READ AND
ENTER TO SIGN
PROPOSAL ’99
THE INDEPENDENT CIVIC NETWORK PRESENTS

RECONSTRUCT

YUGOSLAVIA FORUM Contents >>

Historical records, practical proposals and citizen correspondence · online since 1996

★ THE RECONSTRUCTION PROPOSAL IS OPEN FOR SIGNATURES ★ NIGHT TRAIN COMMISSION MEETS 2 APRIL ★ DINAR 2.0 PILOT REPORT DUE FRIDAY ★ POSTCARD ROUND 14 CLOSES 31 MARCH ★ SIGN THE LEDGER OF ENDORSEMENT ★ BEST VIEWED AT 800x600 ★★ THE RECONSTRUCTION PROPOSAL IS OPEN FOR SIGNATURES ★ NIGHT TRAIN COMMISSION MEETS 2 APRIL ★ DINAR 2.0 PILOT REPORT DUE FRIDAY ★ POSTCARD ROUND 14 CLOSES 31 MARCH ★ SIGN THE LEDGER OF ENDORSEMENT ★ BEST VIEWED AT 800x600 ★
★ WELCOME, DEAR VISITOR!! ★

Dobar dan and welcome, citizens of the reconstruction.

You have reached the Reconstruct Yugoslavia Forum, established June 1996 on a volunteer 486 PC in a basement that doubles as the Committee's archive. We are not a nostalgia club. We are a working group: we collect timetables, recipes, tape recordings and, above all, concrete proposals for putting the country back together — one railway, one postal agreement and one extremely contentious ćevapi ranking at a time.

New visitors: please read the Proposal below, then sign the Ledger of Endorsement. Signatures are counted, printed, and carried to the Congress.

— WebMaster_Darko, founder & secretary of the Reconstruction Committee, 14 March 1999

You are visitor number: 0014877 — tell a friend!!
★ THE ARCHIVE — HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS ★

Photographs from the collection, scanned on ing_Berislav's flatbed at 56k-friendly resolution. We rebuild from the record, not from memory alone. NEW!

Comrade President Josip Broz Tito — official portrait
Comrade President Josip Broz Tito — official portrait
Wikimedia Commons · public domain
The Marshal beneath the Yugoslav star
The Marshal beneath the Yugoslav star
Wikimedia Commons · CC0
Army Day: a JNA delegation calls on the President
Army Day: a JNA delegation calls on the President
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
10th anniversary of the 6th Slavonian Corps, Slavonski Brod
10th anniversary of the 6th Slavonian Corps, Slavonski Brod
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Yugoslav soldiers on UN peacekeeping duty, Sinai, 1957
Yugoslav soldiers on UN peacekeeping duty, Sinai, 1957
Wikimedia Commons · public domain

5 of 402 archival scans shown · full album lives on 5 floppy disks (please mail empty ones)

★ THE RECONSTRUCTION PROPOSAL — DRAFT RESOLUTION NO. 1 ★
PROPOSAL FOR THE PEACEFUL RECONSTRUCTION OF YUGOSLAVIA

Adopted in committee, 14 March 1999 · Draft 2 · circulated by internal mail on three floppy disks · amendments open in the Forum

Whereas the country exists wherever two citizens agree to meet, trade, argue politely and build something together, the Committee proposes the following five measures, in order of feasibility:

  1. Article I — Railways. Restore the night train Ljubljana → Zagreb → Beograd → Skopje as the first act of reconstruction. A joint timetable commission meets quarterly; the first session is scheduled for 2 April 1999 in Novi Sad.
  2. Article II — Currency. Introduce the dinar 2.0 as a stable basket currency in three pilot border towns. No re-denomination surprises; all exchange rates published weekly in the Currency & Economy board.
  3. Article III — Post & Telecommunications. One stamp series, one dialing plan, and guaranteed 72-hour delivery on all letters between the former republics. Round 14 of the postcard exchange serves as the pilot programme.
  4. Article IV — Culture & Education. A rotating film festival, shared summer universities, and a joint textbook commission whose chapters must be approved by members of every republic before printing.
  5. Article V — Archives. Digitize the historical record before it fades: 402 photographs scanned to date (five shown above). Every citizen with a scanner is a state institution of one.

