The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

goslav state presented itself as the legal successor to the Kingdom of
Yugoslavia. The legitimacy for this was derived from the struggle for lib -
eration and the great number of the war victims.
The state was divided into six republics and two autonomous provinces,
promising a balance in the multinational country. At the same time, it
was hoped that the “socialist” social structure would ensure a new integration
based on “equality for all” and “fraternity and unity”, which
were regularly celebrated politically, in which national particularities were
to dissolve in favour of a future “socialist nation“.
For the Communists, the Soviet Union remained the model to be fol -
lowed and the most important ally, even after the war. Thus, the new
Yugoslavia was only nominally a federal state; at its core, it was centralist
and bureaucratic. Fear cast a long shadow over the post-war period, in
which the killing continued without interruption. Real and putative “collab -
orators” were eliminated, political opponents and competitors removed,
and the influence of the church on society terminated by show trials.
Without opposition, no checks on the power structure or critical discussion
were possible, so that a new opportunity to build a democratic soci -
ety was lost.
The close relationship with the ideology of the Soviet Union claimed fur -
ther victims. In the Yugoslavian Gulags, on the Adriatic island of Goli Otok
and at other places, opponents of Stalin were forced to beat each other;
thousands didn’t survive it. Then, on June 28, 1948, once again on the
commemoration day of the Battle of Kosovo, the close ties to the Soviet
Union were cut; Stalin himself suddenly and unexpectedly expelled the
Yugoslav Communists from the Communists world alliance. He could
no longer tolerate the growing self-confidence, born in the resistance,
and the pride of Tito and his Communists in their own successes. The
massing of Soviet tanks at the Yugoslav borders ended only when the
USA announced that it would support Yugoslavia in case of attack. Those
who continued to adhere to Stalinism felt the results of the changed
party line. From now on, it was they who were “re-educated” by torture
in the camps.
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