Mediators in the Making of the Socialist Man’s New Nature during Youth Labour Actions in Yugoslavia. Utopia, Dialectics and Time

Abstract

Three subchapters of the paper analyse categories, which served as mediators in the making of new socialist men, particularly during the post-war federal level youth labour actions: utopia, dialectics and time. The idea of the “accessible utopia”, that is, the realisation of the conceived infrastructural-anthropological plans was practically always facilitated by topoi of a wild, strong and dangerous nature, which can nevertheless be tamed through dedicated work effort. For the participants of the labour actions, such a relationship with nature, that is, the overcoming the “unforeseen natural hazards”, the purpose of which was to create the new infrastructural face of the earth, yielded pronouncedly dialectic results. This was due largely to the fact that it had to change their own “nature” and transform them into new socialist men. Therefore, it is precisely this accessibility of the utopia, together with the dialectic achievements of the actions, that makes the organisers and participants perceive the work actions as events whose historical significance and grandeur need not necessarily be affirmed with time. This is a strong implication of a specific, future-oriented, experience of time and of one’s own avant-garde nature. Such a superior perception of a society in the making also meant that people did not seek confirmation of their own heroism from external, international arbiters. Thus, the foreigners who witnessed this process, such as the international brigades or the belated historian Edward Thompson, are not really relevant in confirming the events (which they heartily took part in), but more so in view of detecting their grandeur.