Deca komunizma Children of Communism ), written by Milomir Marić and first published in 1987, is considered a seminal work in Yugoslav investigative journalism and historiography. It challenged the official, sanitized narratives of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by documenting the hidden lives, internal power struggles, and controversial biographies of the country’s communist elite. Overview of the Work
If you lived through the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia, Deca komunizma serves as a chilling prequel. It connects the dots between the decadent lifestyle of the 1970s elite and the criminalized, war-torn societies of the 1990s. Deca Komunizma Milomir Maric.pdf
The first major theme in Deca Komunizma is the systematic education of youth under socialist Yugoslavia. Marić examines how the League of Communists constructed a parallel reality through textbooks, youth actions ( radne akcije ), and the cult of Josip Broz Tito. Children were taught that they were the “pioneers” of a new world, singing odes to the Partisan struggle while being shielded from the darker realities of Goli Otok (the prison island) and political purges. Marić argues that this created a cognitive dissonance: the child learned to recite slogans about equality while observing the privileges of the party nomenklatura . Consequently, the “child of communism” became an expert in double-speak—saying one thing publicly while believing another privately. This emotional compartmentalization, Marić warns, laid the groundwork for the extreme nationalism of the 1990s, as the same psychological mechanism of believing a comforting fiction was simply transferred from communism to ethnic mythology. Deca komunizma Children of Communism ), written by
The book is structured as a collection of biographies and historical accounts covering the period from the end of World War I to the 1980s. Marić explores the "founding fathers" of Yugoslav communism and their descendants, juxtaposing revolutionary ideals with the reality of political purges, privilege, and eventual disillusionment. Controversy and Censorship It connects the dots between the decadent lifestyle
Upon release, Deca Komunizma was met with polarized reactions:
Deca komunizma I – Magle sa istoka – Milomir Marić - Knjižara Sigma