Fallout shelters in Zagreb after the end of World War II

Abstract

The article is based on a revised an expanded version of the presentation entitled »Fallout Shelters in Zagreb After the End of World War II«, given at the 71st Annual International Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, held 18–22 April 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The fallout shelters built on the territory of the City of Zagreb have largely remained outside the scope of architectural historiography. Nevertheless, the city’s Civil Protection organization recently cited the existence of over 900 shelter facilities under its authority. The research and analysis presented herein covers the period in which the fallout shelters were built, who conceived them, who designed and built them, under whose technical and political influence they appeared, who financed them, and, finally, whether they are necessary or obsolete in present times. The construction of air raid shelters began in 1932 and flourished in the period before World War II. The air raid shelters (officially Protuavionska zaštita, lit. Anti-Aircraft Defense) conceived in the 1948–1971 period were an integral part of the Civil Protection Forces. After the suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968, Yugoslav president Tito introduced the doctrine of self-defense and ordered the construction of fallout shelters, which was carried out in the 1974–1991 period. The article concludes with five key points. Politically, the entire process of shelter construction, including fallout shelters, was hugely dependent on the political changes in the former monarchical, and later socialist Yugoslavia. After the late 1960s, fallout shelters became one of the instruments of the militarization of Yugoslav society in the 1970s and retained this status until the collapse of the Federation. Economically, the construction of fallout shelters was a huge burden to the socialist economy, despite the availability of cheap labor and the Yugoslav debt-driven self-management-based economic system. Hyperinflation in the 1980s eroded the nominal funds that had been collected as a »shelter tax«. Technologically, the reinforced-concrete shelter construction was in line with contemporaneous global developments. While the construction of the structures themselves did not present any problems, the control process was inadequate due to parallel power structures. The question of aesthetics was not even raised, as the shelters were conceptualized solely for protecting the population. Due to the project’s military nature, the visible parts of the shelters were designed to be as inconspicuous as possible, while the interiors were executed in the simplest possible manner. Regarding their fate, the shelters proved useful during the air raids in the 1991–1995 period, but afterwards they gradually fell into neglect. Nevertheless, the current administrations are attempting to organize their use in the event of possible natural or human-made disasters, particularly in light of the worsening geopolitical situation at the time of this article’s presentation and publication.