Remembering Yugoslavia

Diaspora Voices is an occasional series of conversations with ex-Yugoslavs living abroad. In this installment, a Canadian and an Australian with Croatian Serb heritage share stories about longing and belonging. 

With Nina Platiša and Nik. Featuring music by Nina Platiša.


The Remembering Yugoslavia podcast explores the memory of a country that no longer exists. Created, produced, and hosted by Peter Korchnak. New episodes one to two times per month...

The country of Yugoslavia may no longer appear on any physical maps, but it remains on many people’s mental maps; though Yugoslavia may be dead forever as a political entity, it lives on as a cultural project.

Yugoslavia's material and cultural production inspires many people to make art and products. And a lot of them have little or even no lived experience in or memory of it.

These are their stories.

Part 4 of many: Designers (mostly)...

In 1981, an obscure English punk band recorded a song whose cover by an Istrian punk band became famous in the former Yugoslavia. It took three decades and serendipity for the dots to connect. 

With Barry Phillips (Demob) and Nenad Milić (Tito's Bojs). Featuring music by Agent Tajne Sile, Defiance, Hladno Pivo, JazzIstra Orchestra, and Tito's Bojs.


The Remembering Yugoslavia podcast explores the memory of a country that no longer exists...

Films made after 1991 that are set in socialist Yugoslavia keep the former country present in popular culture. From Tito and Me (1991) to How I Learned to Fly (2022), from Slovenia to Serbia and beyond, from nostalgic tales to dark thrillers, the post-Yugoslav cinematography remembers Yugoslavia. Similarly, Czech directors have tackled the socialist period in their own ways. A comprehensive, comparative perspective...

There’s an invisible way of remembering the former country and especially how it fell apart: in your body. This is doubly true for trauma. How do the people of the former Yugoslavia experience and deal with trauma of their country's dissolution? How does trauma get passed down over generations? And how can we dance our way out of it?

With Stefan Jovanović and Snježana Pruginić.

More in the extended version...

Vladimir Nazor was a poet, Partisan, and politician. His greatness and popularity endured through five regimes/countries. Who was Croatia's greatest children's writer and first president? How did the author of so many Croatian national classics turn into Tito’s adulator ? How come he remains a popular figure in today’s anti-communist Croatia?

With Marijan Lipovac and Martin Mayhew. Featuring select poetry and prose of Vladimir Nazor (lots more in the extended version)...

The Day of Youth was a major Yugoslav holiday. It continues to be annually commemorated to this day in Tito's birthplace. What was the holiday and how was it celebrated in Kurmovec? How is the defunct Yugoslav holiday commemorated today?  Plus a field report from the 2022 edition of the event.*

With Nevena Škrbić Alempijević and Jovan Vejnović (plus Hrvoje Klasić and Larisa Kurtović).

* The extended version available on Patreon  includes a report from the 2023 event...

Let's go to the movies! Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav film is a port window projecting the region’s cultures and history. From Gibanica to Kraut Westerns, from Black Wave to Prague School, and from films of remembrance to war movies, this is seventy years of cinematic history in a single arc.

With Dijana Jelača and Sanjin Pejković. 


The Remembering Yugoslavia podcast explores the memory of a country that no longer exists. Created, produced, and hosted by Peter Korchnak...

Yugonostalgia is like a vessel that everyone fills with their own ideas and meanings. What is it and why does it exist? How does it manifest and how do different people experience it? And where is it headed? 

A deep dive in the yugonostalgia plus a comparison with nostalgia in the former Czechoslovakia.

With Milica Popović and Boris Strečanský. Featuring music by Polemic & Medial Banana...

Jews have been part of Sarajevo's human tapestry since the 16th century, only to be "discovered' by the rest of the world during the Bosnian War. This is their story.

With Jakob Finci* and Francine Friedman. Featuring music by Shira Utfila and Flory Jagoda.

* Bonus episode featuring the full interview with Finci available exclusively to Patreon and other supporters...