#balkan youth have always outlived evil times

[yugocar]

ex-yu cinema would make rounds on tumblr if it was more known

[yugocar]

Serbian Folk Religion in 100 Terms // Narodna Religija Srba u 100 Pojmova (1991) - Dušan Bandić

"Dr. Dušan Bandić (1938-2004) was a professor of ethnology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade and for a time the head of the Department of National Ethnology and Anthropology.'' - in my attempt to make more sources on ex-yu culture accessible, i've begun to scan and share some of the good material i've read! due to some expressed interest, here is a segment on vampires and watermills (which are connected to vampires)! - for folks who can read serbo-croatian and cyrillic, you can read the direct scans from the book here and for those of you who can't, i've translated the pages into english myself and you can read them here. hope some of you enjoy reading about vampires before they were sexy! if you are interested in reading any of the other segments, you can find a table of contents here and let me know which you'd like to see first. (note: while im fluent in english and put a lot of effort into these translations, i'm by no means a professional translator. my primary focus was that the facts were translated correctly and relayed what people believed)

[yugocar]

Disputed Histories // Vahida Ramujkić

"With the breaking up of Yugoslavia during the '90ies wars and with the formation of the new states consensus about collective history has also fallen apart. Different versions of history textbooks started proliferating in the same geographical area where once, during Socialism, only one version served as a reference and stood as 'unquestionable truth'. Revisions of official historic curriculums show us historic narratives as powerful tools in engineering collective (national) identities and maintaining power positions in the new liberal-capitalist order. These revisioned histories now designed from national perspectives (Serbian, Bosnian, Croat, Slovenian, Macedonian, Montenegrin and Albano-Kosovar), are not only different from the previous Yugoslav version, but also they are differing from each other, so prolonging the situation of conflict or inciting new ones. Aim of this project is to through creative practice examine the shift that took place in conceiving the official historic narratives from the position of personal histories and identities and open a space for thinking new position(s) from where more consequential official historic narratives could be told (and identities concieved), beyond national perspectives."

Today I'm sharing with you an amazing project by Vahida Ramujkić which has collected an abundance of history textbooks and contributed incredible research based on said textbooks. An invaluable resource for anyone interested in the topic of revised histories in the countries of former Yugoslavia. The website itself is in English, as well as some texts on it, but all the scanned textbooks are in the languages from their countries of origin. I would like to thank @balkanica for inspiring me to look for this resources I thought I lost.

[yugocar]

wikipedia page on the prague slavic congress of 1848

[yugocar]

im in a parasocial relationship with the djordje balasevic official youtube channel

[yugocar]

actually i think there might not be a higher level of brain damage than serbs who will say "free palestine" and then "kosovo is serbia" right after. maybe you could use your brain for one single second.

[yugocar]

so this is neat! a website with a wide range of translated serbo-croatian poetry into english, but also sometimes spanish or french! so if you too like me, desire to share poetry with your foreign friends and find yourself frustrated, this is a  decent option!

[click]

[yugocar]

yk its a bit silly, but there is such a joy i experience when i become friends with a croat. it always feels like a victory. like you didn’t get me motherfuckers. all that hatred, nationalism and propaganda and you didn’t get me.

[yugocar]

anyway go read a new serbia?, lily lynch

[yugocar]

ha-ha silly bajaga had no idea what he was doing when he wrote the words 'da su najbolje zene uvek pored nas' i flipped your patriarchal heterosexual statement fool its gay now

[yugocar]

actually you should shoot this into your blood stream

[yugocar]

he who did not first understand the tree before planting it, has achieved nothing. he who did not first understand the tree before planting it, has achieved nothing. he who did not first understand the tree before planting it, has achieved nothing!!!!!!!! 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

[yugocar]

by talos this cant be happening

[yugocar]

you spend your time trying to stop people from demonising your region but then you go out for an evening walk and see “ratko mladic world hero” in giant graffiti on a wall. like thanks, that totally helps! doesnt make lose faith in my own countrymen at all

[yugocar]

this is just my personal feelings about the topic, but the “your ancestors would love you” media/content doesnt feel healing to me at all, because no, they probably wouldnt. the point is it doesnt fucking matter what they would think, i’m their descendant and i can have whatever relationship i want with my ancestry. what im saying is im gay and i love my culture and theres nothing they can do about it

[yugocar]

When the Germans occupied Serbia in 1941, we could not travel anywhere - except to concentration camps. Then, in 1944, the Russians "liberated" us - that is occupied Serbia - with the result that the most loyal could travel to an Athletes' Jamboree in Prague or to attend a military school in Moscow. In 1948 when we fell out with the Russians and the West had not yet taken us under its wing, we essentially locked ourselves in. We lived this way until the early 1960's, when the first of us left to work abroad. Until that time, the bravest fled to the West across mountain ranges or by hiding between the wheels of a railroad coach heading west. Some chose to remain in the West following an appearance with a touring symphony orchestra or ballet troupe. Some fled across the sea...People would flee in the most imaginative ways until the regime finally became so fed up that it began issuing passports to anyone who asked. The borders were opened and our entire little country rushed to buy clothes, footwear, and to see the world. [...] Be that as it may, due to wars, rows and a general breakdown of the system, today's twenty-five-year olds have not only missed the world, they haven't seen Dubrovnik, Sarajevo, Zagreb or Ljubljana.. True, today they can see Toronto or Wellington, New Zealand - but this ticket is one-way: to reach their work post as a computer programmer or baby-sitter. And when they reach that coveted paradise, the average Westerner finally travels, as I said before, just before they die. Only then do they see the planet on which they have spent their life working from morning to nightfall. [...] Serbs have recently begun to travel again. Traveling in groups has become popular, as the tourist package sidesteps the difficulties of obtaining foreign visas for individuals. When I travel with them, I watch their eyes full of inquisitive radiance. Most touching are the older ladies from the provinces, retired doctors or teachers whose sons paid travel agencies so their parents could see Greek temples, the Pyramids, or stand before the Wailing wall in Jerusalem.

- Momo Kapor, Guide to Serbian Mentality