Home » SAVREMENA ISTORIJA, god. 1, br. 1 (2026) » Science, Energy and Weapons: Nuclear Ambitions of Socialist Yugoslavia 1945–1990

Science, Energy and Weapons: Nuclear Ambitions of Socialist Yugoslavia 1945–1990

Dragomir Bondžić
Institute for Contemporary History, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia

PUN TEKST U PDF-U

god. 1, br. 1 (2026), str. 217-242
https://doi.org/10.29362/savremena.2026.1.bon.217-242

 

APSTRAKT/REZIME:

The paper provides an overview of the development of nuclear research in socialist Yugoslavia from the late 1940s to the end of the 1980s. It reviews the ambitions of the state leadership in developing fundamental nuclear research, their application in energy production and the construction of nuclear power plants, as well as occasional ambitions for military applications. The development of institutions, construction of facilities, personnel training, international cooperation, internal and foreign political motives, and the role of state security bodies and the army in certain segments and periods of research are presented. An overview of the most important historiographical works, political science studies, and memoirs on this topic is also provided.

 

KLJUČNE REČI:
Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, Pavle Savić, nuclear scientific research, nuclear institutes, nuclear energy, nuclear power plant, nuclear weapon, proliferation

 

REFERENCE:

  • Ajdačić, Vladimir. „Razgovor s Miloradom Mlađenovićem“. Flogiston, br. 12, (2002), 175–200.
  • Anton Peterlin 1908–1993: življenje in delo. Urednik Vili Bukošek, et al. Ljubljana: SAZU, Inštitut Jožefa Stefana, 2008.
  • Bondžić, Dragomir. „Saradnja Jugoslavije i SSSR- a u oblasti nuklearne energije 1955–1965“. Srpsko-ruski odnosi od početka 18. do kraja 20. veka. Urednik Mihailo Vojvodić, 317– 331. Beograd: SANU, 2011.
  • Bondžić, Dragomir. „Lečenje saradnika Instituta „Boris Kidrič“ u Vinči ozračenih u akcidentu 15. oktobra 1958.“. U: Istorija medicine, farmacije, veterine i narodna zdravstvena kultura, knj. 4. Urednik Nadežda Pedović, 247–256. Zaječar: Istorijski arhiv, 2013.
  • Bondžić, Dragomir. „Rad Pavla Savića u Moskvi 1944. i 1945/46. i projekat za izgradnju jugoslovenskog instituta za fiziku“. Istorija 20. veka, br. 2, (2015), 91–104. https://doi.org/10.29362/ist20veka.2015.2.bon.91-104
  • Bondžić, Dragomir. „Istraživanje rude urana u južnoj i istočnoj Srbiji i Makedoniji nakon Drugog svjetskog rata“. Leskovački zbornik, LV (2015), 247–259.
  • Bondžić, Dragomir. Između ambicija i iluzija. Nuklearna politika Jugoslavije 1945–1990. Beograd: Institut za savremenu istoriju, Društvo istoričara Srbije „Stojan Novaković“, 2016.
  • Bondžić, Dragomir. „Indijska nuklearna proba 1974. godine – odjeci u Jugoslaviji“. Istorija 20. veka, br. 1 (2016), 139–157. https://doi.org/10.29362/ist20veka.2016.1.bon.139-157
  • Bondžić Dragomir, i Martin Previšić. „Stevan Dedijer in the Documents of the State Security Service from mid-1950s to mid-1980s”. Istorija 20. veka, br. 2, (2025), 439–464. https://doi.org/10.29362/ist20veka.2025.2.bon.439-464
  • Bondžić, Dragomir. Između ambicija i iluzija. Nuklearna politika Jugoslavije 1945–1990. (2. izdanje), Zagreb: FF Press, 2025.
  • Charnysh, Volha. A Brief History of Nuclear Proliferation. Santa Barbara: Nuclear Peace Foundation, 2009.
  • Dedijer, Stevan. Špijun kojeg smo voljeli. Autobiografija. Zagreb: VBZ, 2011.
  • Draganić, Ivan. Kroz svet radijacija i radioaktivnosti. Sto godina atomske ere. Beograd: Muzej nauke i tehnike, Geoinstitut, Zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva, 1996.
  • Holloway, David. Stalin and the Bomb. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1994.
  • Hughes, Jeff. “Radioactivity and Nuclear Physics”. In: Mary Jo Nye (ed.), The Cambridge History of Science. Vol. V. The Modern Physical and Mathematical Sciences, 350–374. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2002.
  • Hymans, Jacques E. C. “Proliferation Implications of Civil Nuclear Cooperation: Theory and a Case Study of Tito’s Yugoslavia”. Security Studies, vol. 20, no. 1 (2011), 73–104. https://doi.org/10.1080/09636412.2011.549013
  • Hymans, Jacques E. C., Achieving Nuclear Ambitions: Scientists, Politicians, and Proliferation. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139049429
  • Prvih pedeset godina 1948–1998. Urednik Radule Popović. Beograd: Geoinstitut, 1998.
  • Ivan Supek 1915–2007. Spomenica preminulim akademicima. Ur. Ksenofont Ilakovac. Zagreb: HAZU, 2013.
  • Jevtić, Miloš. Razgovori s Vinčancima. Beograd: Institut za nuklearne nauke „Vinča“, 1998
  • Južnič, Stanislav. “First Half of Century of Slovenian Nuclear Energy”, https://www.academia.edu/25653537/ (pristupljeno 22. 2025).
  • Kazivanja Pavla Savića o periodu 1944–1960. godine. Beograd: Institut za nuklearne nauke „Vinča“, 1993.
