THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL CHANGES ON THE STATUS POSITION OF THE ARCHIVES AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARCHIVAL ACTIVITY OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (1990-2018)

Abstract

Social changes in which the erosion of one party socialism and the introduction of a multiparty pluralist system of power affected the entire ex-Yugoslav territory in 1990. They have fought in the complex circumstances of national conflicts between the ruling political structures on the most important issues of the structure of the country’s socio- political and economic system. These disagreements, among other things, led to a four-year war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995). After that, in the post-war period that is still taking place, in the conditions of establishing a complicated constitutional organization of the country, national and political arguments have continued, with which the process of social transition has significantly slowed down.

All these transitionary changes of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian society that still exist have had and have a direct reflection on the status of archives, that is, the management of archives, as well as the development of archival activity as a whole. Until the war, the unique archival service (Archives of B&H with its parent function and eight regional archives) was divided and organized according to the new administrative structure of the country (states, two entities, ten cantons and the Brčko District of B&H). Existing archives found themselves in new status positions, under the jurisdiction of new founders, the supervising function of the Archive of B&H was gone, new archives were formed and decentralization took on the characteristics of anarchy. This has slowed down to a considerable extent, and the development of the archival activity of Bosnia and Herzegovina continues to slow down. This paper points to the course and character of these changes and their reflection on archives and archival activities as a whole.