Homepage

Accolade "Krunoslav Sukić" BOOK OF THE YEAR"

The authors of a book published in the Republic of Croatia or in one of the countries of the Western Balkans that stands out for its contribution to creating an atmosphere of better understanding and motivation for peacemaking, non-violent action, protection and promotion of human rights and the development of civil society are awarded.

The Recognition comes in a form of a plaque - a letter of thanks.

Laureates

Antiratna kampanja 1991-2011 – Neispričana povijest, Vesna Janković and Nikola Mokrović (Ed.), Documenta - Centar za suočavanje s prošlošću, Antiratna kampanja, Zagreb, 2011

The book gives an overview of the work and activities of the network of civil society organizations (movements) that in the most difficult war and post-war years held high the light of peacemaking and non-violence and achieved significant results. In any case, the book is an inspiration for new generations to engage in efforts to eliminate violence in social conflicts and to build a culture of peace.

KNJIGOCID - uništavanje knjiga u Hrvatskoj ranih 90-tih, Ante Lešaja, Profil, SNV, 2012

KNJIGOCID is the result of many years of thorough research and long-term work by Ante Lešaja on documenting the destruction, exclusion of books in the Cyrillic alphabet and ideologically inappropriate works from libraries during the war and post-war period - facts that need to be brought to light, they simply must not be covered up - for the sake of truth, for the sake of learning from one's own past and for the sake of striving for a different future - one without fear of mutual suppression. We believe that KNJIGOCID has the potential to stimulate these processes, and it is certainly a contribution to the discussion about the interpretation of the cultural and political paradigm that underlies such and such phenomena of destruction. On the other hand, and last but not least, broader questions arise here: how and in what way is it possible to conceive of a book as a universal good, and yet as something whose function and status are constantly changing historically? Finally, how can we even understand the loss of a part of culture and history, which has simply been extracted and forgotten from the newly defined and established reality?

ZRCALO SJEĆANJA - ispravno pamćenje u nasilnu svijetu, Miroslav Volf, Ex libris 2012

ZRCALO SJEĆANJA - ispravno pamćenje u nasilnu svijetu by Miroslav Volf, is a theologically meditative book that offers a reflection on the politics of correct memory that opens up space for forgiveness and repentance, that is, for building a culture of remembrance that supports the transformation of relationships from hostility to trust. Correct memory, according to the author, is based on the pursuit of truth (to speak the truth for Christians, contained in the commandment not to bear false witness) and compassion (to treat one's own and others' wounds with care). The book is primarily intended for believers, Christians, but the courage to speak the truth, as well as wisdom and compassion for suffering are natural inclinations that every human being possesses (for Christians, the image of the divine character that is given to man). Miroslav Volf's book systematically explains how to release and act these inclinations in us and our communities in order to break the spiral of violence by correctly remembering the evils suffered or committed, and to direct ourselves towards building a community (political and social) based on trust, in which social bonds destroyed by violence, injustice and fraud are restored. We need such a book.

Novel “Dezerter”, Dinko Telećan, Algoritam 2013

The story of Miro and Boris, two friends whose paths diverge in unexpected ways, about the Croatian national awakening in the early 90s, travels, spirituality, friendship with the enemy, encounters of religions, cultures of customs, journeys towards oneself. Anti-war messages are natural in the book, many readers will not call them such, because it is a philosophical book that, interestingly, takes place in Zadar in the period before and after the Homeland War. There is no politics in the book, but the book itself is political, in a wise and profound way, offering us seemingly incidental insights into a number of topics that still burden the Croatian present today: identities, ethnicity, especially if you are a non-Croat, relations with Serbs, post-war challenges of veterans, the meaning and motives of life choices, the meaning of living, escape from oneself and one's environment.

A humane and subtly provocative book, contemporary and all time, which presents taboo topics to the Croatian public with such ease that it, in its own way, continues to pretend that it does not notice it.

„Smijeh slobode: uvod u Feral Tribune“, Boris Pavelić, Naklada Adamić, Rijeka 2015

The "Krunoslav Sukić" Accolade was awarded to Boris Pavelić for the book Smijeh slobode: uvod u Feral Tribune for his outstanding research, professional and scientific contribution to the history of journalism in Croatia.

The Accolade goes to an original author's work, which attracts attention even though it is analytical, interesting like a thriller, as thorough almost as an encyclopedia. Boris Pavelić succeeded in a difficult task, to resist the fact that the quantity and attractiveness of the material overwhelmed him, but also to resist the challenge of coming out as the winner. He managed, hand in hand, knowingly and humanely, to bring Feral out in front of the public spotlight and confront those who read and loved him, but also those who did not love him, and perhaps most of all those who did not know him.

The 700-page book describes in detail the phenomenon and activities of the political-satirical newspaper Feral Tribune from its inception back in 1983 as a humorous sub-newspaper of Nedjeljna Dalmacija until the closure of the independent weekly in 2008. We see this endeavor by Boris Pavelić as an incentive and an invitation to open discussions and research that have been lacking so far - for political scientists, sociologists, journalists, historians, researchers of language and literature and, of course, for theoreticians and practitioners of nonviolent resistance and non-violent social action. He is an example from which to learn about the social, political, psychological effects of harsh, we would say merciless political satire. As this was the intention of the author, with this recognition we want to support him in this!

