
Spomenik - Futuristic Communist Yougoslavia monuments - harscoat
http://www.foto8.com/new/online/blog/1268-spomenik
======
n1k
My family is Serbian (Bosnian Serb, more accurately). What my family went
through during the Tito era and prior is an interesting story. My grandfathers
cousins were part of the Black Hand who assassinated Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand
in Sarajevo leading to WW1. My father was an active participant in anti-
government movements during the 70s and was kicked out of the country as a
result (and later arrested when he return, resulting in an international
diplomatic indecent as he was an Australian citizen at the time).

Anyway, we weren't allowed to visit again until '01. When we did, we attempted
to visit Jasenovac, but the police had road blocks on every road approaching
the site in a wide radius. We were blocked from approaching the site from two
different directions, and on the second attempt were essentially told to go
away and that there was 'nothing to see here'.

The Croatian government has since become a lot more progressive, but there is
still a large element of denial for what is essentially the Auschwitz of the
Balkans.

The old Yugoslav government of Tito also didn't acknowledge what took place at
Jasenovac - which is a large part of the reason why the rest of the world
doesn't know about it. Tito pushed it all aside in the name of moving forward
with 'brotherhood and unity'.

And btw, a lot of the monuments that you see in this post, at least those that
were dedicated to the partizans and 'the workers', have since been heavily
graffitied and vandalized. The local populations took their anger for the
former state out on these huge monuments that were built at large expense.

~~~
drats
Your family has some serious history. I consider the guns that killed Arch
Duke Ferdinand to be some of the most important objects in the physical world
(outside the much more important realm of ideas). I visited the war museum in
Vienna where they are kept, alongside the car the duke was riding in and his
uniform, a year ago. All the events of 20th century as we know it are shaped
by a few objects in that room. Sure some will say they are "merely" the sparks
that lit the potential energy in the powderkegs of history but, nevertheless,
they are the sparks that did it.

------
adolph
Fascinating: _the monuments "had to be neutral enough to be acceptable to both
victims and perpetrators. After all, once the slaughter was over, the former
opponents had to collectively form the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia."_

~~~
batasrki
This is one of the sources of the appeal of Balkans for "foreigners" and one
of the sources of frustration and despair for the Balkan people themselves.

We never dealt with these issues in any way whatsoever. As is the cultural
norm of all of the Balkan people, shit that we don't want to deal with is
pushed away, compartmentalized and annotated (for future ammunition against
those who have caused the atrocities). This left the entire region susceptible
to manipulation by those who wished to tear the region apart. A lot of anger
has built up during the 50 years between Jasenovac and the wars of the 90s.

(Full disclosure, I'm a Bosnian Serb, as well)

------
acqq
For the story behind one of the monuments:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasenovac>

[http://www.france24.com/en/20100725-israels-peres-visits-
cro...](http://www.france24.com/en/20100725-israels-peres-visits-croatian-
auschwitz)

------
Keyframe
Check out yugoslav dinar banknotes from 1955 onwards
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_the_Yugoslav_dinar> for great
examples of socialist realism.

~~~
lionhearted
Socialism realism is a bit of doublespeak, though. Here's Wikipedia:

> Socialist realism held that successful art depicts and glorifies the
> proletariat's struggle toward socialist progress. The Statute of the Union
> of Soviet Writers in 1934 stated that socialist realism "is the basic method
> of Soviet literature and literary criticism. It demands of the artist the
> truthful, historically concrete representation of reality in its
> revolutionary development. Moreover, the truthfulness and historical
> concreteness of the artistic representation of reality must be linked with
> the task of ideological transformation and education of workers in the
> spirit of socialism."

Read that twice if you missed it - it must be truthful, and also must take the
task of ideological transformation. That is, propaganda.

"Socialist idealist" might be a friendly way of describing that style of art,
or "socialist propaganda" would be a less friendly way. But either way would
be far more accurate than socialist realist. As someone whose spent lots of
time around the world, the socialist countries have had absolutely terrible
taste outside of a rare few well-done landmarks. Soviet housing in Eastern
Europe is still brutal and cold and spiritually oppressive, and the older
people there simply don't smile and look proud like you see on the banknotes.

Actual realism in art positions itself against romanticism. The socialist
propaganda art is highly romanticized. The name's very much an Orwellian-style
misnomer that hasn't been appropriately discarded yet.

~~~
Keyframe
Maybe, you seem to know that better than I do. I remember it being described
during 80s as socialist realism. For example, this note:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1000din-1963.jpg> depicts this guy here:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alija_Sirotanovi%C4%87>

Guy won the international miners contest where he shoveled 'with ease' 25kgs
in one go and similar mythic stories behind it. And every single note had a
similar story behind it that furthered the myth of "workers in the spirit of
socialism".

~~~
acqq
> And every single note had a similar story behind it that furthered the myth
> of "workers in the spirit of socialism"

In Yugoslavia AFAIK the only note in that period with the real story is the
one you've mentioned (but the other person was depicted in that older note).
For others, citation needed, as the Wikipedia article is very specific. Old
1000 note "Arif Heralić" then some monuments or the most famous people, or
generic faces, without real stories.

