Pripremanje terena: odjek globalnog studentskog bunta 1968. godine u jugoslavenskom omladinskom i studentskom tisku
Setting the Stage: The Echo of the Global Student Revolt of 1968 in Yugoslav Youth and Student Press

Author(s): Marko Zabak
Subject(s): Political history, Social history, Post-War period (1950 - 1989)
Published by: Institut za noviju istoriju Srbije
Summary/Abstract: Yugoslav youth press, the scope of various journals and newspapers published by a network of official youth and student organizations, played a vital role in the late 1960s in communist Yugoslavia. This essay focuses on just one of its aspects: a surprisingly loud echo of the global student unrests that could betraced within these journals. The essays examines the most signifi cant examples of the youth press journals of the three central Yugoslav republics Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia, namely, Belgrade’s Student and Susret, Zagreb’s Polet, Omladinski tjednik and Studentski list and Ljubljana’s Tribuna and Mladina. Using the example of several central themes that mostly „preoccupied” the aforementioned journals, the essay examines the argumentation used, the adjoined graphical support, the most relevant authors and frequent controversies which could be found in the writings of the youth press about these stormy youth and similar „progressive” movements happening worldwide. More specifically, the essay closely portrays writings of the youth press journals about the student activities in Germany, France and Italy, about the Polish March student demonstrations and the Prague Spring, about the various protests directed against the war in Vietnam as well as about the USA-based hippie and black movements for civil liberties and finally, about the solidarity actions of the Yugoslav students with respect to the mentioned processes. Treated as a separate journalistic genre with specific characteristics that evolved within the institutional framework of the ruling communist party, the examined journals of the Yugoslav youth press, despite some mutual differences, demonstrate interesting common trends. Most of the investigated journals show an extraordinary strong interest and predominantly positive and supportive attitude towards these revolutionary movements occurring on a global scale, which was not always in accordance with the writings of the mainstream press and often hesitant attitude of the official regime. In this sense, this essay also provides a firm basis for any future comparison between the treatment of the global student turmoil by the youth press and the important role that these youth journals played during the 1968 June student unrest in Yugoslavia, which in itself is left outside the scope of this essay.

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