Slovenia

The Fall of Yugoslavia

The Yugoslav Wars (1): Slovenia & Croatia 1991-95 (Elite)

Following the death of the Yugoslavian strongman President Tito in 1980, the several semi-autonomous republics and provinces that he had welded into a nation in 1945 moved inexorably towards separation. After a deceptively clean break for independence by Slovenia in 1991, the world watched a series of other wars rip through this modern European state. In this first of two volumes, experts on the Balkan region give an unprecedentedly clear, concise explanation of the Slovene, Croatian and Krajina-Serb armies of these campaigns, illustrated with rare photos and an extraordinary range of colour uniform plates.

Of Whom the World Was Not Worthy

"We must believe with all our hearts and souls that He is with us. He is a God of love!" So shouted Jakob, the evangelist, as the German tanks roared across Yugoslavian soil, and machine guns, motorcycles and Messerschmitts screamed in the hills.

Out of the sky came the Stukas. They nosed over, dropped their bombs and veered off into the cold blue. The wagon in front of them was hit. The donkey was dead, and the driver lay mutilated in the brush at the side of the road.

"This is war," said the gray-clad officer. "The only place you will be safe is in the grave."

Weak and divided, the Yugoslavians fought back. Their ill-equipped guerrillas chewed on the German army like vermin on the flanks of a stallion. They cut phone lines, laid mines, dynamited bridges and blew up armored cars. Their stubborn war cry was, "Better grave than slave!" But, for every German they killed a hundred Yugoslavs were shot in retaliation.

In the midst of this living hell, Jakob, Jozeca and other believers clung to God and prayed for both friend and foe. The enemies of their beloved homeland could burn their cities and towns, but they could not destroy their souls or quench their indomitable spirits.

Marie Chapian went to Yugoslavia and interviewed peasants, gypsies, factory workers, doctors, laborers, and officials of the Communist party. She wanted to know how the Christians' faith was sustained through those terrible years of war, famine and cold. She learned that they had simply clung to God with an almost incredible fait

Slovenia, 1945: Memories of Death and Survival after World War II

Conversations with Zizek (Conversations)

In this new book, Slavoj Žižek and Glyn Daly engage in a series of entertaining conversations which illustrate the originality of Žižek’s thinking on psychoanalysis, philosophy, multiculturalism, popular/cyber culture, totalitarianism, ethics and politics.

• An excellent introduction to one of the most engaging and controversial cultural theorists writing today.
  
• Žižek is a Slovenian sociologist who trained as a Lacanian and uses Lacan to analyse popular culture and politics.
  
• Illustrates the originality of Žižek’s thinking on psychoanalysis, philosophy, multi-culturalism, popular/cyber culture, totalitarianism, ethics and politics.
  
• Provides a unique glimpse of Žižek’s humour and character and offers new material and fresh perspectives which will be of interest to followers of Žižek’s writings.

Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture

The Carpatho-Rusyns are central European people, numbering approximately 1.2 million, who live within the borders of five states: Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, and Hungary. They have never had a state of their own. Disregarded and suppressed by most governments that ruled over them in the past, the Rusyn people have had to fight to retain their identity, culture, and language. This work is an attempt to redress the loss of historical memory and knowledge caused by decades of repression by investigating and explaining the historical past and culture of Rusyns in all countries where they live, including immigrant communities in the United States, Canada, and Yugoslavia.

The encyclopedia contains over 1,100 alphabetically arranged entries in areas such as individuals, organizations, political parties, periodicals, historical terms, geographic regions, historical events, and on themes such as architecture, archaeology, cinema, communism, ethnography, geneaology, geography and economy, historiography, history, the internet, language, literature, nationalism, printing and publishing, and radio and television. The first encyclopedic work on Rusyns to appear in English, this book has laready proven to be an indispensable resource for European and Slavic studies specialists, and for general readers interested in international relations and nationalism.