„Preživljavati usprkos“ a group of authors, Nikola Biliškov (Ed.), Izvori 2015

The Accolade goes to this Collection on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ivan Supek because it contributes to the creation of an atmosphere of understanding of peacemaking, non-violent action, human rights and civil society.

Moreover, the Collection itself and the work on it is a peacemaking endeavor. It gathers and encourages participation in the work on social justice and change of a new generation of activists, researchers and thinkers, excellently building on the legacy of scientific, social and peacemaking activities of academician Supek. The importance of awakening and active engagement, critical thought and the use of knowledge to work towards a more just society, for humanistic purposes, is incorporated into a wide range of topics covered in the Proceedings: critical thought, the role of science, peace policies, humanistic architecture, just economy, economic democracy, sustainable natural and social development, ecology.

"Preživljavati usprkos" promotes a way of thinking, living and acting that strives for healthy, quality, fulfilled human lives, relationships and community. That is why we recognize it as a certain light in the darkness (Tatajana Gromača on the Collection). That is why with this Accolade we want to contribute to making this light, these lights more visible!

Download speech (.pdf)

Ivica Đikić : "Beara"

By describing in meticulous detail the events we know about which we have a clear value, political and emotional attitude, we are revealed to the real reality behind evil at the level of symbols. What we think we know is almost nothing and if we really don't want such evil to ever happen again - we have to start thinking. "Beara" by Ivica Đikić teaches us to think, showing us the consequences of non-thinking. The genesis of evil is what Ivica Đikić managed to connect with ourselves and our reality in such a way that we are not sick or sick when reading, but our foreheads frown, not from disgust but from - finally - the thought process. By leading us in the direction that led to the genocide in Srebrenica, Đikić also depicts a parallel reality that did not result in such evil. There, some other people saw the consequences and refused to become the cause. "Beara" brings us closer to the genocide in Srebrenica and the key culprits, and that alone would be valuable enough. What is especially peaceful about it is that we constantly ask ourselves: Are we really so much like him, all of them? It does not bring us the 'banality of evil' of Hannah Arendt, on the contrary, but it brings us a deconstruction of evil that must make us imagine to the point that we say to ourselves - I have to change.

The violence in "Beara" is neither primordial nor foreign, nor obviously perverted, it is a consequence of concrete actions and inactions. We realize that every inaction we do is a great help to some future evil, perhaps a very big one. And that's the really terrible thing about this book. But this fear is mobilizing, not paralyzing, for Đikić. After reading Beara, you can even choose to ignore her hidden message, but at some point you will notice that you are thinking about the causality and production of the next war and that you are constantly doing something to disrupt this process. This is the definition of authentic peace.

Ivica Đikić greeted the gathering:.... you have given me a great honor by awarding me an award named after Krunoslav Sukić, a man who self-sacrificingly guarded the embers of peace, while many or most of them attacked that embers with snuff and buckets full of water. I am grateful that by including me among the winners of this award, you have included me in the company of people who have continued Sukić's peaceful and humane mission in the areas of their activities.

Nada Glad: „Goranski mir(ovi)“

Nada Glad, a radio and journalist for Novi List, is the author, according to the locals, of one of the most important books for Gorski Kotar. A document of time and space dominated by the life and work of Franjo Starčević, immortalized for future generations: "He was a philosopher and psychologist, and he also left a mark in literature, media and social work. He was not one man, he lived several lives, launched a number of projects and advocated for things that we would all have to fight for. But there were no brave ones to follow him."

In six years of work, according to the wish of the late Franjo, this book was created, of great value for Croatian society, especially for the promotion of peace. Through biography, diary and correspondence, negotiations between the ethnically Croat and Serb population in Jasenak and Delnice are described, among other things, which resulted in the preservation of peace and the non-raising of interethnic tensions in Gorski Kotar. Following this work, Franjo Starčević founded the School of Peace in Mrkopalj, which was among the first, and continued throughout the decade, to gather children from all the republics of the former Yugoslavia at summer schools.

The book is a comprehensive and exhaustive resource - both for those who want to be informed, and for those who want to continue developing peace education activities and materials or bring motive and inspiration for the development of peace policies on this example. The work of Franjo Starčević is a rarity, an oasis connected to the community, a peaceful exception in times and spaces of war, a richness that is yet to be discovered. Nada Hunger's work is a thorough depiction, a hitherto non-existent light on an exceptional person that not only gives us unknown information or mere hope, but also makes us wonder: Do we really know how strong a man is? Both Nada and Francis are great examples for revision of one's own ignorance.

