36
trained or additionally schooled partisan staff. Hastily, Soviet textbooks were translated for
various levels of education, even faculties. A special branch of historiography became the
study of the history of the labor movement, the Communist Party and the class struggles. This
study was rather isolated in its method of work and usually did not place the studied topics in
a broader social context. Despite these changes, as Janko Pleterski, Ph.D., found in 1987, the
continuity of the "bourgeois" historiography was maintained, however, only for the study of
the history of older periods.32 Slovenia, for example, saw in 1954 the beginning of the
publication of Zgodovina slovenskega naroda [History of the Slovene Nation] in five parts by
Bogo Grafenauer, Ph.D., and in 1955 of Zgodovina Slovencev od naselitve do 15. Stoletja
[The History of Slovenes from the Settlement to the 15th Century] by Milko Kos, Ph.D. The
first writer belonged to the Catholic circle, and the other to the liberal one, although in
Grafenauer's case, as one of the rare Slovene historians to deal with the theory of
historiography (Struktura in tehnika zgodovinske vede [Structure and Technique of Historical
Science], Filozofska fakulteta, Ljubljana 1960), a considerable influence of Marxist
historiography is also noticeable.33
At the time of the conflict with the Information Bureau, Yugoslav historiography was
"monolithically unanimous" and in the function of proving the correctness of the Yugoslav
viewpoint, struggling for "the truth about the National Liberation Struggle of the nations and
nationalities of Yugoslavia, for the truth about the idea and practice of the National Liberation
31 The first volume of the Croatian Historijski zbornik [Historical Journal] from 1948 gives historians as their
three most important missions the conquering of Marxism-Leninism or historical materialism and dialectical
methods, followed by directing attention to the study of the near past, in which the present has its immediate
roots, and thirdly, avoiding such topics in the research of the history of the Yugoslav nations that would discuss
their conflicts, in other words, the affirmation of the Yugoslav "collectiveness." However, in the editorial (with a
selection of various quotations by the editor Jaroslav Šidak) it is also clearly indicated that the historians do not
wish to accept the vulgar Marxism that permeated Soviet historiography and was exported into the East
European countries. The "cleansing" of national historiographies in favor of strengthening the brotherhood and
unity was merely intended to denote that interpretations which had mostly been created under the influence of
Fascism are not to be taken into consideration. (Nikša Stančič: Plodovi i ožiljci, Vjesnik, Zagreb 15.2. 1991).
32 "Without major personal rifts, the work of professional academic historiography at the faculties and
academies, which strove for the preservation of its scientific level, continued with new momentum... When
talking about the history of the XX century, the influence of the bourgeois conceptions in Yugoslav
historiography until recently still existed primarily within the borders of topics regarding the bourgeois society
before 1918. This influence was demonstrated less in the topics of the history of the Yugoslav state between
both wars, while the time of the National Liberation War and revolution was more or less only treated from a
bourgeois viewpoint abroad." (Janko Pleterski: Različna pisanja zgodovine and Zgodovina je zgodovina
zmagovalcev, Delo 21. and 28. 2. 1987)
33 More on the topic, see Oto Luthar Med kronologijo in fikcijo, ZPS, Ljubljana 1993
37
Front, for the truth about the leading and inspiring role and the historical act of the
Communist Party of Yugoslavia."34
At the beginning of the sixties the Yugoslav political top experienced the end of the idea and
political monolithness; in the middle of the sixties the thesis that socialism in Yugoslavia had
in principle solved the national issue once and for all was refuted; at the end of the sixties the
federalization of the country was begun. The politically strongly supported theories of the
creation of a single socialist Yugoslav nation or, in a milder version, of a uniform Yugoslav
socialist culture, had not lost any significance. Therefore historiography was occasionally still
asked to search for and discuss that which had in the past united the Yugoslav nations, and not
that which had separated them or created conflicts between them. The actual processes in
historiography went in the direction of political change, that is, of strengthening the position
of the republics, and emphasized national individualities. At the turn of the seventies, politics
and historiography began in certain environments to lend each other a hand, no longer only on
a class level, but on a national level. After the defeat of the national and liberal movements at
the beginning of the seventies, certain historians (particularly Croatian and Albanian) were
accused of developing a distorted historical consciousness with their works and encouraging
the national euphoria that had led to the national rebellions (in Kosovo in 1968, in Croatia in
the so-called "maspok" in 1971).
Parallel another trend was noticeable: a shift from the handling of older periods to newer
ones; especially favored was the study of the history of the labor movement and the National
Liberation War in the discipline itself, and even more so in the "amateur" publicistic and
commemorative production. The tendency to "narrow the issues to questions that are
interesting to everyday politics and to the time in the immediate vicinity of the revolution" (as
this had been characterized by Peter Vodopivec) brought a part of historiography closer to
apologetics.35 This trend had already begun in the sixties and reached its peak in the
seventies. After the defeat of the "liberal" movement in the League of Communists, the
winning movement wanted to fortify its authoritative position also by referring to the
revolutionary legacy and by proving the revolutionary continuity, by writing about history,
celebrating various anniversaries and naming the streets after revolutionaries holding an
34 Janko Pleterski: Različna pisanja zgodovine and Zgodovina je zgodovina zmagovalcev, Delo 21. and 28. 2.
1987).
35 Peter Vodopivec: Poizkus opredelitve razvoja slovenskega zgodovinopisja z vidika odnosa zgodovina -
ideologija, Problemi, Ljubljana 1984, No. 12, p. 9.
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