  • Knapp, Vladimir. „Jugobomba – šta je istina? Prilog raspravi“. Međunarodne studije, god. 12, br. 3/4 (2012), 133–154.
  • Koch, Andrew. “Yugoslavia’s Nuclear Legacy: Should We Worry?”. The Nonproliferation Review, vol. 4, no. 3 (1997), 123–128. https://doi.org/10.1080/10736709708436687
  • Konta, Carla. “Yugoslav Nuclear Diplomacy between the Soviet Union and the United States in the Early and Mid‑Cold War”. Cahiers du monde russe, 60, 2-3 (2019), 417–440. https://doi.org/10.4000/monderusse.11239
  • Korolija, Maja N. “Dynamics of the Relationship Between Science and Ideology and the Origins of the Nuclear Program in the Context of the Socioeconomic Transformation of the FPRY”. Doctoral Dissertation, Belgrade, University of Belgrade, 2024.
  • Korolija, Maja. “The Yugoslav Nuclear Program in the Context of the Cold War (1946–1971)”. Filozofski vestnik, 46, 1, (2025), 205–236 https://doi.org/10.3986/fv.46.1.08
  • Kostić Šulejić, Marina. Vojna neutralnost i nuklearno oružje: između posedovanja i zabrane: slučaj Evrope i opcije za Srbiju. Beograd: Institut za međunarodnu politiku i privredu, 2024.
  • Kragh, Helge. Quantum Generations: A History of Physics in Twentieth Century. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1999. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691214191
  • L’Annunziata, Michael F. Introduction and history. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2007.
  • Miljković, Marko. “Nuclear Yutopia: The Outcome of the First Nuclear Accident in Yugoslavia 1958”. In: Labor in State-Socialist Europe 1945-1989, Contributions to a History of Work, ed. Marsha Siefert, 274–305. Budapest-New York, CEU Press, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1515/9789633863381-015
  • Miljković, Marko. “The Yugoslav ‘Operation Paperclip’: German Geologists in the Yugoslav Nuclear Program in the Late 1940s and Early 1950s”. Godišnjak za društvenu istoriju, 3, (2021), 7–32.
  • Miljković, Marko. “Tito’s Proliferation Puzzle: The Yugoslav Nuclear Program, 1948–1970”. A Dissertation in History, Vienna, CEU, 2021.
  • Miljković, Marko. Titova atomska bomba. Jugoslavenski nuklearni program 1948–1970. Zagreb: Srednja Europa, 2025.
  • Mlađenović, Milorad. The History of Early Nuclear Physics (1896–1931). Singapore: World Scientific, 1998.
  • Nakićenović Slobodan, Nuklearna energija u Jugoslaviji, Beograd: Export press, 1960.
  • Nikčević, Tamara. Goli otoci Jova Kapičića. Beograd: VBZ, 2010.
  • Pešić, Milan. “Estimation of Doses Received by the Operators in the 1958 RB Reactor Accident Using the MCNP5 Computer Code Estimation”. Nuclear Technology & Radiation Protection, vol. 27, no. 3, (2012), 199–221. https://doi.org/10.2298/NTRP1203199P
  • Petrović, Ljubomir. „Kreiranje nuklearne svesti. Problemi Jugoslovenskog društva za zaštitu od zračenja 1963–1975. godine“. Istorija 20. veka, br. 1 (2009), 123–138.
  • Petrović, Ljubomir. „Nuklearna havarija u Černobilu 1986. Prilog istraživanju ekoloških problema 20. veka“. Istorija 20. veka, br. 2 (2010), 101–116.
  • Pola veka Instituta „Vinča“ (1948–1998). Urednik Branislava Perović-Nešković. Beograd: Institut za nuklearne nauke „Vinča“, Zavod za udžbenike, 2000.
  • Potter William, Djuro Miljanic i Ivo Slaus. “Tito’s Nuclear Legacy”. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 56, 2, (2000), 63–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/00963402.2000.11456946
  • Ražem, Dušan. “Radiation Processing in the Former Yugoslavia 1947–1966: From ’Big Science’ to ’Nulity’”. Minerva, vol. 32, no. 3 (1994), 309–326 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01098665.
  • Rhodes, Richard, The making of the Atomic Bomb. New York, London: Simon & Schuster.
  • Ribnikar, Slobodan V. „Pavle Savić (1909–1994)“. U: Život i delo srpskih naučnika, tom 5. Urednik Miloje R. Sarić, 417–442. Beograd: SANU, 1999.
  • Ristić, Milorad. „Kako sam doživljavao Vinču (1951–1966)“. Flogiston, br. 8 (1998), 226–236.
  • Ristić, Milorad. „Karijera jednog inženjera“. Flogiston, br. 13 (2003./2005), 145–173.
  • Rudež Tanja, i Krunoslav Pisk. Institut Ruđer Bošković. Ljudi i događaji 1950.–2000. Zagreb: Školska knjiga, 2017.
  • Savić, Pavle. Nauka i društvo. Izabrani radovi. Prilozi životopisu. Beograd: SKZ, 1978.
  • Stojanović, Bogdan. „Ekološka bezbednost kao razlog odustajanja država od programa nuklearnog naoružanja?. Doktorska disertacija, Univerzitet u Beogradu, Fakultet političkih nauka, 2021.
  • Stojanović, Bogdan. Teorija denuklearizacije: zašto države prekidaju programe nuklearnog naoružanja?. Beograd: Institut za međunarodnu politiku i privredu, 2021.
  • Supek, Ivan. Tragom duha kroz divljinu. Zagreb: Profil, 2006.
  • Supek, Ivan. Ivan Supek: vizije i ostvarenja, nadanja i razočaranja. Zagreb: Tragovi prošlosti, 2025.
  • Weart, Spencer R. The Rise of nuclear fear. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674065062