Dubrovnik from Communism to Capitalism

Description: Not so long ago Croatia was part of Yugoslavia, a federation of socialist republics based on a one-party system in which parliamentary democracy was a forbidden term. Yugoslavia was led by Tito, its lifelong ruler, whose idea of communism was more progressive than in Stalin’s Russia. Thus, “Titoism” was a synonym for “betrayal of communism” in Soviet Union; Titoism has workers’ self management at its core, as opposed to absolute power and control in Stalinism. Tito, therefore, has remained for a vast majority of people one of the greatest leader of the Balkans. What was it like to live in time of Tito’s Yugoslavia will be revealed to you while walking through the part of the city where in time of socialism heavy industry was flourishing. We will be able to see some of the most important examples of architecture of that time in Dubrovnik. We will talk about the dark side of ex Yugoslavia – its intelligence agencies and suppression of the political opponents, as well as the bright sides of that time – a strong welfare state that provided free education and health care, social support to citizens in need and specific housing policies that secured the working population a place to live.