Summary
Aleksandar Matković: At the dawn of revolution: Marxist education in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Revolutions do not start on the street, but in classrooms, prisons and secret courses. The book At the dawn of the revolution. Marxist education in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia reveals exactly that hidden space of history, the world in which future revolutionaries were prepared before stepping onto the big stage. Aleksandar Matković follows the creation and development of the network of party schools and courses through which the Communist Party of Yugoslavia formed its cadres on the eve of World War II. In these "classrooms" knowledge was acquired much broader than ideological. Economics, law, history and the organization of society are considered tools for understanding and reshaping the world. Marxist education, as this book shows, was understood as the first stage of revolution, in fact, as preparation for profound social changes. The special value of the publication is given by hitherto unpublished documents, preserved in archives throughout the former Yugoslavia, which for the first time allow a direct insight into the way of thinking and daily work of the communists of that time. Therefore, this book outgrows the story of a political ideology. It is a story about a time when it was believed that society could be built with knowledge.
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