Zoran Grozdanov & Nebojša Zelić (Ed.): Vjera u dijalog, CeKaDe & Exlibris, Rijeka, 2018

Without working together, religious or non-religious arguments are not arguments but ideology

Vjera u dijalog are edited and printed lectures and discussions conducted at the forums "Religion and the Public at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka" in 2014/2015. The aim of the forums was to question the place and role of religious argument in the public sphere" and "to offer different points of view (...) in relation to the attitudes that prevail in the Croatian public space". Topics that are hotly debated in Croatian society have been selected, and in these discussions religious views are often introduced or have a significant influence on them - the topics of homosexuality, abortion and the position of women in society, nationalism and the strengthening of extremist tendencies, and the relationship between Catholicism and socio-economic justice. The guests of the lectures and forums have always been members of the Catholic Church in order to hear views that do not question the core beliefs of Catholics. To gather for a public conversation around these topics, to do it in a dialogic way and to collect and publish interviews, lectures and conversations as permanent sources of inspiration to reflect on our own views and better understand the views of those with whom we disagree – is a reason to give recognition and warn about a book that creates a space for true social dialogue.

However, this endeavor surpasses the book because it is also an example of when and how true dialogue becomes possible and what its purpose is. This is the path taken by the editors of this book when they prepared, worked and introduced it into the public space, Nebojša Zelić, assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Rijeka and Zoran Grozdanov, assistant professor at the University Center for Protestant Theology. They conclude their five-year journey by returning to the insight that there is actually no religious argument in our public space, only a reference to Christian identity, but also about the existence of a "common ground" that does not divide but obliges! "The idea of justice and freedom are common to both humanistic atheism and the Christian faith. Without the joint realization of just relations and the contribution of the free life of the individual, deprived of the constraints of exclusive collective identities, we cannot even begin to speak of religious or non-religious arguments as an additional or even core value to the existing discussions. Without such joint work, religious or non-religious arguments are not arguments, but ideology."

We are grateful and delighted because the book, the authors of the interviews and the editors themselves "bring to light" an almost invisible, but present reality – working together – first that! Today we celebrate just that – joint efforts and endeavors to build a more peaceful society! Thank you!

RAJKO GRLIĆ: "Untold Stories" , HENA COM, ZAGREB, 2018

Untold stories demystify war and peace, state and society, present and past, demonstrating the most important thing in the peace approach – true interest in man, care for the person in all his complexity, love for people, including the reader.

We are given a book that leads us by the hand as we read it, through the seemingly lost worlds of art that is always resistance to force, to freedom that always has its price, to human virtues that are never lost but can be pushed out as well as our ability to see them. A book that carries hope, giving the reader a sense of importance by sharing with him an uninterrupted series of intimate and public images, from short as viral messages to real dense stories that all together make a rich humane peace novel.

Untold stories remind us that themes of peace cannot be separated from life itself. There is no bitterness, baseness, hints of insidiousness, not a shred of sympathy for evil, violence, not even in hints while she talks about it as well. That is why it is peaceful, because it teaches us, teaches us, nurtures us, feeds us, tells us that no matter how life treats us, we can accept it and remain great for that very reason.

Rajko Grlić offers us the art, the skill of seeing, cognizing, creating, living, never elevated above the other, at the same time gentle, thorough, always amazed by the infinity of situations, life itself. Untold stories dissect, offer insights, reveal secrets, connect people and events, point to evil, indicate that good is not in itself, but only if it contains a genuine interest in the other.

Untold stories are like a birthday cake in terms of appearance and content, which, with the red color of its cover and the corkscrew on the cover, is associated with wine, probably Istrian. It is all this, rich in ingredients, spices, grains that, like chili peppers, are neither harmless nor small at all, intoxicates and relaxes, unclogs above all, deposits, paths, human channels clogged with opportunism, nationalism, mediocrity, wickedness, superficiality and vanity.

Untold stories have managed to do what few manage to do, to combine a lot of seemingly contradictory things, a short expression, memory, information, lesson, ease of reading, text expression, novel, the weight of human characterlessness, casualness and encyclopedia. There are at least two reasons for this, the writer has a lot to say, he loves people and life and knows how to transfer that love to us. We will feel it, but we will call it differently, interesting, anecdotal, drama, suspense, wisdom, gentleness.

Life is much more than peace, war, all possible determinants that a person can come up with, it is a great stage of stories told, untold, this knowledge is a consolation if we open ourselves to it.

Written as a lexicon of film terms, the book, like a movie knife, opens a view of decades and even centuries behind us. Until we perceive it as historical, it takes us with it, holds our hand, it takes care of us.

Hrvoje Klasić: White on Black, Naklada Ljevak, Zagreb, 2019

White on Black, the latest work of the renowned historian and publicist Hrvoje Klasić, is a collection of columns that he wrote for the Net.hr portal over a one-year period (from May 2018 to February 2019) and on a weekly basis. The book mirrors the black-and-white polarization of Croatia, with the aggressive invasion of exclusivity and the black hate spectrum. With his scientific capacity, unorthodox but argumentative attitude towards historical facts, and sharp and lively writing style, Klasić has written a kind of diary of our Balkan absurdist, a social and political chronicle of a society that is sinking faster and faster into the living mud created by the collapse of regulations, institutions and morality. We do not see maliciousness or intolerance, but exceptional precision and concern with which the author points to retrograde trends in Croatia. He tirelessly unmasks every Pharisaic patriotic curtain that has fallen over the undisguised plunder. He wisely denounces the dismantling of democratic processes, the misery of political illusions and the collapse of humanity. He clearly deals with the revisionist attacks on the anti-fascist tradition of Croatia. With concentration and patience, he condemns the ideas of repainting history that wash the face of fascist ideology. Showing how dangerous such ideas are, not only as a platform for pogroms and persecution, but also as a space of everyday intolerance, Klasić persistently calls for mutual respect and exchange of tolerances.

