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Croatia: 2.8 Million “Inappropriate” Books “Purged” During the 1990s

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македонски · Хрватска: 2,8 милиони „неподобни“ книги уништени во деведесеттите
Български · Хърватска: 2,8 милиона "неподходящи" книги "прочистени" през деветдесетте години
Ελληνικά · Κροατία: 2.8 εκατομμύρια "ακατάλληλα" βιβλία "εκκαθαρίστηκαν" τη δεκαετία του '90
Español · Croacia: 2.8 milliones de libros "inapropiados" "prohibidos" en los años 90

In “Libricide,” Ante Lešaja has documented the process of “purging” of “unsuitable” books from Croatian schools and public libraries by the right-wing HDZ government in the 1990s. According to a Jutarnji List interview [hr] with Lešaja, the “purging” was based on ideological and ethnic criteria and affected books “written in Cyrillic [script], [Ekavian dialect], books by Serbian authors and publishers, by ‘suspicious’ Croats, by leftists…” As a result, 2.8 million books (13% of all the library material) and 3,000 monuments of the anti-fascist struggle were obliterated. Comments on the link by Macedonian Facebook users suggest that similar processes are taking place in other ex-Yugoslav states, with janitors throwing “obsolete” books into trash.

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