"Thoughts on Yugoslavia - 31 years after the death of Tito"

May 4, 2011 | Alex M. from Belgrade

[Ravnagora]

Today, May 4, 2011 is the 31st anniversary of the death of Josip Broz Tito, the lifetime President of Yugoslavia. Some adore him, some hate him, some are disgusted by the very mention of his name nowadays. Yugoslavia was the country of my birth and childhood. This is what I have to say about it, now, from a distance.

The good aspects of Communism were the following: free health care for all, free education for all, including University education, high respect for workers' rights (there was no way you could get fired - unless you did something really stupid, but if you TRIED HARD on your job, you could have a job until retirement). Another good aspect was that many people got roofs over their heads - the state would give them apartments... not everyone, but many. So, the actual social aspects were good. In that regard, much more humane in some aspects than some Western countries.

The political aspects, however, were terrible. The "little man" would do fine, provided that there were no questions asked about the system of Government. You could not criticize the Government openly or publicly. There was heavy censorship in the media (TV, newspapers, magazines, books), even in the theater... However, Western movies were shown in cinemas and on TV, western books (some) were available, so Yugoslavs were fairly familiar with the "imperialist" culture of the West. If you would get drunk in a "kafana" and start singing forbidden songs, you would get a 3 month jail sentence. Many people were killed after the "liberation" - without trials or on mock trials, or even under martial law (immediately after the Second World War)... how many people had lost their land, property, homes, cattle, factories, how many people were sent to Goli Otok prison camp and jails across Yugoslavia - just for having a different opinion. But, if you were the law-abiding citizen, the obedient "little man", you would go to school, to the University or to your job, whatever. We would spend the summers on the Adriatic and the winters on mountains, life was generally good and relatively care-free. There was no mass-consumerism like today - but we had everything we needed and we were happy. Crime rate was almost non-existant. I've read somewhere that the regime had paid the leaders of criminal groups to "operate" outside of Yugoslavia, in places like Germany. The result of this was that we didn't even have to lock our apartments. Imagine living in the US and not locking your apartment or house.

So, on the one hand, there were no political, media or such freedoms, no rights to protest. On the other hand, on a smaller level, there was quite a bit of safety, security, and life was generally rewarding for the "little man" and his family.

Yugoslavia - if we remove the political system - was a wonderful country that had it all - from the vast Adriatic sea, to the lakes, springs, rivers, streams, waterfalls, mountains, forests, wheat fields, ancient Roman sites, medieval fortresses, monasteries, it was a place where religion was not officially banned like in Albania, but you certainly were not encouraged to go to church...

It was also a place where, as in other dictatorships, the dictator was loved more than God, more than one's parents, brothers or sisters. After the war, Tito's gigantic posters and red stars were everywhere. By the time I was born and had grown up, Tito was not so much present in the streets, but his photo was in each office, each classroom, each factory hall. You would open up a school book and he would be there, on the first page, in full color. Newspapers were filled with his endless speeches, and he was treated not like a King, but like a Tsar or a God. When he would return from one of his many trips worldwide, people would be lined up, throwing roses at him, waving Yugoslav and Communist flags, there would be a general hysteria of love and joy... not to mention the Army Parade, the carrying of the "youth torch" on his birthday, the massive colorful performance on a stadium, and other similar public events, all in the service of glorifying his personality first, and Yugoslavia second.

He was - and I admit this - a mastermind of manipulating both the East and the West, to get money from them. By playing the so-called neutrality card (The Non-Aligned Movement), he milked both the East and the West for money. He balanced the game of power perfectly. I guess that must have been the reason why the West had decided to destroy Yugoslavia with such vengeance - when the Cold War was over and when Yugoslavia no longer needed to play the balance of power game. Unlike other Communist nations locked behind the Iron Curtain, Yugoslavs could travel basically everywhere and the "red passport" was very respected worldwide. However, many people did not have a habit of traveling abroad. Certainly not in the degree they have today.

Yugoslavia was a country where economic, social, political, national, ethnic and other problems/differences were ignored or pushed under the carpet, for a long time... until they all just blew up into our faces. Some say it was an ideal country, a utopia... Others say it was a "prison of nations". Whatever it was, it no longer exists. If it were that good, it would have survived. The fact that all three forms of Yugoslavia collapsed (the monarchist Yugoslavia, the socialist Yugoslavia and the "shrunken" Yugoslavia) means that we probably should give up on it.

Alex M. from Belgrade

May 4, 2011

*****

[SQUID]

By the way, Tito was not Serbian folks.

[getoffmylawn]

I had almost the same summer in 1988! The differences - We flew into Zagreb and then drove to Sarajevo, Neum, and on to Prishtina. Later that same summer my brother and I drove to Salzburg and eventually to Venice and then all the way around the Adriatic to Dubrovnik where we stayed for a few days.

I completely fell in love with all of the people of "Yugoslavia" that summer. They were all the nicest people we met in Europe that summer. We stayed away from the Albanians in Pristhina though. That group is a whole different story.

[Hotlanta Mike]

Driving the Adriatic was incredible, all the twist and turns along the coast. During my trip there were many Dutch tourists driving down with their camping trailers hitched to the back of their autos. So it necessitated alot of passing when able just in order not to lose too much time behind sitting them.