Tobacco and Alcohol in the First Yugoslavian Parliament

Abstract

After the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the rise of Yugoslavia, Slovenia became part of a new socio-cultural reality that differed considerably from the preceding Austrian one. The new state thus witnessed a clash of exactly opposite views and conceptualizations of various levels of political, societal and, of course, social life. One of the meeting points of people from various worlds was the Belgrade assembly, to which the writer Krleza illustratively, if with some exaggeration, referred as an “unintelligent and utterly primitive negation of any, even the most modest form of parliamentarianism” that featured fierce political fights, insidious plots, varied political styles and the most diverse personalities, who got elected all the way from Jesenice in the north to Gevgelija in the south, as well as a lot of drinking and even more smoking. Passions clashed on a daily basis, which brought everyday life in the Parliament close to the thesis of the Serbian politician Dragoljub Jovanović, who said that »a politician has to be passionate; however, he should have no other passions and weaknesses but politics.« Yet the MPs of old Yugoslavia did have a number of ordinary “other passions”. Among the most common and at the time the least disputable ones were alcohol and tobacco; both were trademarks of public life. An insight into the customs and circumstances regarding drinking and smoking in the Belgrade Parliament reveals a relatively unknown social side of the Parliament, beyond political clashes. It shows the everyday life of an MP of the National Assembly and his attitude towards smoking and alcohol. Despite the diversity within the first Yugoslavia, we can see that taking pleasure in such indulgences was self-understood, and their concrete role in various events considerable.