208 TEORIJA IN PRAKSA
Miša Đurković (ed.) 
Fašizam u našoj epohi Belgrade: Čigoja, 2023,
pp. 351; 21,28 EUR
(ISBN: 9788653109226)
The last two decades have seen ser-
ious challenges to the hegemony of the 
existing liberal democratic order. A 
range of crises – economic, social, en-
vironmental, along with the inability 
of the liberal and more mainstream 
conservative parties and governments 
to tackle them, have led to the destabil-
isation of different parties and political 
systems across the globe. Partly this has 
been due to the rise of more radical left 
parties, which have also seen a rapid 
decline in the last few years or adap-
ted to the status quo, but it is primar-
ily due to the rise of new right-wing 
parties, often labelled fascist. Within 
this framework, the edited volume en-
titled Fascism in our Epoch (Fašizam 
u nošaj epohi in the Serbian language, 
a paraphrase of the title of the famous 
study of Ernst Nole Der Fascismus in 
seiner Epoche), tackles the different 
historical emanations and theoretical 
discussions about fascism. The book is 
edited by Miša Đurković and collects 
12 different contributions (divided into 
2 parts with 6 chapters, where the first 
deals with theoretical reflections and 
the second with the different manifest-
ations and emanations of fascism) all 
written, except one, by scholars from 
the post-Yugoslav space.
In chapter one, Roger Griffin de-
mythologises the ‘March on Rome’ 
on 28 October 1922, namely, a crucial 
myth of the fascist regime in Italy, since 
it never happened. He stresses the im-
portance of the March in the sense that 
it was neither a coup nor a true putsch, 
and more a specific exchange between 
the king and Mussolini. The fascists 
entered Rome only on 31 October, after 
Mussolini had already been appointed 
prime minister. 
In chapter two, Todor Kuljić de-
scribes how in the early 1960s the focus 
of German historiography and anti-fas-
cism remained based on the connec-
tion between fascism and capitalism. 
However, ever since the 1970s the leftist 
anti-fascism, which was also anti-capit-
alist, has gradually been replaced by the 
rise of anti-totalitarianism, especially 
given the conversion of the French gen-
eration of 1968. The highest point of re-
visionism was reached in the works of 
Ernst Nolte and his thesis that fascism 
was the answer to Bolshevism, making 
Bolshevism the true and original evil. 
Following the famous Historikerstreit 
in the 1980s, Habermas argued that 
Auschiwtz cannot be compared to the 
Gulag, which temporarily prevailed. 
Still, after the defeat of socialism in the 
Cold War, the discourse changed and 
anti-fascism was transformed into a 
hegemonic anti-totalitarian discourse. 
Anti-fascism has become devoid of an-
ti-capitalism and subdued to anti-total-
itarianism. 
Jovo Bakić investigates in chapter 
three the relationship between fascism 
and other related concepts like the ex-
treme right, the far right and the rad-
ical right. He claims that fascism was a 
specific answer to the crisis of capital-
ism and liberal hegemony after the First 
World War. The fascist regime quickly 
turned into a bourgeois and capitalist 
regime based on nationalism, racism 

209 • let. 62, 1/2025
and oppression. He argues that fascism 
is a particular type of extreme-right 
politics. Extreme-right politics is a 
subtype of far-right, reactionary, au-
thoritarian and xenophobic national-
ism, whereas not every extreme right 
is already fascistic, while claiming that 
the radical right is the right-wing polit-
ics seen in many European countries 
under the guise of defending the demo-
cracy narrative, yet is often national-
ist, even xenophobic. Crucially, Bakić 
claims that the radical right can serve 
as a bridge between the extreme right 
and the conservative right.
In chapter four, Tihomir Cipek ex-
plores three different analyses of fas-
cism: Marxist-Communist, conser-
vative, and liberal interpretations, and 
points out their strengths and weak-
nesses. The communist interpretations 
were based on the class nature of fas-
cism, viewing it as a new and specific 
type of bourgeois rule. The conservat-
ive insights are important because they 
stress the religious aspect and symbol-
ics in fascism, albeit fascism has never 
replaced other organised religions. The 
liberal position stresses the totalitarian 
nature of fascism while pointing out 
that the problem of this theory is that 
it takes liberal democracy as the only 
normal way of rule, while projecting 
totalitarian tendencies way back to an-
cient times. This position also equates 
communism with fascism and disreg-
ards the important differences between 
them, and views fascism as a con-
sequence of Bolshevism. The greatest 
merit of the chapter is that Cipek also 
considers their political embeddedness 
and motives, showing how and why the 
liberal totalitarian narrative has pre-
vailed and is used today to ensure the 
reproduction of the status quo. 
In chapter five, Rastko Lompar 
looks at the case of Yugoslav interwar 
right politics in the framework of the 
‘new consensus’ in the studies on fas-
cism; i.e., the idea of the existence of 
generic fascism and the idea of a fascist 
minimum. Lompar continues by ana-
lysing different political movements, 
youth organisations and parties, before 
classifying them according to the the-
ories presented in the first part, which 
provides a very interesting overview 
not just for specialists but also those 
who only occasionally glance at the his-
tory books describing Yugoslav polit-
ical life between the world wars. 
Miša Đurković considers the 
concept of the fascist minimum in 
chapter six. He initially sketches the 
attempts to construct the theory of 
the fascist minimum, as already made 
by Nolte and later Sternhell, Griffin, 
Payne and Eatwell. His core question 
is whether the concept of fascism can 
be applied to explain movements and 
regimes after 1945. He then presents 
Umberto Ecco’s theory of Ur-Fascism 
and contends that this could be a much 
more fruitful way of thinking about 
fascism and applying it to the analysis 
of particular manifestations of fascist 
politics. 
In chapter seven, Dušan Dostanić 
delves into a very interesting theory of 
fascism. He explores the works of Armin 
Mohler, a crucial figure among the 
German new right, and focuses on his 
conceptualisation of fascism as a style, 
while criticising Nazism and the Führer 
for having very little to do with fascism. 
The critical idea of Mohler’s conception 

