Yugonostalgia - Road Through the Past
Manifestation of the past
Before I start this I wanna issue one note. I am not making a moral analysis of Yugoslavia or what did or did not happen during Yugoslavia. That’s something for later. Also, all youtube comments that appear in this article are translated by Google translate for the sake of the language barrier.
What is Nostalgia?
Merriam-webster dictionary defines nostalgia as a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for a return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition. In this instance “yearning for a return of some past period” is the best definition.
It’s not an ideological phenomenon, (most) people are not inherently nostalgic for socialism, they are nostalgic for better material conditions and stability that were a thing before the war. Post-war propaganda might have something to do with the lack of ideological part
One thing I have noticed about Yugonostalgia is that it’s not really based on ideology, most people(at least younger people) don’t know what made that time better, they just want to have what their parents had.
Music
Youtube comment section on Western Balkan music can be really fucking wild. You will find very vulgar instances of Croatian and Serbian nationalism, but one place where you can find parts of Yugonostalgia is the comment section of the 70s and 80s Yugoslav music, especially rock and new wave. Usually, you can find this stuff being expressed in the explicit anti-nationalist way, which is not surprising what happened 30 years ago and also because of how much of an anti-nationalist Tito was. Quite often Tito’s “slogan” of “Brotherhood and Unity” will be found in said comments.
Alongside those, there are also comments that don’t directly point at anything explicitly Yugoslav but just your standard nostalgia for the childhood they have spent listening to those songs.
This kind of nostalgia also sometimes manifests in the “music was just better back in the day” boomer way which also gets coupled with life, food, a sense of security, and everything that goes with it being better in Yugoslavia.
The first song I wanna mention here is Đorđe Balašević’s Samo Da Rata Ne Bude from 1987. First, some context. After Tito’s death, lots of things happened and the feeling in the country was that it’s gonna fall apart and lead to war. Everything was pointing to it. Sadly, that came out to be true. This is one of the anti-war songs that came out during that time and probably the most popular one given that Balašević was very popular, in a way he was Yugoslavia’s Johnny Cash.
Youtube comments under this song are usually filled with comments about war and “how did we allow this to happen”, “how did it fall apart” and similar kinds of stuff. These are probably the most shortsighted ones because they view the war and what happened in the late 80s through rose-colored glasses, but then again all nostalgia is like that. Although, I need to say that other ones usually make a better and more convincing point. I will say though that Balašević’s song is easily my all-time favorite anti-war song but that’s something to be discussed later. To be completely honest, I was listening to this song as I was writing this article and I had to stop myself for a few minutes because the emotions I’ve felt were way too much. It’s hard to explain how much this song affects me personally. (Note: Google translate translated Đorđe’s name as George)
The second example of this is Lepa Brena’s song Jugoslovenka. Back in 1989, when the country was in midst of the political crisis and with nationalism on the rise Lepa Brena, one of the most popular artists in the whole country, alongside Alen Islamović(singer of the most popular rock band in the country) Daniel Popović(rising teen pop star) and Vlado Kalember dropped a song called Jugoslovenka. It was an attempt at galvanizing some kind of Yugoslav nationalism to counter rising Serbian and Croatian nationalism which is kinda ironic if you consider the period of Tito’s Yugoslavia and its fervor against nationalism. But hey, post-Tito Yugoslavia is such a weird piece of history that this desperate attempt is not surprising. It goes without saying that it sadly did not work.
Nowadays, you will find this song sung live in concerts, at meetings, and used as some kind of anti-Croatian and anti-Serbian nationalism signifier. It’s not a rarity to find Yugonostalgia manifested as some kind of internationalism from people ex-Soviet Bloc countries too. Messages of unity and cooperation between people of said countries but also of countries all around the world.
It is an unofficial anthem of the former SFRY and Lepa Brena’s greatest hit. It brings us back to better times, so in many people it evokes nostalgia. The lyrics are about a girl of innocent and strange beauty who is in fact Yugoslav. The song is often played and sung today, which speaks to its success and great popularity. Although Yugoslavia no longer exists, the continues to live and will remain for a long time one of the biggest hits in this area. This song still lives in the hearts of many people in this part of Balkan and in the hearts of its diaspora. You don’t need to go further than to just watch the reactions of people when Brena performs this song live. Everyone is in delirium and sings along to it especially during the “I am Yugoslavian” line from the chorus.
