Utopia and TerrorUnderstanding Violent
Societies: The Case of the Croatian
Ustasha Regime
Rory Yeomans, Oxford University, 29 January 2013
Presentation summary
• Background to The Utopia of Terror Current state of research What is an interdisciplinary approach? Interdisciplinary methodologies and the Ustasha state
The Ustasha state and the violent society
Where research might go in the future
Background to The Utopia of Terror Ustasha movement still peripheral to study
of Fascism Independent State of Croatia afterthought to
Holocaust Can they be brought into mainstream and how? Start by thinking about reasons for
marginality Resistance to innovation,
interdisciplinarity and comparative approaches
Younger generation of scholars interested in new methodologies
Bridging antagonistic national narratives
Current research about Ustasha regime and Independent State of Croatia
Until 1990s: personality driven, narrative, little cultural/social history
Ustasha regime as “collaborationist”, marginal and emphasis on occupation
Post 1990: some cultural history but apologetic
Distinction between Independent State of Croatia (positive) and Ustasha regime (negative)
Recent work on dynamics of terror, but high politics, apologetic approaches predominate
Absence of comparative, interdisciplinary or “from below” frameworks
What is an interdisciplinary approach?
Seeing a regime, society from the “inside out” Cultural, social history alone is problematic and
needs political context History with the politics left out and vice versa
There is a story in history: how you tell it matters
Economic, scientific, social, anthropological,
literary perspectives Full range of written, oral and visual sources Use of wider context and comparative analysis Evidence-based history writing Reconstructing more complex view of society
What is an interdisciplinary approach?
Are terms “regime” or “state” useful? Who is doing the “what” and why? Is there a relationship between terror and
utopianism? Regimes polycratic, vulnerable to public pressure Avoiding moral relativism, but… Understanding why regimes and their followers see
the world the way they do Exploring what’s going on at all levels of
society “From above” versus “from below” useful, but
simplifies Citizens as active agents of history
“The Revolution of Blood”: Terror and the Ustasha state
350-500,000 Serbs killed, 200,000 deported to Serbia, 200,000 forcibly assimilated
30,000 Jews killed or executed, mostly at concentration camps
30,000 Roma and Sinti killed, mostly en masse at Jasenovac and other camps
50,000 anti-Fascist Croatians, Bosniaks killed
100,000 party members by December 1941 200,000 members of armed forces and militias in May 1945
What was the “Second Revolution”?
End of “Revolution of Blood” and launch of “Second Revolution”
Criticism of conduct of youth and male Ustashas, campaign against “renegade” Ustashas
War for “cultured” values among masses, party members by Institute for National Enlightenment
Power struggles, factionalism at centre, grassroots conflicts
Purge of hardliners, technocratic promotion and emergence of “new line” towards Serbs
Debate about party’s role: elite or popular? Internal, external pressure leads to relaunch
of radical programme in late 1944
The Ustasha state and socio-economic policies
Anti-bourgeois ideology: worker and peasant values Social utopian ideas and “war” against illiteracy Socio-economic policies: workers’ rights and
“Croatian socialism” Workers’ radio, sport and health of race Regeneration and modernisation of countryside Social security and workers’ colonies Nationalisation of Serb and Jewish businesses by
State Directorate for Regeneration Show trials against Serb bourgeoisie and
capitalist exploiters Anti-capitalism and race: racial purification
linked to economic regeneration, social justice
Men, women and youth culture in the Ustasha state
“New Ustasha man” as warrior, family head Campaigns against bachelorhood linked to
demographic concerns “New Ustasha woman” as mother, wife, but also
Spartan mother, Ustasha heroine Maternal role contested by young female
activists, but suppressed “Revolution of youth” against “decrepit”
races, ideologies Generational conflict in movement Social mobility and youth membership, but
regime pressures Criticism of ideological deviation, regime
corruption by Ustasha students, youth activists
Ambitious, pragmatic young party chiefs: Sarajevo Ustasha youth leader Luka Puljiz and Zagreb party boss Božidar Kavran
Moral regeneration in the Ustasha state
Peasant values to purify “contaminated” city Death penalty for abortion Imprisonment for drunkenness, prostitution,
gambling, swearing, vagrancy Serbs and Jews morally corrupting society Cult of sacrifice, martyrdom, dying: Ustasha
warrior as saints and missionaries Day of Dead and Day of Croatian Martyrs, but
increasingly criticised Killing, violence as formative experiences
of the Ustasha warrior Death poetry, literature and glorification
of death
Art and cultural politics in the Ustasha state
Incarnation of radical Ustasha literature and art
New generation of radical-right artists, writers and poets
Revolutionary militant expressions, slogans and language “purification”
Anti-urban, but modern values in architecture, theatre, science and advertising
“Second Revolution” means pragmatic “national” approach to art
Sidelining of radical cultural experiments Art, culture for workers and peasants and
competitions for people’s artists Campaign for taste and “cultured” values in
everyday life, behaviour
The Ustasha state as a type of violent society
Terror usually linked to wider programme of national regeneration, social refashioning
Regimes fragile coalitions with policies contested at all levels of state, bureaucracy, party
Can build support, but also vulnerable to popular pressure
Crises of legitimacy expose social, generational, class, intellectual disagreements
Social, cultural politics can reflect ideological anxieties...
or compensate for failed radicalism Aborted projects of violent national purification
frequently contingent, not permanent
Possible future research: what might be needed?
A collaborative supportive scholarly community Interdisciplinary “inside out” research as an
accepted approach Getting away from personality-driven, top-down
politics Ask the big questions: why things happen? …but small scale important too Taking risks, being innovative and
experimentation Willingness to engage with different viewpoints
and approaches “Mosaic” approach to research and analysis Examine own motivations and research methods “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater”:
Communist-era history useful
Possible future research: what might it look like?
Comparative research and questions of exceptionalism
Wider audience and readable research Subjectivity, popular support and social mobility Regional and microhistorical approaches Different subcultures: youth, women,
sacralisation Exploring how terror linked to wider cultural and
social processes Imaginative use of archives as well as printed,
visual and oral sources Bringing Ustasha regime into mainstream of
Fascist studies Relevance as case study for contemporary
political processes
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