Logo: to the web site of Uppsala University

uu.sePublications from Uppsala University
Change search
Link to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Publications (10 of 16) Show all publications
Miljan, G. (2025). The Ustasha Regime, State, and Nation-Building Process: State “Independence” in the Axis “New Order” (1ed.). In: António Costa Pinto and Goffredo Adinolfi (Ed.), Building Dictatorships under Axis Rule: War, Military Occupation and Political Regimes (pp. 144-164). London and New York: Routledge
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The Ustasha Regime, State, and Nation-Building Process: State “Independence” in the Axis “New Order”
2025 (English)In: Building Dictatorships under Axis Rule: War, Military Occupation and Political Regimes / [ed] António Costa Pinto and Goffredo Adinolfi, London and New York: Routledge, 2025, 1, p. 144-164Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

 Within the Axis ‘new order’ regimes, the Ustasha regime, the Independent State of Croatia – NDH, was one of the longest-lasting fascist collaborationist regimes with substantial autonomy and the possibility to develop its own system.[1] The Ustasha regime was one of the ideologically most vibrant and radical fascist regimes. Upon their assumption of power, allocated to them by Nazi Germany, the Ustasha elite implemented a political and social experiment whose primary purpose was to radically reorganise the Croatian state and society according to their worldview. They engaged in the brutal cleansing of their community from unwanted citizens and its rebuilding by establishing legal procedures and through their youth policies. They promulgated and implemented a new set of legal and social norms aligned with their worldview and what they saw as the ‘new order’. This chapter examines the position of the Ustasha regime within the Axis ‘new order’ by analysing some of its key legal and social norms.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
London and New York: Routledge, 2025 Edition: 1
Series
Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right
Keywords
Ustasha, Independent State of Croatia, fascism, revolution, nation
National Category
History
Research subject
History
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-553771 (URN)10.4324/9781003463313 (DOI)9781003463313 (ISBN)9781032732541 (ISBN)
Available from: 2025-04-02 Created: 2025-04-02 Last updated: 2025-04-02
Miljan, G. (2023). Croats (1ed.). In: Roland Clark & Tim Grady (Ed.), European Fascist Movements: a Sourcebook: (pp. 125-140). New York: Routledge
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Croats
2023 (English)In: European Fascist Movements: a Sourcebook / [ed] Roland Clark & Tim Grady, New York: Routledge, 2023, 1, p. 125-140Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Following King Aleksandar’s proclamation of a dictatorship in January 1929, the lawyer Ante Pavelic fled the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and established the Ustasha – Croatian Revolutionary Organisation. It soon became notorious for its terrorist acts, and later for establishing a violent fascist regime during the Second World War. The organisation emerged from the activities of the members of the Croatian Party of Rights and its youth section Croatian Home Guard. During the 1930s the Ustasha organisation went through a process of fascistisation, while simultaneously adapting fascist ideology to suit their concrete political and social context and goals. The representatives of the Croatian nation have on several occasions addressed the League of Nations in an attempt to warn about the situation created in Croatia during the ten years of coexistence with Serbia.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
New York: Routledge, 2023 Edition: 1
Keywords
Ustasha, radicalism, fascism, violence
National Category
History
Research subject
History
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-504571 (URN)10.4324/9780429292378-7 (DOI)978-0-367-26286-0 (ISBN)978-0-429-29237-8 (ISBN)
Available from: 2023-06-14 Created: 2023-06-14 Last updated: 2024-06-25Bibliographically approved
Miljan, G. & Blomqvist, A. (2023). The unwanted citizens: The ‘Legality’ of Jewish destruction in Croatia and Romania during World War II. Comparative Legal History/ Hart Publishing, Oxford, 11(2), 226-255
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The unwanted citizens: The ‘Legality’ of Jewish destruction in Croatia and Romania during World War II
