Figure 1.--Here we see Serbian children doing their First Communion in 1960. Religioius practice declined as a result of Communist control, but was still widespread. Only one boy has a tiem but all but one has buttoned his collar. It appears (but I cannot be 100% certain) that all the boys wear short suits. The boy with the tie also wears dark non patent leather strap shoes. One boy on the far end wears which sandals. Two boys wear sailor suits with svarves and white strap shoes. One boy in the back row wears a jacket without a lapel and what appears to be a pocket square. At least two other boys appear to be wearing pocket squares too. All the boys but one have relatively short haircuts. The tall boy in the back row seems to wear his hair a bit longer than the others who appear to received haircuts just before this photo was taken.
Religious onservation was very strong in Yugoslavia. The strong religious belief in the 19th continued into the early-20th century when Yugoslavia was created. We have no inforrmation on Fiest Communiin in the 19th century, but we have some 20th century information. There continued to be almost universal religious identification in the eraly-20century. And we have found quite a number of First Communion portraits in the photographic record. And religious practice only began to change after World War II with the Communist Government atheist campaign. And even then the change was relatively slow. In fact religious observation appears to have declined more steeply in Western Europe than in Yugoslavia, despite the Government's atheist campaign. It appears that secular influences in the West were more powerful than the Communist atheist campaign. Religious observation, especially First Communion for the children continued. We see children doing First Communiib throughoiut the Communist era (1945-89). And this included families that were not chgurch menbers. This was the case for the Catholic and Orthodox and related denominations. We are less sure about the Protestant demonination, but they were a very small part of the population. So as to avoid duplicatiion. we will archive First Cimmunioin images primarilt in the pages of the cinstituent reopiblics which today are indepndent countries. .
Sources
Stavrianos, Leften Stavros. The Balkans since 1453 (2000).
