Krleža’s Encyclopaedia of Yugoslavia between euroscepticism and euronormativism: contribution to the understanding of the origins of Krleža’s Encyclopaedia of Yugoslavia project

Abstract

The article was made with the goal to, by analysing key points of view of Miroslav Krleža and members of the Central and republic editorial boards, shown on the Plenum and commissions of the Central editorial board of the Encyclopaedia of Yugoslavia held in Zagreb on June 12–14th, 1952, present the problem of Krleža’s attitude and attitudes of other participants towards this encyclopaedic project. Starting with the Cold-War contradictions in Yugoslavia between 1948 and 1952, and the far-reaching projected social changes in the country in this short period of time, Krleža could conceptualise his Yugoslavica on an epochal scale, while at the same time present its socialist educational goals on a utilitarian level. The price of that discrepancy could be foreseen as early as 1952. Nevertheless, numerous collaborators, gathered in Zagreb and other Yugoslavian centres around Krleža’s project by the logic of the distribution of government and power in Yugoslavia, made the Encyclopaedia of Yugoslavia a competitive project on the European scale.