31–40 of 60 posts
It's almost impossible to comprehend now that the communist revolution was, at one time, a highly progressive Utopian fantasy materialized. That for a short time it inspired works of art like this and was a source of optimism for millions of people before descending into the darkness of the cold war. It gives serious pause to the alluring ideal of socialism in this country. Everyone always thinks that their time will…
It's almost impossible to comprehend now that the communist revolution was, at one time, a highly progressive Utopian fantasy materialized. That for a short time it inspired works of art like this and was a source of optimism for millions of people before descending into the darkness of the cold war. It gives serious pause to the alluring ideal of socialism in this country. Everyone always thinks that their time will…
Keep in mind that Yugoslavia was a completely different thing during the cold war. It was a communist country that was not part of the Comintern, or the Warsaw pact. It, in fact, had open borders with the west. This caused it to be in a much better place economically than the rest of the communist world. There's an old nostalgic american tourist piece about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RRnCnO1Y2c&has_verified…
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Although it's a very unpopular sentiment these days, I also want to go back in time to Old Yugoslavia. I still remember reading "Moj Mikro" and "Svet Kompjutera", attending JUDEF in Šibenik and making friends with kids from all over Yugoslavia. My generation, at least, believed in brotherhood and unity.
I'm not so sure how unpopular it is. I have a friend who steadfastly still calls himself Yugoslavian, rather than Macedonian. Haven't really talked to him about why, and that's a sample size of 1, but there's others out there who at least look back fondly on Yugoslavia.
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No. The locally-used name here, "Spomeniks", more precisely groups and identifies these structures than the foreign word "Memorial" would. Calling them by another name would make it difficult to communicate usefully about them, while simultaneously stripping away a piece of their cultural heritage: their native-language name. Additionally, as the article notes, Spomenik translates to Monument in english, not Memorial…
Yes. As someone who at one time spoke fluent Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, I can confirm that "spomenik" can be (and sometimes is!) translated as "memorial". Indeed, the root of the word is a verb that in its archaic sense can mean "to remember", as does the verbal root of "memorial". Furthermore, "spomenik" can also be translated as "monument". So while the word often is used in the context of the WWII socialist memoria…
Spomenik comes from "spomen", which translates to "recalling /remembering someone dead or some event from the past". It's basically a memorial that should invoke the viewer to recall the events past and/or people who were involved.
While spomenik is used for all monuments around the world, when someone just says "spomenik" the first thing that comes to my mind are those post-WWII spomeniks - probably because there's so many of them.
I feel like monument isn't a right translation. Do you call Eiffel Tower a monument? If yes, I can tell you that Eiffel Tower is definitely not a spomenik. If that is the case, "memorial" is the proper translation for spomenik.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Although it's a very unpopular sentiment these days, I also want to go back in time to Old Yugoslavia. I still remember reading "Moj Mikro" and "Svet Kompjutera", attending JUDEF in Šibenik and making friends with kids from all over Yugoslavia. My generation, at least, believed in brotherhood and unity.
I'm not so sure how unpopular it is. I have a friend who steadfastly still calls himself Yugoslavian, rather than Macedonian. Haven't really talked to him about why, and that's a sample size of 1, but there's others out there who at least look back fondly on Yugoslavia.
I had no notion of Croatians, Serbians, Slovenians, Macedonians.. we were all Yugoslavian, with slightly different accents. To this day, I've friends in all ex-yugoslavian countries and the feeling I get about them is that of brotherhood, not friendship.
We could go to seaside at any point for free or enjoy national parks.
Nowadays, it's cheaper if I fly to Thailand for 2 weeks. It costs me less than a week at my own country's seaside. National parks are overcrowded and deteriorating, and rightist-nationalism ruins the interaction for people like us - who don't hate and just want to get along and enjoy life together.
There was plenty of food and I particularly remember comics, especially characters called Raja, Gaja and Vlaja :)
The only thing I feel sorry for is the animosity that was stirred up because of selfish reasons, the feeling of brotherhood and ability to enjoy the land's natural beauties was something special. I hope that one day we can have all the good back without the negatives.
Stay safe brothers and take care!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. The locally-used name here, "Spomeniks", more precisely groups and identifies these structures than the foreign word "Memorial" would. Calling them by another name would make it difficult to communicate usefully about them, while simultaneously stripping away a piece of their cultural heritage: their native-language name. Additionally, as the article notes, Spomenik translates to Monument in english, not Memorial…
"Spomenik" is literally the word for "monument", right? Here's an article from 1849 mentioning building a Napoleonic monument, calling it a spomenik: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rz8_AQAAMAAJ&dq=%22spome... If you mentioned to another former Yugoslavian that you had drawn a picture of a spomenik, would it be implicitly clear that you meant one of these postwar memorials, or could they reasonably assume you mea…
I prefer the big monuments like spomeniks myself, but mosaics seem to be a particularly popular form of monument too, especially in Ukraine: https://www.kathmanduandbeyond.com/photos-soviet-mosaics-for...