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Relay of Youth

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Full article adapted from Wikipedia revision 1372052231 by Wikipedia contributors. Text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Formatting has been adapted; article text and references are retained. Snapshot imported 2026-10-09.
Symbolic annual relay race in Yugoslavia
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Relay of Youth
Monument to relay carriers near Partizan Stadium in Belgrade.
Date1957 (1957)–1988 (1988)
Location
Batons sent by various organizations and groups to Tito at the House of Flowers (within the Museum of Yugoslavia), Dedinje, Belgrade.
Relay of Youth in Slovenia (1960)

The Relay of Youth (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: Štafeta mladosti, Serbian Cyrillic: Штафета младости, Macedonian: Штафета на младоста, Albanian: Stafeta e Rinise) was a symbolic relay race held in Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia every year. The relay carried a baton with a birthday pledge to Josip Broz Tito ostensibly from all young people of Yugoslavia.[1][2] The race usually started in Tito's birth town Kumrovec and went through all major towns and cities of the country. It ended in Belgrade at JNA Stadium on May 25, Tito's official birthday[3] and Day of Youth, a national holiday.

The relay first took place in 1945 and was formalized as a national holiday in 1957. It went on after Tito's death in 1980 and was last held in 1988.[2]

In 1987, the winning poster design for the relay caused a national scandal, as it was revealed to have been based on a Nazi propaganda poster.[1][4][5][6] The authors, the design division of Neue Slowenische Kunst, submitted the design in order to protest Tito's cult of personality, of which the relay was a major part. Along with the rising crisis of the Yugoslav state, this scandal is deemed to have significantly contributed to the decision to discontinue the Relay.

References

  1. ^ a b Mikula, Maja (2003). "Virtual Landscapes of Memory". Information, Communication and Society. 6: 169–186.
  2. ^ a b "Relay Baton and the Day of Youth" NSKSTATE.COM.
  3. ^ Although Tito's birthday was celebrated on May 25, he was in all probability born on May 7.
  4. ^ "Poster Scandal - Youth Day" NSKSTATE.COM.
  5. ^ Regina Hackett. "Slovenian art collective is adept at working politics and art". Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Friday, November 19, 2004.
  6. ^ Bartolj, Jaka (12 August 2014). "A Slovenian poster challenged Yugoslavia's Communist orthodoxy". Radiotelevizija Slovenija.
  • Wikimedia Commons logo Media related to Relay of Youth at Wikimedia Commons
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