The Weight of Chains
What was Yugoslavia to the people who used to live there? Some say it was the symbol of independence. Others say it was developing and changing country that could offer everything to everyone. A society of self-management for all its people. But many would conclude that it is not so easy to say what Yugoslavia was.
The author of this documentary, Boris Malagurski (who also made Kosovo: Can You Imagine?), thinks that his early childhood in Yugoslavia was not bad at all. It was a a very close culture and people cared about each other in so many ways. You just don't see that in the western world in the same way.
He also remembers some other aspects of his life in Yugoslavia like his family, vacations, politics, economy, the standard of living, free medical care and education, guaranteed right to a job, affordable public transportation, housing and utilities, literacy rate over 90%, life expectancy of 72 years, etc.
Yugoslavia was a different case because it had established its own form of socialist model of economic activity which was mixed economy of private capitalist enterprises with state run industry and worker cooperatives. It was considered to be a success story of market socialism.
It had higher rates of growth than most of the countries in Western Europe. It had an advanced welfare state, it was a multiethnic society which lived in harmony, and in many regards it was a model of development.
ALSO WATCH: The Death of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia: The Avoidable War, Once Brothers, Srebrenica: A Cry from the Grave, Around the Balkans in 20 Days, and The Secret Life of Radovan Karadzic.
I guess you could say that there is really something special about this land. So why people spilled so much blood over it? What went wrong? Who was to blame here? If you thought you knew why Yugoslavia broke up, get ready for 2 hours of shocking facts that will shed a different light on Western intervention in the Balkans.
Pure Serbian propaganda, MISLEADING LIES!
The first act or reunited Germany was to destroy Yugoslavia. WHY? Because independent Yugoslavia was Nr. 4 in Export of Weapons in the World - Germany was behind. THIS is the only one explenation for that what happend to my Homland.
This Film is Pure Serbian Propaganda. NATO had to Bomb the main SERB TV station in order to stop the propaganda. Ratko Mladic, Vuk Karadzic , Srebrenica, Milosevic . These are the true facts of Yougoslavia.
ok, watched "the death of yugoslavia" and then watched "weight of chains",again, right after. both great films. the bbc film definitely tows the "official" line and ends in 95 so there is nothing there about the final act in kosovo, and the bombing of serbia.
after watching both i can only conclude that the the leaders of serbia and croatia were in league in trying to gain as much land in bosnia as they could. i think there was some serious effort to wrench control of certain areas out of the hands of the inhabitants according to old and new grudges. i see no sector as free of guilt.
it also seems obvious that the western powers were in league to break up the country and rob as much as they could. especially in kosovo. and this is the genius of "weight". they did their homework. there are people in the movie whom i have read in other venues who have reported on this very sort of alignment of banks, technocrats and politicians. not to mention mendacious media types.
this should be a must watch to understand how the recent color revolutions have come about and why. it is the modern version of " the great game" that is being played out in countries in the cross hairs of the western powers' moneyed elite.
i watched this movie a few years ago and was shocked at how much i did not know. i knew there were some questionable stories that came out in the US press. but did not find out about till years later. i think the comments are very informative. i will now watch the bbc doc "the death of yugoslavia" for another side of the story.
from the comments i will say that i hear much hatred coming out towards each other which leads me to believe that the truth is somewhere in the middle. but the actors of the west in this story seem like very bad actors if not the ultimate culprits.
peace to you all
It is so funny how many Albanians comment this video. One day, europe and world will be aware who you are and what kind of people they were supporting.
This Balkan tragedy was actually a war between the Orthodox & Catholic churches. On the Swedish
media the conflict was reported as a war between : Croats, Serbs and Muslims (!) note well, two ethnicity and one religion (!!). Never ever, not radio, no Telly, no newspaper corrected this. Sweden had good ties to Josip et all. The burning down Yu. was just a starter to get ''ears and eyes '' get acquainted with this 'awful' Muslims. So today could come smooth.. in west were i live it's totally legit. to treat Muslims as trash.
I'm curious how a federation as Yu. falls apart and all heavy military equipment ends up at Croats, Serbs & Slovenians... not a chopper, not a tank, no jets, nothing more than some shitty Kalashnikov's to the Bossniaks and Kosovo Albanians. (Yu license made) does it or doesn't it seem weird ? does or doesn't it seem to be planned well looong b4 the crap hit the fan?
Btw. Josip and his buddies could play the Yu. game for so long was because Yu. being the middle hand of arms trade. That's why no one was starving and doing well in x Yu. except the Romans of course. They never had good time and probably never will.
