Dimitar Anakiev
SLOVENE STALINIST OSTRACISM
(Erasing the Yugoslavs from official records is a Stalinist method of ostracism)
Political method of erasing people from official records was often a subject of discussion after 2004, when the fact of erasing more than 25000 Yugoslavs from the register of permanent settlement (1) was officially declared. Thus the anti-Yugoslav chauvinism was inaugurated as the official ideology of the »independent« Slovene state. There were many who found this method as an original Slovene political patent which served the purpose of intelligent »administrative ethnic cleaning«. The others connected »rubbing out« to Orwell, while many tried to mystify this well known Stalinist practice. American marxist Jamaes P. Cannon in his famous work »History of American Trotskyism« (2) analyzes Stalinist political methods and he states three basic levels: 1.defamation, 2.ostracism and 3.gangsterism. Stalinism took ostracism from the Antic political practice. At that time ostracism was understood as political exile by the »pottery shards' decision«, while »ostrakon« in Greek defines a piece of pottery with the name of a person being exiled. However, in old Greek state, exile as a way of »rubbing out« persons from the political system, was a temporary and limited measure. It was the way how to remove political opponents, but their private possession was respected and protected until their comeback. Stalinism made a totalitarian method out of ostracism. In order to remain in power, Stalinism rubbed, remade and usurp history as its private property. Slovene Stalinism is particular in a sense that rubbing out people and history has a function of capitalistic domination and neocolonialism which rule the Balkan in the form of European Union.We can see the Stalinist character of rubbing in the fact that nation is treated as the political party whence all the undesired members- Yugoslavs in this case- can be excluded. At the same time this is an attempt to delete the past and the history of the nation which was created during the socialist revolution and the fight for a national liberation. That is something which does not correspond to new masters of Slovenia and their servants. Counter-revolutionary character of rubbing and remaking of history can be seen best in a recent attempt of historical reconciliation with fascism. The same tendency can be found in the other regions of the Balkan(3). Namely, domestic servants of Hitler's army tend to be reinterpreted as the „national army“, even though they served Nazi destruction of their own nation in the same way as they serve the genocide capitalistic transition today. Stalinist methods are not only limited to people and history, the Stalinist terminology is also linked to public and political discourse. The use of a well-known Stalin's phrase »left fascism« is one of the most typical examples in a Slovene political theater.The phrase origins from the thirties of a previous century, when it was invented to prevent the integration of a winning coalition of that time which was possible by German communists and social democrats. The obstruction of this coalition enabled Hitler to come to power. For the purpose of contemporary »right wing« Slovene Democrat Party (SDS), it was its leader, Janez Janša, who reused this Stalin's phrase, and thus saved it from the oblivion.
In the case of »the rubbed out« we can observe a typical Stalinist methodology- it started with defamation- a long period of chauvinistic cultural campaign, which focused on humiliation of the »Balkan« in the name of »European« values, which was followed by the defamation of the »traitors« and »waverers« of the Slovene independency. We can compare it with the cultural campaign from the time of a collaboration with fascism, when „Asia“ was attacked in the name of „Europe“. Defamation went on for more than a decade, which made ostracism a necessary political device in public opinion, not to be questionable by any relevant Slovene politician. This opened the door to the last level of Stalinist political methodology- »gangsterism«. This phase of Slovene Stalinism can be found in a theft of a private property of the »rubbed out« persons and mainly in a deprivation of the residential rights, transferred from the socialism. In a new system socialist residential right gave residents opportunity to buy apartments at a non-commercial price (the so called »Jazbinšek law«). Thus hundreds of thousands of Slovene people bought properties at a lower, »socialist« price, but not the »rubbed out« Yugoslavs, whom that right was taken away. Many »rubbed out« persons were therefore dislodged (with their apartments being hijacked de facto), while those who managed to stay in their apartments from different »humanitarian« reasons, where the authorities could not break the evident law (single mothers with her children, for example), were later forced to pay a commercial rent- the theft being multiplied that way. Something similar happened with other properties of persons, within the executive field of »ostracism«. The methods of gangsterism also include thousands of illegal deportations of the »rubbed out« persons, executed by the police without the court's decision (4). European Union ignored the problem of Slovene »rubbed out« persons, as if it did not exist and officially it was classified as a Slovene internal affair. After the Italian advocate office Lana & Saccucci brought an action, the European Court for Human Rights decided that the »rubbed out« persons the following rights were violated: legal protection and family life right (5). The Stalinist ostracism is not questionable for the European institutions.
Two conclusions are evident: first, Slovene society and political system are still deeply impregnated with Stalinism being its basic characteristic, and second, Stalinism is totally compatible with the character of the European Union and the contemporary european policy.
(1)One year after the independency from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was declared, Slovene government with the secret action illegally deleted some tens thousands of people from the registers of permanent dwelling. The majority of them were industrial workers and their descendants from other yugoslav republics, who contributed to the slovene industrialization in 70's and 80's. Right wing government of Janez Janša confessed in 2004 that 18.305 Yugoslavs were »rubbed out«. Left wing government of Borut Pahor in 2009 determined a higher number: 25.671. Helsinki Monitor reported that more than 70.000 Yugoslavs were »rubbed out«. The official number, however, remained the one of the Pahor government.
(2)James P. Cannon: »The History of American Trotskysm«, Pathfinder Press, New York, 1944
(3)The
most grotesque transformation of Stalinism into fascism happened in
the case of famoust Tito's commandant from the WW2 – Petar
Gračanin. This commandant of Second Proletarian Brigade and „People
Hero“ from Syrmian Front became Milošević's Minister of Interior
creating fascist para-military units responsible for many of ethnical
cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
