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Yugoslavia Military Life
Yugoslavia's socialist self-management system was defended by
the one institution in the country that did not practice selfmanagement
(see Socialist Self-Management
, ch. 3). It was
believed that the independence implicit in self-management was
contradictory to the essential military principles of command,
subordination, and discipline.
Soldiers received free military housing, meals, and health
care, plus a small monthly payment for personal expenses. They
spent a considerable amount of time producing their own food.
Larger military units raised and slaughtered livestock and grew
various staple crops. The stipulated average work week of a YPA
soldier was forty-two hours; however, training exercises and
maneuvers could extend that time. Soldiers were entitled to
fifteen to twenty-one days of regular leave during the activeduty period. Some received extra leave privileges for good
conduct. Overall the standard of living of the average soldier
was below that of his civilian counterpart. This was not a
serious concern, because military service was both mandatory and
relatively brief.
While they lacked the privileges of self-management, soldiers
had a special right to complain to their immediate superiors
about unsatisfactory working and living conditions. They could
appeal an unfavorable decision to a higher officer within thirty
days. Military law stipulated that regular meetings of military
units and facilities would discuss housing, health care, and
other conditions of military life. Like other citizens, soldiers
voted for delegates to serve in commune, republic or province,
and federal assemblies. These delegates represented their service
post and not their home region.
The majority of soldiers came directly to the service from
school, but if they were employed prior to conscription they had
the right to return to their former jobs. Military service
brought with it a fairly generous disability allowance as well as
death benefits to a soldier's family.
Unlike soldiers, officers received sufficient pay and
allowances to live in better circumstances than their civilian
counterparts. Officer pay was determined by a combination of
factors including rank, length of service, marital status, and
number of dependents. Officers received generous allowances for
travel, family separation, cost-of-living differentials, and
other hardships. Air crews and airborne officers received
hazardous duty pay, and medical doctors, engineers, and
technicians with special skills or training received extra
incentive pay to stay in the service.
Promotions were awarded rapidly and equitably. Active-duty
performance was evaluated as either favorable or unfavorable. A
favorable rating was further classified as adequate, good,
outstanding, or especially outstanding. Officers were rated after
one year of service and every three years thereafter until the
tenth year of service. After ten years of service, they were
evaluated every four years.
Officer benefits were generous. Leave amounted to thirty days
every year. Officers with more than twenty-five years of activeduty service or older than age fifty received an additional ten
days per year. In most cases, retirement pay was more than fifty
percent of active-duty pay. Nevertheless, inadequate military
housing was a common problem that lowered morale among officers.
Data as of December 1990
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