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Inventing a New Communist Capital: Titograd in the First Decade

after WWII

Montenegrin town of Podgorica suffered heavily from bombing during WWII. Soon
after the war ended, the Yugoslav Communist regime decided to construct the new buildings
instead of rebuilding the ruined ones. Podgorica was named the capital city of the Socialist
Republic of Montenegro and its name had been changed to Titograd in 1946.
The phenomenon of Titograd and its relation to the memories of WWII and post-WWII
is not a unique case, neither in former Yugoslavia, nor in Europe in general. After Podgorica
was renamed to Titograd, each of the Yugoslav federal republics and autonomous provinces
renamed one of its towns: Titova Mitrovica, Titova Korenica, Titov Veles, Titovo Velenje,
Titov Vrbas, Titov Drvar and Titovo Uice. The process of renaming the towns was
widespread in Communist Europe. In East Germany Chemnitz was renamed to Karl-Marx-
Stadt in 1953. Stalingrad and Leningrad play an important role in Russians remembering of
the Communist regime, as well as in remembering WWII. Hungary had its own Sztalinvaros
from 1951 to 1961. Many other European towns underwent great symbolic, architectural and
urbanization changes under the Communist regimes. The case of Titograd will bring up the
issue of questioning not only the monuments and memorials importance in remembering
WWII, but also the importance of newly constructed cityscape as the site of remembrance.
The key question we will try to answer in the project is - what are the relations
between the Yugoslav Communist regime and image change through the construction of
new Montenegrin capital city during the first years after WWII. We will research on the
sources from the National Museum of Montenegro and National Archives of Montenegro:
photographs, urbanism plans and reports about the destruction during WWII, the
construction of new buildings and WWII commemorating monuments and memorials in
Titograd from 1945 to 1955. In some cases we will use newspaper articles of Titograds daily
Pobjeda, which was the regime's newspaper of that time. We will visit and consult some of
the professionals who were involved in urban planning of Titograd during 1950s and 1960s.
Analysis of the cityscape as a specific large-scale site of remembrance is the main method
we will use in our project. For that purpose we have chosen to analyze the development of a
part of Sveti Petar Cetinjski Boulevard (former Lenins Boulevard) in the urban zone of Nova
Varo (City Center) as the main case study of our project. This part of Titograd went through
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the greatest change in the years following WWII. New city center was constructed there, with
the main buildings of the newly established administrative institutions. The central Titograd
WWII memorial was constructed on the nearby hill of Gorica with the aim of commemorating
Yugoslav partisan fight.
The construction of Titograd is a great example to present the Communist partys
politics of remembrance towards both WWII and towards the preceding regimes (i.e.
Principality of Montenegro, Kingdom of Montenegro, and Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and
Slovenes/Kingdom of Yugoslavia). These topics were not dealt with in this way in
Montenegro up to now. Due to that, our aim is to promote the critical thinking about the
relation between the regime and the development of cityscape in the Socialist Yugoslavia in
the case of Titograd.
The aim of our project is to create a web exhibition which will be promoted on the
internet portals in the West Balkan countries. The exhibition will be constructed from the
materials and scans of sources we gather in the museums and archives, including
photographs, newspaper articles and posters which illustrate the development of the
townscape of Titograd in relation to the towns destruction in the WWII and immediate post-
war development, all accompanied with our contextualizing introductions and explanations.

Darko Karai
Milo Vukanovi

Selected literature:
- Aman, A (1992) Architecture and Ideology in Eastern Europe during the Stalin Era: An Aspect of Cold
War History. New York: MIT Press
- Anderson, K. and F. Gale (eds) (1992) Inventing Places: Studies in Cultural Geography.
- Diefendorf, J.M. (1989) Urban Reconstruction in Europe after World War II, Urban Studies, Vol. 26, No
1, 128-143
- Hobsbawm, E. and T. Ranger (eds) (1983) The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: CUP
- Lebow, R.N. and others (eds) (2006) The Politics of Memory in Post-War Europe. Durham, London: DUP
- Roth, K. and U. Brunnbauer (eds) (2006) Urban life and Culture in Southeastern Europe: Anthropological
and Historical Perspectives. Mnster: Lit
- abovi O. and M. Pavi (1958) Titograd: Fotomonografija. Zagreb: Agencija za foto-dokumentaciju
- traus, I. (1991) Arhitektura Jugoslavije 1945-1990. Sarajevo: Svjetlost
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This Project is realised in the call on War, Post War, Cold War of Geschichtswerkstatt Europa. It is one of 28
European projects that is funded by the foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future.
Geschichtswerkstatt Europa is a programme of the foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future
addressing the issue of European remembrance. The Institute for Applied History coordinates the funding of
projects in cooperation with the European University Viadrina. The International Forum is organised by the Global
and European Studies Institute at the University of Leipzig.
Quoting form:
Karai, Darko / Vukanovi, Milo: Inventing a New Communist Capital: Titograd in the First Decade after WWII,
in: Geschichtswerkstatt Europa, 29.05.2012, URL:
http://www.geschichtswerkstatt-europa.org/media/projekte/Methodenpapier/MP_Titograd.pdf
Copyright (c) 2012 by Geschichtswerkstatt Europa and the author, all rights reserved. This work may be copied
and redistributed for non-commercial, educational purposes, if permission is granted by the author and usage
right holders. For permission please contact info@geschichtswerkstatt-europa.org.