We are grateful to the author for this reading, which has the potential to arouse the questioning of the conscience of us citizens and our society; which invites us to pursue the mission of researching history in order to reach the truth and for the sake of the present, and for a better future. Thank you.

Luka Tomac: „Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change-1 °C Rising“, samoizdanje 2019.

With photography, stories of individuals, narratives of communities and degraded entire ecosystems, this book takes us to the heart of the climate crisis - it fills us with sadness, but also with hope for the positive change that lies in people.

The book "Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change – 1 °C Rising", written in English, is the result of many years of dedicated work, which took the author, with a camera in his hands, to almost all continents, in order to record images and stories from the front line of the growing climate crisis. His exceptional photographs testify to the depth of the climate crisis and its consequences. These, combined with carefully collected textual testimonies and interviews, take us to the very heart of the crisis. They alternate the stories of individuals, the narratives of communities, the degradation of entire ecosystems, from rainforests and oceanic islands to our immediate neighborhood. The book is compiled as a testimony of great losses and their consequences that are happening before our eyes. In doing so, the author emphasizes the need to revitalize our innate narratives about our unbreakable ties with the environment, narratives that are carefully preserved by traditional communities, and which are largely forgotten in contemporary societies blackmailed by artificially created imperatives, imposed by the prevailing socio-economic paradigm.

This book is not a story about scientific and technological solutions, which are faced with still rising greenhouse gas emissions and, consequently, rising temperatures and all the natural symptoms of the climate crisis. It is a story that brings people and social movements, both traditional and those that grow up within modern society, to the front line, and who, through their persistent and self-sacrificing work, preserve this muted narrative of unbreakable natural ties, the sanctity of the earth, unity and, finally, solidarity. It is a book whose leafing through fills us with sadness for what is lost and what is disappearing before our eyes, but also with hope for positive change, which is guided by the power of joint and solidarity-based action, exchange of experiences and knowledge, listening to stories written in the sand washed by sea waves, whispered by the wind.

Thank you Luka, for the sadness that will not overwhelm us, but ennoble and strengthen us for compassion, solidarity and action!

Hrvoje Polan, Viktor Ivančić, Nemanja Stjepanović, Iza sedam logora: od zločina do kulture zločina, forumZFD, 2018

This book causes discomfort, but it is a valuable contribution and a guideline for further research and thematization of the silenced parts of one's own history necessary for the processes that lead to confrontation with the past, and thus to the much-needed reconciliation. This book helps to look for answers to questions that should not remain only rhetorical: "What happened to us, and how is it possible that this happened to us?".

The monograph Behind the Seven Camps: From the Crime of Culture to the Culture of Crime was published by forumZFD in 2018. The text of the monograph was written by Viktor Ivančić, the photographs were taken by Hrvoje Polan, and Nemanja Stjepanović wrote the "Kulturologorski guide" at the very end of the book.

The book thematizes, photographs and analyses cases of mass executions in the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo from 1991 to 1995, in the premises of cultural centres in towns and villages. These areas, as the authors will state, were chosen as places of mass executions for very pragmatic reasons – namely, they were, for the most part, the only places that had the necessary space to accommodate and then torture and execute a large number of people. However, in addition to this, we could say, prosaic reason for writing this programmatic monograph about him, the author Viktor Ivančić in his text starts from the analysis of the culture that prepared the war, and even torture in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. From this perspective, the homes in which cultural activity took place were only a logical continuation of the war in another area – the area of language and culture which, as the author will brilliantly note, in these four countries, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Kosovo, functioned and was built on the principle of the "garden" – the eradication of everything that represents weeds, whether it is an undesirable script. language, books, or authors.

This work causes great discomfort in the reader, because it brings to the public the light of events, processes and facts that were happening in front of our eyes, but we did not want, wanted or were not equipped to see them and react to them. Examples of such discomfort that took place in front of the eyes of citizens are examples of torture in the port of Lora in Split, located in the very center of the city, or in the cultural center in Pale, located in the middle of a (inhabited) residential area. We mention only these two cases, although all of them mentioned in the book completely point to our silence and turning our heads, in case someone thought and said: "I didn't know." The denial is still ongoing: all the spaces in which the torture of the "Others" was carried out have not been marked with any memory of these events to this day. On the contrary, many of them are marked with omens in praise of the tormentor.

We are grateful to the authors for the courage to thematize painful and silenced topics about crimes committed in the name of their own people or the ruling policy. They cannot be bypassed, and that is why it is important to seek, to feel the ways that will allow us to face them and leave them behind in order to step towards the much-needed reconciliation with ourselves and with others. This book is a guide; thank you!

