31–40 of 85 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everything East of the Iron Wall (German Divide) was under USSR control.
It was called iron curtain, not iron wall. Yugoslavia was in between the west and the east back then. We were not under USSR control. We could hop on a plane and fly to London any time we pleased, unlike for example, Hungarians or east Germans.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Technically, import was legal into all Eastern Bloc countries, it's the export from a western country which was illegal because of the COCOM embargo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinating_Committee_for_Mul... I actually don't know if Yugoslavia was embargoed too though (technically, Yugoslavia wasn't part of the "Eastern Bloc"). But of course even without embargo the markets were just not interesting for western…
It's a surprising sight to see Western companies showing no interest in 25 million strong economy.
Only the richest of the rich (literally few hundreds of people) could buy legally imported western electronics. It was available, even in the Eastern Bloc, but nobody had the money.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Technically, import was legal into all Eastern Bloc countries, it's the export from a western country which was illegal because of the COCOM embargo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinating_Committee_for_Mul... I actually don't know if Yugoslavia was embargoed too though (technically, Yugoslavia wasn't part of the "Eastern Bloc"). But of course even without embargo the markets were just not interesting for western…
It's a surprising sight to see Western companies showing no interest in 25 million strong economy.
For instance, East Germany had so called "Intershops" stuffed full with western consumer products (also home computers), but those were sold for hard currency only, and their main purpose was to siphon off the circulating D-Marks which were coming into the country via relatives from West Germany, or to directly sell to western visitors, because some prices were cheaper than in Western Germany.
From time to time Western companies also did one-time deals for industrial products (East Germany had a pretty good optics and mechanical engineering industry which could come up with competitive products from time to time, but usually such deals didn't benefit the general population).
Wow! I can’t believe I never heard of this. Despite being born in Yugoslavia and alive at that time, I’ve never encountered or heard of Galaksija in my life. Sinclair stuff was pretty common: Spectrum and the older zx80, Commodore, even Amiga in the late 80s/early 90s. The only domestic machine I ever encountered was Orao.
It is not correct to refer to it as Soviet-Era. Using the logic from the title, Apple Macintosh is also Soviet-Era. Yugoslavia was never part of Warsaw bloc, it had its own political system and no USSR army on its territory.
'Soviet' is not a name, it is a political term, so I don't see why you cannot apply it to countries with USSR-like regimes, even if they don't carry S in their name. For the curious, it is translated as 'council'.
Within the group of European socialist countries, Yugoslavia was the most independent from the Soviet Union, and at times even an open opponent.
It is not correct to refer to it as Soviet-Era. Using the logic from the title, Apple Macintosh is also Soviet-Era. Yugoslavia was never part of Warsaw bloc, it had its own political system and no USSR army on its territory.
'Soviet' is not a name, it is a political term, so I don't see why you cannot apply it to countries with USSR-like regimes, even if they don't carry S in their name. For the curious, it is translated as 'council'.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
'Soviet' is not a name, it is a political term, so I don't see why you cannot apply it to countries with USSR-like regimes, even if they don't carry S in their name. For the curious, it is translated as 'council'.
Can you please define this political term and explain why it can be used in this context? Application of it to Yugoslavia seems very unusual to me. Its history normally does not include "Soviet Era".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, but Yugoslavia wasn't behind the Iron Curtain. It wasn't aligned with the USSR. It wasn't under USSR control (after 1948 [1]). It was officially neutral during the Cold War (Yugoslavia founded the Non-Aligned Movement). Sometimes close to the USA, even receiving American military aid at times. Relevantly for us and this topic, Yugoslavia was not subject to the Western bans on exporting sensitive technology to Co…
Technically, import was legal into all Eastern Bloc countries, it's the export from a western country which was illegal because of the COCOM embargo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinating_Committee_for_Mul... I actually don't know if Yugoslavia was embargoed too though (technically, Yugoslavia wasn't part of the "Eastern Bloc"). But of course even without embargo the markets were just not interesting for western…
Of course, there was always smuggling and bribing custom officials, citizens who emigrated for work didn't have these limits when returning home, so there were ways to get computers.
But Galaksija was important at that time (1984) because it was cheap and because it was sold as a kit to be soldered by end user, so it wasn't affected by import limits.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you please define this political term and explain why it can be used in this context? Application of it to Yugoslavia seems very unusual to me. Its history normally does not include "Soviet Era".
As I see, it means something akin to "People's Democracy" which is an alternative terms of some other left authoritarian regimes.
Galaksija was truly a "masterpiece" at that time, made by a single person by stitching together various smuggled parts from the West. I have a huge admiration and respect for Voja, especially after he decided to give up everything in Serbia and move to the US and start from scratch on his own in his late sixties! He's a very humble man despite his remarkable impact and influence on the early tech industry in Yugoslav…