Summary
Milana Živanović
Memory Politics in Yugoslavia on 1944 Liberation Operations
and the Role of the Red Army
Abstract: Based on archival sources, memoirs, and the press, the article analyzes the shifts in the Yugoslav politics of memory on the military operations that led to the country's liberation in 1944 and the contribution of the Red Army to that process. The object of the analysis are newspaper articles, speeches by state officials, and memorial architecture.
Key words: Military Operations, Liberation, Yugoslavia, Red Army, Memorial Architecture
During the period between 1944 and 1975, the official Yugoslavian politics of memory on the military operations that led to the liberation of the country, and on the role of the Red Army in the liberation, was inconsistent. Within three decades at least three changes of the discourse have been detected. They had been publicly declared through speeches of the state officials, newspaper articles, and memorial architecture. During the first years after World War II in the public discourse the focus was on the contribution of the Soviet soldiers, and then on the contribution of the Yugoslav soldiers, but after the Cominform Resolution this hierarchy shifted and the role of the Red Army was downplayed. On the 10th anniversary of the liberation of the Belgrade, this discourse was slightly changed, but in 1964 the official perception would become similar to the one in 1944. Nevertheless, a decade later, a new shift would be detected. So, the official memory depended on the different political and ideological factors and was constantly changing.