The Yugoslav man-making project stands out as a distinctive phenomenon in the history of 20th-century Europe. The country sought to find its “own path” that would be different both from the Soviet model of communism and the Western model of capitalism. The attempt to envision an appealing future ultimately failed, plunging the country into a crisis of identity in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Yugoslavia’s final years exemplified a “doubling” of the post-conflict condition as the country was still grappling with the legacy of the Second World War, now compounded by the rupture with the Soviet bloc. At the center of this study is the phenomenon of the Yugoslav man-making project—a unique vision of the man of the future that emerged at the intersection of communist ideology, multicultural heritage, and aspirations for European integration. This issue is examined through a four-component model that underpinned the construction of the desired human type, encompassing bodily, moral, aesthetic, and cognitive dimensions. Social institutions, including the Pioneer Organization and the education system, sought to cultivate traits aligned with the accepted vision of the future. The success of these efforts was expected to shape the future of Yugoslavia as a complex social entity.
Alexander Lunkov (Fri,) studied this question.