The Serbs attacked & got f...d by NATO and tries to save some face. If there is a face left to save.. so to speak. And of course I'm talking about politicians and military officers. Not the common X Yu. citizens.
There is a book called NATO In The Balkans: Voice of Opposition that confirms what this doc says. The U.S. & Germany (along with the vile NATO) planned the breakup of Yugoslavia- with sanctions and forced them to breakup & fight with each other, and LIED to make the Serbs- the bad guy. It was made a public law,like he said- look it up. Learn some real history, you'll find the US empire does stuff like this all the time. I live in the US, and I know our policitians & government & media can't be trusted.
The sequel to this doc will air on RT this week.
justifying srebrenica! boris, you are evil man!
Well done Boris!
they made of us fools..and we are ,,,,still going in that direction....fooling
Ok I wasn't going to say anything but the sheer naivate in the comments
has forced me to. If the NATO intervention on the Balkans was really
about the slaughter of 5000 Bosnians during the war, then why did NATO
and the UN allow the MASSACRE of ONE MILLION Rawandans in ONE HUNDRED
DAYS during the same time period?
In fact the Lieutenant-General Roméo Antonius Dallaire, OC CMM GOQ MSC CD and Canadian citizen has been DIRECTLY quoted as saying "
And
the truth was also told me right in my face in the first days when I
was told that there was nothing in Rwanda excepthuman beings, and
there's too many of them anyways."
And
while we're stripping away naivate theres a few other facts I cant help
but point out. There were multiple armies in that war. Not just one.
Atrocities were committed by every side. Not just one. This is a fun
link to a video of the Mujahideen playing soccer with the head of a
Serbian man. You just have to google it. (I removed the link to prevent the comment from not being posted.) I strongly
recommend that no one ever watch it. And finally on the point of the
Balkan war I will ask this question. Can we (WMDs) think of (WMDs) any
other (WMDs) times in (WMDs) recent history (WMDs) that we (WMDs) were
lied to (WMDs) in order to (WMDs) get involved in (WMDs) an illegal
(WMDs) and collonialistic conflict?
If you dont want to listen to
Boris Malagurski, then thats fine. Read the Schock Doctrine by Naomi
Klein. Shes an investigative journalist whos done an incredible amount
of research into the causes of conflict over decades and how it
corroborates with economic expansion.
I've said my piece now begin ranting about how biased I am trolls. I dont care I will never read it.
Ok I wasn't going to say anything but the sheer naivate in the comments has forced me to. If the NATO intervention on the Balkans was really about the slaughter of 5000 Bosnians during the war, then why did NATO and the UN allow the MASSACRE of ONE MILLION Rawandans in ONE HUNDRED DAYS during the same time period?
In fact the Lieutenant-General Roméo Antonius Dallaire, OC CMM GOQ MSC CD and Canadian citizen has been DIRECTLY quoted as saying "
And the truth was also told me right in my face in the first days when I was told that there was nothing in Rwanda excepthuman beings, and there's too many of them anyways."
And while we're stripping away naivate theres a few other facts I cant help but point out. There were multiple armies in that war. Not just one. Atrocities were committed by every side. Not just one. And finally on the point of the Balkan war I will ask this question. Can we (WMDs) think of (WMDs) any other (WMDs) times in (WMDs) recent history (WMDs) that we (WMDs) were lied to (WMDs) in order to (WMDs) get involved in (WMDs) an illegal (WMDs) and collonialistic conflict?
If you dont want to listen to Boris Malagurski, then thats fine. Read the Schock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. Shes an investigative journalist whos done an incredible amount of research into the causes of conflict over decades and how it corroborates with economic expansion.
I've said my piece now begin ranting about how biased I am trolls. I dont care I will never read it.
this documentary has nothing to do with truth, don't be fooled. old myths about how we had everything, there was no unemployment etc etc and evil west divided us and made us fight. fairy tale.
the truth is that country was in ruins, especially after Tito's death in 80's, unemployment in poorer parts of the country (Kosovo, Macedonia, parts of Bosnia and Serbia) was really high, up to 50%, we had lack of basic stuff (somehow we forgot odd/even plate numbers system for driving because of lack of gasoline, miles long queues for bread and flour etc), inflation was sky rocketing...
also, author doesn't say a word about millions of people leaving the country over decades, fleeing to Germany and other western countries in search for better life.
bureaucracy was disastrous, and economy was under the burden of "right to work" which lead to inefficient companies that were more and more failing to keep up with eminent technology progress and global market. it was relatively ok in 50's or 60's when there were voluntary work actions, were young people were building a country for free and while the market was closed. with new technologies, global market, china rising, Yugoslavian economy had no chance in hell to survive.
