Continuing Nationalism in Yugoslav Historiography1

Abstract

It was in late 1964, in a major address before the 8th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, that Tito condemned “various negative ‘traditions’” in the sphere of Yugoslav historiography. He called for resolutely “stamping out nationalistic interpretations of the cultural achievements and legacy of the past.” Tito deplored “un-Marxist, uncritical and unscientific appraisals of events and personalities in national history” which were sometimes mere repetitions of “certain bourgeois-nationalistic assessments.” He specified, “For instance, only the positive aspect of certain movements, events and persons is stressed while their negative side is hardly ever mentioned, or, if so, only in general terms and reluctantly. Further, we come across cases, although less frequently, where some sort of superiority of one national history and culture over another is stressed in some indirect way.” Tito warned that nationalistic conceptions in Yugoslav historiography often assumed a political character and led to disputes of “ugly proportions.” In 1966 Tito had occasion once again to warn that some historians were poisoning relations between the nationalities of Yugoslavia by discussing “who had what great men and when” and which nationality had “a more glorious past.”