The Long Winter of 1945: Tivari

In March 1945, Yugoslav partisans massacred hundreds of unarmed Albanian recruits in Tivari, Montenegro. The Long Winter of 1945 is a graphic novel that presents an oral history of the massacre based on interviews with surviving participants and provides context through archival documents and historical research. The novel rescues the memory of the victims and survivors from political exploitation and situates the events in the broader context of Yugoslavias war for liberation and the civil war between Serbs and Albanians.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 178 pages
Publication date: 19 September 2023
Publisher: University of Toronto Press

In the aftermath of the Second World War, a tragic event unfolded in March 1945, when hundreds of unarmed Albanian recruits were massacred by Yugoslav partisans in the coastal town of Tivari, Montenegro. For an extended period, the Yugoslav state suppressed the memory of this massacre, allowing it to persist only in informal versions within Kosovo, where it was nurtured and retold amidst a spirit of ethnic mistrust and hatred. Depicted in graphic format, The Long Winter of 1945 presents an oral history of this traumatic event based on interviews with surviving participants. Archival documents and historical research provide valuable context, placing the massacre within the broader framework of forced mass mobilization to fight and the final pocket of Italian resistance. By contextualizing the events in Tivari within the broader context of Yugoslavias war for liberation and the civil war between Serbs and Albanians, The Long Winter of 1945 seeks to bring this painful chapter of history to the forefront. Through its beautifully illustrated narrative, the graphic novel endeavors to rescue the memory of the victims and survivors from political exploitation, ensuring that their stories are not forgotten in the annals of history.

Weight: 328g
Dimension: 150 x 229 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781487543297