Proposed by the Reconstruction Committee of this forum. Corrections, objections and better ideas are welcome — that is what the forum is for.

★ REFERENCE LIBRARY — DOCUMENT NO. 7 ★

FOUNDATIONAL TEXT · PARIS, 1993

A Reconstruction Plan for Ex-Yugoslavia

Boris I. Vukobrat

Published in English as Proposals for a New Commonwealth of the Republics of Ex-Yugoslavia. The linked archival volume reproduces Vukobrat’s proposal as Document No. 7 and opens at its beginning.

Archive note: this is a public research copy inside the 2000 documentary collection Zapadni Balkan, not a scan of the standalone English edition.

OPEN ARCHIVAL PDF · PAGE 79 ↗
★ THE RECONSTRUCTION NEEDS YOU ★

A proposal is a document. Documents do not lay railway tracks. People do. Here is how this forum works, concretely:

  1. Read the Proposal above. It is short on purpose.
  2. Endorse it. Every signature is entered into the Ledger and read aloud at the Congress. One signature per visitor — the honor system, it works.
  3. Contribute what you know: timetables, maps, recipes, translations, photographs, memories. Post them in the appropriate board.
  4. Attend the Congress — vote in the venue poll below. Delegates pay their own fares; that is part of the point.
Ledger of Endorsement: 1,204 signatures collected · goal: 5,000 before the Congress

⚠ THIS SITE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION — SO IS THE COUNTRY. BOTH MAKE STEADY PROGRESS. ⚠

★ THE FORUM — 6 BOARDS, 4,102 MEMBERS, 1 DIAL-UP LINE ★
SUBJECTPOSTERREPLIESVIEWSLAST POST
📌 GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
📖 READ FIRST: Forum rules v1.2 (no flamewars, we mean it!!)PINNEDWebMaster_Darko884,20112 Mar 1999
🛠️ Reconstruction Project status update — phase 2 begins!PINNEDNEW!WebMaster_Darko1569,81114 Mar 1999
🚂 INFRASTRUCTURE & RAILWAYS
🚂 Phase 1 COMPLETE: Belgrade–Zagreb night train reconnected!!!NEW!HOTTrainFan_8431218,44014 Mar 1999
🗺️ Official proposal: one uninterrupted railway, Ljubljana→SkopjeGoranFromMaribor975,30213 Mar 1999
🌉 SCAN: Building materials catalog v2.1 (threadbare bridges chapter)ing_Berislav412,28811 Mar 1999
🚉 Trip report: the Blue Train scenic route, 40 photos (56k warning!!)HOTvesna_from_zagreb743,91710 Mar 1999
💰 CURRENCY & ECONOMY
🏦 DINAR 2.0 — exchange rate spreadsheet, updated weekly (XL2 attachment)NEW!HOTNikola_T_Fan20512,66014 Mar 1999
✉️ Should stamps be valid currency during the transition? POLL INSIDEpostal_pigeon663,10212 Mar 1999
🧾 Hyperinflation survivors club — share your zero-erasing storiesHOTdeda_miloš1498,8309 Mar 1999
🎶 CULTURE, MUSIC & FOOD
📻 Yugoslav New Wave appreciation thread — tape rips inside (REAL AUDIO)NEW!HOTines_8942821,44414 Mar 1999
🍢 Best ćevapi: the ULTIMATE scientific ranking (with charts!)HOTModena_Boy37719,20613 Mar 1999
🏆 Friendliest city contest: Sarajevo vs Ljubljana — VOTE NOWEmir_from_Sarajevo1919,93313 Mar 1999
📬 TRAVEL & POSTAL SERVICE
📮 Postcard exchange program — ROUND 14 sign-ups open!!NEW!HOTpostal_pigeon51224,50114 Mar 1999
🚌 Lost luggage reunion thread (found: one accordion, Zagreb depot)jadran_express331,4088 Mar 1999
☕ OFF-TOPIC
🐈 My cat is named Tito. Ask me anything.NEW!HOTkitty_katarina60431,25014 Mar 1999
🖥️ Does anyone else's modem sound different since Tuesday??beeper_bojan452,21012 Mar 1999
🧦 Socks: wash inside out or not? (spouse disagreement, serious)deda_miloš884,0157 Mar 1999

