Croatian Society in Communist Yugoslavia Shown in Cartoons in Zagreb Daily Vjesnik in the 1950s

The major social problems in Croatia in the 1950s were detected using cartoons published in the Zagreb daily Vjesnik as a source of historiography. The cartoons clearly illustrate the major social problems of communist Croatia as follows: bureaucracy, alcoholism, nepotism, and unfavourable social status of women, society's negative attitude towards children and youth, insufficient efforts in the tourist industry, unfavourable housing conditions for large parts of the population, high prices of food and other necessities. The cartoons proved to be a very accurate indicator of social problems since the bulk of problem areas they dealt with was corroborated in literature, in other words historical and sociological research showed the justification of caricaturing individual issues. For part of the cartoons whose problem areas have not been researched, one could assume, based on the accuracy of the social problems researched and analysed, that they are also an authentic presenter of society and its issues.