Written by: Srećko Ignjatović
The document we are about to publish was saved entirely by chance and dates back to 1985. Namely, in early 1996, the workers at the Sarajevo railway station were rapidly preparing to launch the first post-war trains. While cleaning out the station master’s office, among a multitude of documents hurriedly thrown into trash bags, there was the aforementioned document, which (saved by the author of these lines) was considered to be of great value and interesting for future research.
The list comprises a generation of railway workers who, a year earlier (before the Salt Lake City 1984 Winter Olympics), undertook a tremendous task with great enthusiasm and successfully completed their mission. Among them are workers from the fifth, sixth, and seventh decades of the past century, associated with narrow-gauge railway lines when Sarajevo was reached bycika, or the generation of workers when Sarajevo was connected to the Sava River via regular track (Strizivojno Vrpolje 1947) and later to the Adriatic (Ploče 1966).
Most of the workers on the list belong to the younger generation (employed in the 1970s and 1980s), including newly hired employees who established their first permanent job. During that time, all those considered the golden age for the working class, they built a special trust among themselves, grew together, and shaped into the role of good and conscientious railway workers. In the socialist system, the “state railway worker” was highly valued and properly protected, never perceiving their work as a burden nor thinking about the amount of their salary, because everything was timely with the distribution of bonuses and holiday pay.
The list includes workers who are direct participants in railway traffic and excludes employees of ‘common’ services (legal and personnel affairs, economics, etc.). A detailed review of acting officers after the war (1992-1995), according to the new systematization, excluded teleprinter operators, train handlers, attendants of salon cars, train hosts (captains on business trains like Bosnia Express), audio-video system operators (on Olympic trains), announcers, warehouse workers, cloakroom attendants, lampists, building security guards (armed guards), car loaders (ramps for loading cars into sets of ‘Laekks’), platform cleaners, and others.
Regarding the staffing levels of certain professions, for example, conductors, there were 125 personnel employed at that time (by the end of 1991, a total of 142). According to the new organizational structure, around 20 workers were allocated to each position of conductor, and today (2023), there are about 10-12 active. The same applies to other professions.
Reading the list always brings to mind those comrades from ‘our’ era, many of whom are no longer with us. In my work, they were a great support and help, generous with their time and experiences. Whenever I meet one of the survivors, each has his own story and carries it in his own way. For the fallen comrades, ‘Rest in Peace,’ and for us, who slowly travel this world toward death, ‘Live in Peace.’
The original document comes from a personal archive collection and can be viewed through the photo gallery of this article.
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