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Back to the past? Tito Nostalgia in Slovenia was the topic of a lecture by historian Jože Dežman, head of the Commission of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Concealed Mass Graves, at an event organized by the Institute for the Research of Communism. The event was opened by Mária Schmidt, Director General of the House of Terror Museum: "Tito was a tried and tested comrade of the Soviet secret service, who made the world believe that he was at the head of an 'open' state and built up a false nimbus about himself that must be abolished once and for all. Historian Jože Dežman compared the communist dictatorship to the Chernobyl explosion, the effects of which are still being experienced today.

Mária Schmidt, Széchenyi Prize-winning historian and Director General of the House of Terror Museum, said that Josip Broz Tito was a battle-tested fighter of the international communist movement, who personally participated in the shaping and management of the Spanish Civil War, on behalf of the Soviet secret services. The world did not know about the mass murders committed by the former partisan leader's henchmen, and we Hungarians were aware of the slaughter of our own people - our fellow citizens in Vojvodina - in 1944, but for decades we waited in vain for an apology from communist Yugoslavia.

She pointed out that for thirty years Tito was at the head of a South Slav state artificially fabricated by the conquerors, and that he pursued a real shuttlecock policy: he made moves towards the West, but remained a true Stalinist communist who made the world believe that his state was an "open" country in world politics. In the case of Yugoslavia, Mária Schmidt said, there was no prosecution of communist criminals, there was no "Yugoslav Nürnberg trial", and the West did everything to ensure that there would be no accountability on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain. The Director-General of the House of Terror Museum said that Tito had also played a key role in the appointment of János Kádár after the 1956 revolution and freedom fight. According to Mária Schmidt, Tito's person is also interesting for us, and the Tito nostalgia in Slovenia is a phenomenon that is harmful for us too, and that we must put an end to.

Rajmund Fekete, Director of the Institute for the Research of Communism, noted in his speech that the collapse of communism in 1989 was as unexpected as the fall of Tsarist Russia, and everyone was right to believe that the murderous idea would be consigned to its rightful place in history's dustbin. But there has been no justice, no accountability for the communist criminals. In fact, communism is still a legitimate ideology today: politicians, university professors, journalists openly declare their convictions in the Western world, the crimes committed against tens of millions of people are relativized and trivialized. It was with this in mind that the left-wing Slovenian government abolished the Memorial Day for the Victims of Communism in our southern neighbour in 2023.

In his presentation, historian Jože Dežman, head of the Commission of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Concealed Mass Graves, recalled that Marshal Tito's artificial state was built on lies and murders committed by the communists. After the Second World War, 30,000 Slovenians were violently murdered, while Tito's communist units massacred some 250,000 people across the country. The communist secret service regarded the Stasi as an example and built a system in which there was one secret agent for every 280 inhabitants, meaning that everyone and everything was under surveillance in Tito's state.

He reaffirmed that after one year in 1949, 196 people were murdered on the western borders of Yugoslavia, the Church was aggressively attacked, nationalised, thousands were condemned to forced labour, and camps were run under inhumane conditions by the Marshal's state of terror. The historian highlighted that 750 mass graves - previously concealed - have been registered in Slovenia, in which the remains of around 100,000 victims have been found. Many of them were children, and there were also graves in which many of the victims' most loyal companions, their own dogs, had been shot by the communist henchmen.

Dežman remembered that even in 2019 mass graves were excavated at Macesnova Gorica and memorial plaques were installed in honour of the victims, despite the fact that the current left-wing cabinet does not support their efforts and is trying to undermine their work by all means. They say yes to anti-fascism but no to anti-communism. Dežman explained that the titophile conservative part of society does not favour constructive dialogue, shuts itself off from any reasoning and applauds loudly when the local constitutional court blocks the renaming of public spaces named after the Marshal.

According to Jože Dežman, the role of the House of Terror Museum, which hosted the event, is much more important at European level than the House of European History in Brussels. "Communism is like Chernobyl: the explosion happened, but we are feeling the effects. The House of Terror Museum is doing an excellent job," the historian concluded.