Zagreb City Museum, February 6 – April 27, 2025
Exhibition author: Goran Arčabić
Visual identity and exhibition design: Bilić_Müller, Zagreb
Was the first Five-Year Plan (petoljetka) the sole catalyst for the modernization of socialist Yugoslavia, which included Croatia from 1945 to 1991?
How did modernization function in a one-party system with decision-making dominated by a small group of people and a sprawling state bureaucracy?
Was the adoption of the Soviet model justified and feasible in Yugoslavia?
What were the characteristics of industrialization and housing construction during this five-year period?
This exhibition addresses these questions through six case studies interpreted in a broader context. The first three focus on the planning, construction, and operation of federal heavy industry enterprises based in Croatia, which served as cornerstones of Yugoslav planned economy: Rade Končar, Đuro Đaković, and the Sisak Ironworks. Further studies examine the planning and construction of three settlements for employees in these federal enterprises, specifically Prvomajska and the Steam Boilers Factory, Jedinstvo, and Rade Končar.
The first Yugoslav Five-Year Plan spanned six years (1947-1952). From a modernization perspective, it represented the attempt of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY) to rapidly overcome the backwardness of the country situated on the European periphery, primarily through intensive industrialization managed by the state and the Party, and to create conditions for social progress. However, modernization was inseparable from the CPY’s ideological and political goals, which included a (political and social) revolution, the establishment of a one-party system, and the abolition of capitalism in order to build a new society and a “new man” modelled on the Soviet example. Viewed from this comprehensive perspective, the Five-Year Plan was an instrument for the accelerated transformation of Yugoslavia into a socialist state.
The influence and scope of propaganda aimed at achieving the goals of the Five-Year Plan are presented through original works and reproductions of artworks by fine artists from museums in Croatia and abroad. These include works by Grga Antunac, Vladimir Becić, Mato Benković, Marijan Detoni, Zvonimir Faist, Zvonimir Glad, Boža Ilić, Ivan Jeger, Ivo Kerdić, Dušan Kokotović, Tone Kralj, Teodor Krivak, Mario Mikulić, Ismet Mujezinović, Edo Murtić, Nikolaj Omersa, Slavko Pengov, Rudolf Spiegler, Svetislav Strala, and Mate Zlamalik. Featured literary contributions include works by Božena Begović, Ive Čaće, Vladimir Čerkez, Branko Ćopić, Miroslav Krleža, Vladimir Nazor, Grigor Vitez, and Oton Župančič. Visitors will have the opportunity to see some lesser-known paintings, such as Mladen Veža’s View of the “Rade Končar” Factory and Slavko Šohaj’s Factory (depicting the Sisak Ironworks).
In the context of the inseparability of ideology from planned industrialization, the exhibition features photo albums gifted to prominent politicians and writers who were champions of the Party. State-owned companies Rade Končar and Đuro Đaković presented such albums to the President of the State, Josip Broz Tito, while the Sisak Ironworks gifted one to the writer Miroslav Krleža. Among the fifteen propagandistic, primarily documentary films shown at the exhibition, the digitized film Veliki izvori (Great Sources), written and directed by Rudolf Sremac and produced by Jadran Film in 1951, stands out as a panegyric to planned industrialization and the construction of socialism in Yugoslavia.
Case studies provide insights into the planning, construction, and business processes of three leading state-owned heavy industry companies in Croatia that were founded after World War II on confiscated and nationalized properties. Visitors can explore how Rade Končar, Đuro Đaković, and the Sisak Ironworks operated under the centralized state management of the economy. The exhibition features digitized blueprints and photographs of these factories, mostly unknown to the public, sourced from the Croatian State Archives, the State Archive in Zagreb, and the Archives of Yugoslavia in Belgrade. Visitors will also encounter unrealized urban planning visions from 1949 for three workers’ settlements in Zagreb, designed for employees of state-owned heavy industry companies. These settlements later formed the cores of the modern urban districts of Gajnice, Volovčica, and Voltino.
Museum artefacts and archival materials, including digital copies, have been provided for the exhibition by fourteen museums, archives, and companies from Croatia and abroad (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, and Serbia).
Items on loan from:
KONČAR – Elektroindustrija d.d., Zagreb
Croatian School Museum, Zagreb
Croatian History Museum, Zagreb
Museum of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia
National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Archival sources and museum items in digital copies from:
Archive of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia
State Archive in Zagreb, Zagreb
History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croatian State Archives, Zagreb
Croatian Film Museum, Zagreb
Croatian History Museum, Zagreb
Ljubljana City Museum, Ljubljana, Republic of Slovenia
Zenica City Museum, Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Museum of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Slovenian History, Ljubljana, Republic of Slovenia
National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
National Museum of Serbia, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia
Originals of the photographs reproduced on Zagreb City Museum web are deposited at the Croatian State Archives, Collection of the Photographic Documentation Agency (HR-HDA-1422).
For additional information, please download the article from the Portal of Croatian Scientific and Professional Journals (Hrčak).
Link 1 and Link 2
