Destruction of books in post-independence Croatia

Mass destruction of books occurred in Croatia in the period leading up to and following its independence from Yugoslavia. The events have been termed as a knjigocid in Serbo-Croatian, translateable as libricide or bibliocide in English.[4][5]

Destruction of books in Croatia
Duration1990-2010
LocationCroatia[1]
Outcomedestruction of about 2-3 million books[2][3]

The destructions began in 1990, shortly before the Croatian War of Independence and lasted during the first 19 years after Croatia became independent in 1991. All destroyed books had one of following things in common, they were written in Serbian Cyrillic or ekavian dialect or published by non-Croatian publishers and particularly ideological literature.[6] According to Ante Lešaja destroyed books were estimated to be around 13,8% of all books in libraries in Croatia.[7][8][9] Nobody has been held responsible for the destruction of cultural heritage. Many public notable intellectuals objected to this practice, most notably Milan Kangrga, while some emphasized that the majority in Croatia remained silent about it. Miljenko Jergović referred to the cleansing of Croatian libraries from unsuitable books as the supreme cultural crime. Viktor Ivančić perceived lack of books published in Serbia or Bosnia and Herzegovina in Croatian bookstores in 2012 as an extension of the destruction campaign.

Republic of Croatia

In 1992 the Croatian Government issued Obligatory Instructions on Use of Library Found of School Libraries Croatian: Naputak za rad u knjižnicama osnovnih škola to remove literature published in Serbia, on ekavian dialect or on Serbian language and Serbian Cyrillic script.[10] In 1997 Croatian minister of finance Borislav Škegr stated that the Croatian Government will finance elimination of books on Serbian and similar languages from libraries in Croatia.[11] Bryant pointed to debate about what languages might be considered as "similar" to Serbian.[2]

Books subjected to destruction

Books by Serb authors were destroyed, as well as books by Ivo Andrić,[12] books related to the history of Yugoslavia and the NOB (Yugoslavian Liberation War), socialist and Marxist theory books, etc.[13]

Private libraries and collections owned by Serbs

Destruction of books included books in private libraries, one of most notable being the case of the private library of Radomir Konstantinović in Rovinj, Istria.[14]

Reactions

Many notable intellectuals objected to this practice, including Milan Kangrga. Their objections were fruitless and in some cases, they were punished for their objections. The most notable case is Kangrga who was put on trial for many years by the Croatian judicial system without basic elements for the trial. In 2003 the Prosvjeta magazine published a special issue dedicated to "Bibliocide-Culturecide: Where One Burn Books, One Will Soon Burn People".[15] Ante Lešaja published a book about the destruction of books in Croatia between 1990 and 2010, Knjigocid. Uništavanje knjiga u Hrvatskoj 1990.-ih (Libricide. The Destruction of Books in Croatia in the 1990s) which is regarded as valuable, complete and meticulous study.[15] The editor Milan Šarac stated at the promotion of the work:

The biggest irony of every bibliocide is that eventually, each of them ends in books. The books strike back.

emphasizing that Croatia is unique case because nobody has been held responsible for destruction of cultural heritage.[16] In 2012 Viktor Ivančić published a text dedicated to destruction of books in Croatia during 1990's, underlining that in 2012 it was basically impossible to buy books published in Serbia or Bosnia and Herzegovina in Croatian bookstores, which he perceived as an extension of bibliocide.[17] In 2014, the minister in Government of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin, invited European Union not to be blind and deaf to the resurrection of Ustaše ideology in modern Croatia reminding everybody on the famous quote of Heinrich Heine, stating that they first burnt books and then people.[18] In 2014 Miljenko Jergović published text in which he referred to the cleansing of Croatian libraries from unsuitable books as the supreme cultural crime.[19] In 2015 the exhibition titled "Written Off" (Croatian: Otpisani) as a reminder on the books destroyed from public libraries in Croatia during 1990's, based on the book published by Lešaja.[20] The exhibition was dedicated to 20 year anniversary of the Operation Storm to put destruction of the books in social context in which destruction of "unsuitable" monuments and books occurred together with destruction of books and killings of "unsuitable" citizens, outside and before the military operations.[21] In 2015 Viktor Ivančić gave an interview in which he objected the destruction of hundreds of thousands of books in the first half of 1990s, based on the precise instructions of the Croatian Government to destroy books if either the publisher was from Serbia or the book was printed on Cyrillic script.[22] In an interview given in 2016 Dubravka Ugrešić emphasized that destruction of 2,8 million books happened without significant protests of the Croatian culture public.[23] Slobodan Šnajder also complained about silent majority in Croatia regarding the bookocide in Croatia.[24]

