Arhivski vjesnik, Vol. 68 , 2025.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.36506/av.68.6
Confronting the Legacy of Non-Democratic Regimes: The Example of the Courage Project and the Exhibition Archaeology of Resistance
Nenad Bukvić
orcid.org/0000-0002-7417-4500
; Croatian State Archives
Abstract
In recent years, following the “opening of the archives”, archival records originating from the period of communist rule in Yugoslavia and its republics i.e. fromthe end of the Second World War until 1990 have increasingly come into focus within both the academic community and the wider public in Croatia. Research based on these sources is expected to contribute to a clearer understanding of the socio-political system of that era, including support for confronting the legacy of its undemocratic characteristics. Over the past two decades, the archival community in Croatia has been critically examining its social role, professional activities, and ethical responsibilities, particularly in relation to issues such as the shaping of collective identity and historical memory. These reflections are in accordance with the recommendations set out in the Document of Dialogue of February 2018, produced by the Council for Dealing with the Consequences of the Rule of Non-Democratic Regimes, established by decision of the Croatian Government on 2 March 2017. The impetusfor this paper arose from recent publicly organised events and media appearances, most notably those surrounding the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe, which, in the author’s view, suggest that strong ideological divisions regarding the legacy of 20th-century non-democratic regimes remain present in Croatian society. To explore this topic, the paper examines the international project COURAGE: Cultural Opposition – Understanding the Cultural Heritage of Dissent in the Former Socialist Countries (2016–2019), and the 2018 exhibition developed as part of the project, Archaeology of Resistance: Discovering Collections of Cultural Opposition in Socialist Croatia. Based on several critical reviews of the project, and especially the exhibition, it becomes evident that, contrary to the primary professional and scholarly intent of the project contributors and exhibition authors to objectively present relevant sources and encourage further systematic research into the various aspects of cultural policy in socialist Yugoslavia/Croatia, some critics sought to do the very opposite: to further ideologise what the authors had made a conscious effort to de-ideologise. This paper aims to encourage archives, as well as other public and private holders of archival materials, to enhance their efforts in presenting and informing both academic and broader public about the diversity and informational value of the sources they hold, especially for research related to confronting the legacies of non-democratic regimes.
Keywords
confronting the past; Non-democratic regimes; cocmmumist regime; revisionism; ideological divisions; COURAGE project; Archaeology of Resistance exhibition
Hrčak ID:
341828
URI
Publication date:
19.12.2025.
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