Populism an Ideational Approach

In this essay I will deal with the memory politics on two sets of massacres set in the region of Vojvodina during the Second World War: The Novi Sad raid in 1942, and the massacre on Hungarians in 1944. The first of the mentioned massacres was committed by the Hungarian Army, and the latter by Communist partisans, who were predominantly ethnically Slavic. First, I will briefly tell the history of the two massacres, and after that I will discuss the memory politics of the two massacres. In my opinion, dealing with the two massacres is well-founded, since they are intertwined in many ways.

Vojvodina is an autonomous province in the northern part of Serbia. The territory was part of Hungarian Kingdom until 1920. After this it was annexed to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which was renamed Yugoslavia in 1929. In 1941, Hungary attacked against Yugoslavia together with Nazi Germany and they annexed parts of Vojvodina. Monarchist četniks and Communist partisans started to organize resistance. In 1944, the territory was taken over by The Communist partisans, who became the winners of the war.

Vojvodina has an extraordinarily colourful ethnical structure. It dates back to the 18th century, when Vojvodina was acclaimed by the Austro-Hungarians, and they started settling people from various parts of the empire to the territory (Boarov 2012). Yet, during the 1990s, when Yugoslavia was suffering from brutal wars, ethnical violence was not widespread in Vojvodina, even though tensions were indeed present. In 1944, however, ethnic boundaries were highly present and the basis for violence.

While the events are dealt on the official level, how is the memory politics visible on the grass-root level? How much does it affect ethnical issues?

Politics of memory

In his book Genocide and the Politics of Memory: Studying Death to Preserve Life political scientist Herbert Hirsch (1995, p. 24) states followingly: “nation states or individuals seeking or holding power often act on the basis of their own particular interpretation of historical memory”. This creates problems to achieve objective politics of memory and interpretations of history. On the other hand, myths are used to justify historical actions and to enhance self-image (Ibid., p. 26). Successful memory politics is providing hope and “positive attempts to resolve disputes and solve critical problems (Ibid., p. 34). I argue, that successful memory politics can also provide grounds for forgetting old grudges and building renewed and successful political communities.

The Cold Days

The so-called Cold Days started at the Orthodox Christmas 6-7 January, under the disguise of an anti-partisan operation. 3,340 people were killed as a part of the razzia, out of which 2,250 were Serbs (Sajti 39).

Later, the Hungarian authorities commenced an investigation on the issue, and 15 persons were prosecuted. This was a unique case among all powers in the Second World War, since no other country started an inspection on their own army due to atrocities (Ibid.).

In 2009, the Serbian government decided about founding a committee to find the secret graves containing “the remainings of those executed after liberation in 1944”. The committee has published its results from fieldwork and also a list of names of the persons executed in 1944 (Kontrapress ). Currently, the list holds 59,554 names (Otvorena knjiga 2018).

In 2011, a Serbian-Hungarian mixed commission was founded to deal with problematic historical issues between the two peoples. The commission has organized conferences and published articles regarding the issues. The work of the committee has been exemplary, although in 2014, its work seems to have ended. The committee is aiming to follow examples from dealing with history in other parts of Europe.

In 2013, the presidents of Hungary and Serbia organized a common remembrance for the victims of the massacres. The Serbian parliament published a declaration, that condemns the acts of the Partisan troops. Hungarian president Janos Ader apologized for the actions of the Hungarian troops, in contrast the Serbian president Tomislav Nikolic did not apologize to the victims of the massacres of Hungarians (Filep 2013)

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