Page 229 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2026 Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes.../Composers’ Societies Past and Present...

Yugoslav-Soviet Union relations from the 1950s to 1970s …
cultural context, this period can be seen as one of cultural liberalization.
Historian Radina Vučetić, a dedicated researcher of this period, concluded:
While it was still expected that culture, in all its segments, would be in-
fused with ideology, there was also a continuous liberalization of the
arts. Thanks to this, culture turned towards new aesthetics and poetics,
largely under the influence of the West, but also experiencing, at times,
successful and sometimes partial liberation from the strong influence
of the Party. 21
In the context of SAKOJ’s work, it is noted that a significant number
of compositions by Yugoslav authors were published in the USSR, while at
the same time, events related to American music were closely followed. Ev-
idence of this delicate balancing act – being “neither here nor there,” caught
between East and West – can also be found in the cooperation agreements
made with various countries. These included agreements on friendly co-
operation with Czechoslovakia, Romania, Austria, East Germany, Hunga-
ry, and the USSR, among others (1969). Finally, by automatism of geopo-
litical struggle, in the documents and reports of the Federal Commission
for Cultural Cooperation of Yugoslavia, we first encounter a list of corpo-
rations with socialist countries, regardless of the scale of the exchange, and
then others.

Within the Network of Cultural Cooperation
From the beginnings of institutional activity through the work of associ-
ations (Composers’ Association of Serbia, Union of Yugoslav Composers),
the idea of “better promotion of the works of domestic authors both in the
country and abroad” has been the core of their efforts. It should be clari-
22
fied that SAKOJ, as the “umbrella organization”, as Oscar Danon notes, was
not intended to be a “central administration with all competencies,” nor an
“organization above organizations”, but rather an institution whose “main
task was coordinating and connecting the various republic associations, rep-
23
resenting composers”.

21 Radina Vučetić, Monopol na istinu: Partija, kultura i cenzura u Srbiji šezdesetih i se-
damdesetih godina XX veka (Beograd: Clio, 2016), 75.
22 Predrag Milošević, ed., SAKOJ: 1950–1970 (Beograd: Savez kompozitora Jugoslavije,
1970). [Publication was printed without page numbers].
23 Oskar Danon, “Prve godine Saveza kompozitora,” in SAKOJ: 1950–1970, ed. Predrag
Milošević (Beograd: Savez kompozitora Jugoslavije, 1970).

229