The Revised and Expanded Edition has been fully updated: New data and references have been provided for most existing entries ans many entirely new entries have been added.

Resistance, Imprisonment, and Forced Labor: A Slovene Student in World War II (Studies in Modern European History, Vol. 47)

Resistance, Imprisonment, and Forced Labor recalls the author's struggle for survival as a prisoner and forced laborer following the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia in 1941. He describes a dizzying and fateful journey during which he worked with both pro-Western and Partisan forces and was variously imprisoned by Italian Fascists at Rab and the Nazis at Auschwitz and elsewhere. A theme that emerges is that civilians were as much participants and victims of the war as those on the battlefield. The author also describes the forced repatriation of Yugoslavs to Tito's forces by the British after the war and the tragic consequences.

A Tragedy Revealed: The Story of Italians from Istria, Dalmatia, and Venezia Giulia, 1943-1956 (Toronto Italian Studies)

As the Second World War drew to a close, European borders were being redrawn. The regions of Istria, Dalmatia, and Venezia Giulia, nominally Italian but at various times also belonging to Austria and Germany, fell under the rule of Yugoslavia and its dictator Marshal Tito. The ensuing removal and genocide of Italians from these regions had been little explored or even discussed until 1999, when the esteemed Italian journalist Arrigo Petacco wrote L'esodo: La tragedia negata degli italiani d'Istria, Dalmazia e Venezia Giulia. Now this story is available in English as A Tragedy Revealed.

Petacco explains the history of the regions and how they were shifted between empires for centuries. The greater part of the story however details the genocidal program of the Yugoslav Communist government toward the native Italians in the regions. Based on previously unavailable archival documents and oral accounts from people who were there, Petacco reveals the events and exposes the Italian government’s mishandling – and then official silence on – the situation. This is a riveting work on a little-known, tragic event written by one of Italy’s most highly regarded journalists.

Safe Area Gorazde : The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995

A landmark work of New Journalism is now available in softcover.

Safe Area Gorazde is Joe Sacco's 240-page opus about the war in the former Yugoslavia. Sacco spent four months in Bosnia in 1995-1996, immersing himself in the human side of life during wartime, researching stories rarely found in conventional news coverage. The book focuses on the Muslim enclave of Gorazde, which was besieged by Bosnian Serbs during the war. Sacco spent four weeks in Gorazde, entering before the Muslims trapped inside had access to the outside world, electricity or running water.

The hardcover edition of Safe Area Gorazde put Sacco on the map as one of the pre-eminent journalists of his time, and the softcover edition will present his work to a wider audience. The book has been prominently featured in The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, Time, Utne Reader, Spin, The London Times, The Washington Post, Brill's Content, several NPR programs, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Economist, The Atlantic Monthly, and other media. The book also led to Sacco being named a recipient of a 2001 Guggenheim Fellowship. Safe Area Gorazde features an introduction by Christopher Hitchens, political columnist for The Nation and Vanity Fair.

Democratic Transition in Slovenia: Value Transformation, Education, and Media

The first of the Yugoslav successor states to succeed in building a democratic system and to enter the European Union, Slovenia stands as a model for democratic transition. Here, Ramet and Fink-Hafner have assembled a team of outstanding specialists to analyze various aspects of the country's transformation from socialism to democracy.

The editors note that while a great deal has been written on political and economic questions, relatively little attention has been paid to the transformation and transmission of values and norms in Eastern Europe over the past fifteen years. Slovenia's experience demonstrates how a small country has created the preconditions necessary to the construction of a civic, democratic culture. Six values are emphasized as central to this project: tolerance, equality, church-state separation, respect for democratic procedure and the rule of law, human rights, and civic-mindedness.

The volume editors join the other contributors in discussing the manner in which Slovenia has set out to build democracy, the ways in which values are transmitted, the role of the media in a free society, the structure of educational systems, and other questions that concern anyone who aspires to live in an open, democratic society.