My visit to Dubrovnik's Red History Museum

- July 27, 2026

A stone walled city nestled within a rugged expanse of mountains and jagged coastline punctuated by hidden caves in the typical karst topography of Southwestern Europe, and running parallel to a multitude of small islands submerged within the Adriatic sea, waters glistening blue and green in the Mediterranean sun, is what seems like any other coastal tourist destination. Yet amidst the beachside bars and restaurants, souvenir shops, bike and car rentals, and all things typical of many European tourist destinations, one can notice the more subtle facets of the Croatian economy past and present. Tucked away within the many ornate Baroque and Renaissance era buildings and typical rural abodes are a few indicators of a heavily religious society, several churches and cross carvings, sculptures and images, as well as some museums, artwork and graffiti indicative of its past as part of former Yugoslavia. It is through visiting Dubrovnik's Red History Museum that one can further recognise and learn in greater depth about this history and its influences on the sociopolitical situation and the more general day to day and cultural life of the people in Croatia both during this period and in the present day.

The museum itself is in a side street in a building which was formerly a graphite factory (which can be explored and reimagined through putting on a VR headset later on in the museum), and still has that very clean industrial look and feel to it in spite of blending in with the grand architecture of the city. Shelves of volumes of Kapital, the Communist Manifesto and works of Tito, Kropotkin and many other influential revolutionaries are the first exhibit to set the tone before one gets into the rise in influence of reactionary movements during the Great Depression and peak financial instability of the 1920s and 30s that affected Yugoslavia greatly, the themes presented in the exhibits still seeming very true to present times and the rise in desperation and crisis globally having seen reactionary leaders organise through similar methods. This further brings to light the importance of sustainable ongoing strategies for achieving revolutionary change on an international level, as well as the means by which this can be kept constant and able to effectively take place in conjunction with the varying rates of globalisation, and closely determined by the individual affected nations' resources and relations to capital which have made them somewhat increasingly susceptible to the impacts of ongoing socio-economic and political crisis.

Stone carving depicting the fight against the Nazis.

This stone carving commemorates the revolutionary student comrades who had lost their lives when resisting against fascist authorities during the conflict within former Yugoslavia. The strong emphasis on nationalism and diplomacy so as to allow the region to form close ties and good relations with other players in the leading of revolution was made clear, with this having been a cause of much conflict and poor relations amongst the Serbs, Croats and Bosnians. While opposition to Stalinism formed a central part of their plan, similar methods of organisation to those of Stalin were chosen and, arguably led to as much fear and oppression becoming commonplace. Workers who opposed peasant revolts- a central means of fighting for change under capitalist crisis largely initiated by individuals such as Tito- were heavily punished through labour camps such as the camp on Goli Otok (which literally translates to bare land and was converted into a prison after this period). Tactics of fear, manipulation and collective punishment, along with huge need to emphasise the importance of one's own influential homeland and conform to individualist nationalist ideals of revolution acted as other parallels to Stalinism (as was depicted in a short film shown at the museum). This proved important in understanding the failures of past attempts at revolution and the need for real influential change in people's understanding of this, encouraging much discussion between me and my family.

Several posters of the time created by revolutionary groups

After several more interesting exhibits on the organisation and principles by which the Yugoslavian economy operated and organised nationalised housing was planned (which I think Angela Rayner perhaps ought to see!), I was able to see first hand how people lived during the era through a model apartment set up featuring actual artefacts found from the period. While some of what I saw was hugely basic and a far cry from the modern home comforts many of us had come to be used to, it also seemed not too far from our present reality and could perhaps be considered as the main turning point in society and by which, not just politically, but culturally old ideas soon withered away. I even noticed a cassette for Iron Maiden in the music collection in one of the bedrooms and pre-prepared food in the kitchen. Perhaps they didn't live too far from my own life as a rock music loving left-wing student who regularly has canned chili and pre-made pasta sauce in their pantry! It is for this reason that, even down to the mundane and basic, I felt the museum perfectly captured the essence of living through revolution and made one think on the ongoing need for social change then, now and forever, while maintaining a well informed critique of Marxist theory.