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Leading the Computer Revolution In a Totalitarian State
szczys writes: How do you enter the information age when computers, and the components that go into them, are embargoed by other countries and imports of any value are restricted by your own? This and a myriad of other barriers didn't stop Voja Antonic from building his own computers and teaching others how to do so during the 70s, 80s, 90s, and beyond.
He managed to get a TRS-80 into Yugoslavia by having a friend cut the cables between the two boards and send them separately to avoid getting caught in customs. He bootstrapped his own personal computer and published the plans in the country's first computer magazine. It was built by over 8000 people. Check out these stories and his experience of living in the Eastern Bloc and through the war in '90s, all while continuing to build and promote computers in what is now Serbia.
He managed to get a TRS-80 into Yugoslavia by having a friend cut the cables between the two boards and send them separately to avoid getting caught in customs. He bootstrapped his own personal computer and published the plans in the country's first computer magazine. It was built by over 8000 people. Check out these stories and his experience of living in the Eastern Bloc and through the war in '90s, all while continuing to build and promote computers in what is now Serbia.
Yugoslavia was neither, as someone already corrected, totalitarian, the way the Soviet Union or other East Bloc state-socialist nations might have been called, nor even, for that matter, member of the East Bloc at all. Yugoslavia was a non-aligned country, and not just any of them, but one of the five founders of the Non-Aligned Movement of states (NAM).
I came here because I was surprised by the term "totalitarian" used to describe Yugoslavia. I'm glad to see that others who knew the country have already started to debunk the sensationalist (but mainly very ignorant) "journalism".
While I didn't live there, I had it's passport, and travelled there often for holidays and to visit family. While Tito did imprison some opponents, it seems to have been mainly would-be nationalist leaders. We all saw what happened when they and their ideas were left loose. (Which also shows that imprisoning people with dangerous ideas is usually not a good long-term solution).
But Yugoslavia definitely didn't feel like a totalitarian regime. Tito helped to free his country from the Nazis, and then a couple of years later freed it from the Soviet influence. Finally, he was among the founders of the Non-Aligned Countries Movement. Unlike the US, Yugoslavia didn't order or help any killing of elected leaders in other countries, nor did it support fascist military regimes in other continents.