Ethnic Cleansing, Modernity, and the State

Norman M. Naimark. Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2001. 256 pp. $20.50, paper, ISBN 978-0-674-00994-3. Norman M. Naimark. Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 2001. 248 pp , , . Reviewed by Nick P. Baron Published on H-Genocide (March, 2004) Ethnic Cleansing, Modernity, and the State tion, in Bosnia and Kosovo, which have brought In his latest work, Stanford University histori‐ the term "ethnic cleansing" into common usage. an Norman Naimark offers a brilliantly engaging Beyond offering brisk, vivid empirical ac‐ and deeply dispiriting examination of the role of counts of these events, Naimark reflects more ethnic cleansing in twentieth-century Europe. In broadly on their commonalities and inter-rela‐ doing so, he provides the reader with a series of tionships, on definitional problems such as distin‐ well-crafted, cogent, analytical narratives describ‐ guishing ethnic cleansing from war and genocide, ing the historical origins, political objectives, lo‐ on the character of the modern state, and on the gistical procedures, and savage outcomes of fve murderous potential of integral nationalism. His case studies of ethnic cleansing: the Turkish ac‐ consideration of these conceptual issues is com‐ tions against the Armenians in 1915 and against pelling, and elaborated without the dense jargon the Anatolian Greeks in 1921-22; the Nazi assault and solipsism so frequently encountered in the on the Jews from the start of the Second World social science literature on genocide and mass War to the initiation of policies of mass extermi‐ killing.[1] Naimark's slim volume is comparative nation in 1941; the Soviet deportation of the history at its most intelligent, lucid, and readable. Chechens-Ingush from the North Caucasus and of In the last decade of the twentieth century, the Tatars from the Crimea in 1944; the expul‐ the calamitous break-up of the former Yugoslavia sions of Germans from Poland and Czechoslova‐ (as well as the even more bloody disaster of kia after 1945; and the more recent inter-ethnic Rwanda, which Naimark honorably concedes lies conflicts, and attempts at international interven‐ outside his feld of expertise) opened a dreadful H-Net Reviews new perspective on the course and consequences clysmic events in the course of the twentieth cen‐ of earlier events. This seemed all the more shock‐ tury" (p. 3). This second point takes us to the core ing to many since it crushed the hopes of harmo‐ of the author's comparative project. ny and peace inspired by the end of the Cold War Genocide, in Naimark's conception, is the con‐ and the collapse of state socialism. From this dis‐ summate realization of the "impetus to homoge‐ mal millennial vantage point, numerous scholars nize" (p. 8), which all too frequently in the twenti‐ have been moved to reconsider the history of the eth century prompted European states--as well as last hundred years and to re-assess the trajectory others which, as noted above, remain outside the of European modernity.[2] "Was the twentieth purview of this work--to embark on ethnic cleans‐ century's sordid history of genocide simply re‐ ing.[3] It is this underlying motivation which peating itself in this last decade?" asks Naimark. makes the phenomenon of ethnic cleansing "a "Or was there something new in these wars of profoundly modern experience" (p. 6). 'ethnic cleansing' about which the media spoke Naimark offers a compelling account of why and wrote so often" (p. 2)? this is so. Firstly, the late-nineteenth and early- Naimark's answer is twofold. Firstly, he ar‐ twentieth centuries witnessed the spread of a gues, it is important to distinguish between "eth‐ "racialist nationalism" which asserted an "essen‐ nic cleansing" and genocide. These two activities tialist view of nations, a view that excluded the are characterized by their different objectives. 'other' and foreswore assimilation" (p. 7). This "Genocide is the intentional killing off of part or prompted European imperial powers to repatriate all of an ethnic, religious or national group; the practices of mass murder from the colonies to murder of a people or peoples ... is the objective. their continental homelands. The intention of ethnic cleansing is to remove a Secondly, as European imperial territories people and often all traces of them from a con‐ fragmented in the early-twentieth century, there crete territory" (p. 3). The goal of the latter, there‐ emerged a new form of state, defining itself in fore, is concerned with securing the ethnic in‐ ethnic terms and striving to "homogenize" society tegrity of a given space, usually identified with to meet its own "needs for order, transparency, the borders of a new and insecure state. This may and responsiveness" (p. 8).