It was certainly not the (alleged) lack of flavors among the yogurt jars, as former Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarović once declared, that made life in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia insipid and bitter. The relatives of thousands of people who disappeared into thin air, the hundreds of thousands of Julian-Dalmatian exiles forced to leave everything to save themselves, the many political persecuted (and interned), or those who fled abroad to escape repression or simply in search of a bit of well-being, know something about it. But even those who remained, despite all the positive aspects that could guarantee a certain social security, will hardly be able to define it as a sort of "paradise", the image that propaganda had built in the West of Tito's "creature".

“Yugoslavia made me an unhappy person for many years,” says writer Gabriella Chmet, who in L'abisso socialista (published by Luglio, 152 p.) recovers her memories of an adolescent who grew up in the times of the former Federativa. And she adds: “but it also left me essential memories of people, situations and spirituality not spoiled by consumerism and the absolute emptiness of the contemporary West. The illusions and disillusions of young people from the East who firmly believed in a utopia: freedom above life itself.” In the nine chapters of the work, through the parable of Yugoslavia, the personal journey of a frightened little girl unfolds as she becomes a woman and manages to metabolise the ugliness of the world in which she lived. The result is a merciless and ironic fresco of a nation that no longer exists and of its master-god.

It tells of a nation in perpetual development without ever reaching an end; of a country torn apart by the iniquities of the powerful "communist bourgeoisie"; of a backward world resigned to the brutality of the political police; of a Marshal who under "the hypocritical blanket of the communist ideals of 'brotherhood and unity' hatches the worst intentions of revenge"; of forced secularization and collectivization; of the indoctrination of the masses carried out from their earliest youth; of the demolition of traditions; of the terror of the Ozna and then of the Udba; of peoples subjected to dictatorship; of an Italian minority crushed between fear and collaboration; of the personality cult of the “god-man” who “is liked by many, celebrated in the mammoth jubilees of May, venerated as the inventor of the 'third way' of the non-aligned countries, a friend of Western governments and beloved by the Hollywood star system, but who when he died, on May 4, 1980, left behind a nation in ruins and tensions that would explode in the worst possible way”.

"The idea of ​​writing this book came to me some time ago, but finding the strength and energy to put everything 'in black and white' required a truly remarkable mental effort - she begins -. It is not easy to lay bare the thorniest aspects of one's life, to tell oneself as pawns in a story that devours and swallows everything, to tell the truth in a country like Italy, where people talk about 'fascism' as if it were 1945 and 'forget' to deal with the communism that has permeated culture in the last seventy years". An "idolated but unknown" Italy, in which she had deluded herself into thinking she would find happiness, but instead she finds a country in which the climate "of perpetual cultural and political civil war seems to permeate every strata of society", characterized by deep abysses of historical ignorance and exasperated superficiality. So he looks back, now that the socialist abyss and its pains have been overcome, he returns to his roots, tries to find a meaning to the life of the border people, studies his land and interprets it through the centuries-old culture that has amalgamated ethnic groups and cultures into something unrepeatable.

A woman from the East, as she defines herself, Gabriella Chmet was born in Capodistria in 1973, she made her debut in fiction in 2007, addressing issues related to the exodus and those who “remained”. A blogger, between prose, essays and travel books, she dedicates herself mainly to Istria and the surrounding regions (but not only). Her research has given rise to, among others, Myths and Mysteries of Friuli Venezia Giulia (Editoriale Programma, 2014), Central European Hearth (Bianca e Volta, 2012), Libera. An Istrian story (Mgs Press, 2007).

by Ilaria Rocchi – 14/06/2021
Source: The Voice of the People