Commodification of Yugonostalgia
This brings me to the next point. The best proof that Yugonostalgia is real and alive is that it’s being heavily commodified. It is not a rarity to find t-shirts or even massively manufactured products with explicit yugonostalgia or even retro look that points at something from Yugoslavia. From bringing back old school names and kits of basketball club Jugoplastika Split (used to be called KK Split) to kitchen supplies and everything in between.
Another one I wanna talk about is the fashion brand Jugochic. It was started by Ognjena Ratajac a few years ago and it’s probably the best example of nostalgia channeled in fashion.
It’s something rooted in Yugonostalgia no matter how much it’s founder tries to deny those claims and try to say that it comes from her fascination with people and not the past.
Memes
When it comes to memes they come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. From memes about the lost past to WW2 and clips of Tito with Gangster Paradise as background music. Yes, that exists too.
Memes that feature some kind of pledging allegiance to Yugoslavia are quite often to be seen too. As seen here:
Important Historical Dates and Monuments(Tito’s birthday, Igman’s Marsh…)
The idea of (socialist)Yugoslavia is deeply intertwined with the idea of anti-fascism. They have shared history and that gets manifested through celebrations of important dates in the history of the anti-fascist struggle in WW2. It’s not a rarity to see the Yugoslav flag in celebration of Igman’s March for example
Kumrovec is the place where Yugonostalgia peaks and that is not surprising since that is the birthplace of Josip Broz Tito. Every year on his birthday thousands of people gather in front of the house he spent his childhood in to celebrate his life. This is not the only point of celebration and Yugonostalgia that I could have put in this category but if I’ve put them all this piece would have been way too long so I will just name some of them:
Tito’s grave in House of Flowers
Day of Antifascism
Important historical dates of the liberation of big cities
Day of SFRY(Day of the republic)
Yugonostalgia as a pejorative
Now, let’s talk about how Yugonostalgia is being weaponized (mostly) by right-wingers to be used as some kind of pejorative against everyone left of center. Yugoslavia is a very hot-button issue in places like Croatia and Slovenia which is quite ironic because those two republics benefited the most from it. Anything remotely progressive is tried to be dismissed as just “yugonostalgia” which is quite ironic because by doing that they admit that there was the progressive sentiment in Yugoslavia but their reactionary ass disliked it. The term “yugonostalgic” even originated as some kind of political pejorative in the 90s during the war in Croatia. It’s a label that can be slapped onto anyone you dislike. For lots of Croatian right-wingers and even some liberals, Yugoslavia was a “continuation” of Serbian hegemony and it had to be overturned(which is a bit silly idea if you ask me).
Conclusion
Yugonostalgia is an interesting phenomenon and it’s an obvious reaction to everything that has happened in the last 30 or so years. While I don’t consider myself yugonostalgic I understand such reaction. Reasons, why I don’t consider myself yugonostalgic, are so complex I could write a whole piece on and I probably will sometime in the future. All I will say is that I view Yugoslavia as net positive and yugonostalgia could potentially be used as some kind of base for liberatory politics especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina where three nationalist parties rule the country on stoking fear of other two nations. Their popularity is strictly based on the myth of no alternative. I will end this piece with a translated quote from one of my friend’s articles from this year:
Thirty years after its overthrow, communism has survived as the greatest fear of domestic nationalist elites. Unlike the nationalist medieval mythology of Nemanjić and Obilić, communism offered a future that we are building together with other nations of the world. Instead of existential insecurity and poverty, it offered stability and prosperity, instead of regression and tradition, progress and modernization, instead of war, peace among nations, and instead of crosses, a star with which all nations can identify. In other words, Yugoslav socialism offered a model of development that these peoples had never experienced or built before or since. That is why even today, thirty years later, communism is the greatest fear of the ruling elites, but also the only alternative to their system.
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