Yugoslavia

Boris Kanzleiter

pp. 219-228

in: Martin Klimke, Joachim Scharloth (eds), 1968 in Europe, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008

Abstract

The protesting Yugoslav students in 1968 believed that they were part of a global youth generation in revolt. They used political symbols and cultural codes similar to those employed by their comrades in age and belief elsewhere, but the protest in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SRFY) showed two characteristics that made it exceptional. First, unlike protest in most other European countries, Yugoslav protest was not directed against the fundamental values and ideologies of the ruling political system. In essence, the Yugoslav students protested in the name of the principles of the communist system against its hypocritical and frustrating reality. The second particular characteristic was the astonishing integration of differing ideas of the student movements both from the capitalist and socialist countries. Thus, 1968 in Yugoslavia was genuinely a protest between East and West. It was a hybrid that bridged the Iron Curtain of the Cold War.