Ivana Bodrožić: Sons, Daughters, Zagreb: Hermes, 2020

Ivana Bodrožić's new work, the novel "Sons, Daughters", with its unbreakable unity of artistic and social engagement, has secured an honorable place among the borderlanders of our literature. It is an artistic achievement on which we can really build the future. A brave and meticulous odyssey into the ravaged hearts of those who are marginalized in a callous society. Or they suffer outright contempt and brutal violence because of their sexual, racial, educational or economic differences. By writing "Sons, Daughters", Ivana Bodrožić dared to dive into the interior of the fragile, the different, the weaker and the minority without hesitation. Those who have been deprived of any chance of freedom by an arrogantly discriminatory society. Either the one within themselves, or the one in correlation with the outside world.

The author with exceptional concentration and inspiration, virtuosically, accompanies the narrative trio. With a deep feeling and recognition of the cry of his neighbor in them, he extraordinarily shapes the existence of Lucia, Dorian and the Mother. At the same time, perfectly deftly escaping any black-and-white simplification. Or a one-sided response. None of the three of them deserved to live in the transgenerational chain of prejudice and backward patriarchy that still reigns in Croatia in the second decade of the 21st century.

"Sons, Daughters" by Ivana Bodrožić is an extraordinary work that outgrows the imprint of art and becomes a document about survival.

Elvis Bošnjak: Gdje je nestao Kir, Zagreb: Hena com, 2021

"Gdje je nestao Kir" by Elvis Bošnjak is a first-class lesson in ethics and aesthetics. In July 2021, Croatia did not mark the sad thirtieth anniversary of the liquidation of Josip Reihl-Kir, the Osijek police chief who believed in peace in the hell of the summer of '91 and selflessly reconciled the conflicting barricades of Croats and Serbs. Fortunately, there are artists like Elvis Bošnjak who erase social stains and purify our hopes to the point of catharsis. With his fascinating authorial honesty and skill, Bošnjak has inscribed Kiro in his lasting memory.

Bošnjak's simple, but magnificent creative moves effectively purify the dark foundations of society. Or as Elvis puts it: "We can't change the unbearable reality, but we can help it take on at least a minimal human form..." The famous actor and playwright from Split wrote a powerful novel with which he miraculously immersed himself in the fate of a utopian flyer on his way to the stars and freedom. In an intimistic, almost poetic way, Bošnjak shapes the story of the criminal and the victim, about the liquidator and the liquidated, without falling into black and white narrow-mindedness. Rather, approaching both Cyrus and his killer from the position of ordinary people thrown into the grindstone of a fratricidal war. Thrown into the tragic absurdity of choosing between individual identities and soulless mass groupings into impersonal crowds.

Priznanje za KNJIGU GODINE 2021./2022. dodijeljeno je sa zahvalnošću

Ivi Goldsteinu

For the book "ANTISEMITISM IN CROATIA FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE PRESENT", Zagreb, Fraktura, 2022.

The author dedicated the book to members of his own family (18 of them in total), who perished in the Holocaust. However, it was written with the meticulousness of a seasoned researcher, committed against xenophobia and always documented. With full awareness "that there will be angry reactions from the public", the author with this book persistently chooses the fight for historical truth and against revisionism, as an important part of the strategy for preserving peace in the world. And for preserving the achieved level of awareness of human rights, as the foundation of modern civilization and democracy. This is precisely the starting point of this book, along with a humanistic appeal towards cosmopolitan reflection and action.

"Racism is also an epidemic! " shouted protesters in Vienna recently, and anti-Semitism is one of its most terrible and widespread manifestations. Discriminatory tendencies and hatred towards any given minority speak more about the environment that practices them, than about the despised and threatened minority, in this case the Jews.

That is why Goldstein takes a step by step approach through the history of Croatia and notes the animosities against the eternal foreigners, Ahasuerus, who in the Middle Ages only sporadically came into contact with our lands. Since the beginning of Jewish emancipation in the Danube Empire during the Emperor Joseph II,. these contacts became more frequent and complex. In the revolutionary year of 1848, the Jews received some rights, at least declaratively, and after 1860 they gradually acquired civil equality. In Croatia, this process was further slowed down by the fact that the Jews mostly used German and Hungarian language, which the Croats shied away from in their efforts towards national emancipation.

There are interesting references to the attitudes towards Jews by leading Croatian politicians (Ante Starčević, J. J. Strossmayer), to depictions of Jewish characters in literary works from the beginning of the 19 th century, to certain newspaper scandals... Historical periods closer to our time: the World War I, the Kingdom of SCS (Serbs, Croats and Slovenes), NDH, socialist Yugoslavia and independent Croatia grow into separate chapters, which comprise the majority of the book. In the last section, "Anti-Semitism in Croatia as a member of the European Union", the author testifies that his critical attitude towards national history and advocacy for tolerance did not bring him recognition, but rather the opposite - numerous inconveniences and aggressive hostility.

With this recognition, we express our gratitude to Ivo Goldstein for this valuable book and for his persistent historical research into the history of the Jewish people, which contributes to the resistance against racism in all of its forms. Thank you.

Goranu Gatalici

For the collection of haiku poetry "Night Jasmine", published by Stajer-graf, 2022, on which men and women from different cultures collaborated ((Hrvatske, …..i Japana),as if on a peace mission. This poetry is beneficial because it restores awareness of the connection between man and nature - that this connection is present, important, life itself even in the seemingly complete disunity caused by war, refugee suffering, climate change, death - and how this connection means to be good, joyful and peaceful.

