Reconciliation of European Histories

The Croatian Pan-European Union, in cooperation with the International Pan-European Union and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia, organised an international conference on 16-18 October 2015 in Požega.

The conference was entitled "Ideologues, Totalitarianisms and Truth: the Reconciliation of European Histories — A View from the European Union and Croatia in the European Union".

As part of the conference, a session of the Presidency Council of the International Pan-European Union was held.

On the Conference Topic

Reconciliation of histories is under way in the European Union. National histories have often presented one-sided view of events in conflict with other possible interpretations. When such histories served politics or ideology, they drifted apart from scientific models or theories and became ideologemes. Conflicted ideologemes served opposed political ambitions. One must be able to see something with one’s own eyes, as well as with the eyes of others, based on facts, but also viewed from all aspects. That is not impossible. We find this already in the writings of Herodotus, the father of history, who wanted to record great deeds (as well as horrors) done by Hellenes and by barbarians as well; his work is impressive by its impartiality. He shows no substantial conflict between the Helenian and the Persian truth. He remains above that. French, English, Spanish and German versions of history often do not match; nor do the Polish and Russian versions, or the Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian – if we wish to take a look at our neighbourhood. Still, we can point to the work of Ivan Lučić as having an impressive sense of measure and scientific impartiality. Also, Pavao Ritter Vitezović is not only a Croatian historian, but a champion of Bosnian and Serbian history as well.

If histories led by national interests need to be reconciled, even more extreme is the case of historical approaches serving the totalitarian regimes in the 20th century. Those extreme nationalist, racist, and classist forms have partially been rejected, but their extremeness opens up an area of studying human fallibility. Coudenhove-Kalergi wrote about this in a clear and instructive way, fighting all totalitarianisms. Milder one-sided national views, however, are still very much alive and are also represented in the conflicted views of great nations, as well as in their failure to perceive small nations. They are also reflected in the fear of the small ones when facing the force of the big ones, and sometimes in mutual prejudices. However, if it is clear that one must today merge one-sided national versions of history in a wider European and global spirit and context, and remove partiality, prejudice towards others and generalized accusations, no new ideological polishing of history is going to help us; it will not help us to remove all traces of mutual violence among nations or parts of society, and oversee conflicts, wars, injustices and crimes, or interpret them through rose-coloured glasses. History built cultures and civilizations, but it also brought them down and caused harm and injustice.

Only the real historical truth, in good faith to show everyone justice, admit faults, respect sacrifices, and highlight examples of the good, can heal wounds, reconcile conflicts and build a world in which justice, understanding and respect towards others will prevail. Today, histories start being written from an ecological point of view as well, because the war with nature does not lead us towards a future anymore, but, thanks to technological progress, only towards our own doom. Therefore, we do not need new ideologemes, not even the polished ones because they could better serve crime than sacrifice, and we particularly do not need someone to impose on us a new globalised totalitarian worldview. We need the truth and we need to learn from it; we do not need oblivion or ignorance of the past – we need to learn from history, as seen from all perspectives with understanding, in order not to repeat its pains, injustices and devastations, but to build a new culture and civilisation in harmony with others, with the entire world and with nature.

With participants from different countries, the conference aims at putting these controversial themes of reconciling histories under discussion, and at exploring the role of the truth in history. It aims at looking for the principles, according to which we should investigate and present history as a reliable science, which will enrich our human understanding and help, with its accumulated experience, in building a harmonious future of each country, of Europe and the whole world.

• Conference programme (EN) (PDF)
• Declaration (EN) (PDF)