Text and photos by Zsolt Cziganyik
On the first day of February, Milica Popovic, political scientist, researcher of Sciences Po (Paris) gave a lecture in the framework of CEU Democracy Institute’s Democracy in History Workgroup’s Jenő Szűcs lecture series. The talk and the discussion centred around the phenomenon of yugonostalgia. Dr. Popovic explained the various uses of the concept and based on her research involving dozens of interviews, offered a thorough analysis of the sociological aspects of the issue. Her research focused on narratives of the generation of the last pioneers (born between 1974 and 1982), in three (post)Yugoslav countries: Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia. For them, life before the outbreak of the civil war constituted normality, and nostalgic memories often turn into political reflection, while the memories of life in Yugoslavia serve as counter-narratives against the neoliberal ethno-national transitional present.
Nostalgia for the lost unity of the southern Slavic nations is particularly strong among working class men, who often look at themselves as the losers of the transition. The contents of the nostalgic memories that form a cohesive narrative are especially peace, safety, material well-being, the lack of borders (within Yugoslavia), and also solidarity, anti-materialism and the importance of family values. This altogether constitute the concept of normal life for this generation, which was lost through the rupture of the civil war and result in a negative view of the present. The concept of normality (that develops for everyone in the early years) is different for the various generations – in the present the existence of borders in the region and the presence of competition within the society creates the feeling for people in their 40s that true values do not exist today. The traumatic experiences of the war (with the exception of Slovenia, where it lasted only for a short period) enforce a specific cognitive dissonance: the memories of a happy childhood contrast with the horrors of the civil war, with the implication that it must have been a horrible country that ended in such a destructive manner.
Another, often implicit experience of the interviews, is that the interviewees were very keen to speak: the did not yet tell their stories. There is a lot yet unspoken memories not only about the war, but also about the happy days of Yugoslavia, where safety and solidarity seemed to have permeated various peoples’ lives, where culture was so important that the daily eight hours of work and sleep were supposed to be implemented by eight hours of culture (rather than leisure or household duties). It has also become clear during the talk and the following discussion, that identities can shift and change, but Yugoslav identity is not exclusive. The importance of the artificial, yet most instrumental Serbo-Croat language, or as many speakers prefer to call it, our language, was also emphasised. Yugoslavia had a common culture that still lives in the memories of many, and even though the overwhelming consumer culture of the 1980s seems to overshadow the aspects of solidarity, beyond the normal operations of nostalgia (distorting historical reality by selecting good memories and dropping the negative ones), it is a significant element in the social and political life of the former Yugoslavia.
On the first day of February, Milica Popovic, political scientist, researcher of Sciences Po (Paris) gave a lecture in the framework of CEU Democracy Institute’s Democracy in History Workgroup’s Jenő Szűcs lecture series. The talk and the discussion centred around the phenomenon of yugonostalgia. Dr. Popovic explained the various uses of the concept and based on her research involving dozens of interviews, offered a thorough analysis of the sociological aspects of the issue. Her research focused on narratives of the generation of the last pioneers (born between 1974 and 1982), in three (post)Yugoslav countries: Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia. For them, life before the outbreak of the civil war constituted normality, and nostalgic memories often turn into political reflection, while the memories of life in Yugoslavia serve as counter-narratives against the neoliberal ethno-national transitional present.
Nostalgia for the lost unity of the southern Slavic nations is particularly strong among working class men, who often look at themselves as the losers of the transition. The contents of the nostalgic memories that form a cohesive narrative are especially peace, safety, material well-being, the lack of borders (within Yugoslavia), and also solidarity, anti-materialism and the importance of family values. This altogether constitute the concept of normal life for this generation, which was lost through the rupture of the civil war and result in a negative view of the present. The concept of normality (that develops for everyone in the early years) is different for the various generations – in the present the existence of borders in the region and the presence of competition within the society creates the feeling for people in their 40s that true values do not exist today. The traumatic experiences of the war (with the exception of Slovenia, where it lasted only for a short period) enforce a specific cognitive dissonance: the memories of a happy childhood contrast with the horrors of the civil war, with the implication that it must have been a horrible country that ended in such a destructive manner.
Another, often implicit experience of the interviews, is that the interviewees were very keen to speak: the did not yet tell their stories. There is a lot yet unspoken memories not only about the war, but also about the happy days of Yugoslavia, where safety and solidarity seemed to have permeated various peoples’ lives, where culture was so important that the daily eight hours of work and sleep were supposed to be implemented by eight hours of culture (rather than leisure or household duties). It has also become clear during the talk and the following discussion, that identities can shift and change, but Yugoslav identity is not exclusive. The importance of the artificial, yet most instrumental Serbo-Croat language, or as many speakers prefer to call it, our language, was also emphasised. Yugoslavia had a common culture that still lives in the memories of many, and even though the overwhelming consumer culture of the 1980s seems to overshadow the aspects of solidarity, beyond the normal operations of nostalgia (distorting historical reality by selecting good memories and dropping the negative ones), it is a significant element in the social and political life of the former Yugoslavia.