2023 (English)In: Comparative Legal History/ Hart Publishing, Oxford, ISSN 2049-677X, E-ISSN 2049-6788, Vol. 11, no 2, p. 226-255Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This article examines the establishment of the legal framework that led to the destruction and elimination of Jewish communities in Croatia and Romania during World War II. It argues that both regimes, supported by domestic fascist ideologies, evolving antisemitism, and inspired by the Nazi regime, promulgated anti-Jewish legal norms to present and establish new political, ideological, and social values and categories to their citizens. This article employs the theoretical framework of norms developed by Paul Morrow, whereby norms are seen as practical prescriptions, permissions or prohibitions. We argue that these destructive norms served as guidelines for individuals within the fascist new worldview and new reality. As such, these norms received state authorisation and implementation, serving as the ‘legal’ basis for the institutional destruction of unwanted citizens. This gave local and state actors a ‘legal’ pretext for the persecution and murder of Jews, who were stripped of their rights, assets, properties and right to life. The article concludes that the two legal frameworks enacted the process by which Jewish communities in Croatia and Romania faced a devastation of unseen proportions, which testifies to the importance and impact of legal norms on individuals, be they victims, bystanders or perpetrators.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis Group, 2023
Keywords
Holocaust, antisemitism, legal norms, Croatia, Romania, fascism
National Category
History
Research subject
History; Legal History and Sociology of Law
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-515100 (URN)10.1080/2049677X.2023.2270390 (DOI)001089608100001 ()
Projects
The Unwanted Citizens: The Holocaust and the Aryanization of Jewish Property in Romania and the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), 1940-1945
Funder
Wallenberg Foundations, MAW2018.0033
Available from: 2023-10-26 Created: 2023-10-26 Last updated: 2024-05-13Bibliographically approved
Iordachi, C. & Miljan, G. (2023). “Why We Have Become Revolutionaries and Murderers”: Radicalization, Terrorism, and Fascism in the Ustaša–Croatian Revolutionary Organization. Terrorism and Political Violence, 35(8), 1704-1723
Open this publication in new window or tab >>“Why We Have Become Revolutionaries and Murderers”: Radicalization, Terrorism, and Fascism in the Ustaša–Croatian Revolutionary Organization
2023 (English)In: Terrorism and Political Violence, ISSN 0954-6553, E-ISSN 1556-1836, Vol. 35, no 8, p. 1704-1723Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This article advances an interdisciplinary and multifactorial socio-cultural approach to the fascistization of the Ustaša in interwar Yugoslavia, leading to terrorism and racial cleansing. It concentrates on the life-trajectories of Mijo Babić and Zvonimir Pospišil, two nationalist activists notoriously known as the first Ustaša terrorists. Drawing on the previously unknown political memoirs of Pospišil and Babić, the article argues that the two activists bridged several phases of cumulative radicalization in the Ustaša organization, from the adop- tion of political violence at the grass-root level in the 1920s to international terrorism in the 1930s and then state-sponsored genocide in the first half of the 1940s. The article points out that Ustaša underwent most forms of political radicalization to terrorism identified by McCauley and Moskalenko (2008), but it also adds to their typology a case of radicalization to mass violence in the regime phase. Ustaša’s trajectory thus illustrates a rare process of transition from the radicalization of an oppositional, non-state group to mass radicaliza- tion leading to racial genocidal policies under a fascist-totalitarian regime. It is hoped that the biographical approach to radicalization advanced by the article contributes to a better understanding of politically motivated terrorism and mass violence in post-1918 Europe

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis, 2023
Keywords
Radicalization; terrorism; violence; fascism; Holocaust; charisma; martyrdom; Ustaša; Yugoslavia; Croatia
National Category
History Ethnology Political Science
Research subject
History; Political Science
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-476229 (URN)10.1080/09546553.2022.2077730 (DOI)000807613600001 ()
Available from: 2022-06-08 Created: 2022-06-08 Last updated: 2024-10-24Bibliographically approved
Miljan, G. (2022). Caroline Mezger. Forging Germans: Youth, Nation, and the National Socialist Mobilization of Ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia, 1918–1944. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020 [Review]. American Historical Review, 126(4), 1702-1703
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Caroline Mezger. Forging Germans: Youth, Nation, and the National Socialist Mobilization of Ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia, 1918–1944. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020
