Yugoslavia Revisited
ALLEMANN, F. R.
Traveler's Notebook-1 Yugoslavia Belgrade Ihad expected to find Yugoslavia changed since my last visit in 1953, but I was surprised by the changes that are visible at first glance: The people in...
...True, the large mass of the population is still very poor by Western European standards...
...A few years ago, people walked to the market...
...especially those parts—like Slovenia, some Croat towns and the area around Belgrade —which always had a more European than Balkan flavor...
...At least as far as this is concerned, the regime seems to have stepped quietly into the shoes of its most bitterly denounced critic...
...A few years ago too, one saw only a handful of broken-down prewar taxis, and occasionally, a sleek American car belonging to some official, as he travelled from town to town...
...The institution of workers' councils, the release of peasants from forced collectivization or the easing up of centralized economic planning, to name but a few reforms, were regarded by the average Yugoslav with the same attitude Napoleon's mother applied to her son's imperial glory: "Pourvu que ce dure . . . ." But, meanwhile, the feeling that the new atmosphere will really last seems to have spread...
...They belong to the craftsman, the skilled worker and the farmer who, by hard work, initiative and parsimonious saving, have been able to satisfy a deep-rooted sense of property which has not been cramped by Communist ideology...
...The most impressive signs of economic progress, however, are the numerous construction projects one sees everywhere...
...A remarkably high percentage of the country's production is now available for the satisfaction of long-postponed personal desires...
...A medical student told me that he earned his Volkswagen in Germany and was allowed to bring it to Belgrade duty-free...
...There is less discussion and more work: interest now centers on earnings and property, on personal advancement and a share in the comforts of life...
...What is astounding is not that such setbacks occur but that there is a broad group of people who have the capital and, more important, the confidence to build their own home...
...though not up to Western standards, they have much more to offer than the shops of other "peoples' democracies...
...Even today, despite the growing tension between Moscow and Belgrade, there seems to be no feeling of a Soviet military threat ) This is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that armament factories have been turned to the production of refrigerators...
...This alone reflects a new prosperity and a new confidence...
...These private construction jobs tend to move rather slowly...
...The number of private cars—mostly small European models—has doubled since 1953, and the number of motorcycles has tripled throughout the country...
...Statistics show that in the short span between 1954 and 1957, the savings deposited in banks have doubled throughout the country, and tripled in Slovenia...
...The transition from the old, orthodox Communism with its extremely cumbersome centrally-directed economy to a more flexible, decentralized market economy was not easy...
...The skyscraper on Terazig Square in Belgrade is a perfect example of the Government's quiet retreat...
...Huge, modern apartment-house developments have been erected—which, by the way, do not at all resemble the monstrous structures of East Berlin's Stalin Allee...
...does not belong to the old upper classes or the political opposition) can get a passport for travel abroad...
...The individual, therfore, is now pretty much left alone and the possessor of private property is not per se regarded by the authorities as a "class enemy...
...Coming from Austria through the Tauern Tunnel, I hardly recognized the border town of Jesenice, which contains the Yugoslav regime's pet steelworks...
...For these new private homes do not belong to a privileged hierarchy (the top bureaucrats live in the villas of the old, dispossessed upper classes) or to Party functionaries...
...Of course, Yugoslavia has not yet solved all of its economic problems...
...During the period of Yugoslavia's close ties with the Eastern bloc, the threat of Soviet power was lessened and the country was able to ease the burden caused by its military budget...
...Finally, it should be noted that the turn toward a "consumer-oriented" economic policy was aided by the reduction of defense expenditures...
...The shop windows and stores...
...On the contrary, while the rather modest sphere of political freedom was further reduced during Belgrade's flirtation with Moscow, the private sphere expanded steadily...
...This has produced new energy and, to a large extent, has given people a chance to reap the benefits of their own initiative, ingenuity and labor...
...And they feel secure enough to invest in By F. R. Allemann Revisited lasting properties, such as a motorcycle, a Fiat car or a house...
...It still depends on foreign aid because Yugoslavia has not managed to close the vast gap in its foreign trade balance...
...Even during the period of systematic attempts at rapprochement with the Soviet bloc no effort was made to again tighten the inner structure of Yugoslavia where it affected personal lives, the security of the individual citizen or even the economic-social structure of "Titoism...
...Indeed, the visible economic recovery seems due largely to the fact that in Marshal Tito's realm true competition (and in many cases rough competition) has been permitted during the past seven years...
...The Austrian Consul in Zagreb receives hundreds of requests for visas every week from Yugoslavs who want to look for work in the North...
...In other words, the Party rules and does not tolerate any interference but, at the same time, it does not bother anyone without political ambitions...
...Often, the first floor of a building is inhabited, while the top, its windows bricked off, still awaits completion...
...Most of the many private Yugoslav oars apparently belong to such enterprising foreign travelers...
...It would be going too far to say that in Yugoslavia the consumer is king today, but at least he has attained the status of a citizen—and in a Communist state this alone is remarkable...
