East and West Influences in Yugoslav Culture in the Period from 1945 to 1952

Abstract

The paper deals with the influences from the East and the West on culture, in the space of post-war Yugoslavia, from 1945 to 1952. Considering the position of Yugoslavia in a divided Europe, the paper examines the developments in culture that were inevitably intertwined with the sphere of politics. This period is marked by two major events: 1945 – the time of the country’s liberation and 1948 – the conflict surrounding the clash with the Information Bureau. These political events determined the direction in which the Yugoslav culture moved, situated within the framework of the Cold War, that is, in the constellations of power in Europe. In the fifties of the last century, in addition to “realism”, pro-Western“ modernism” began. In other words, Yugoslav culture was influenced by the East and the West. In this context, culture functioned as a marker of ideological distinctions between the two different ideological systems, which were constituted in opposition. The analysis of the available data makes it possible to trace the internal and external circumstances in which the state existed, which influenced the strategies of canonization and restriction of values in the field of culture in socialist Yugoslavia.