Yugoslavia: The Surprisingly Good Side Of Socialism That Couldn’t Last
Imagine feeling safe and taken care of
For many Americans, Socialism looks something like Orwell’s 1984: We in our shabby homes love our Big Brother who watches us all the time.
But there was a small country in Southern Europe where a majority of citizens had a good life.
Yugoslavia wasn’t a typical communist state. During the Cold War, President Tito balanced between the East and West. Even though the Eastern Bloc surrounded Yugoslavia, Tito broke off all relations with Stalin in 1948 and founded a forum of 120 countries — the Non-Aligned Movement. Also, the benevolent dictator was so smart he could both drink whiskey with Kennedy and smoke cigars with Fidel Castro.
If you travel back in time some 50–60 years and become an average citizen there, you’re neither scared of losing your job nor you have any mortgage to pay. And your country even takes care of you when you’re sick.
Although Yugoslavia wasn’t La Dolce Vita for all its citizens, there were many good sides we can only dream of today. Here’s how things were back then.
