@nami-swan7394
just from the title i learned something new lmao
@Barbarpapa1
Very interesting topic indeed! I’m from Slovenia and old enough to remember Yugoslavia times well. There were rumours around in time of Yugoslavia that the country tried to build a nuclear bomb. There was also a joke, that someone from Tito’s close staff asked him something like that: “Okay, when we have the bomb, how should we deliver it to the target? In a suitcase on international flight?”. On thing is to have a bomb, delivering it is a second one. Remember, the Boeing B29 development programme costs more than Manhattan project itself. In Yugoslavia there were numerous military aerospace programs, dealing with planes and missiles, but none of such magnitude that would be capable to carry a bomb far enough. At least I can’t recall of any such project. Yugoslavia was still interested in energy nuclear programme which resulted in nuclear powerplant at Krško, Slovenija (near Croatian border), Westinghouse has delivered it. Interesting fact is that a second uranium mine was established, Žirovski Vrh uranium mine in Slovenia. It was commercially active for a short period in late 70. and early 80., nevertheless about 3.3 million tons material was excavated, producing 630.000 tons of uranium ore which resulted in 425 tons of uranium concentrate (yellowcake). This concentrate was sent to USA to produce fuel for Krško nuclear powerplant. Legacy of Yugoslav nuclear bomb are also three institutes (Jožef Štefan, Ruđer Bošković and Vinča), which are still around and active…
@douro20
Pyotr Kapitsa was the one who discovered superfluidity in supercooled gases, particularly helium which he cooled to 1.4K using an apparatus of his own design. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for this work. He was also credited with convincing Molotov to spare the physics genius Lev Landau from Stalin's purges
@cartmann94
just the thought of a nuclear-armed Balkans during the 90s civil war. We dodged a bullet on that one, considering the hell it already was.
@Dac_DT_MKD
21:24 Tito and Khrushchev aren't just looking at things. In that photo they're looking at the aftermath of the earthquake that hit Skopje, the capital of Socialist Republic of Macedonia which was part of Yugoslavia, in 1963. That photo was taken at the Skopje's main square.
@dessmode
Thanks for covering Yugoslavian tech history. I was raised and lived my young years and it was a great period until the war.
@Istok939
The uranium mine mentioned at 7:03 is located on the territory of the village of Gabrovnica. My great-grandfather worked in the shaft during the short period the mine was operational. After it closed, the economy of the village collapsed and people started moving out, leaving Gabrovnica with only ONE inhabitant today. The mine itself is still there, lightly fenced, so you can walk around the compound and explore it. It even claimed a life several years ago when a man was electrocuted while trying to steal copper wires from one of the buildings. On a light note - the village also holds the only cave drawings on Serbian territory, so it's well worth a visit.
@borissergijevic7357
Just to make it clear, Yugoslavia made important progress in nuclear physics, taking the basic steps needed to advance in the field. They developed significant knowledge and expertise, exploring the fundamental principles of nuclear energy. However, despite these accomplishments, Yugoslavia never moved forward with any serious efforts to create a nuclear bomb or anything close of that nature. Their focus remained on peaceful applications of nuclear technology, rather than pursuing weapons development or any form of military use. You can clearly see it by Yugoslavia not developing any rocket technology that is usually following a bomb development. While they achieved a peaceful foundation in the science, the direction stayed out of any ambitions to join the nuclear arms race.
@4txx
This is so interesting. Thanks for collecting the information and presenting it in such a straightforward way. I am from Serbia, and here, public only knows vague outlines of the story since things are not thought as part of history in school nor are really preseted in clear ways in media. Thank you for also other stories about Yugoslavia. All are so interesting to learn about.
@Wustenfuchs109
At 3:31 you've made a mistake. That is a building of Belgrade University administration. Physics department is on the same square, but across the park. It is a part of a large building that houses mathematics, chemistry, astrophysics, physics and physical chemistry departments of the University. The building in your picture is called Kapetan Mišino Zdanje, it houses Rektorat (as it is a seat of the Rector and his staff) and a part of Philosophical College. It has nothing to do with physics on any level. I live in Belgrade and was a student of theoretical and experimental physics, in case the question "how do you know and why should we believe you" is asked. About the accident you mention, there is a film called Guardians of the Formula, if you are interested. Not bad little film, won several prizes on European film festivals. Also, one of my grandfathers worked as a miner in a uranium mine near Kalna village (that is mentioned in the video). I, as a kid, played on the banks of the river, near the mine as we had a house in that village. For years I had stone cylinders from the mine probing that were taken from the hills around the mine (like core sampling).
@orion310591RS
9:57 - 1. Electronics and mathematics, 2. Physics, 3. Radium sector, 4. Physical chemistry, 5. Biology, 6. Accelerator V15, 7. Library, 8. Workshop, 9. Resident buildings, 10. Medical protection, 11. Administrative building.
@petarswift5089
The leading Yugoslav scientist of that time was climatologist M. Milankovitch, who was expressly against nuclear technology. His student was Pavle Savić.
@KevinBalch-dt8ot
The problem with using uranium for a bomb is the enrichment process using the technology of the time (gaseous diffusion) is that it is very energy intensive and requires a large infrastructure which is easily detected. The Chinese obviously did not care about this. (There are suggestions that the US considered a preemptive strike on China’s nuclear infrastructure in the early 1960s) Israel originally went the plutonium route with France providing both the reactor and the plutonium reprocessing technology. When this effort was delayed due to technical, political or financial problems, they ended up stealing 98% enriched uranium from a plant producing fuel elements for the US Navy in Pennsylvania in the early 1960s. Israel had two land-based bombs on standby before the 1967 war as a doomsday option if the war went bad and Egypt was in a position to invade Israel. I believe the USS Liberty was attacked because Israel knew or suspected that the Liberty intercepted communications that reveled the existence of these bombs. The attack was covered up and classified as an accident to prevent a nuclear arms race in the middle east and hide the embarrassing theft of uranium from the US as well as domestic political considerations which were present way backthen asthey are to this very day.
@Gaetano.94
Wasn't expecting this video. Hvala!
@d_rooster
Your channel is one of the truly great ones on this platform. Thank you for this video, there were things I didn't know about my own country. Thanks!
@CharlieTheAstronaut
Thanks so much for this! I love science, I am a Half-Serb, living in Serbia, I grew up in Yugoslavia, never knew most of this!
@AnnatarTheMaia
You are starting to delve deep into the obscure. Impressive!
@romanwyss8430
I absolutely love this channel for the high-quality documentaries even on niche topics… well done!
@steveshuffle
Život means life in Serbian/Croatian. Života Vranic carries a poweful name. He gave his life for others, a hero indeed.
@MolinaUdofo