Fascist Streets

If it were not bad enough that the streets were awash in fascist symbols, other writers found the very streets themselves to be offensive. Foreign Policy editor Charles Maynes, writing in the New York Times, wrote that streets were renamed to honor "the memory of war criminals" which was equal to naming "public squares for Adolf Hitler." When pressed for specifics, Maynes could only site an effort to name a school and a street after Mile Budak, a writer, intellectual, and briefly (from April 10, 1941, through October 6, 1942) war-time minister of education. Maynes misidentified him as the war-time Minister of Justice who played "a leading role" in the Ustase government.

In fact, a proposal was put forth by a private citizen to the city of Zagreb in 1992 to name a street for Budak. It was rejected because of Budak's war-time status as well as the fact that there was already a Budak Street named after an unrelated Partizan general that had been there for years. Yet Western reporters continued to point to that Budak Street as proof of creeping fascism. A school was also briefly named for Mile Budak. That too was a local decision that was overturned by the very government was accused of doing the naming.

In France, Marshal Pétain was still honored. Carl taf Mannerheim, the Axis Field Marshal who, soldier for soldier, inflicted some of the greatest casualties on any World War II Allied power, remained a national hero in Finland. He was also the subject of a U.S. postage stamp. Yet a schoolhouse named after Mile Budak was equal to "Adolf Hitler Square" in the eyes of some in the media.

It is a fact that many streets were renamed in Croatia and in formerly communist countries the world over for obvious reasons. The Avenija bratstva i jedinstva (Avenue of Brotherhood and Unity) celebrating the unity of Serbs and Croatians seemed somehow out of place as Serbian shells rained on Croatian cities. It was changed to Slavonska honoring, Slavonia or eastern most Croatia, much which was Serbian occupied. For the same reasons, few Croatians wanted to live on Belgradska Avenija (Belgrade venue). Leningradska (Leningrad), which even the Russians could not live with, Lenjinov trg (Lenin Square), Moskovska (Moscow), Trg Oktobar revolucije (Square of he October Revolution in the Serbian language, not Croatian), and Socijalisticke revolucije (Socialist Revolution) were all renamed.

After the experiences of 1991-1995, few Croatians wanted to honor the "Yugoslav People's Army," which had wiped entire cities from the face of the earth. Changed were such street names as Prilaz JNA (Yugoslav People's Army), Proleterskih brigade (Proletariat Brigade), XII Proleterskih brigade, 1 Moslav brigade, Trg 10 Zagreb korpusa (Square of the 10th Zagreb Corps), 13. Prolitariate Brigade, 34 Divizije, and 8 Maja 1945, the date, again in Serbian not Croatian, of the communist victory in World War II.

Trg Republike honoring the Yugoslav Republic was returned to its pre-communist name Trg Ban Jelacic honoring a 19th century Viceroy and military hero of the 1848 Revolution who abolished serfdom or tenant farming. An equestsian statue of the Viceroy was removed by the communists after World War II, and the square was renamed for the Yugoslav Republic. Although thought to have been destroyed, the Croatians recovered the disassembled statue ancl replaced it in the square in 1991.

Square of the Victims of Fascism

It was the renaming of Trg Zrtavu fasizma (Square of the victims of fascism) that brought the greatest outcry from, the Western press and which actually started the myth that Croatia was renaming streets for fascists. Before World War II this square, which is in fact the center of a traffic circle or circus, was known only as "N" Square. During World War II it was known as "the mosque" for the mosque dedicated by the government in the middle of the circle. In 1945, the communists blew-up the minarets, jailed the imams, turned the mosque into a museum honoring the Liberation War and renamed the square. Most citizens of Zagreb continued to call it "N". After independence in 1991, it was renamed Trg Hrvatskih Velikana (Square of Great Croatians) since most of the streets that intersect at the circle are named for famous Croatian historical figures such as King Zvonimir. None of the streets were named for fascists.

With all of the outcry in the Western press over the dumping of communist street names, some place names in Zagreb were overlooked by the fascist finders. One of the main streets in Zagreb, and fiome to the U.S. embassy, is Andrije Hebranga, named for the founder and leader of the Croatian World War II Partizan state that fought against the Axis. In fact, contrary to the fascist finding press, Zagreb continued to have streets honoring communists and Yugoslavs. Among them were Ljudevit Gaj, 19th century advocate of the Yugoslav idea and of a single "Illyrian" language of Serbo-Croatian. Another was Bishop Strossmayer, 19th century advocate of a single Yugoslav state.

Other street names that remain unchanged and thus went unnoticed by fascist finders honored Western nations and leaders such as Britanski trg (British Square), Francuske republice (French Republic), Kennedy trg, and Roosvelt trg. Nor did they point out a street named for Nikola Tesla, the famed Croatian- born Serbian-American inventor. Obviously pointing out these names did nothing to bolster the fascist finders' case. Since few in the Western press tnew anything about Croatia, they did not point to Starcevic trg after Ante Starcevic, considered "Father of his country" or Kvaternikov, named Eugene Kvaternik cofounders of 19th century Croatian nationalist "Party of Right" that gave birth to modern Croatian nationalism.

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