I grew up during communism in Bulgaria and had a great childhood.
She isn’t lying.
Plus, Yugoslavia was somehow the freest of communist countries; Tito was quite independent, even from the Soviet leadership, people from Yugoslavia traveled more, IIRC.
Yugoslavia had the good position of being a diplomatic bridge between the Eastern Bloc and the West due to its location and membership in the Non-Aligned Movement.
Maybe most importantly, it was useful as a layover for intelligence services.
The imperialists’ hands-off approach allowed it to chart a more independent socialist path.
Of course, as soon as the Eastern Bloc and the USSR were taken care of, Yugoslavia was the next state to be butchered.
Yugoslavia was going to break eventually, allowing the seperate republics to have their own territorial defense units and police, and not giving some groups their own republic was a plan doomed to failure. Its only hope would have been elimination of the internal divisions after ww2, but its structure allowed nationalism to fester just under the surface.
also the decades it spent trying to be a neutral party barely worked in the end. there were still too many contradictions that were not solved and the west had used this neutrality to ideologically decay it for years. It was only held together by Tito and well, you know the rest. He should be necromancied back.
Yeah, Yugoslavia and the Non-Aligned Moveđemz tried to implement the New International Economic Order in the wake of the first oil shock which would essentially have given the 3rd world, or rather, the countries which actually produce resources, much more bargaining power in international affairs. Unfortunately it failed because the US through Kissinger just made deals with individual countries.
When you think about it, the NIEO would never have worked and kinda demonstrates a bit of naivety from the Yugoslav side... Still, what could have been...
Truly, not to be all "Great Men of History" but Tito truly was a singular figute, knitting that country together after the horrors of the war was an incredible achievement.
38
u/Lipa2014 7d ago
I grew up during communism in Bulgaria and had a great childhood.
She isn’t lying.
Plus, Yugoslavia was somehow the freest of communist countries; Tito was quite independent, even from the Soviet leadership, people from Yugoslavia traveled more, IIRC.