Author: Sarah D. Zabic

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 154

ISBN-13:

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the dynamics of the intellectual debate among Yugoslav communists over the ideology of Marxism during the decade 1965-75. This thesis argues that the Praxis School, a group of dissident, communist intellectuals that founded the journal Praxis in 1964, and the week-long student protest in the capital Belgrade (June 1968) are significant in twentieth-century Yugoslav history because both movements ascribed to humanist Marxism, which posed the first concerted, continuous ideological challenge to Tito's postwar socialist vision. Resting at the crossroads of intellectual, cultural, and political history, this thesis presents three synchronous perspectives of the sociopolitical discourse surrounding the debate over Marxist ideology in Yugoslavia, 1964-1975. This study examines articles from Praxis, published and oral interviews with Praxis authors, the speeches of President Josip Broz Tito and the Party ideologue, Edvard Kardelj, and memoirs, songs, chants, and communiqués from the student protest to trace the ideological exchange during the decade 1964-75 among the Praxis School, the student protesters in Belgrade, and the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. The Praxis School's humanist Marxist critique and the student protests in 1968 during this decade were evidence of a growing reflexive discourse in the civil sphere over the trajectory of socialism in Yugoslavia. This thesis posits that after the student protests in June 1968 the League of Communists of Yugoslavia made a concerted effort to exclude humanist Marxist discourse to reestablish its hegemonic control over communist ideology and the political trajectory of the state.