Nationalism and Terror

Ante Pavelić and Ustasha Terrorism from Fascism to the Cold War
ISBN: 
978-963-386-206-3
cloth
$111.00 / €95.00 / £90.00
Publication date: 
2018
464 pages, 31 black-and-white photos

This book covers the full story of the Ustasha, a fascist movement in Croatia, from its historic roots to its downfall. The authors address key questions: In what international context did Ustasha terrorism grow and develop? How did this movement rise to power, and then exterminate hundreds of thousands of innocents? Who was Ante Pavelić, its leader? Was he a shrewd politician, able to exploit for his independent project Mussolini’s imperial ambitions, Hitler’s pan-German aims, and the anti-Bolshevism of the Holy See and the Western bloc? Or was he, consciously or not, a pawn in other hands, in a complex international scenario where Croatia was only arena among many? And after the movement’s collapse, how were several of the most prominent Ustasha leaders able to evade capture by Tito’s victorious army? The facts and documents confront us with the ambivalence of terrorism.
The book places the appearance of the Ustasha movement not only in the context of the interwar Kingdom of Yugoslavia but also in the wider perspective of the emergence of European fascism.

Part 1 The Ustasha Movement From its Origins to 1941
Chapter 1 Origins 
Chapter 2 The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes and Italy
Chapter 3 Under the Duce’s Wing 
Chapter 4 The Regicide 
Chapter 5 From Turin to Zagreb 
Part 2 The Ustasha in Power, 1941–45
Chapter 1 The Independent State of Croatia 
Chapter 2 The Massacres of Serbs, Jews, and Romani 
Chapter 3 Survival Problems for the Independent State 
Chapter 4 Crisis and the End of the Croatian State 
Part 3 The Ustasha and the Cold War, 1945–59
Chapter 1 War Criminals on the Run 
Chapter 2 Camps and Monasteries: the Ustasha Return to Italy 
Chapter 3 The Anticommunist Crusade 
Chapter 4 Toward the New World
Chapter 5 The Ustasha in Argentina 
Epilogue The Question of the Ustasha between Yugoslavia and the Vatican, 1952–72 
Bibliography 
Index 

"Adriano and Cingolani have written an interesting and compelling book. They have provided one of the first studies in English of the Ustasha movement from its origins to its painful demise, which should appeal to generalists interested in Croatia, the former Yugoslavia, and regional fascism."
"The book written by Adriano and Cingolani can be regarded as useful in certain aspects, because there is no such study available in the English language."
"Adriano and Cingolani set themselves an ambitious task: to summarize the entire history of the Ustasha movement in a single work. Their study sheds much-needed light on the Ustasha movement, particularly from the point of observation provided by Italian diplomatic sources. The book is an easy read and could be useful as an introductory text for international students and the general public, while in terms of scholarship it will be attractive to historians in pursuit of additional empirical material on the interaction between the Ustasha movement and Italian Fascism."