This article explores the development of the Yugoslav blood transfusion system and practices, analysing them from their beginnings in the 1920s to the end of Yugoslavia. It shows that Yugoslav doctors experimented with blood transfusion almost as early as their international colleagues. Nevertheless, it took a massive effort by the post-war Yugoslav communists to develop the infrastructure, workforce, blood production system and modern practices needed to meet ever-growing demands. I show that Yugoslav communists based their organisational framework on the Soviet model with assistance from Soviet specialists, yet I argue that Yugoslav doctors also followed practices in the West. Furthermore, I show that the development of voluntary blood donation in Yugoslavia represented a departure from the earlier Soviet system based on paid donation and reflected diverse international influences. Following the split with the Soviet Union and the adoption of a non-aligned foreign policy, Yugoslav healthcare developed without adhering to a single political model and Yugoslav doctors were eventually able to participate freely in the exchange of knowledge with both the Western and Eastern blocs. However, the article also shows that once the blood donation system relied on incentives, making it fully voluntary proved almost impossible, a problem that became acute when Yugoslav socialism collapsed and the socialist economy disappeared. Finally, by situating Yugoslav healthcare within a transnational history paradigm, this article demonstrates the importance of examining the circulation of ideas in health, as medical practices were shaped by complex and overlapping international influences rather than by a single political system.
Ivan Šimić (Thu,) studied this question.