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(Re)constructing the Past: Museums in Post- Communist Croatia

The violent dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s resulted not only in far-reaching transformations of the political and economic systems, but prompted new processes of state- building, identity formation, and cultural memory construction. In Croatia, the post- communist transition was thus intimately linked with its War of Independence (1991-1995), profoundly affecting memory politics in the last two decades. The political elites in post-communist Croatia reasserted Croatian identity by restoring historic symbols, traditions, holidays, and suppressed collective memories in order to sever the connection with the shared Yugoslav historical and cultural narrative. Similar transformations took place in other European countries that had once been under Soviet influence. However, in Croatia, the new forms of cultural memory did not merely challenge the ideology, communism, of the former regime, but emphasized the appropriate ethno-national identity of the newly independent nation state. In addition to changing street names, erecting new national monuments, revising textbooks, and constructing a new commemorative calendar, the Croatian state sought to enforce the authoritative narratives through the country’s historical museums and memory parks. While other countries in the region have established national museums that address the communist period (for example the Terror House in Budapest, The Museum of Genocide Victims in Vilnius, or the DDR Museum in Berlin), Croatia still lacks a permanent exhibit in the Croatian History Museum to address the communist past. This article critically examines which museums in Croatia deal with the Second World War (Jasenovac Memorial Musuem), Tito’s legacy (Kumrovec, Brijuni), and sites of memory which could serve as future museums of communism (Goli otok).

museums, World War Two, Croatia, communism, Jasenovac

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