Night jasmine -
her bloomed soul brings water
to a refugee
Thinking or war -
trapped in a barbed wire
a butterfly

Thanks Goran!

Igor Beleš

The 2023 “Krunoslav Sukić” Recognition for BOOK OF THE YEAR Has been awarded with gratitude to:

IGOR BELEŠ for the book "LISTANJE KUPUSA", Zagreb, HENA COM, 2023.

Listanje kupusa is the best anti-war and peace novel written in the last few years in our area. The author, in the voice of an eleven-year-old, and in the voice of a group of children, shows what the essence of suffering, sadness and terror of war is - the loss of what is the only important thing in the innocent time of growing up: love, school, holidays and friendship. Friendship above all, which, despite all the events in Borovo at the time, the novel's protagonists want to keep at all costs. The reader will feel romance and unpretentious nostalgia, then disbelief, which towards the end of the novel spills over into agony, dread and grief. The author guides us through the story with classic narration and short episodes with plenty of dialogue, with a dynamic that does not allow time for boredom. The novel is set in the first days of the Homeland War, and the focus is on four eleven-year-old boys and one girl from not at all happy, dysfunctional (alcoholism, violence, infidelity etc.) families. This, as well as their age, but also some shortcomings in their appearance for which their peers make fun of them, brought them closer to each other. They also founded a secret group, calling it the An group, and through their games and penchant for comics, they strive to overcome all the hardships that accompany their upbringing in Borovo. At the same time, their nationality is insignificant, and therefore they are unaware that Nikolina, Zoran and Bojan are Croats, while Goran and Dragan are Serbs. What they are extremely interested in that late spring of '91 is why there are more and more empty chairs in their classes...
The novel speaks authentically, in simple language and devoid of judgmental elements or taking sides which might be expected, partly because of the personal experiences of the author, partly because of the experiences of readers who were children during the war sufferings of Vukovar, Borovo, Croatia as a whole, or neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina, young or adult people, exiles or stakeholders of conflicting parties. Thus, the book opens space, as the author himself says, for an entire generation of today's middle-aged people whose childhoods were needlessly interrupted for reasons completely abstract to them, to question the processes of their own maturation and try to understand their own role in this whole "cabbage". Which was also the author's intrinsic motivation. The peaceful message and potential of the novel Listanje kupusa are the reason why we expect it to be on the list of school literature and other recommended literature, both for children and young people, as well as for adult readers.

It gives our Award a luminous glow. We are grateful for each of the 376 pages.

Download speech (.pdf)

Rade Radovanović

“Krunoslav Sukić” Recognition for BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022./2023. is with gratitude awarded to:

RADE RADOVANOVIĆ for the novel SMEH POD VEŠALIMA, Zagreb, Kruzak, 2022.

We recognize the novel Smeh pod vešalima as a historical document and a epitome of the war in Serbian society, told in such a way that it can reach the readers, even from Serbia: "everything they wanted NOT to know about the war in Kosovo". And yet, the book clearly, almost shockingly, imposes a parallel: what we need to know about war and societies at war, whether we reflect on the past or look at the escalation of violence in other current wars. We can agree that war is evil, but it is important to be aware of how different motives, intentions and interests affect the setting of boundaries between good and evil in war,
which divide not only the people, but also the intelligentsia, politicians, diplomats, peace
activists, journalists... The book, within the general framework of the collapse of the Second Yugoslavia, thematizes the "Serbian - world war" in 1999, when Serbia "finally provokes and forces the USA and NATO to intervene militarily" at the same time, while the bombing continues, the Milošević regime tries to complete the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo. The author, as a correspondent for Radio Free Europe, reported on the war. Thirty years later, he wrote a book about that war, putting together the pieces of personal knowledge, the experiences he lived through while reconsidering his own experience as a war correspondent with a time distance that also includes the author's interpretation of the effects of the war on the current political and social reality in Serbia. It relies on information about serious crimes and the extent of suffering in Kosovo that became available to the public thanks to the research on human losses and the collection of personal stories conducted by the Humanitarian Law Fund, or that were only found in the indictments and the trial of Slobodan Milošević and the generals of the Yugoslav Army and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Serbian Republic. Writing the book, the author forms and expresses his view on the war and on the image of Serbian society during the war, he reminds people of what they did not want to know about the war and invites them to ponder about it. He succeeds in this endeavor; the book attracted the attention of the general public. It was published in Serbian, Albanian and Croatian languages. With this Recognition, we want to show the author, Rade Radovanović, how much we appreciate that, as a responsible individual, he did what he could.

As essential changes start from a sensible individual, we are convinced that this book will contribute to exactly that!

Our sincere thanks!

Download speech (.pdf)

Leonida Kovač

“Krunoslav Sukić” BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023/2024 Acknowledgment

We gratefully award

Leonida Kovač for the book of essays: RASPRIZORENJA, Zagreb: SANDFORF, 2023, in which the author conducts a careful and knowledgeable analysis and reading of the works of W. G. Sebald, R. M. Rilke, Ulrike Ottinger, Harun Farocki, and others, deconstructing "the origins of violence, as well as genocidal and ecocidal policies of the 20th and 21st centuries." By entering these origins where they might not be expected, detecting the mechanisms of violence and violent discourses even where they are most subtly manifested, Kovač, in an exemplary essayistic syllable, captures the very root of violence in the contemporary world and emphasizes the importance of educating for thought and education for nonviolence.

