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Milenko Novakovich
Instructor: Brandon Alva
English 2010
December 5, 2014
Editorial Final Drafts
Life in Communism and Breakup of Former Yugoslavia
For over 70 years Yugoslavia was trying to build its prosperity through a turbulent
history. It has been more than twenty years since the dissolution of Yugoslavia. In the war
between Yugoslav republics from 1991 1995 and later on in 1999 and short war against NATO
almost 140,000 people died and about 4 million people have been displaced.
I was born and raised in Yugoslavia and I spent most of my life there. My last years there
were four years during the war in Bosnia. I moved with my family to U.S. on the last day of the
war, on November 20, 1995. That day the peace agreement was signed in Dayton, Ohio. In the
last 19 years living in U.S. I met many people from the former country but one of them was
really interesting to me. His name is Salko Delic.
He is the father of a friend of mine and a former air force officer in the Yugoslav Army.
My interest in him was elevated over other people that I know because he had much inside
information about what led into the breakup of Yugoslavia. He moved to Salt Lake City with his
family from Germany, where he had fled from the war because he didnt want to take action in
bombing or killing people in any part of former country. Here, in Salt Lake City, he and his
family own a small restaurant with Balkans cuisine. We would discuss sometimes for hours

trying to find the understanding for the reasons why a country like Yugoslavia would break up
and who was to blame for it. Our mutual agreement was that breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991 was
mostly due to political conflict between factions who previously coexisted peacefully in the
region. It was interesting listening to his stories from historical and military prospective. The
elements that contributed to fallout of Yugoslavia were the politicians, who were in power at the
time, was Salkos conclusion. The politicians played big role in starting the war basing their
speeches always on religious differences to build fear between people.
Many analyses had tried to explain reason for disintegration of Yugoslavia focusing to
arguments of economy crisis, nationalism, cultural differences and ideological argument. The
important role played also the politicians who largely contributed to war and dissolution of
Yugoslavia (Vesna Stankovic Pejnovic 618). When I reverse all things in my head and see what
was happening in the war and how the tensions were built between the people than I can relate to
her statement. Unfortunately, I was one of the people who were minority group of people that
didnt vote for these nationalists parties. I had a sense where bringing these parties on power
would lead us. One word: disaster.
Political elite familiar with knowledge of ideology of collective identity of socialism
find place in very similar ideology, nationalism. Communists responsible for creation of
socialistic Yugoslavia stop to believe in this kind of state in 50s of 20th century. In beginning of
Yugoslavian collapse, political elites tried to find legal basis to strengthen their positions in
republic in nationalism Vesna would continue.
What was like history, religion, economy, education, health, justice and political system?
How did all these factors impact the changes in the country throughout period of over 70 years?

In order to understand situation in former Yugoslavia and cause of break up its necessary to go
back in history and learn more about country.
The country of Yugoslavia was formed in 1918 after World War 1.Yugoslavia was
formed as a Union between Slovenians, Croats and Serbs. A few years later, it was proclaimed a
kingdom of these three nations. In 1929, the region was named Yugoslavia, and the Serbian
Royal family ruled the country. In 1941, at the beginning of World War 2, the royal family fled
from the country, taking exile in United Kingdom and left the country of Yugoslavia without a
governing body.
After Hitlers forces occupied the country, together with domestic militias (Croatian
Ustashe and Serbian Chetniks) the only force that was able to show some organized resistance
were Partisans (the guerilla forces organized by Communist Party and led by Josip Broz Tito).
After WW 2 the Communist Party and Partisans formed new government and named its first
President, Marshal Josip Broz Tito. It was three years after the fall of Hitler and the Nazies, Tito
and Yugoslavia faced their biggest challenge in diplomacy. From one side, the Allies led by
USA wanted to persuade President Tito to join NATO and from the other side, strong pressure
from Stallins Russia to ally with Eastern bloc. The year 1948 was crucial when Yugoslavia
declined to side with Russia and chose its own way in diplomacy. Even though Yugoslavia was a
communist country, it was more liberal than other countries that were a part of Soviet Union or
Eastern bloc. Many people would mix up Yugoslavia with Eastern bloc even though it never was
part of it.
What did life in a communist country look like? Like many countries after the World
War Two Yugoslavia was totally destroyed economically, infrastructural and its population. The

