Day and Relay of Youth from the death of Tito to their suspension

Dan mladosti in štafeta mladosti sta jugoslovansko tradicijo tvorila od leta 1945 dalje. Ko je Josip Broz – Tito umrl v mesecu mladosti leta 1980, se je za Jugoslavijo začelo novo obdobje: obdobje brez Tita. Takrat so državo zaznamovale gospodarska, politična in ideološka kriza in pa ukinitev tradicije teka s štafeto in proslave na stadionu v Beogradu leta 1987. Naloga raziskuje, kako sta štafeta in dan mladosti potekala v letih 1980–1987 in kako se je odnos do njiju spremenil do takšne mere, da je to pripeljalo do njunega konca. To je prikazano s splošnim pregledom stanja v Jugoslaviji in pregledom časopisnih virov, ki nudijo podatke o poteku štafete in slovesnosti 25. maja, ob tem pa tudi objavljajo prve kritike in zahteve o spremembi oblike obeh. Ob stopnjevanju napetosti v državi je raslo tudi nezadovoljstvo nad obredoma. Ob tem naloga opiše tudi, kako je propagandi plakat, oblikovan v Sloveniji, povzročil afero, ki je organizatorje po dvainštiridesetih letih spodbudila k ukinitvi štafete in zaključne slovesnosti.Day of Youth and Relay of Youth were part of Yugoslavian tradition since 1945. After the death of Josip Broz – Tito in May 1980, Yugoslavia entered a new era: one without Tito. This era marked an economic, political and ideological crisis for the country, and the cancellation of two long standing traditions in 1987: the relay and closing ceremony in Belgrade’s stadium. This thesis looks at how the Relay of Youth and Day of Youth were carried out in the 1980–1987 time span, and how the attitudes towards them changed to such a degree that it led to their end. To illustrate this, the thesis begins with an overview of the conditions in Yugoslavia at that time and looks at newspapers which offer information about how the relay and celebration of May 25th were conducted, while also offering some of the first critical responses towards them and demands for their change. As tensions in the country began to escalate, so did the people’s dissatisfaction with the two traditions. The thesis then describes how a poster, created in Slovenia and meant to propagate the events, caused an affair that encouraged the people responsible for the events to cancel them after forty-two years