A little over two weeks after demoting Polish farmers to Eastern European peasants, BoingBoing does it again… (or rather, quotes somebody doing it):
My nitpick today: Yugoslavia was a communist country, but was not an Eastern Block country. Or are they Polish peasant women?
Rather, Yugoslavia was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement. Tito got in a fight with Stalin back in 1948, so Yugoslavia never joined the Warshaw pact.
In the 80s, the border between Austria and Yugoslavia was nothing at all like the border between Austria and its Eastern Bloc neighbors Hungary and Czechoslovakia. No significant amounts of barbed wire. Maybe the occasional fence. Plenty of official border crossings. And, several hiking paths across the mountainous part of the border where it was perfectly legal for people to walk across the border without reporting in to border police. Not your typical Iron Curtain.
So, dear Cold Warriors, please remember: Yugoslavia was not your enemy.
End of history lesson.
That said, as long as you are always able to clearly tell the Serbian and Croatian languages apart, you will probably not get in trouble with the locals ;-).
