The Soviet era was, for much of the 20th century, one of oppression. Almost all of the people who lived and died in the countries that formed the USSR did so under the thumb of oppressive, unelected and corrupt old men, seeking to serve only themselves and support the power structure which empowered only them.
To protest against such cruelty was a dangerous thing indeed, and time and again the Red Army was sent into Eastern Bloc countries such as Czechoslovakia and the Baltic States to crush any nascent opposition. It took a certain type of person to stand up to such oppression, and to defy the authorities was rare indeed.
But for one man in Soviet Yugoslavia, defiance was a way of life. He wasn’t even trying to make a point about communism, but his defiance of the rule of the authorities made him a star, and the public response showed Yugoslavia for the first time the extent of the unpopularity of the ruling elite.
This is the story of Vlada Vasiljević, the Belgrade Phantom.
