Product Description
In authoritarian, so-called “banana” states, membership in the ruling party often proves most profitable for opportunists of all kinds. This was true in the past and remains true today. In Yugoslavia, all political parties except the Communist Party were banned for decades, so even those with basic political instinct knew where they belonged. By the late 1980s, when nationalism and religion were added to Tito and the Party, the ground was prepared for what followed.
This photograph shows the arrival of Serbs from Kosovo, as well as from other cities and republics, in Smederevo. The scenario devised by the State Security Service was almost always the same. During the so-called anti-bureaucratic revolution, organized groups entered the city from different directions, chanting slogans such as “Join us, brothers!”, “We are all from Kosovo!”, or “Oh Serbia, divided into three parts, you will be whole again.” At a prearranged time, they gathered in the main city squares, where fiery — most often nationalist — speeches began.
At the beginning of the anti-bureaucratic revolution, rallies were dominated by photographs of Josip Broz Tito. But every revolution has its artists — and, as can be seen here, Milošević’s image soon became a dominant one.
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