The philosopher Milan Kangrga and the newspaper Feral Tribune were put on trial for defamation because they had described the destruction of books in the Korčula Library as "book-burning", when the books had not actually been burned but merely been disposed of in a container.[25]

See also

References
  1. "Mračne '90-e: HDZ-ova politika uništila je i spalila 2,8 milijuna knjiga". www.express.hr (in Croatian). Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  2. Bryant 2017.
  3. Bevernage & Wouters 2018, p. 191.
  4. Bevernage & Wouters 2018, pp. 191-201.
  5. Grgas, Klepač & Veliki 2016, p. 183.
  6. Kempgen & Tomelleri 2019, pp. 205-206.
  7. Bevernage & Wouters 2018, p. 194.
  8. Adriana Piteša (13 July 2012). "KNJIGOCID - Lešaja: Devedesetih smo uništili 2,8 mil. 'nepoćudnih' knjiga". www.jutarnji.hr. Jutarnji List. Retrieved 9 May 2018. Tijekom 90-ih iz hrvatskih je knjižnica, prema gruboj procjeni, odstranjeno gotovo 2,8 milijuna knjiga ili 13,8 posto ukupne građe.
  9. Kim Cuculić. 2015, {Podaci do kojih je došao Lešaja su zastrašujući: tijekom 1990-ih iz hrvatskih je knjižnica, prema gruboj procjeni, odstranjeno gotovo 2,8 milijuna knjiga ili 13,8 posto ukupne građe, "The data obtained by Lešaja are frightening: during the 1990s, according to a rough estimate, almost 2.8 million books or 13.8 percent of the total material were removed from Croatian libraries"} http://www.novilist.hr/Kultura/Knjizevnost/Knjigocid-Devedesetih-iz-hrvatskih-knjiznica-izbaceno-2-8-milijuna-nepodobnih-knjiga
  10. Jakšić, Božidar (8 October 2013). "Knjigocid u Hrvatskoj: Hronika sramnog vremena". www.slobodnaevropa.org. Radio Free Europe. Retrieved 9 May 2018. Osim knjiga napisanih na ćirilici i ekavici, nepodobnim su se smatrala ...
  11. Jakšić, Božidar (8 October 2013). "Knjigocid u Hrvatskoj: Hronika sramnog vremena". www.slobodnaevropa.org. Radio Free Europe. Retrieved 9 May 2018. Dragoceno je svjedočanstvo, koje navodi autor, izjava ministra finansija Republike Hrvatske Borislava Škegra iz 1997. godine da će se sredstvima državnog proračuna finansirati biblioteke da iz knjižnih fondova izbace knjige na srpskom i sličnim jezicima“, objašnjava Jakšić
  12. (Kangrga 2002, p. 102)"Evo, koji su to za ustašku svijest (kao i nekada u NDH) nepoćudni pisci, naši i strani (izuzimajući ovdje hotimice baš srpske pisce!): Oscar Wilde, Ivo Andrić (koga inače hrvatska literatura svojata kao hrvatskog pisca, Bože dragi, pa on je ipak "hrvatski nobelovac", zar ne!?), Ivana ... "
  13. Kim Cuculić. 2015, http://www.novilist.hr/Kultura/Knjizevnost/Knjigocid-Devedesetih-iz-hrvatskih-knjiznica-izbaceno-2-8-milijuna-nepodobnih-knjiga?meta_refresh=true
  14. Visković, Velimir (23 August 2015). "Hrvati spalili 3 miliona knjiga srpskih pisaca" [Croats burned 3 million books authored by Serbs]. Novosti (in Serbian). Belgrade. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  15. Bevernage & Wouters 2018, p. 193.
  16. Šarac, Milan. ""Knjigocid – uništavanje knjiga u Hrvatskoj 90-ih"". Jadovno. Jadovno. Retrieved 11 May 2020. Najveća ironija svakog knjigocida i jest u tome da će na koncu svaki završiti u knjizi. Knjige uzvraćaju udarac.
  17. Ivančić, Viktor (14 July 2012). "VIKTOR IVANČIĆ: Mržnja prema knjizi". Lupiga. Retrieved 13 May 2020. Danas, 2012. godine, praktički ni u jednoj knjižari u Hrvatskoj ne možemo kupiti knjige koje su objavljene u Srbiji ili Bosni i Hercegovini. Blokada je potpuna. Liberalni kulturni poslenici, puni sladunjavih fraza o multikulturalnosti i sličnim tricama, čak posvećeni kulturnoj razmjeni festivalskog tipa, u tome uopće ne vide naročiti problem. Ako nam je, međutim, organiziranim putem uskraćen dodir s „tuđim“ knjigama – premda su one na jeziku koji nam je svima savršeno razumljiv (odnosno baš zato!) – što je to nego nastavak knjigocida sredstvima kapitalističkog tržišta?