210 TEORIJA IN PRAKSA
of fascism as a style is that it is based on 
certain reactions to the world that vary 
between liberals and leftists. It is based 
chiefly on declining universalism, ab-
stractions, joy in struggles, and primar-
ily symbolic violence. 
Saša Gajić writes in chapter eight 
about traditionalism/perennialism and 
fascism. In the first part, Gajić explores 
in which ways traditionalism and fas-
cism are similar, arguing that many 
more differences exist than commonal-
ities. He then moves on to consider the 
impact of various important theoreti-
cian traditionalists (Evola, Eliade) with 
different fascists and the far right be-
fore, during and after the Second World 
War. The author concludes the chapter 
by arguing that the close connection 
between perennialism and fascism has 
in fact been weak.
In chapter nine, Aleksa Filipović 
provides a concise and interesting over-
view of the Soviet and Russian schol-
arly analysis of fascism. Three topics are 
in focus: analysis of the rise of fascism 
and its evolution during the time of the 
Soviet Union; analysis of contemporary 
fascism in the post-Soviet region; and 
analysis of fascism in Russia. He intro-
duces several authors largely unknown 
to a Western audience, ones who have 
explored fascism and Nazism, and thus 
his contribution is very important for 
understanding the historical and con-
temporary analysis and contribution 
of the (post)-Soviet space in debates on 
fascism.
In chapter ten, Stevan Gajić presents 
a very interesting analysis of various 
radical and extreme right-wing move-
ments in post-Soviet spaces. He looks 
at different phenomena like National 
Bolshevism, neo-Nazism, and other 
extremes on the right, while also con-
sidering the war in Ukraine in the con-
text of identity confusion and changes 
in the post-Soviet and especially Rus-
sian world. He also elaborates on the 
complex situation in Ukraine and the 
emergence of Nazism there, while also 
describing the particular anti-Russian 
nationalism in Ukraine and the an-
ti-Russian identity politics in Belarus. 
Rajko Petrović takes a closer look 
at the relationship and position of fas-
cism in the Hispanic world in chapter 
eleven. First, he analyses the emergence 
and development of fascism in Spain. 
Petrović claims that important differ-
ences exist between Francoism and 
fascism/Nazism, arguing the former 
should not be classified as a fascist re-
gime. A short overview of different 
fascist movements in Latin America is 
then presented, where it is claimed that 
Peronism, Pinochetism, Stroessnerism 
and Vargasism were not truly fascist; 
even though they were militant and 
extreme-right political movements and 
regimes, they were neither antisemitic 
nor corporatist. 
The last chapter written by Srboljub 
Peović asks whether it is justifiable to 
use the concept of fascism to explain 
different movements in the Muslim 
world during the 20
th
 century. He ap-
plies the definition of the fascist min-
imum developed by Griffin to various 
movements. He initially analyses the 
concept of Islamic fascism/Islamo-
fascism, before analysing the Muslim 
Brotherhood, and exploring move-
ments and regimes in Syria, Iraq, Iran 
and Türkiye. 
While the overall book has a co-

211 • let. 62, 1/2025
herent and logical structure, it must 
be stressed that the theoretical part 
appears to be stronger (especially the 
chapters by Kuljić and Cipek stand out 
to the author of this book review for 
their theoretical depth and political re-
flections). The empirical chapters con-
sider different geographical cases and 
emanations of right-wing politics and 
fascism. Still, on occasion, these em-
pirical investigations tend to be either 
somewhat too narrow (albeit their great 
strength is that they are always com-
parative) or include cases that seem 
to have little to do with fascism. Not-
withstanding these remarks, overall, 
the volume provides an excellent guide 
and overview of the main topics sur-
rounding fascism. This means that is 
a very important contribution to the 
research of fascism not simply in the 
Serbian context, but also for the entire 
post-Yugoslav space given that it brings 
synthetic – theoretical and empirical – 
insights into a topic that is often over-
looked. 
Marko Hočevar