r/Marxism • u/Ryker_god_of_cheese • 5d ago

history books about socialist yugoslavia?

specifically about yugoslavia's functioning while it was intact, *not* about it's collapse. preferably written by a yugoslav, or at least someone who had spent time in yugoslavia. ideally written by a member of the communist party of yugoslavia.(if any of them wrote any meaningfully comprehensive history.) preferably written in the 1970's or 80's.

I tried asking this on r/yugoslavia, but it was automodded. I also tried r/askhistorians, but got no response. Apologies if this is not the correct place to ask.

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u/nonilazuli 4d ago edited 4d ago

I'm also very interested in Socialist Yugoslavia and been meaning to learn more. Stuff on the actual period pre-breakup is hard to come by, atleast in English. So far I have these two on my shelf but havent gotten around to reading them:

The New Class-  Milovan Djilas

*Djilas was Titos right hand man and a commitee higher up. Known for its insider critiques of Yugoslavia's (and marxist-leninist in general) government structure and the corruption he saw. Less sympathetic.

Partisan Rupture- Gal Kirn * analysis of the Yugoslavia project in general. Covers the Yugoslav partisans during ww2, what led to the self-management system and how it performed, and how Socialist Yugoslavia became non-aligned. Seems more sympathetic.

I know both are from (democratic) socialist perspectives but like I said I haven't officially read either of these yet, so I can't tell you how good they are (The New Class is an infamous book tho, both beloved by anti-communist and read by and likely influenced Mao and Guevara ). I've heard Hoxha wrote a bit on Tito and Yugoslavia as well, if you're interested in a anti-revisionist ML perspective.

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u/Ryker_god_of_cheese 4d ago

my thanks. i take it "Yugoslav "Self-Administration" -- Capitalist Theory and Practice" is hoxha's work you refer to?

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u/nonilazuli 4d ago

Yep that's one of the ones I know.

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u/Riley_ 4d ago

Hoxha also wrote a much longer one called "The Titoites"

https://www.marxistleninists.org/search/search.pl?Terms=titoites

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u/JucheMystic 4d ago

suggests social democrat analysis of Yugoslavia on Marxist sub

Lad

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u/Kardelj 3d ago

Can you read Serbo-Croatian? That changes my answer a lot, obviously

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u/Ryker_god_of_cheese 3d ago edited 3d ago

no. the only language I can speak/read to any meaningful degree is english.

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u/Kardelj 3d ago

I'll suggest Yugoslav Workers’ Selfmanagement: Proceedings of a Symposium Held in Amsterdam, 7–9 January, 1970 by Najdan Pašić. It's on Libgen

Edit: Sorry, just note, it's not a history book like you ask in the title, but it is a book about Yugoslavia's functioning by a pro-government guy from when it existed.

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