whole country had to be rebuilt from the ground up. The Communist party decided that the
Monarchy was no longer welcome, and if they tried to return to their country, or seize the power
again, they would be arrested and prosecuted. I was always wondering what kind of life I would
have had if, for instance, I was growing up in the Monarchy state. Thats something that Ill
never get the answer for.
Communism was ideologically structured to be an ideal society for people torn by war
and religious differences. There were suggestions coming from the U.S. and the U.K. where to
build roads and highways first. Most of the country was rugged terrain and the roads built were
mostly narrow and with little safety. The communists decided that only small businesses like a
restaurants, cafe bars, bakeries, jewelry stores and similar could be in private hands, but not like
power plants, mines or heavy industry. The people in position of power had to be members of the
Communist party. Anyone who disagreed with the communists decisions, or didnt follow the
guidelines of their Party was sent to prison. And in some extreme cases, even shot to death.
I had opinion that system was too strict in some elements like economy and private
business and the local laws shouldve been more lenient toward small businesses. I felt that
politicians should not turn away some good and progressive proposals from U.K. or U.S. like
building the roads and spreading the network of highways and freeways.
In 1963, the President Tito was chosen as a President for life. In the early 60-s and 70-s
Yugoslavian governments way of building the country was organizing Work camps which
included brigades of young people willing to invest a month of free labor during the summer.
The Work camps had free accommodation and food, but no money was paid for working 1012 hour days in hot or rainy weather. These Work camps were on volunteer bases and dont

mistake them for some prison work camp or any type of punishment. It was more like a countries
patriotic buildup of sense of pride.
I remember my junior year in high school where I was approached first time by members
of Communist Party and because my excellent academics I was offered to join them. I had to
find polite way to decline it, and my answer was that young man like I who wears Lewis jeans,
has a long hair and listen pro-western music (rock and roll) may not be the best role model for
the others. I was never asked again to join them but that decision had some cost for me in the
future. I was able to get a job but never to make a career. But, also I never had any regret for my
decision. I didnt consider as good thing that membership with ruling party should be the
deciding factor about future of young people.
The health care system was totally free. No co-payments for a doctors visit or
deductibles, and no participation fee for prescription medical drugs. All schools and universities
were public and students didnt pay tuition. I was considering this as the really helpful law. This
law gave chance to all people to have health care coverage and a lot of young people to get
higher education and not to worry about tuition. The young men were obligated to serve in the
military right after the high school or after they turn 18 years of age. Serving in military was
mandatory and usually would take between 15-18 months. I had to serve my time in military and
at that time I thought that I lost 15 months of my life for not good cause. Later in the life I realize
that military made me a grown and responsible man.
The church was totally separated from the state. Anyone could practice his own religion
at home, in private, but not in the public. Any practice of religion in schools, military or in the
working place was prosecuted. Unlike some communist countries in the Eastern bloc, traveling

in and out of the country in Yugoslavia was allowed, anytime and anywhere. Most jobs were
created in mining, heavy industry and agriculture. I, personally, was thinking that state should
have been separated from the church. Because the religion is extremely sensitive thing in
Yugoslavia private practice of religion was something that I consider as good decision. The
events that happen after 1990 proved that. As soon as people started practicing their religion on
the public places outside of churches or mosques the tensions started rising. Later on that led into
the terrible war.
The majority of the people in Yugoslavia were middle or lower class. The whole concept
of communism was that working class people own the industry, factories and mines, and the
people in agriculture own the land. The taxes were low, and so were the wages and education.
The priority was to improve educational system in order to have prosperity in the economy. For
many people communism looked like a really good system, but there were some who still didnt
want to accept it and for that reason the country had a migration of people who left in search of
better life and more money. Many of those who migrated, formed opposition organizations in the
new countries and financed the silent opposition in Yugoslavia in order to try to overthrow the
system.
What does it look like to work in a communist country? The unemployment rate was
high. Once someone got a job they kept it probably for their entire career. After my military time
I got a job as a technician in coal fired power plant. I worked for over ten years and I was able
only to buy used Volkswagen beetle. The working career was usually about 40 years, for until
age of 65, and women to the age of 60. It was hard to get a job, and it was equally hard to lose
one. Most companies had a strong Union that would protect employees from getting fired. This
is something that I considered as the biggest issue in communism: on job and for entire working