and of course, our famous "brotherhood and unity"... which was nothing but a mass illusion which only existed while father of the nation was alive. as soon as he started to loose a grip due to his age, and especially after his death, all those skeletons started to leave their closets.
the truth is, there were really a lot of unsettled scores, especially between serbs and croats, and those scores were meant to be settled in blood as soon as mass illusion was over. and it had to be in blood because we basically hate each other. a lot.
yeah, as everywhere, simple folks are not evil. but tell them 3 times that their "sanctities" are being attacked by those evil croat/serbs/muslim, and we will explode and rise to arms very, very quickly.
anyway, don't be fooled. this "documentary" is either a fairy tale made by naive, ignorant author, according to myths that many people still believe in, or propaganda in well known "who in the hell divides us, brothers?" manner, mostly present in serbia.
Absolutely brilliant documentary. I've just watched it a second time.
I would say it is good but it is Serb bias ... if author was more objective it could be great documentary
It's a total disgrace what NATO did to these people. Bombing them with depleted uranium on civilians?? Why aren't any NATO people up for war crimes? I've never heard of Serbia waging war on any NATO country. America wanted to control yugoslavia for years and Slobo wouldn't allow them access to their businesses .
Can't wait for his next documentary.
this isn't pro anybody,it's objective,it is about yugoslavia..
To start off with if you want to see a somewhat serious documentary of this period you should watch the death of yugoslavia , made by bbc because seriously this is embarrasing , the movie is completele pro serb. Not that Slovenes , Croats and even Bosnian Muslims did attrocities and that Slovenes and Croats wanted to secede, but by this is just humiliating , anyone who knows anything of the history of the wars in ex yugoslavia , lets remember that by the constitution of the SFRJ or socialistic federative republic of yugoslavia every country had the RIGHT to secede. When they did (Slovenia and Croatia) all arms and millitary equipment was shipped / taken by the serbs. What else would the newly republics do then to try to arm themself ? Who entered whose territory? I mean if you have the right to secede and you do then an army of another country (as the yugoslav army then was controled by serbia) enters your boarders and occupy territory i would call that an act of war and every single human with atleast a little bit of brain knows thats a fact. What do you think Russia would do or U.S.A. would do if any of them entered the other country with a huge millitary force and occupied their territory? Cant believe the lies painted in this documentary
I wached the first 5 min, and am ready to be sick!
Yea every thing was perfect;
Except for the tiny fact that you coudnt leave, you didnt have the right to have your opinion let alone express it, if you wanted to live that is.!
Yea everyone had a guareted job, no mater if you were qualified or not what mattered was who you support politically, and who are your parents.
And becouse everything was so perfect, nations wanted independence and they had to fight in wars to get it!
Has everyone had theis brains washed or what, am appaled!
USE YOUR BRAIN PEOPLE, please!! and read up on some solid evidence.
I know peoples memories are VERY selective, cuz. we DONT WANT TO REMEMBER the bad times, but this goes beyond ANY resonable line!!
a nice bed time story for adults want to dream about how nice life could be. If only the evil, evil Imperialist would not destroy it!!! if world would only realize how great the Serbs are. sooo niceee
by the way - i grew up in Yugoslavia too... :)
I was born in Yugoslavia as member of German minority 1950. Have been living there till 1972.
Look what they have done to my land, ma ! WHY !?? The truth havent been tuched in this documentary:
1. to eliminate the 4. th weapons exporteur in the world !!!
2. to cancel Yugoslav independent way of socialism
3. first step closer to the Russian border - to get strategic position
That some people have problem with history of 2.nd civil war is their own problem. The facts are close to the truth.
This land was my land, the most beautifull in the world... I stay proud
to was born there and grown up inbetween all those Nations and Nature beauty.
I havent been involved.. it was not my war.
Finaly, I have understanding for people who have been taking part and mabye lost their family members or friends.
My best friend is one of Croatian warriors who didnt killd himself, after the end because of PTBS. .. he told me that he has al life long the smelt of smoke and dead people in his nose, and his dreams.
He can never forget the naced baby fixed with bajonet - knife on the door true his small mouth.
My father said as warrior CW2: Who wants to make war.. he must have it in his family with his husbend/wife EVERY DAY, till the rest of his life...
