Writing history under the «dictatorship of the proletariat»: Yugoslav historiography 1945–1991

Abstract

This paper analyzes the development of the historiography in the former socialist Yugoslavia (1945–1991). Starting with the revolutionary changes after the Second World War and the establishment of the «dictatorship of the proletariat», the paper considers the ideological surveillance imposed on historiography entailing its reconceptualization on the Marxist grounds. Despite the existence of common Yugoslav institutions, Yugoslav historiography was constituted by six historiographies focusing their research programs on the history of their own nation, i.e. the republic. Therefore, many joint historiographical projects were either left unfinished or courted controversies between historians over a number of phenomena from the Yugoslav history. Yugoslav historiography emancipated from Marxist dogmatism, and modernized itself following various forms of social history due to a gradual weakening of ideological surveillance from the 1960s onwards. However, the modernization of Yugoslav historiography was carried out only partially because of the growing social and political crises which eventually led to the dissolution of Yugoslavia.