„Произвођење“ хероја. Школовање југословенских дечака у суворовским војним школама у СССР-у 1945–1954.
„Making“ Heroes. Education of Yugoslav Schoolboys in Suvorovsky Military Schools in USSR, 1945−1954

Author(s): Sanja Petrović Todosijević
Subject(s): Education, Civil Society, Military history, Political history, International relations/trade, Post-War period (1950 - 1989)
Published by: Institut za noviju istoriju Srbije
Keywords: Yugoslavia; the USSR; "children fighters"; childhood; army; WWII; co-workers; education; OUN; Red Cross;
Summary/Abstract: The att itude of the new Yugoslav state towards the children-warriors or „children soldiers” was not identical to the treatment that other children had. Considering them – as a socially handicapped category, on one hand, but also as those who were expected to give the greatest contributions in the future since they grew up „in the State’s bosom”, on the other – Yugoslav government decided in September 1945 to send more than ninety boys aged 9–14 to a few military colleges in Suvorovsky, USSR. Sending Yugoslav boys to Soviet schools was not only a proof of good bilateral relations, but it also demonstrated a huge desire of the new Yugoslav authorities to build their own army according to the Soviet patt ern. The severance between Yugoslavia and USSR in 1948 permanently determined the destiny of the Yugoslav schoolboys, located in Suvorovsky military schools. Available military sources say that more than sixty schoolboys (out of ninety) remained in USSR, while the others have returned to Yugoslavia before September 1948. In April 1953 Yugoslavia launched an initiative through the United Nations for the return of Yugoslav citizens` children.

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