My great grandma was born in Austro-Hungary, lived in the Kingdom of Serbs Croats and Slovenes, survived Nazi occupation, built her life in Yugoslavia, and finally died in Slovenia. She never left her farm.
We didn't talk much about history. Her accent scared me. I know she lived her entire life on that farm, raised a bazillion children, and had a numbers tattoo on her wrist. She says the concentration camp "wasn't even that bad". I think she just didn't like the communists and that was her way of opposing their 1-party rule. I was too young to understand.
Yugoslavia was a 1-party dictatorship with a market socialism economic model. A lot like China today, I think. Tito used American loans to build the roads and Soviet loans to build the power grid. Smart guy got both power daddies to play against each other in the divorce.
By the late 80's, the economy started falling apart, ethnic tensions led to a few different civil wars, and Yugoslavia broke up. Funny how everyone was all "brotherhood and unity" when the economy was good then immediately proud of their ethnic heritage and deep history as soon as it wasn't.
Pay attention in history class, every big kerfuffle is preceded by a period of economic hiccups. We are always 3 missed meals from revolution.
Slovenia became a country in 1991. I was 4 years old and don't remember much. Our war was brief, just 10 days. We watched the other Balkan wars on the evening news every day for 5 years. Seeing the Mostar Bridge blow up on the news is one of my earliest memories.
I remember tanks transported on the railway behind our house. And one time we hid in the basement because the news said Yugoslavia might send air raids. I played with my dad's old gas mask to pass the time. He was a reservist and got injured when they called him back for drills. I don't know if that was on purpose. Even as a 4 year old jumping on a rusty nail sounded like a stupid way to get injured.
When I started school, you could sense the transition.
Everyone called the teachers "Comrade so and so", but people said that now it should be "Teacher so and so". By 5th grade their title solidified as Teacher.
And we had 3 santas now! At school there was a lot of debate around which santa visited your family. The religious kids had Miklavž, traditionalists had the more socialist Dedek Mraz, and progressives had the capitalist Santa.
In my family we had Miklavž and Dedek Mraz. Because Miklavž brings something small, which is affordable, and Dedek Mraz comes on new year's eve, which we celebrated because my parents felt Christmas was too religious.
But the biggest transitions were in history class.
When I first learned about our history in classes made for kids, we learned how the brave Partisans saved us from the evil Germans. They fought and won and they could do no wrong. National heroes the lot of them.
If you watch old movies and look at old posters, that's how they're portrayed. Broad chested, classically handsome, even the women fighters brave and fearless. Yes women did active combat in the 40's.
Everywhere you went there were statues and memorials and plaques commemorating the partisans. "The brave comrades of troop something something fought the evil germans on this spot and won". I always read the plaque.
At home my grandparents cautioned that the Partisans weren't always great. They pressed people into combat. If you didn't join the cause, they'd beat you up. But how could that be!? In history class we learned they're awesome!
As I grew older I started noticing that the plaque wasn't always about "the evil germans". Sometimes it was about "the evil collaborators" or "the evil whites". Strange ...
By the late 90's, scandals broke out. Yugoslavia's UDBA kept detailed records on all civilians. The files leaked and you could look yourself up online. Or your grandpa. If you were lucky, the file said "Dude existed". The more subversive were under constant surveillance by the state. Many went to jail for speaking too loudly against the regime.
In the 90's we also found all the mass graves. Many left behind by the extra-judicial killings after the war when Partisans cleaned out the opposition. Middle school history class had to acknowledge this – The Partisans were good guys who were forced to do bad things to win the war and fight collaborators.
Talking to my parents about this was interesting. Their views were fully brainwashed by Yugoslavian history class. Their entire childhood, they were taught to aspire to be as brave as the Partisans. My grandparents just said that times in early Yugoslavia were tough and their parents focused on surviving the war and didn't care one way or another. My great-grandma did not comment. She hated communism because it was against christ.
High school AP history is where things got weird.
WW2 in the Balkans was complex. We fought Nazi occupation, Fascist occupation, did a quick coup against the king, and fought a prolonged civil war throughout. 3 different forces fought each other and the nazis. Mostly each other.
There was much brutality and war crimes. On all sides. The worst was after the war. Thousands of people killed because "Germans would never let you come back unless you collaborated". The fair and democratic election to make Tito president was ... under threat of violence if you voted wrong.
But most people were just regular folks. One day the nazis came to your farm and stole some cows. The next day ustaše (whites/collaborators) came to steal a pig and ask your sons to join. If they didn't they'd get beat up. The day after that partisans came to steal the chickens and beat you up for not being communist enough.
Like that soldier at the start of the Slovenian war said: I don't know why we're fighting, man. They told me to shoot so I shoot. Everyone is dying, but never the top brass. I just wanna go home.
All this to say: regimes come and go but the people stay and history changes. I'm thinking about this for reasons
Cheers,
~Swizec
PS: Goodbye Eastern Europe by Jacob Mikanowski is a fantastic overview of how the history of eastern europe has changed as different occupiers have come and gone and the people stayed.
Continue reading about Most history is fake myth building
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