60 years ago an era of unthinkable evil ended, hopefully for good. During the last 15 years new Croatian politicians tried to distance themselves from anything remotely smacking of Communism (and some of them received hefty contributions from extreme right wing emigration), so the theme of Croatian antifascism was rarely brought up. This year, however, I see it more on places like public TV, and finally young people indoctrinated in right propaganda can catch a glimpse of the fact that my little country, through struggle of Communist-led Partisans, did more to defeat fascism than all of occupied Western and Central Europe combined (including France).
Somehow, people in power from 1990 managed to make the puppet UstaĊĦe regime in Zagreb more visible to the world than the fact the Partisans kept half of the country free in the middle of the war, even before any help from Allies began to trickle in. That perception, no doubt, helped to introduce 'balanced approach' to war crimes in ex-Yugoslavia (the primary reason for which is, of course, to justify almost total indifference 'the world', Europe included, displayed towards murderous fascism that differed from that of sixty-something years ago only in size and lack ofphysicall power, discipline and technical sophistication).
For some of my readers (if there indeed are such creatures at all) the fact that strong Partisan movement in what was Yugoslavia was Croat-led, or that 'Balkan war' 1990-1995 was not result of 'centuries of hatred' with all sides being more or less alike but the case of a fascist regime (masquerading as socialist, but that is nothing new, either) gripping to power through expansionist wars and virulent ultra-nationalism might be new. If so, I will be happy to provide more arguments and proof. But I have wandered way beyond the intended theme of this post.
Happy Europe Day!
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