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The end of the war also marked the end of satellite states,
such as the Independent State of Croatia,
and the occupation governments in the region of the former
Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
The common state of the three nations, Serbs, Croats and Slovenes,
was reestablished, yet with considerable differences:
there was no mention of a single nation with
three names any longer, but five nations
(Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Montenegrins and Macedonians)
were recognised, later joined by Moslems as well.
Additionally, there was the recognition of various national minorities.
"With regard to Moslems themselves, it's not the story of what
started in 1943 under the name of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
which was likely to be recognised as completely equal to others,
while Moslems were to be recognised as a nation,
as it was mentioned in ZAVNOBIH and AVNOJ
since the reality of things after the WWII proved to be
quite different. It wasn't until late '60s,
early '70s that Moslems where fully affirmed as a nation.
On the other hand, another process
was in progress, that of getting closer,
of economic prosperity and cultural ascent, as we know
that there were no universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina prior
to the socialist Yugoslavia; the whole thing was spreading,
people were being brought closer, the culture of living was altered,
so those from former mahalas that existed in the earlier period
inhabited buildings, where people were increasingly coming closer.
It all appeared as if the things would work out, that the people
were being brought together.'
The Communist Party of Yugoslavia was modeled on the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union, thus being the only allowed
political party. It controlled and administrated the whole society.
The mythical heroic past and the myth about 'the bright
future' served as the shrines that weren't to be questioned.
On the other hand, a rapid development on the social
scale was possible only for the members of the Communist Party.
Saints remained only on frescoes, icons and statues inside churches,
being replaced by partisan heroes, pre-war perished communists and
all the heroes of the post-war recovery.
They were starting to be replaced by Tito,
party leaders and national heroes.
'Communists tried to create a new concept of a nation state,
a nation comprised of different nations, a certain union,
a federal state, a federation of these
different groups which had their nationality recognised,
which had the myths that emerged from the WWII,
its founding myths as any other nation.
This was a certain beginning, a certain epic era for
Tito's Yugoslavia, which I actually named 'the civil
religion of Titoism', and I tried to explain that
communism in the former Yugoslavia wasn't retained
with the use of force all the time, but that it was legitimate in a way.
This was partly due to the fact that myths found their way
to the masses,
either through the role of the state, indoctrination in schools,
or partisan movies and poetry.'
Apart from the real heroes, many others were fabricated
in order for the children to also connect with the ideas
of the Communist Party at an early age. Certainly the most
popular figures among the young ones were Mirko and Slavko,
the heroes of the comic that had the highest circulation in
Tito's Yugoslavia.
Mirko and Slavko easily and keenly annihilated often higher
numbers of enemy soldiers.
'The comic about two partisan boys, Mirko and Slavko,
gained enormous popularity in the '60s and '70s in the socialist
Yugoslavia. The very idea of celebrating Tito's birthday by
symbolically carrying a torch - a wooden stick,
which symbolically went from hand to hand and hence circled
all around Yugoslavia, before being handed to comrade
Tito on his birthday, on May 25, along with congratulations
from the youth from the entire Yugoslavia,
gives testimony to the cult of personality.'
Country's decentralisation assumed the shape that was
contrary to what was desired. Disturbed balance between
the center and the republics generated nationalism in
all parts of the country. Old national ideologies,
suppressed historic events started to emerge flaming tensions.
The single Yugoslav ideology started to wither away.
The heroes of the anti-fascist resistance were depicted
as villains in the '90s, while their role in history was
regarded as a fabrication and manipulation of the communist
totalitarianism.
Forcibly changing the picture of the past during the '90s,
new national elites deprived the Communist Party of the legitimacy
which it adopted after the WWII.
'In order to simply illustrate this mythology that comes
into existence from one such person as Josip Broz Tito,
perhaps we could say that in the school textbooks written
in the early '80s, immediately after Broz left this region and its scene,
in this school literature Josip Broz Tito
was he was the person that appeared most frequently,
always in a positive context. What followed was that we
came to the situation in the mid-nineties where
Josip Broz Tito was the person that was mentioned only twice
in Croatian and Serbian textbooks.'
Abolishing and destroying 'the common past' meant the
loss of Yugoslav identity, solidarity, remembrance and
all other things that enticed the processes of integration.
Once again in the history of the Yugoslav nations,
research and resources receded before the claims that
enlivened old mythologies.
The Society returned to the past.