Yugoslav Partisans - Cultural Legacy

Cultural Legacy

Partisan ranks included some of the most important artists and writers of 20th century Yugoslavia. The experiences of Partisans in particular had a major impact on the culture of the country. The Partisan struggle was therefore well-chronicled through the memoirs of its participants, and later those experiences served as basis for important literary works, most notably by authors like Jure Kaštelan, Joža Horvat, Oskar Davičo, Antonije Isaković, Branko Ćopić, Ivan Goran Kovačić, Karel Destovnik Kajuh, Mihailo Lalić, Edvard Kocbek, Tone Svetina, Vitomil Zupan and others.

According to Vladimir Dedijer, over 40,000 works of folk poetry were inspired by the Partisans.

Comic books depicting the Partisan struggle also became very popular, most notably works by Croatian artist Jules Radilović. The most popular, however, was the Mirko i Slavko comic book series.

The Partisan struggle also influenced the film industry, which developed its own genre of Partisan film, with its own set of unofficial rules and motives, very much like American Western or the Japanese Jidaigeki movies. The most notable of these was the Oscar-nominated 1969 Battle of Neretva (film). The movie Force 10 from Navarone displayed the struggle of the Yugoslav Partisans during the war, as British and American special forces arrive to help them destroy a German-held bridge.

An outsider's perspective of the partisans is recorded in Evelyn Waugh's 1961 novel Unconditional Surrender, the last of The Sword of Honour trilogy. Waugh was stationed in Yugoslavia towards the end of the war.

Božidar Jakac promoted culture and education in the Province of Ljubljana and participated at the second session of the AVNOJ in Jajce. He noted his wartime comrades and the events in numerous graphics.

The most visible aspect of Partisan legacy, however, is the series of monuments commemorating their struggle. Most of these sculptures belong to the socialist realism art form, with some of them becoming victims of state-sponsored vandalism following the break-up of the country in the early 1990s. (see Yugoslav wars).