ABSTRACT
In the last chapter, in the context of the growth of religio-nationalist tensions in postCommunist Poland, we argued against the view that such developments can be explained satisfactorily in terms of the idea that communist repression ‘kept the lid’ on seething ethnic tensions. Rather, such tensions need to be understood in terms of the impact of modernity on Central and Eastern Europe, including the indirect and direct consequences of Communism. This process can be seen particularly clearly in the case of Yugoslavia. Hence, as the first quotation indicates, the war in Yugoslavia needs to be understood as a distinctive modern development rather than ‘ancient animosities’, contrary to the stereotype propagated both by warring parties and much media coverage.
