Page 224 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2026 Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes.../Composers’ Societies Past and Present...

Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes | Composers’ Societies Past and Present
contributions of artists. Therefore, through this research, we aim to bridge
the gap between macro-cultural history and case studies of cultural coop-
eration, highlighting the role of music and music artists. Consequently, we
decided to focus on a specific period that marks a significant crossroads.
While the period from the 1950s is noted in historiography as the ‘gold-
en age’ or, more broadly, as the period of Tito’s Yugoslavia’s ascent, the late
3
1960s and the 1970s bring decline and the beginning of a social crisis. On
the flip side, this was the period of the so-called Cold War, when cultural
ties were shaped by the geopolitical conflict between the Soviet Union and
4
the United States, between East and West. In this context, it is particularly
important to highlight the moment of the split between Tito and Stalin, as
it largely shaped the cultural relations between the two countries. For this
reason, we take the period following the split as the chronological reference
point for the beginning of our research. The boundary year for framing
the period under research, and the starting point of our study, is 1950 – the
year in which SAKOJ was officially established, five years after the founda-
tion of the UKS. 5

3 See further in: John R. Lampe, Yugoslavia as History: Twice there was a Country
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 323–5.
4 On the main premises of the SFRY’s foreign policy, see: Tvrtko Jakovina, Treća stra-
na Hladnog rata (Zagreb: Fraktura, 2011); Branko Petranović, Istorija Jugoslavije
1918−1988: Socijalistička Jugoslavija 1945−1988, Vol. III (Belgrade: Nolit, 1988), 357–
79; Leo Mates, Međunarodni odnosi Socijalističke Jugoslavije (Belgrade: Nolit, 1976).
More details about SFRY cultural policy during Cold War, and “neutral” position
which followed to establishment of Non-Aligned Movement in 1961, see: Maja Vasil-
jevic, “Cultural Cooperation Between the Non-Aligned Yugoslavia and the Neutral
Finland From the 1960s to the 1980s,” in The Tunes of Diplomatic Notes: Music and
Diplomacy in Southeast Europe (18th–20th century), eds. Ivana Vesić, Vesna Peno,
and Boštjan Udovič (Belgrade, Ljubljana: Institute of Musicology SASA, University
of Ljubljana Faculty of Social Sciences, 2020), 241–56, https://doi.org/10.18485/music
_diplomacy.2020.ch15; Maja Vasiljević, “View to Cold War Through the Pericentric
Lenses: Tito’s Yugoslavia and Kekkonen’s Finland,” Limes plus [Special edition “Cold
War”] 1 (2013): 9−28, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3723669.
5 UKS was one of the five organizations that comprised SAKOJ. According to report
from 1958, here are the number of members: Union of composers of Serbia (UKS/
Udruženje kompozitora Srbije) 62, Union of Composers of Croatia (UKH/Udružen-
je kompozitora Hrvatske) 56, Society of Slovene Composers (DDS/Društvo sloven-
skih skladateljev) 69, the Union of composers of Bosnia and Herzegovina (UKBiH/
Udruženje kompozitora Bosne i Hercegovine) 19, and Society of composers in Mac-
edonia (DKM/Društvo na kompozitorite na Makedonija) 20 members. See: The Ar-
chives of Yugoslavia (Arhiv Jugoslavije, further AJ), fond 142 Socialist Alliance for
the Working People of Yugoslavia (further SSRNJ), box 82, fasc. 326.

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