Forum software: WebBoard Deluxe v2.0 (registered!) · Server time: 14-Mar-1999 22:47 CET · NEW! = posted since your last visit (1997)

★ HOT THREAD OF THE WEEK: WHAT DOES 'RECONSTRUCTION' MEAN TO YOU? ★
SELECTED FROM THE INDEX: 🚂 Phase 1 COMPLETE: Belgrade–Zagreb night train reconnected!!!
started by TrainFan_84 · 18,440 recorded views
WDWebMaster_Darko (Administrator)
joined Jun 1996 · 4,208 postsposted
01 Mar 1999 21:04

Dobar dan, dear citizens of the net!!

Since this forum opened its doors in 1996, one question has kept the mod team awake past our dial-up curfew: what does "reconstruction" actually mean to YOU? Is it rails and bridges? Is it stamps and timetables? Is it one more summer where the whole coast speaks a common language of bad karaoke and good ice cream?

Post your answers below. Long posts welcome — the server has a WHOLE 5 megabytes now.

— Darko · 486DX2, 8MB RAM · best connection: 14.4kbps after midnight
T8TrainFan_84 (Senior Member)
joined Sep 1996 · 1,876 postsposted
02 Mar 1999 07:55

For me it is very simple: reconstruction = the night train running Ljubljana → Zagreb → Beograd → Skopje without a single border pause longer than a cigarette.

I have dreamed this route 41 times since 1991. In the dream the dining car serves espresso in real porcelain. I have drawn the timetable. It is in my signature. Please review it.

| timetables, timetables, timetables | | 'You can measure a country in platforms.' |
PPpostal_pigeon (Member)
joined Feb 1997 · 640 postsposted
02 Mar 1999 14:32

Railways are fine but consider: POSTCARDS. Reconstruction means the postcard I send from Lake Bled arrives in Ohrid before the ice cream in my friend's hand melts.

Round 14 of the exchange program is OPEN. 214 participants so far. We are bigger than some actual postal systems I will not name.

»»— collect stamps, not grudges —««
VZvesna_from_zagreb (Moderator)
joined Nov 1996 · 2,911 postsposted
03 Mar 1999 00:17

It means the radio. One frequency, midnight to six, playing everything from Novi Sad to Titograd, no talking, just music and the sound of the sea between songs.

(Also: per forum rules §4.2, this thread stays HOPEFUL. Anyone dragging 1991 politics in here gets one warning and then the ban hammer of friendship.)

♪ Vesna — 'tamo gdje je dom, tu je i radio' ♪
✉ EMAIL THIS THREAD TO A FRIEND

Showing posts 1–4 of 312 · back to forum index

★ ⚠ IMPORTANT POLL ⚠ WHERE SHOULD THE RECONSTRUCTION CONGRESS MEET? ★
— 34% (1,184 votes)
— 29% (996 votes)
— 21% (731 votes)
— 16% (554 votes)

Click a city to vote! One vote per visitor (the honor system, it works).

★ 📖 SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK (PLEASE!!) ★
Mirsada from Sarajevo · 13 Mar 1999
Beautiful page!!! Serious work. Come visit the horse chestnut promenade, it smells like spring already.
Jože from Maribor · 11 Mar 1999
I put this forum in my bookmarks folder called IMPORTANT. My son says the internet will never catch on. We shall see, Jože jr. We shall see.
Athena_WebSurfer_1999 from The Information Superhighway · 09 Mar 1999
COOL SITE!!! I got here from the Yugo Web Ring. Your hit counter is very impressive. Sign mine too? ~*~ greetings from the net ~*~

3 entries · guestbook powered by CGI-BIN (borrowed from school)

★ LINKS & WEB RING ★

Cool sites our members made (all under construction, obviously):

  • — 400 scan-line photos, MIDI autoplay (sorry)
  • — charcoal technique archive since 1997
  • — collector's checklist, updated monthly
  • — 23 photos, 1 cat, 0 regrets
★ THE YUGO WEB RING ★
· · · Site 1 of 4 · [JOIN THE RING!]
NOW VISITING: Dedicated Trainspotting Page