Nobody can forget that GERMAN´S TORNADOS dropped the first bomb on Belgrade after 1945.. W H Y !?? Because Hitler lost the war because of war on Balcan !?? as Historic-science said !?
this documentary was very bias..and im not surprised at all being that the maker was a Serb himself. That war had many horrors, but you cannot deny the horrific crimes serbs caused to innocent people. The many unmarked graves are an example of that, and that is why a handful of serbian army leaders have been put to trial for war crimes. So you can try to manipulate the minds of outsiders, but you cant to those who have lived and seen the war first hand.
p.s. Whenever watching any documentary, you have to take the information with a grain of salt and do an extensive research on the subject before making your mind up. Any body with a camera can shoot a documentary.
The film is very accurate. I see many Croats, Muslims, Albanians and Serbs fighting on and on on many forums without understanding the simple truth that it's all orchestrated. What we see now, after almost 2 decades of the wars in Yugoslavia?
We see that nationalists in every separated republic grabbed the money through criminal privatization,
we see that no one asked any of us if we are for capitalism or socialism,
we see that Milosevic and Tudjman were co-investors and co-directors in banks on Cyprus, Austria, France and Great Britain,
we see that during war in Bosnia Arkan, the crimelord in Belgrade and warlord in Bosnia and Croatia sold weapons and ammunition to the same people he was fighting against,
we see Naser Oric, Bosnian equivalent of Arkan, the man who was attacking serbian villages around Srebrenica (supposedly demilitarized zone under UN protection) from Srebrenica and provoking Serbian action, receiving today his pension from Serbia (?!),
we now know that Oluja (Storm) was led by American retired generals working in private sector hired by CIA,
we know that Serbian exodus from Croatia was planned not only by Tudjman but with Milosevic too, as the refugees were organized not to settle in central Serbia but were sent to Kosovo and Metohia to fix the national disparity over Albanians,
we know that after WW2 the great number of Albanians settled in Serbian southern province as illegal emigrants (imagine how it would be if mexican illegal emigrants would ask for independence from USA, and those who got green card or USA citizenship learn in American schools that the capital of their country is not Washington but Mexico City)
we know that Yugoslav Army counter intelligence knew that Croats and Slovenians in the eve of war were arming illegal over civilian airports and did nothing to prevent that, in that time, anti-constitutional actions,
we have croatian generals freed in international tribunal. The serbian generals are accused; with exception of those whom were dealing with CIA agents in Belgrade and caught during the act.,
we have general feeling that Serbs were the overall aggressors in planetary proportions with the paradox that the Serbs themselves, the greatest nation in numbers in former Yugoslavia has the biggest losses in people and property,
etc, etc...
I don't believe in genocidal nations and stupidness like that. That is just silly talk. How can I hate Croats when I live in Belgrade, my aunt lives in Osijek (Croatia), her daughter lives in Novi Sad (Serbia), and her brother lives in Croatia. During the war he was on croatian army and he do not speak with his own sister because she is married to a man whose father was a Macedonian and was a professional military man in ex-Yu!?
I was in the army when war started. The croats and serbs were already fighting when my army obligation was over. Came home to Belgrade through Montenegro. My best friend, Croat from Zagreb, could not go home because everything was blocked with military activities. He came with me to belgrade, stayed for a week and took an airplane line from Belgrade to Zagreb!?
And that may be the only reality: let us just be friends and not hate anyone by default. How can someone born in after-Yu republics hate Yugoslavia or someone he has not even met?
How can one say: yeah, you had great life because you were living on credits from East and West?
Everyone can see where that money was spent, everyone can see the whole industries built from nothing in Yugoslavia. Every single republic is now in more debts than the whole ex-big country; can you see anything built? Anything! Where is that money?
The question is the answer to everything. When you target the greatest winers and losers in the situation, you will then be aware of the real reasons behind wars in Yugoslavia.
Do not be slave to stereotypes! Do not believe everything someone tells you. Nothing on this world is in black or white. As one Croatian economist recently sad a wise thing: it would be interesting that no one ever asked people in Yugoslavia or republics after if they were for the killing of socialism and social state, and import of liberal capitalism as well as criminal and immoral.
Clearly a documentary based on vague facts, totally diminishing what the root of the problem was in the Yugoslavian conflict. Portraying the serbs as victims, and the west as the culprit is plain out wrong. Causes of the war were the uprising fascism in Serbia and Croatia which allowed an AGGRESSION for 3 or so years in Bosnia, which was not even a plain out war. This was because of the fact that JNA held the complete military power. The west didnt kill the civilians in srebrenica etc they more so ALLOWED it to happen, but they did not pull the triggers themselves, killing thousands of people, the serbs did that and the croats in the middle-bosnian fascistic region; Herceg-Bosna.
Transfering blame from the serbs to the west seems to be the idea of this documentary. Hopefully people will be able to see through that.