  18. Opačić, Tamara (2014). "I Sisak je imao Mengelea" [Sisak had Mengele too] (in Croatian). Croatia. Retrieved 3 May 2018. - Europa u koju Srbija želi, i u kojoj Hrvatska već jest, ne može biti slijepa i gluha kada se ustaška ideologija ponovo rodi, pojavi i progovori. Onaj tko razbija ćiriličnu ploču samo zato što jedan narod baš tim jezikom govori i piše, razbio bi i dječju glavu samo da može i da se ne boji da će biti kažnjen. Ne može onaj tko razbija ćiriličnu ploču misliti da to neće izazvati zlo, silu i nasilje. Jer ne zaboravimo, prvo su palili knjige, a onda su palili ljude, poručio je Vulin.
  19. Jergović, Miljenko (22 February 2014). "Јерговић: ХДЗ је спаљивао књиге, ХНС спаљује Дубровник". Бука. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  20. Cuculić, Kim (28 July 2015). "Knjigocid: Devedesetih iz hrvatskih knjižnica izbačeno 2,8 milijuna nepodobnih knjiga". Novi List. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  21. Cuculić, Kim (28 July 2015). "Knjigocid: Devedesetih iz hrvatskih knjižnica izbačeno 2,8 milijuna nepodobnih knjiga". Novi List. Retrieved 13 May 2020. »Otpisane« nedvosmisleno situiraju uništavanje knjiga u društveni kontekst u kojem se uništavanje »nepodobnih« spomenika i knjiga događalo istovremeno s rušenjima kuća i ubijanjima »nepoćudnih« građana, izvan i prije ratnih operacija, te je zato posvećena 20. godišnjici »vojno-redarstvene akcije Oluja«, završne vojne operacije onoga što se naziva »Domovinskim ratom«.
  22. Ivančić, Viktor (3 October 2015). "Eliminacija kao kreacija". Peščanik. Retrieved 13 May 2020. U prvoj polovini devedesetih, u hrvatskim bibliotekama uništeno je više stotina tisuća knjiga, po jasnim kriterijima: ili je izdavač bio iz Srbije ili je knjiga tiskana na ćirilici. To je sve očišćeno direktnom državnom intervencijom.
  23. Erceg, Heni (13 July 2016). "Dubravka Ugrešić – intervju". Peščanik. Peščanik. Retrieved 13 May 2020. Očišćene su tada hrvatske knjižnice, po naputku tadašnje ministrice kulture Vesne Girardi-Jurkić, a podaci govore da je uništeno 2,8 milijuna knjiga samo u devedesetima.... Pitam vas je li se itko iz hrvatske kulturne javnosti dobrano potresao oko toga?.... Uništenje 2,8 milijuna knjiga koje je prošlo bez značajnijih protestnih gesta
  24. (Šnajder 2005, p. 229):"Korčulanska situacija izuzetna je samo po tome što se tamo obreo i gospodin Lešaja , te je obratno od prakse hrvatske šutljive većine , o knjigocidu stao govoriti i pisati , neušutkan , do današnjega dana . "
  25. Adriana Piteša (13 July 2012). "KNJIGOCID - Lešaja: Devedesetih smo uništili 2,8 mil. 'nepoćudnih' knjiga". www.jutarnji.hr. Jutarnji List. Retrieved 9 May 2018. Zbog uništavanja knjiga (i spomenika) nije, međutim nitko odgovarao. Vođena su samo dva sudska procesa, oba vezana uz ozloglašeni slučaj korčulanske knjižnice pod ravanteljicom Izabelom Skokandić, zapamćen kao slučaj “djevojčice sa žigicama”....U prvom se tužilo Milana Kangrgu, u drugom Feral Tribune - one koji su kritički progovorili o slučaju odstranjivanja knjiga na Korčuli, a sudac je presudio da se radilo o kleveti, jer nije naglašena formalna razlika između spaljivanja i bacanja knjiga u kontejner.

Sources

Further reading
  • “Bibliocide-Culturecide: Where One Burns Books, One Will Soon Burn People,” published in 2003 by the Serbian Cultural Society “Prosvjeta” (Srpsko kulturno društvo Prosvjeta)
  • Ante Lešaja's volume about the destruction of books in Croatia between 1990 and 2010, Knjigocid. Uništavanje knjiga u Hrvatskoj 1990.-ih (Libricide. The Destruction of Books in Croatia in the 1990s
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