“Rasprizorenja” by Leonida Kovač is indeed, a completely separate book within the framework of Croatian essay production. Referring to the call of the Italian theorist Rosi Braidotti to "collaborate in finding margins for action", the author writes in the conclusion of the book: "From one of these margins, I wrote this 'book of an indeterminate kind', understanding it as my own contribution to the critique of violence." Shortly before that, she instructs us that Braidotti reminds us that "today, knowledge serves force and capital" and "speaks of the current attacks on universities, the belittling of theoretical considerations that are declared useless, while at the same time fake news and 'alternative facts' circulate freely. Her statement that the reputation of thinkers is very poor in populist times brings to mind Vilém Flusser's conclusion that the recoding of opinions into numbers, i.e. the mechanization of thinking, will lead to people becoming incompetent for thinking and increasingly leaving it to the apparatus." This is a warning that, in a very short time since the publication of “Rasprizorenja”, has proved to be more and more appropriate, so the current Argentine president, the embodiment of all neoliberal and populist dreams, in the year since he came to power, has been working hard to stop financing public universities and thus de facto abolish higher education.

“Rasprizorenja” abound in bitter-humorous illustrations, reflecting the all-pervading trivialization, as a key determinant of the time in which we live. In this sense, the episode in which "cheerful and smiling white tourists pose on the deck of the (cruise ship) Aggressor Galapagos with the remains of the recently demolished Darwin Arch in the background" is striking. Without necessarily providing answers, the author invites us to ask key questions, such as the one about the responsibility of all of us for thoughtful work on denouncing all kinds of subjugation, inequality, as well as, unfortunately, today, the militaristic and ecocidal discourse that is increasingly present in the world public, which is almost already normalized and implied.

It is for this merciless and creative questioning of the implicit that we present the Acknowledgement to Leonida Kovač with gratitude, and we welcome her with delight in the family of the laureates of the "Krunoslav Sukić" Peace Award.

Download speech (.pdf)

Valentino Kuzelj

“Krunoslav Sukić” BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023/2024 Accolade

Is awarded with gratitude to

Valentino Kuzelj and co-authors za znanstvenu monografiju SOCIJALNA DRŽAVA KAO TEMELJNA VRIJEDNOST REPUBLIKE HRVATSKE, Zagreb: Udruga Pravnik, 2023.

With the reflector-strong light of argumentation, the scientific monograph SOCIJALNA DRŽAVA KAO TEMELJNA VRIJEDNOST REPUBLIKE HRVATSKE (eng. WELFARE STATE AS A FUNDAMENTAL VALUE OF THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA) focuses on one, insufficiently aware, perhaps even neglected constitutional category of the Republic of Croatia, the welfare state. In the context of the insertion of neoliberalism through globalization mechanisms and with the still present relics of past undemocratic periods, the welfare state represents the "third way". The authors point out where the basis for optimism is that this path can be taken and explain the role and possibilities that are available - if an effort is made to overcome the current passivity of the Constitutional Court towards the legislative branch of government and the reluctance of ordinary and specialized courts to initiate the procedure of reviewing their constitutionality when applying the provisions of social, labor, tax and misdemeanor legislation in specific cases. However, they clearly indicate that the Croatian Social Constitution is still waiting for its “heroic judges“.

However, here we have and greatly appreciate this heroic step of young scientists to reflect on the rootedness of social justice in the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, to call for the values that are guaranteed by the Constitution, and which in practice should come to life more strongly by emphasizing human dignity as a fundamental value.

And here, apart from letters and professional terms, a man can be seen in every row, which is nicely emphasized in the Preface: "Every disappointed face of an old woman, the dirty coat of a beggar, the cry of a single mother, the tears of a sick child, the fatigue of an overburdened worker or the feeling of lack of prospects of a pupil or student touches the very core of the contemporary Republic of Croatia and its society and goes far beyond academic discussions about the social character of the state."

We especially appreciate the way the monograph was created. It is a persistent, careful, long-lasting and studious work of the author, Valentino Kuzelj, then still a student at the Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb, together with his co-teachers (university teachers and colleagues from his home and other faculties and from practice). They structure their earlier scientific papers into five chapters, and fifteen related thematic areas in which they explain and argue how and where the Croatian Social Constitution is mirrored in practice, i.e. how it could and should be proactively used for the realization and continuous improvement of the welfare state as the foundation of the values of the modern Republic of Croatia. In doing so, they point out that, although the welfare state is a natural sequence of the rule of law and the rule of law, and its realization can be considered a condition for the legitimacy of the government, it does not eliminate, but only mitigates social inequalities.

Although professional and scientific, the language is readable and we see the monograph as a source of information, knowledge and inspiration for scientists, judges, lawmakers, lawyers, sociologists, political scientists, as well as for students and all those who study this topic as part of civic activism.

We are honored to support this work! Congratulations and a big thank you to the author and co-authors!

