Museum of Yugoslavia

Well, who knew that such a thing as a trolley 🚎 existed?!

I caught #41 to the museum to begin my education in the history of this region. In summary, it is extremely complex, with cruelty and controversy. Way too much to digest all at once, but the key takeaways were:

Yugosalvian territories were occupied by the Ottomans. The First Balkan War (1912-1913) united the Balkan nations in the liberation fight against the Ottoman Empire (another one to find out more about!) They were also occupied by Nazi Germany in WWII.

During WWII, there were more than 100,000 women fighters in Yugoslavia, and created Women's Antifascist Front (AFŽ) organisation to mobilize women in the fight against the occupiers. After the war, AFZ dealt with clearing the ruins, regulation of hospitals and children's homes, care for orphans, donations of food and money and with the political and cultural emancipation of women through literacy, health and other courses ✊️

WWII ended, capitalism was replaced by socialism, and the monarchy was replaced by the federation of six republics. On March 7, 1945, in Belgrade, under the chairmanship of Josip Broz Tito, a new interim government of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia (DFJ) was formed, recognized by the USSR, USA, UK, and other allied and neutral countries.

😶 Communist ruling after WWII... the search continues 🤓Read more