...The wealth of goods displayed in store windows cannot hide the fact that for most Yugoslavs these items are still very expensive...
...The "socialist market economy" is beginning to bear fruit...
...But now things seem to be working out and one might even speak of Yugoslavia's small "economic miracle...
...This is most apparent among the members of the Yugoslav intelligentsia...
...This may be exaggerated, but it has a kernel of truth...
...Exports are increasing, but they cannot keep pace with rising imports...
...A Croat professor, who was otherwise most critical of the regime, assured me that he divides his students into two categories: those who have studied in England and those who are preparing themselves to study in England...
...Without this attitude...
...Trade with the Eastern bloc, where Yugoslavia's young industries had found a growing and important market in recent years, has slackened as a result of the political crisis between Moscow and Belgrade...
...The Government's experimental, and thus notoriously unsteady, economic policy during the first years of change did not help either...
...Even planning at the top seems to take the citizen's needs into consideration much more than it did in the past...
...However, in the country and certainly in the back-wood areas of Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia the power of local Party functionaries still reaches far into the administration...
...everybody participated in passionate debates about "Stalinism" and searched eagerly for new political positions...
...which took a long time to gain ground, neither the growth of savings nor the construction of private homes would have been possible...
...The regime seems to encourage this change...
...What is more, private homes are springing up at the outskirts of towns, near small villages and particularly along the countryside...
...After 1950...
...which had been almost bare, are now well stocked...
...But those who manage to acquire foreign currency— either through friends abroad or by working in another country—rarely encounters any difficulties from the Yugoslav authorities...
...More and more people, using the standard Yugoslav practice of holding down one full-time job and earning money "on the side," now earn enough to accumulate savings...
...With the Milovan Djilas "affair" it cut down the radical "renovators," threw their spiritual leader in jail and stamped out any hopes of a further "democratization...
...Tito's speeches and the recent Yugoslav budget and economic plans indicate that the regime is beginning to realize that it is perhaps not the best policy to push the still problematical expansion of industry at the expense of agriculture...
...The once very widespread freedom of discussion within the ruling Party has been confined to a small circle of leading functionaries...
...This is, indeed, something new and many people take advantage of it...
...Today, the conversation revolves around the relative merits of different makes of automobiles...
...This has stimulated competition between producers and has placed the consumer in a much more advantageous position...
...The Government has also succeeded in giving the average person a certain feeling of protection by and from the law...
...Many of them have been temporarily abandoned, apparently because the builders ran out of funds...
...reminds me very much of West Germany in the first years after the currency reform of 1948...
...The only queue I observed in Belgrade was in front of the German Consulate...
...To be sure, an overly large percentage of funds still goes into unprofitable prestige projects, but this has been declining...
...Nevertheless, progress is apparent everywhere...
...During the Stalin era, it was completely cov-vered with slogan-bearing banners...
...Today, a real parking problem is developing in the center of Ljubljana and even in the Macedonian town of Skopje...
...The market in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana...
...To be sure, the picture is somewhat misleading...
...The people's energies are no longer concentrated on political and ideological debates...
...Even more striking are the rows of scooters and motorcycles parked on the edges of the market square...
...The importance of these travel concessions can only be fully understood by those who observed how much many Yugoslavs suffered as a result of their isolation from the West, even in the first years of the inner reforms...
...In 1953, the picture of the Marshal disappeared, and this fall the red star has silently been dismantled...
...In the West, Yugoslav industrial products have a difficult time competing for markets, and agriculture has not yet recovered its export capacities...
...Reluctantly, and rather belatedly, the planners have bridled their original enthusiasm for investments to allow a larger margin for consumption...
...All this creates new difficulties of adjustment at a time when previous problems have not yet been overcome...
...Traveler's Notebook-1 Yugoslavia Belgrade Ihad expected to find Yugoslavia changed since my last visit in 1953, but I was surprised by the changes that are visible at first glance: The people in the street are dressed much better, they no longer convey an impression of gray drab-ness...
...The modest sprouts of political democratization were choked off completely, but personal freedom made great headway—and for the large majority of the people this was the important factor...
...Only a few years ago, the new freedoms—not political, but economic and civil—introduced by the Government were regarded with distrust and uncertainty...
...The remarkable growth of production, not only in industry but also in agriculture, which had been badly shaken by some of the experiments at collectivization, is overshadowed by the marked improvement in the quality of the products...
...In 1951, only a huge portrait of Tito and a red star on the roof remained...
...held between the graceful but badly-worn facades of baroque buildings, could compare favorably with, say, that of Bolzano in Italy...
...Nothing illustrates this process better than the fact that today almost any Yugoslav, as long as he is not politically suspect (i.e...
...The Government is very reluctant to make foreign currencies available for visits abroad...
...There are still strong differences of opinion among them, but they are thrashed out behind closed doors...
...Yet the country, in a way...
...Class justice" certainly has not disappeared, but in daily life it has been checked pretty well—just as Milovan Djilas proposed in the controversial series of articles which contributed to his downfall...
Vol. 42 • February 1959 • No. 6
