In the history of the South Slavs, the First World War was a milestone of enormous significance, not only because of the tragic destruction it wrought, but also because it brought about a geopolitical change that contemporaries called "the realisation of a millennium dream, namely the establishment of a Yugoslav nation-state. Therefore, the memory of the Yugoslav war victims provided an opportunity for reconciliation with the new nation state, as the Italian threat remained in the postwar period. In the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, on the other hand, the memory of the Yugoslavs who had lost their lives during the war in Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian uniforms, including those who had fought on the Isonzo Front, was not honoured within the idea of liberation and unification. Over the years, some people, especially in Slovenia and less in other parts of the nation state, began to look for new ways to honour the fallen soldiers in a different setting, which opened the door to alternative commemorations with different interpretations of the war and its meaning. In the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, there could be no simple commemoration and re-legitimisation of a common history. Instead, citizens constructed the collective memory of the postwar period through complex processes of negotiation and repression. Old animosities, reinforced by wartime propaganda, became a serious obstacle in these processes. When Mars fell silent after four tragic years, the tongues of the Muses loosened again. All of them, especially Clio, were entrusted with the urgent task of transforming the antagonistic and divisive narrative that war propaganda had created and spreading a new, common narrative that would unite the citizens of the new nation-state.
Vijoleta Herman Kaurić Libri
