The Croatian Society of Historians „Dr Rudolf Horvat“ (since 2008)

(contact: info@croatiarediviva.com)

The Croatian Society of Historians “Dr Rudolf Horvat” was founded in Zagreb, Croatia, on 14 March 2008 by historians Dr Blanka Matković and Stipo Pilić. It was registered as a non-government organisation under the registration number 21006050 by the Zagreb City Office for General Administration and Property Affairs. The Society is currently represented by Dr Blanka Matković, president, and Stipo Pilić, vice-president. They are also the main researchers and the persons who lead all our projects. All Society members are professionals with various qualifications who participate or logistically support our research and dissemination of research outputs. The Society was founded with the following goals:

• Studying the history of the Croatian people and reviving the memories of famous Croats and events from Croatia’s past, as well as pointing to Croatian contributions to European and world heritage;
• Fostering Croatian folk customs, culture and history, as well as promoting Croatian national identity;
• Conducting research activities on all topics from Croatian history with the emphasis on history from the 19th and 20th centuries;
• Creating a database on the victimhood of the Croatian people through the 20th century with victims’ lists;
• Investigating the crimes committed by the communist regime against the Croat people in the Second World War, in the post-war period and in the 1990s Homeland War;
• Gathering documents, testimonies and other evidence of communist crimes;
• Promoting commemorations of already known locations of mass graves, as well as researching unknown ones, to promote further research;
• Commitment to the freedom of research unburdened by political dogmas; and
• Developing links and cooperation with national and international organizations with similar goals.

The beginning of our work can be traced back to 2006 when Dr Blanka Matković started her independent research project. In 2007, she was joined by Stipo Pilić, a history teacher. Since then, they have been researching together in the archives and museums in Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Between 2008 and 2011, they were employed in the project on war crimes committed against Croatian citizens at the end and after the Second World War, which was supervised by the Croatian National Archive (HDA) and the Croatian State Attorney’s office in Zagreb. During this time, as a key investigator on the communist crimes committed at Kočevski Rog (Slovenia) Dr Matković was invited to testify in the court case against Simo Dubajić. In 2011, when HDA’s project was completed, Dr Matković moved to the United Kingdom where she continued her education and has since also been conducting research at the National Archives in London. Since 2011, the members of our Society published a large number of academic papers and newspaper articles on communist terror in Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Furthermore, since 2017 they have given more than 150 lectures in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Switzerland, and Canada and participated in a larger number of panel discussions and international conferences in Croatia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Estonia and Czechia. So far, the Society has published six books with four books currently being prepared for publishing, while our members also collaborated on books published by other publishers. The list of our academic papers, books, talks, conference papers and public events is available at www.croatiarediviva.com/radovi/.  Moreover, during the last several years the Society has developed strong collaboration with over 50 NGOs in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Switzerland and Canada as well as hundreds of amateur and professional researchers who have been participating in our activities and collaborating on our projects. We also encourage the work of other organisations and individuals by sharing our expertise, data and other sources and we logistically support their events and activities.

The Society is particularly dedicated to emphasizing the importance of history in society and general advocacy for respect for freedom of research and fundamental human rights while condemning any violence, discrimination, racism, as well as regimes that were (or remain) violent, autocratic or totalitarian. A thorough, objective, and professional approach to this issue is necessary for truly dealing with a past that burdens Croatian society daily, as well as researching the past and securing the progress of historical science, which is contaminated by the communist long-standing selective and often unobjectionable approach to our past. Our ultimate goal is the comprehensive protection of human rights and the universal democratization and decommunization of Croatian society and heritage.