Yugoslavia), has told STA in an interview that post-WWII killings need to be examined and discussed. "We need to talk about it and live with it, with this pain," she said.
• EurActiv Network Croatian PM pays tribute to controversial war victims (Croatia a former republic of Yugoslavia).