THE BIRTH AND DEATH OF YUGOSLAVIA, THIRTY FEET APART | LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA | EPG EP 238

This one spot in Ljubljana is where Yugoslavia was born and where it died. On 26 May 1945, from the balcony of the University building, Josip BROZ Tito (not Bronze) told the crowd that the fascists still in the country would face vengeance, and that those opposed to his socialism would not see the future. He spoke through thunder and lightning. Thirty feet away, forty-four years later, it all came apart. The war reached Slovenia in 1941 when Italian fascists wrapped Ljubljana in barbed wire. It stayed that way 1,170 days. Italy capitulated in 1943, the Germans took over, the Partisans pushed them out. I have been staying in a former barracks the fascists turned into a prison for suspected Partisans. It went from a prison for communists to a communist prison. More on its famous guest below. The resistance had four groups; the communists were strongest because they knew how to gather weapons, set ambushes and build bombs, so they absorbed the rest. The memorial shows who fought: men, women, children. Tito took the credit. Then the other memorial. The first victims of the new state were people who stayed and did not care for Tito's socialism. Around 100,000 Yugoslavs and 12,000 Slovenes tried to reach Austria. The British, knowing a new map was being drawn, turned them back. Most were massacred. Their bodies hidden in mine shafts and pits with sites are still being found. Then the show trials, worst being the Dachau trials: survivors of the German camps who made it home were tried on the theory that survival proved collaboration. Some were executed. Three pillars held Yugoslavia up: Tito, the Party Congress, the army. Take a leg off a stool and see what happens. Tito allowed religion but expected party members out of church. Bishop Vovk of Ljubljana was attacked at Novo Mesto on 20 January 1952, beaten, doused in petrol and set alight. It did not shut him up. And say what you like about the man, it takes a real bastard to make Santa disappear: St. Nicholas on 6 December became Grandfather Frost on New Year's, and after communism Coca-Cola Santa arrived too. Some kids get all three. 1948, the break with Stalin, who sent assassins. Tito wrote that he would only need to send one man to Moscow and would not need a second. What followed was softer than the Soviet bloc: the Non-Aligned Movement, self-management, a passport good on both sides of the Iron Curtain. But also the UDBA. Plenty of freedoms, but not the freedom to criticize. Eventually you run out of other people's money, and when the tide goes out you see who was swimming naked. The 1970s oil crisis, more loans, hyperinflation. Slovenia was 8% of the population producing 20% of GDP and a quarter of exports, and was not happy about it. Tito found his way out: he died here on 4 May 1980, brought to the best hospitals in the country. First pillar gone. The 1980s: punk, graffiti, and the 1987 Youth Day poster, where artists took a 1936 Nazi propaganda poster, swapped in Yugoslav symbols, submitted it, and won. Thousands were printed before anyone noticed. 1988, the JBTZ trial. Three journalists and a Yugoslav army sergeant major, tried by military tribunal for criticizing the army, in Serbo-Croatian, in Slovenia. The J is Janez Jansa, since prime minister three times and holding the office today. This is cell 119, where he was held. It is a hostel room now. 8 May 1989: the May Declaration, in this square. January 1990 in Belgrade, the Slovenes brought it to the Congress, were voted down, walked out, and the Croats followed. Second pillar gone. 25 June 1991, the Assembly voted for independence. On the 26th they raised the new flag out here and Milan Kucan said that tonight dreams are allowed, tomorrow is a new day. He was right. The army was already mobilizing. Ten days of war, 27 June to 7 July, 19 Slovene dead and 45 on the Yugoslav side, ended by the Brioni Agreement. Third pillar gone, and a light harbinger of what came for everyone else. EU 2004, euro 2007. At the end I asked my guide, who grew up here after communism, what she makes of young Americans getting interested in it. She said it is ridiculous, that it has failed everywhere it has been tried, and people who think otherwise should read a history book. Then she said the current state of capitalism, rich getting richer and poor getting poorer while politicians line their own pockets, is not right either, and there has to be a better way. Makes you think. Get out there. Greg LOCATIONS: University of Ljubljana | 46.049194, 14.504155 Hostel Celica, cell 119 | 46.056504, 14.516517 Trg republike | 46.050879, 14.500999 Victims of All Wars | 46.050678, 14.504044 Sarajevo '84 | 46.052822, 14.503936 https://www.EatPrayGreg.com   / eatpraygreg     / eatpraygreg_travelblog     / eatpraygreg   https://truthsocial.com/@EatPrayGreg #Ljubljana #Slovenia #Yugoslavia #Tito #Balkans #EPG