2022 (English)In: American Historical Review, ISSN 0002-8762, E-ISSN 1937-5239, Vol. 126, no 4, p. 1702-1703Article, book review (Other academic) Published
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Oxford University Press (OUP), 2022
National Category
History
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-470737 (URN)10.1093/ahr/rhab576 (DOI)000753584200092 ()
Available from: 2022-03-29 Created: 2022-03-29 Last updated: 2022-07-04Bibliographically approved
Mihaljević, J. & Miljan, G. (2021). “Humanist” Marxism and the Communist Regime with “Sparkles” of Totalitarianism: The Yugoslav Communist Totalitarian Experiment (response to Flere and Klanjšek). Istorija 20. veka, 39(2), 479-500
Open this publication in new window or tab >>“Humanist” Marxism and the Communist Regime with “Sparkles” of Totalitarianism: The Yugoslav Communist Totalitarian Experiment (response to Flere and Klanjšek)
2021 (English)In: Istorija 20. veka, ISSN 0352-3160, Vol. 39, no 2, p. 479-500Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This paper is a response to the article "What Typological Appellation is Suitable for Tito's Yugoslavia" published by Sergej Flere and Rudi Klanjsek in Istorija 20. veka, in which the two authors reflected on our article "Was Tito's Yugoslavia Not Totalitarian?" Instead of engaging in an open academic debate based on arguments and empirical data, Flere and Klanjsek concentrate their approach on detecting textual mistakes, which they then use as proof of our superficial and counter-factual approach. In this article, we focus on providing arguments and empirical data which demonstrate that Flere and Klanjsek's arguments as well as their newly introduced views on the subject hold little merit. In fact, we have shown that their attempt to discredit us is nothing but an example of how an academic debate can turn into a blatant non-academic debate when scholarly based approach, academic professionalism and facts are run over by sentiment.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Belgrade: Institut za Savremenu Istoriju, 2021
Keywords
Totalitarianism, Yugoslavia, Communism, Federalism, Josip Broz Tito, Individual
National Category
History
Research subject
History
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-504575 (URN)10.29362/ist20veka.2021.2.mih.479-500 (DOI)001042859700012 ()
Available from: 2023-06-14 Created: 2023-06-14 Last updated: 2023-10-09Bibliographically approved
Dulić, T. & Miljan, G. (2020). The Ustašas and Fascism : “Abolitionism,” Revolution, and Ideology (1929–42). Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, 6(1), 281-309
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The Ustašas and Fascism : “Abolitionism,” Revolution, and Ideology (1929–42)
2020 (English)In: Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, ISSN 2364-5334, Vol. 6, no 1, p. 281-309Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The analysis departs from a discussion about whether one should consider the Croatian Ustašas as fascist, or whether they in fact are best described as radical nationalist group, as was recently argued by Oleksandr Zaitsev in a comparison with the OUN. By combining Mathiesen’s theory of “the unfinished” with the key elements of “generic fascism”, the authors present a new model for the holistic analysis of fascist ideology over time. Following the in-depth theoretical discussion of the phenomenon of fascistisation, they use the Ustašas as an empirical case to elucidate how “abolitionist” movements and organisations keep part of their ideology “unfinished” in public until the acquisition of state power. During an initial “abolitionist” phase, fascists will focus their communication on those ideological elements of importance for the “dogmatic negation” of “the old system”. The ideological elements relevant for the “positive construction” will instead be merely “suggested” until the assumption of power.  We can find the reason behind such strategies in the statist and monistic tenets of fascist ideology, which views the acquisition of political power as an essential prerequisite for the achievement of profound political and societal change. By connecting the process of fascsistisation to the role of agency and state power, the new model also provides a basis for a more refined analysis of the emergence and development of fascist entities.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Columbia University Press, 2020
Keywords
Fascism, Ustaša, Second World War
National Category
History
Research subject
History
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-411547 (URN)
Available from: 2020-06-03 Created: 2020-06-03 Last updated: 2023-07-17Bibliographically approved
Miljan, G. & Mihaljević, J. (2020). Was Tito's Yugoslavia not Totalitarian?. Istorija 20 veka, 38(1), 223-248
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Was Tito's Yugoslavia not Totalitarian?
