In “Libricide,” Ante Lešaja has documented the process of “purging” of “unsuitable” books from Croatian schools and public libraries by the right-wing HDZ [1] government in the 1990s. According to a Jutarnji List interview [2] [hr] with Lešaja, the “purging” was based on ideological and ethnic criteria and affected books “written in Cyrillic [script], [Ekavian [3] 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.
Croatia: 2.8 Million “Inappropriate” Books “Purged” During the 1990s
· Written by Filip Stojanovski
Categories: Eastern & Central Europe, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, Arts & Culture, Education, Freedom of Speech, Governance, History, Language, Literature, Politics