career. Just low percentage of people would be lucky to maybe change jobs during the working
career. Because of necessity many would stay on the same job whether they like the job or not.
Also, highly educated and overqualified people would have to accept lower paid jobs in order to
support themselves and their families.
The Yugoslavian population was mostly whites. The strong police apparatus and
suppression kept different religious groups from the conflict. Unlike in the U.S. where a
difference between blacks and whites was obvious, in Yugoslavia a foreigner would hardly
understand who is who and why those groups had a conflict. The Serbs, Macedonians and
Montenegrins are Christian Orthodox, Croats and Slovenians are Catholics and majority of
Bosnians and Albanians are Muslims. Some people still had distrust toward politicians from
different ethnic groups because of the heavy scars left from WW2. That was particularly
expressed in rural areas, villages and low populated and educated societies.
The life for families or young people, who wanted to start a family, wasnt an easy one.
Unemployment and low wage forced many to live with their parents. Houses were built from
cinder block, for several generations. Many people owned their land but didnt trust the banks
and credits, so they would build their house slowly, and sometimes it took more than decade to
build, level by level. For that reason migration was really low and people would grow up and die
in the same neighborhood. During my childhood I probably knew all people in my neighborhood
even the miles outside of my area. The women who worked and gave birth would go on
maternity for a full year. Sick days at work would only be at the discretion of doctors, which
built a lot of corruption in field of the health care system.

Corruption was big part of life in the health care system. The two biggest fields exposed
to corruption were health care system and employment. This was an extremely big issues and I
did not like the way how whole system was structured. Some employees would with help of
bribe get jobs and then been absent from the same one using sick leave while other unemployed
people couldnt get any job.
The justice system in the communist country was directed by political leadership. Those
who werent members of the Party could not count on some progress in life or career
advancement at work. In the order to push development of their domestic auto industry, the
political leadership restricted the import of foreign cars. For many people buying a car was an
unfulfilled dream. In the construction segment, large companies would invest some money into
buying apartments for its own employees. The long term employees, depending on seniority
would get an apartment for free to live in it with their family. There were some really low
property taxes on land but not on houses or apartments, nor food. Another thing that I disagreed
with was the restriction of buying the import cars. Driving domestic cars on the rugged roads
would lower the lifetime of the car. Also, the justice system I considered slow, bureaucratic,
corrupted and ineffective.
Yugoslavia was centralized from the capital city, Belgrade in Serbia. All decisions were
made in Belgrade then and sent to local political leaderships in other states. Other states were not
satisfied with the spread of power and money, so in 1974 President Tito reduced power to
Belgrade and empowered local governments. Some minor ethnic groups like Bosnian Muslims
and Albanians became constituent nations.

The school system was designed so all the schools had two official alphabets. Latin
alphabet and cyrillic. It was mandatory for all elementary students to learn them both at early
stage of life. If a student didnt have a passing grade at the end of year he would repeat the entire
grade next year. If the student didnt pass again, then that student would lose his right to go to
school. I have to say, as much as it might sound harsh, the way how the school system was
structured that actually was helping children and students a lot to succeed in school and life
globally. There werent much sympathies for those who didnt show signs of progress from the
beginning.
On May 4, 1980 President Tito died. The whole nation mourned. People would stand for
12 hours in line to view his coffin. On the day of his burial, there were diplomats from 127
countries. That is still considered the largest gathering of diplomats in one place in any country.
After President Titos death, the countries inside and outside were power hungry. Politicians
started spreading the bed seed of hate between ethnic groups which was the first sign of
turbulence in the Communist Party and the country itself. Near end of the 80-s the country and
communism were already showing signs of a downfall. In the 1989 Yugoslavia had its first
democratic election, and for the first time since 1945 the Communist Party lost. The Eastern bloc
was collapsing like the Soviet Union. On the other hand the Berlin Wall was taken down and two
Germanys were reunited after almost 45 years. For many people that wasnt a good sign.
Nobody wanted a strong and reunited Germany. Many European nations still had memories and
fear of the German aspiration toward other countries.
My friend Salko told me that the Yugoslav Army secretly taped politicians and had
information about the possibility of war even a year before they acknowledged it to the public. I
remember that moment seen on TV. Also, he said that the military started to crack because

