53 pages • 1 hour read
How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed
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Summary and Study Guide
Overview
How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed (1992) by Croatian essayist and journalist Slavenka Drakulić details life in Communist Eastern Europe, especially the former Yugoslavia (which after 1989 would become eight distinct countries, including Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, and Montenegro). Drakulić wrote this collection in response to the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and dissolution of the USSR; in her view, there was more political coverage than reflections of how communism affected quotidian life. In the decade before the publication of this book, Drakulić worked as a popular journalist in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.
The book’s themes include hope, the effects of politics on one’s personal life, and the authoritarian possibilities of politics. The nineteen chapters are arranged by theme and are not chronological.
Born in 1949, Drakulić’s father had been an accomplished army officer. As communists, the family did not celebrate Christmas or Easter. In school, Drakulić quickly understood that saying anything counter state-approved doctrine would be met with punishment. In her daily life, she realized she was always under state surveillance and against her will, started to censor herself from even thinking subversive thoughts.
Drakulić studied sociology and comparative literature as an undergraduate.
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