Download speech (.pdf)

Slavko Goldstein

The first "Krunoslav Sukić" BOOK OF THE DECADE award in the field of peacemaking, nonviolent action, human rights and civil society was awarded in 2011 to Slavko Goldstein for the book:

41 Years That Come Back by Novi Liber 2007

In the book, Slavko Goldstein soberly and calmly tries to find the roots of evil and explain to the younger generations how much intolerance can cause or bring new evils. Therefore, he also refers to the war in Croatia in the nineties, giving one of the best overviews of Croatian-Serbian relations on the example of two villages (Prkos and Banski Kovačovac). The book went through two editions, was feuilletonized and was shown on several occasions in the country and abroad, and the English and Serbian editions were soon published.

Slavko Goldstein passed away at the age of ninety, on September 13, 2017.

His departure at the first moment causes a feeling of anxiety - how without him in this world so suffocated with boiling exclusivity?! It is therefore worth remembering that, even when they are physically gone, the benefits flow from the lives of good people, witnesses of time, permanently and abundantly. Through those who have met them and meet them through their legacy. You should try to "please" your heart, and your lives with people like the life of Slavko Goldstein.

Slaven Rašković i Igor Čoko

For the book Life in Limbo: A Book of Scars

For a book guided by empathy that, leaving behind displaced and devastated souls, opens up hope that we will want to deal with stories such as the power of Knin or Vukovar as Rašković and Čoko did. And in this way create the preconditions for a better and fairer society. "The only thing that has grown in Knin in the last 25 years is the city cemetery" – is the bitter, shocking and realistic claim of an unnamed citizen of Knin, a citizen trapped in limbo between a frozen past and an uncertain future. This sad statement, like an epitaph, opens Life in Limbo: A Book of Scars by Slaven Rašković and Igor Čoka, published in the spring of 2020, published by the Belgrade branch of the German Forum Zivilier Friedensdienst. Small in scope, Life in Limbo is a very important magnificent book, strongly loaded with real and metaphorical lessons about humanity and inhumanity, about humanity and atrocities or the poison of indifference. Life in Limbo is a miraculous memory imprint of an image and a letter that tells the story of a city doomed to be a city-cenotaph (as the wise architect Bogdan Bogdanović would say) and to die off as a fossil of transitional deviations.

With an authentic, almost punk rebellious style, Rašković's text and Čoko's photographs, they created a book guided by empathy. Life in Limbo speaks of the dystopian tracks of an environment in which a neighbor works on his neighbor's head overnight, undesirable blood cells are counted, and the banality of evil becomes an everyday occurrence. The authors deal with the anatomy of mythology with which in these thirty years Knin, both on the Croatian and Serbian sides, has alternately shaped the capital of the nationalist virus of madness, which ended in crimes, hatred and persecutions. Leaving behind displaced and devastated souls, Life in Limbo opens up hope that we will want to deal with stories such as the power of Knin or Vukovar as Rašković and Čoko did. And in this way create the preconditions for a better and fairer society. Let this Recognition be at least a breeze in the back of the book, authors and processes!

Dejan Jović

For the book War and Myth: The Politics of Identity in Contemporary Croatia

which, from a political science perspective, explains and criticizes the reasons that even today make it impossible to truly confront the past, which bases a counterbalance to the dominant narratives on facts, and thus provides the scientific and interested public, as well as the wider society, with insights into a more complete picture of our recent past than the particular one, and thus opens up perspectives for life in a society that does not divide into Us and Others.

There is no war that has not established myths. Every destruction is followed by an attempt at balance. Dejan Jović resists this as a scientist, but also as a man and a citizen. In his book, he analytically skilfully and quite passably builds a critique of myths that wanted to discipline the new citizenry of a new country.

With his scientific capacities, with an eruptive journalistic passion in performance and iron courage in defending arguments, Dejan Jović has written a work of serious authorial integrity and high moral achievements that fit into the strictest world standards of the documentary political-historical genre. They have all the desirable ingredients of a non-fiction bestseller: an exciting narrative, an epic momentum based on analyses of individual destinies, and an abundance of risky and exploratory search (concentrated with scientific facts) for the secrets of the rapid production of history and its organic parasite – politics. Jović's brilliant style, devoid of any dry dogging, full of erudition and an insatiable thirst for the preservation of historiographic thought, makes the book War and Myth an unavoidable mine for all further researchers for whom history is a craft and a mission.

The appearance of War and Myth on the public scene of Croatia is a first-class event, a book that could and should be treated as one of the fundamental stations of this country, if it ever wants to reach modernity. It unmasks the hysteria that has violently replaced history in our region. Insightfully, bravely and energetically, Jović analyzes the pernicious myth-making organically linked to the cult of war that is embedded in the foundations of Croatia. For the sake of sheer power, the social elites of Croatia have continuously in these thirty years not ceased to vary the dogma of the Homeland War as the only and untouchable pledge of the establishment of this state. Dejan Jović is one of those prominent individuals who is not afraid to raise his voice against such hopeful and toxic single-mindedness.

This book has certainly been around for decades, not only in Croatia, but also in all post-Yugoslav countries. It's good that we have it!