Nova Istra

312 NOVA ISTRA Literary, Art and Cultural Journal Zeitschrift für Literatur, Kunst und Kultur Rivista di letteratura, arte e cultura Pula, Croatia / Kroatien / Croazia, No. 3-4/2020 Summary This double issue is somewhat specific: it does not include the usual sections since it is largely focused on the survey of more or less recent reviews about the books in different fields (mostly fiction, also history, philosophy, etc.) that have been released in Croatia for the last two or three years – both originals by Croatian authors or translations from a couple of different world languages. The first section ‘Fascism and before Fascism – and the Current Situation’ serves as a reminder of the ethnocide and culturocide that the Italian fascists had prac- ticed before the fascist government became official, therefore, as early as in late 1918, first in Europe, among all other places, in occupied Istria and other Adriatic regions in Croatia. This happened after the destruction of the Austro-Hungarian Monar- chy and the First World War. Along with the forceful Italianisation of Slavonic – here Croatian and Slovene – names and surnames, book burning, expelling, send- ing people to jail for a long period of time, torturing and killing them, above all, the ones conscious of their non-Italian background, especially intellectuals, clergymen, teachers, writers..., one of the numerous crimes included the burning down of peo- ple’s homes as the venues of important cultural, social and economic (e.g. savings banks) institutions, premises, associations, libraries, and other similar places where the Croats used to gather. In Pula such a crime occurred in July 1920, so we remind our readers of the 100 th anniversary of this tragedy in the first section. However, remembering the events from the past, we also tend to point out the current unfa- vourable situation when it comes to marking very important individuals and events in Istria and the city of Pula, closely connected to the tradition and memory of the predominant Croatian people in this region. The second section ‘Contributions on the Homeland’ presents some books and people attached to Istria throughout reviewing a few recent books about certain in- dividuals. The third, final section ‘Abundance in Literary Reviews, 2019-2020’ is a very comprehensive panorama of reviews about the new titles released in Croatia for several years, already presented in our e-journal for critical reviews ‘ Stav’ (www.stav. com.hr ), that was launched in 2018. Transl. by R. Šamo , Pula