Venue: Doc.Funds Office in Hof 2.7.

The characteristics and international position of socialist Yugoslavia have been the subject of intense and ongoing scholarly debate. But to date, there has been no systematic study of one of the most significant specificities of the Yugoslav state after 1945: the prominence and position of Second World War veterans. The People’s Liberation War was the official term for the antifascist struggle and parallel socialist revolution that took place during the Second World War and represented the foundation and source of legitimacy of Yugoslav state socialism. After the war, the Partisans occupied the most prominent positions in society. Unlike other socialist states in Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and even Western Europe, war veterans in Yugoslavia played a crucial socio-political role, as the most influential group in domestic and international politics, organised into a powerful association (SUBNOR) and eligible for additional welfare and financial support. The workshop explores different aspects of veterans’ history in Yugoslavia, focusing on a range of perspectives and scales of analysis: the formation of veteran associations after the Second World War, veterans’ and SUBNOR activities on the local and international levels, the response of Spanish Civil War and Second World War veterans to the rise of nationalist politics in the 1980s, and the veteran associations formed after the 1990s wars.