Mass destruction of books occurred in Croatia in the period leading up to and following its independence from Yugoslavia. The events have been termed as a knjigocid in Serbo-Croatian, translateable as libricide or bibliocide in English. The destructions began in 1990, shortly before the Croatian War of Independence and lasted during the first 19 years after Croatia became independent in 1991. All destroyed books had one of following things in common, they were written in Serbian Cyrillic or ekavian dialect or published by non-Croatian publishers and particularly ideological literature. According to Ante Lešaja destroyed books were estimated to be around 13,8% of all books in libraries in Croatia. Nobody has been held responsible for the destruction of cultural heritage. Many public notable intellectuals objected to this practice, most notably Milan Kangrga, while some emphasized that the majority in Croatia remained silent about it. Miljenko Jergović referred to the cleansing of Croatian libraries from unsuitable books as the supreme cultural crime. Viktor Ivančić perceived lack of books published in Serbia or Bosnia and Herzegovina in Croatian bookstores in 2012 as an extension of the destruction campaign.
Republic of Croatia
In 1992 the Croatian Government issued Obligatory Instructions on Use of Library Found of School Libraries Naputak za rad u knjižnicama osnovnih škola to remove literature published in Serbia, on ekavian dialect or on Serbian language and Serbian Cyrillic script. In 1997 Croatian minister of finance Borislav Škegr stated that the Croatian Government will finance elimination of books on Serbian and similar languages from libraries in Croatia. Bryant pointed to debate about what languages might be considered as "similar" to Serbian.
Books subjected to destruction
Books by Serb authors were destroyed, as well as books by Ivo Andrić, books related to the history of Yugoslavia and the NOB, socialist and Marxist theory books, etc.
Many notable intellectuals objected to this practice, including Milan Kangrga. Their objections were fruitless and in some cases, they were punished for their objections. The most notable case is Kangrga who was put on trial for many years by the Croatian judicial system without basic elements for the trial. In 2003 the Prosvjeta magazine published a special issue dedicated to "Bibliocide-Culturecide: Where One Burn Books, One Will Soon Burn People". Ante Lešaja published a book about the destruction of books in Croatia between 1990 and 2010, Knjigocid. Uništavanje knjiga u Hrvatskoj 1990.-ih which is regarded as valuable, complete and meticulous study. The editor Milan Šarac stated at the promotion of the work: emphasizing that Croatia is unique case because nobody has been held responsible for destruction of cultural heritage. In 2012 Viktor Ivančić published a text dedicated to destruction of books in Croatia during 1990's, underlining that in 2012 it was basically impossible to buy books published in Serbia or Bosnia and Herzegovina in Croatian bookstores, which he perceived as an extension of bibliocide. In 2014, the minister in Government of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin, invited European Union not to be blind and deaf to the resurrection of Ustaše ideology in modern Croatia reminding everybody on the famous quote of Heinrich Heine, stating that they first burnt books and then people. In 2014 Miljenko Jergović published text in which he referred to the cleansing of Croatian libraries from unsuitable books as the supreme cultural crime. In 2015 the exhibition titled "Written Off" as a reminder on the books destroyed from public libraries in Croatia during 1990's, based on the book published by Lešaja. The exhibition was dedicated to 20 year anniversary of the Operation Storm to put destruction of the books in social context in which destruction of "unsuitable" monuments and books occurred together with destruction of books and killings of "unsuitable" citizens, outside and before the military operations. In 2015 Viktor Ivančić gave an interview in which he objected the destruction of hundreds of thousands of books in the first half of 1990s, based on the precise instructions of the Croatian Government to destroy books if either the publisher was from Serbia or the book was printed on Cyrillic script. In an interview given in 2016 Dubravka Ugrešić emphasized that destruction of 2,8 million books happened without significant protests of the Croatian culture public. Slobodan Šnajder also complained about silent majority in Croatia regarding the bookocide in Croatia. The philosopher Milan Kangrga and the newspaper Feral Tribune were put on trial for defamation because they had described the destruction of books in the Korčula Library as "book-burning", when the books had not actually been burned but merely been disposed of in a container.