[4] To accomplish this, involve expulsions, deportations, or forced trans‐ the modern nationalist state intervened to an un‐ fers of a population carried out in a more or less precedented degree in the lives of its citizens, sub‐ orderly, though invariably brutal, manner. In cer‐ jecting its population to regulation, surveillance, tain circumstances, however, "ethnic cleansing" and manipulation by means of policy and propa‐ can generate genocidal actions; as Naimark writes ganda. Crucially, it "insisted on identifying ethnic in his habitually simple yet evocative prose, "eth‐ groups and concretizing difference and otherness nic cleansing bleeds into genocide, as mass mur‐ with the goal of banishing it" (p. 8). der is committed in order to rid the land of a peo‐ ple" (pp. 3-4). Thirdly, the new states' capacity to intervene in society and effect their desired social and spa‐ If it is necessary to distinguish in this way be‐ tial re-ordering would have been impossible with‐ tween genocide and ethnic cleansing, this does out modern innovations in communications, not mean that recent events in the former Yu‐ transportation, and the means of killing: "the goslavia were unprecedented. On the contrary, drive toward ethnic cleansing comes in part from Naimark asserts that "'ethnic cleansing' is a useful the modern state's compulsion to complete poli‐ and viable term for understanding not just the cies and fnish with problems but also in part war in former Yugoslavia but other similar cata‐ from its technological abilities to do so" (p. 9). 2 H-Net Reviews Naimark, drawing on the work of historians communal hostility" (p. 16) which determined the such as Omer Bartov and Elizabeth Domansky, context and course of the events in question, and identifies the First World War as the defining ex‐ could stand alone as a short but thorough intro‐ perience, the "crucible for the development of the duction to each topic, suitable for students as well modern nation-state and its willingness and abili‐ as for a more general readership. At the same ty to engage in mass population policies" (p. 9).[5] time, Naimark takes care throughout to assess the In particular, he points to ways in which states at similarities and differences between each in‐ war asserted "total" claims over the lives of their stance of ethnic cleansing. citizens and for the frst time engaged in mass- A concluding chapter offers a useful system‐ scale forced deportations and evacuations (which atization and reiteration of the insights the atten‐ persisted as practices of peace-making, as new tive reader will have elicited from the case stud‐ post-war governments embarked on the "unmix‐ ies, if they have not been numbed by the often ing" of territories and populations before the gruesome descriptions of violence. Through all treaties were signed, sealed, and implemented).[6] the individual instances of ethnic cleansing, from The Great War also "introduced industrial killing 1915 in Turkey to the present day in Kosovo, into the consciousness and reality of the Euro‐ Naimark identifies a marked consistency of pur‐ pean state system" (p. 9). pose and commonality of procedure. Finally, Naimark directs attention to the role Firstly, Naimark notes that ethnic cleansing is of political elites in instigating ethnic cleansing, always a violent process. Unlike war, however, and of bureaucrats and technical professionals in which "matches armed men against armed men organizing its implementation. Throughout the in a contest of will, machines and numbers, ethnic book, in fact, the author repeatedly emphasizes cleansing usually involves an armed perpetrator that eruptions of inter-communal conflict have and an unarmed victim--more often than not, an more to do with the "warped ambitions" (p. 16) of armed man and an unarmed woman, child, or el‐ cynical political actors, and their machinations derly person" (p. 186). The violence of ethnic and manipulations, than with the "ancient ethnic cleansing is particularly vicious and personal, mo‐ hatreds" so often adduced by the world's media tivated in part by a "rational" strategy of encour‐ (and by politicians in other countries reluctant to aging fight, but also by a desire to punish the vic‐ intervene) as the source of ethnic violence. This is tims for "their crime of being different" (p. 186). doubtless true, but Naimark might have attempt‐ Even the "well-organised and premeditated" de‐ ed to examine the motives which lead "ordinary portations of the Chechens-Ingush and Crimean men" suddenly to visit such ferce blood-letting Tatars involved high rates of mortality from dis‐ upon neighbors with whom they have lived for ease and starvation, and the "orderly 'transfer'" of years in peace.[7] Germans from Poland claimed up to half a million Naimark, however, is more interested in writ‐ victims (pp. 186-187). ing history "from above" and he writes this histo‐ Naimark's second observation is that all the ry with admirable clarity, constructing a series of surveyed cases of ethnic cleansing have occurred detailed analytical narratives that draw together either during war or during the "chaotic transi‐ an impressive range of secondary literature in nu‐ tion from war to peace" (p.

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