Socjalistycny w formie, narodowy w treoeci.Chorwacka odmiana komunistycnej nowomowy
Socialist in Form and National in Content: The Croatian Version of the Communist New speak during the so-called Croatian Spring

Summary/Abstract: In this article the problem of Yugoslav Newspeak, in the Croatian version that appeared in the period of the so-called Croatian Spring (1971), is taken into consideration. The aim of the analysis is to demonstrate how Croatian national values and beliefs – understood in semiotic terms as a ‘national code’ – were conveyed within the rigid and inflexible communist discourse (understood as a ‘communist code’). Thus, the Stalinist slogan “National in form, socialist in content” is deliberately shifted into “Socialist in Form and National in Content”. This shift aims at demonstrating that the Croatian elite took advantage of the communist Newspeak in order to explicate its own national consciousness without being accused of anti-Serbian nationalism, or destroying the idea of “brotherhood and unity”. The interrelation of the two codes brings about a very complex linguistic phenomenon. In the article the analysis concerns several problems: (1) the semiotic capacity of the genre that enabled one to convey national values without questioning Yugoslav unity, (2) discursive formations bringing about sensitive relations between Croats and Serbs, including certain semantic and formal strategies, and (3) the issue of the purist consciousness with respect to Newspeak. The article demonstrates that the communist political leaders play an important role re-establishing independent Croatian discourse. This strategy is not limited to Croatia since in all of the former socialist republics of the Yugoslav Federation the same situation occurred.

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