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highly ranked officers begin openly to take sides on political issues. The lack of desire from
political elites and their inability to find resolution drew the country economy to deeper debt.
The social inequality raised division between people and nationalism was on the raise. The
people in power had support from churches and religious groups that made division in ordinary
peoples lives more intense. High unemployment was a big burden for the future of the political
systems and future of Yugoslavia.
The country that still had scars from WW2, religiously and ideologically divided, was
easy target for political elites to manipulate the masses. The best example for that was speech of
Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in 1989, Kosovo in front of 2 million Serbs. He convinced
Serbian people that in case of dissolution of Yugoslavia he wont allow the other republics
within Yugoslavia to make Serbs minority. Kosovo as a part of Serbia was mostly populated
with Albanians which are Islamic fate while Serbs are Orthodox. The second largest religious
group was Catholics that mostly lived in Croatia and Slovenia. The speech in Kosovo brought
insecurity in peoples lives and that was considered like turning point in future events in
Yugoslavian collapse.
Beginning in 1991, one after another, the republics started breaking off from Yugoslavia
and declaring independency. First was Slovenia, and Croatia was next on to do the same. That
triggered the open clash between newly formed republics and still legitimate Yugoslav military.
Unfortunately, things were getting worse because neither political side had will for a talk and to
resolve the situation peacefully. Six months later the war spelt into Bosnia and Herzegovina
where heavy atrocities happened. Later on the war carried over to Kosovo and Macedonia until
1999 when NATO did bombing of Serbs in Serbia and Bosnia in order to stop the war. The
peace for Bosnia and Herzegovina was signed in Dayton, Ohio, USA on November 20th, 1995.

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Unfortunately, in just 4 year time approximately hundred thousand people died due to the
war. The country was torn apart, and almost 4 million people had to resettle. Because of the
break up, Yugoslavia the largest communist country and the Soviet Union, fell apart. Their
separation didnt end without bloodshed. Even now, almost 20 years after the fallout of
communism, Europe still has political uncertainty in some countries.
The cost of political and geographical change was very high. Over 140,000 lives lost
almost 4 million displaced, unemployment sky-rocketing, infrastructure destroyed, and young
people with very bleak future. According to some sociologists and historians like Croatian Ivo
Banac this is just development that was on sight since 1950s.
What kind of conclusion can reader get from this essay? From my prospective I can say
that I had a happy childhood, life was sometimes struggle but at least was much safer than in
many other countries in the world. We didnt have luxury cars or big houses but we had other
things than are not materialistic, like close ties within family and relatives, life was much slower,
and we could always count on true friends for a lifetime. Every time when I go back to former
Yugoslavia I can hear many people sadly talking about past time and life that they lived before
the war. For most of them life in communism was good because of socialized health care,
smaller taxes and easier trade of goods. Many didnt know anything about capitalism and didnt
expect challenges in life that capitalism is bringing. Because in my young days I was reading a
lot about western countries I always felt that my destiny was to be somewhere else than in
communist country. Thank God, that dream came true. The only what I felt sad about was the
way how and the reason why I had to leave my birthplace.

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Taking into consideration all these facts I think that communism economically and
structurally was not good system. It wasnt liberal and didnt allow people to succeed. The
government stayed on power with a lot of oppression and wanted to have full control in every
aspect of peoples life. Having that king of ruling could always be potential spark plug for the
riots or war like it happened in Yugoslavia.

Work Cited:

Banac Ivo, 1984 The national question in Yugoslavia, Ithaca, Cornell University

Pejnovic Stankovic Vesna Breakup of Yugoslavia, Associate Professor at MIT

University, Zagreb, Croatia

Delic Salko former air force officer in Yugoslav National Army

Novakovich Milenko author, born and raised in former Yugoslavia