2020 (English)In: Istorija 20 veka, ISSN 0352-3160, Vol. 38, no 1, p. 223-248Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This paper is a response to the article “Was Tito’s Yugoslavia totalitarian?” published in the journal Communist and Post-Communist Studies 47 (2014). The two authors indicate the inadequate theoretical framework and untenable interpretations made by Flere and Klanjšek, who provided a distorted picture of former Yugoslav society and the position of an individual in it. Their reduced theory of totalitarianism combined with their simplified interpretations served their aim of proving that the system established by the Yugoslav communists was not totalitarian nor did it strive to become one. Flere and Klanjšek’s main argument for the absence of totalitarianism is that of a federal state concept of Yugoslavia, which is not in correlation with contemporary understanding of totalitarianism. By deconstructing their arguments, this article argues for a more elaborated and up-to-date conceptual understanding of Tito’s Yugoslavia and its relation to the concept of totalitarianism.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Serbia: , 2020
Keywords
totalitarianism, Yugoslavia, Tito, communism
National Category
History
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-403759 (URN)10.29362/ist20veka.2020.1.mih.223-248 (DOI)2-s2.0-85085033167 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2020-02-04 Created: 2020-02-04 Last updated: 2022-12-06
Miljan, G. (2020). When the Past Scorns the Present:: Memory and Meaning of Bleiburg and Jasenovac in Contemporary Croatia. In: Tomislav Dulić (Ed.), Memories in Conflict:: Historical Trauma, Collective Memory and Justice Since 1989 (pp. 57-76). Uppsala: Historiska institutionen
Open this publication in new window or tab >>When the Past Scorns the Present:: Memory and Meaning of Bleiburg and Jasenovac in Contemporary Croatia
2020 (English)In: Memories in Conflict:: Historical Trauma, Collective Memory and Justice Since 1989 / [ed] Tomislav Dulić, Uppsala: Historiska institutionen , 2020, p. 57-76Chapter in book (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

This paper analyzes the situation in post-socialist Croatia in its relation to the collective memory about Jasenovac and Bleiburg, two lieux de mémoire connected to the Second World War history and the fascist Ustaša regime in the wartime Independent State of Croatia. It examines how actors, mostly conservative-leaning academic and popular knowledge-production, tend to portray the national "in-group" as a "victim nation". Due to the problematic relation to the wartime fascist state, some revisionists have sought to "universalize" genocide generally and the Holocaust in particular. By referring to the atrocious behavior of the "Other", political actors and academics have tried to spread the blame evenly among fascists, communists, and nationalists, thus reducing the culpability of the Ustašas for their participation in the Holocaust.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Uppsala: Historiska institutionen, 2020
Series
Opuscula historica Upsaliensia, ISSN 0284-8783 ; 59
Keywords
Croatia, fascism, memory, Jasenovac, Bleiburg
National Category
History
Research subject
History
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-432917 (URN)978-91-984509-4-1 (ISBN)
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2018-02271
Available from: 2021-01-25 Created: 2021-01-25 Last updated: 2022-08-25
Miljan, G. (2019). The Ustasha Youth and the Aryanization of Jewish Property in the Independent State of Croatia, 1941-1945. European Holocaust Studies, 2, 113-132
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The Ustasha Youth and the Aryanization of Jewish Property in the Independent State of Croatia, 1941-1945
2019 (English)In: European Holocaust Studies, ISSN 2627-180x, Vol. 2, p. 113-132Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2019
Keywords
Fascism, Holocaust, Youth, Aryanization, Ustasha, Violence
National Category
History
Research subject
History
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-402774 (URN)
Projects
The ‘Ideal Nation-State’ for the ‘Ideal New Croat’ – Fascism and Holocaust in the Independent State of Croatia, 1941-1945
Available from: 2020-01-20 Created: 2020-01-20 Last updated: 2020-02-04Bibliographically approved
Organisations
Identifiers
ORCID iD: ORCID iD iconorcid.org/0000-0001-8494-9114

Search in DiVA

Show all publications