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It's almost impossible to comprehend now that the communist revolution was, at one time, a highly progressive Utopian fantasy materialized. That for a short tim

It's almost impossible to comprehend now that the communist revolution was, at one time, a highly progressive Utopian fantasy materialized. That for a short time it inspired works of art like this and was a source of optimism for millions of people before descending into the darkness of the cold war. It gives serious pause to the alluring ideal of socialism in this country. Everyone always thinks that their time will be different and that they have it all figured out. But the insidious side of human nature that always thwarts such ideals and reduces to authoritarianism is a constantly insurmountable baseline of what we are.

tomca32 7y ago
Keep in mind that Yugoslavia was a completely different thing during the cold war. It was a communist country that was not part of the Comintern, or the Warsaw pact. It, in fact, had open borders with the west. This caused it to be in a much better place economically than the rest of the communist world. There's an old nostalgic american tourist piece about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RRnCnO1Y2c&has_verified=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RRnCnO1Y2c&has_verified=1
- arethuza 7y ago
  I travelled from Italy into Yugoslavia in 1988 by train and I wouldn't exactly describe it as a pleasant experience - train stopped in the middle of nowhere and was surrounded by soldiers and everyone had to endure a very thorough check of our travel documents. Travelling from Yugoslavia into Hungary on the same trip I don't think the train even stopped.
  - tomca32 7y ago
    Interesting. I have no way of knowing, but my guess would be that your experience is a consequence of Yugoslavia starting to break apart. All out war started just 2 years after your trip. A big part of Yugoslavia's budget came from tourism, so I don't think your experience was common in the years before the breakup. Thanks for sharing though. I love hearing stories from Yugo history.
  - necovek 7y ago
    It would have been impossible for the train not to have stopped between Hungary and Yugoslavia — the two countries were not at particularly friendly terms. Other than the border check (which might have been a more stringent random check), was your visit otherwise unpleasant?
dang 7y ago
Please don't take HN threads on generic ideological tangents. They lead to the same few predictable themes, repeated over and over, usually nastily. They're a sort of recitation, which is the opposite of the curious discussion this site is for. One is about repeating things, the other is about saying new things. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20generic%20discussion&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
jebemvammater 7y ago
>communist revolution... inspired art like this >art is ugly slab of concrete that looks like a boss from Star Fox Yup, checks out

tomca32 7y ago

Keep in mind that Yugoslavia was a completely different thing during the cold war. It was a communist country that was not part of the Comintern, or the Warsaw pact. It, in fact, had open borders with the west. This caused it to be in a much better place economically than the rest of the communist world. There's an old nostalgic american tourist piece about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RRnCnO1Y2c&has_verified=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RRnCnO1Y2c&has_verified=1

arethuza 7y ago
I travelled from Italy into Yugoslavia in 1988 by train and I wouldn't exactly describe it as a pleasant experience - train stopped in the middle of nowhere and was surrounded by soldiers and everyone had to endure a very thorough check of our travel documents. Travelling from Yugoslavia into Hungary on the same trip I don't think the train even stopped.
- tomca32 7y ago
  Interesting. I have no way of knowing, but my guess would be that your experience is a consequence of Yugoslavia starting to break apart. All out war started just 2 years after your trip. A big part of Yugoslavia's budget came from tourism, so I don't think your experience was common in the years before the breakup. Thanks for sharing though. I love hearing stories from Yugo history.
- necovek 7y ago
  It would have been impossible for the train not to have stopped between Hungary and Yugoslavia — the two countries were not at particularly friendly terms. Other than the border check (which might have been a more stringent random check), was your visit otherwise unpleasant?

dang 7y ago

Please don't take HN threads on generic ideological tangents. They lead to the same few predictable themes, repeated over and over, usually nastily. They're a sort of recitation, which is the opposite of the curious discussion this site is for. One is about repeating things, the other is about saying new things. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20generic%20discussion&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

jebemvammater 7y ago

>communist revolution... inspired art like this >art is ugly slab of concrete that looks like a boss from Star Fox Yup, checks out