Sites of the Dictators: Memories of Authoritarian Europe, 1945-2020

Description

"This book explores the changing evolution of memory debates on places intimately linked to the lives and death of different fascist, para-fascist and communist dictators in a truly transnational and comparative way. Using the concept of 'sites of the dictators', the author explains why is it so difficult to deal with some sites of memory linked to dead autocrats and discusses the potential of the 'Europeanization' of these 'dark' memories of the past. Exploring the imperatives of memory politics and how these are reconciled with local actors interested in exploiting the dictator's remembrance, it will be useful reading for students and scholars of history, politics and memory studies"-- Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents Figures Foreword Abbreviations 1. Introduction: Sites of memory, sites of dictators 1.1. What are "sites of dictators"? An outline of a typology 1.2. The difficult management of the sites of dictators by democratic regimes Notes 2. The sites of the fascist dictators 2.1. Germany: Between silence and re-signification 2.1.1. Hitler's Bunker: A coffin without a body? 2.1.2. The sites of the Führer's power 2.1.3. From the mountain court to the dictator's abodes 2.1.4. Hierarchs, martyrs and a replacement tomb 2.2. Austria: The shadow of Hitler ... and Dollfuss? 2.2.1. Adolf was born here by accident 2.2.1.1. Braunau: The house of ghosts 2.2.1.2. A paternal grave and some childhood memories 2.2.2. Dollfuss: Martyr or "killer of workers"? 2.3. Italy: Post-fascist syncretism and anti-fascist pragmatism 2.3.1. Mussolini's body and the anti-fascist paradigm 2.3.2. Predappio, the "fascist Galilee" during dictatorship ... and democracy 2.3.3. Musealizing Mussolini: An endless debate 2.3.4. Fascist hierarchs: Memory and oblivion Notes 3. The sites of the authoritarian and collaborationist dictators 3.1. Portugal: Official anti-Salazarism, local opportunism 3.1.1. Musealizing Salazar: A Portuguese Predappio? 3.2. The authoritarian fathers of the homeland 3.2.1. From dictators to victims? Smetona, Päts and Ulmanis 3.2.2. Piłsudski, the (almost) undisputed hero 3.2.3. Metaxas: The dictator who said "no" 3.2.4. Mannerheim: The man who would not be dictator 3.3. Traitors or pragmatic patriots? 3.3.1. Mussert, De Clercq and Quisling: Traitors for almost everyone 3.3.2. Pétain and the Vichy syndrome 3.3.3. Tiso and Pavelić: Mysticism and nationalism 3.3.4. The long shadow of the regent Horthy Notes 4. Is Spain different? The many sites of the Caudillo 4.1. One valley, one mausoleum, one Caudillo 4.2. A summer court: Meirás 4.3. Dealing with Franco's memory sites in the twenty-first century 4.4. The little Caudillos: Falangist leaders and Franco generals Notes 5. The sites of the Communist dictators 5.1. Stalin: Between nostalgia and tourism 5.1.1. Russia: From tyrant to great military leader 5.1.2. A distinguished son of Georgia? 5.2. Albania: The pyramid of the red pharaoh 5.3. Romania: The Dracula syndrome 5.4. Yugoslavia: Tito, the nostalgia for unity Notes 6. Epilogue: What should be done with the sites of dictators? Notes Bibliography Index