Symbols of progress

Vito Nikolić sang: "You forgot me, sadness, the roads./ It's been a long time since no one came to visit./ The whiteness makes my sight tired./ The slow hours have come to me".

And the old Gusinians, Hilmo Čekić, Bajro Hot, Kamer Hasanđekić and Rustem Balidemić, said to me: "The road, and everything else! The road is salvation for us. A peasant prefers a good road to a factory! A good road has always been a symbol of progress".

Montenegrin roads, until the end of the fifties, in macadam; like dried up streams. The only piece of asphalt was above the castle in Miločer, so that the queen would not get dust.

And when, at the end of the thirties of the last century, the queen arrived in Miločer, Belgrade Politics brought the news: "Yesterday the queen parted ways with the ship's crew..." A famous typographical error.

Intentionally or not, some "mischievous" speller, not very favorite of the queen, instead of: "discharged", rumbled: "discharged".

Traffic is the biggest problem

For a long time, that piece of asphalt, near Miločer, was plowed. And then, on September 22, 1959, in a hotel in Pljeval Tara, Tito said: "Perhaps I have never been as convinced as I am now that traffic is the biggest problem for Montenegro." In these hills, winding and narrow roads cannot serve faster and stronger economic development. That is why it is necessary to strengthen the means of transport here, first of all the railway..."

The Jadranska magistrala soon broke out. The youth also built roads. In 1964, nineteen thousand brigade members from Montenegro and Yugoslavia built the highway from Kolašin to Bijelo Polje in seven months. They coined the song: "We swear to the beloved Marshal, we will build the Jadran-Magistral". And: Tara, the sung sorceress, blindfolded with an asphalt strip, happily squints.

In Žabljak, on August 7, 1970, Tito spoke again about the Montenegrin traffic infrastructure. "I will pledge to help the Durmitor region, especially with regard to the construction of roads, without which it is impossible to develop the economy, especially tourism, which is a priority here," said Tito at the time. "The Mojkovac-Žabljak road should be reconstructed as soon as possible. We need to see how the community can speed up the construction of the Belgrade-Bar railway. Montenegro has been reborn and you have the opportunity to move forward even faster. In your country, there are special conditions for the development of tourism. But your roads are too narrow and too weak to absorb the number of cars that arrive every day. We will have to resolve as soon as possible to finish what has been started, because the longer it takes to build, the more expensive it is..."

Making friends with bridges

Already in December 1972, the metal structure of the giant bridge on the Mala Rijeka was connected.

I: reminding. On a windy December 17, 1972, I am standing on this bridge, with the workers of Belgrade Bridge construction, celebrating the bridging of the Little River. The workers, accustomed to the wind and the height, can climb with ease against the steel structure. One hums that of Bilkić: "Don't pity her, my friend... "

"I'm used to making friends with bridges, hanging over the abysses of rivers," the corpulent brat Milomir Tadić, the installation manager, tells me. "It was not easy to build this bridge. Climatic conditions are quite unfavorable. A strong north wind rushes in from Vjeternik in no time. But we succeeded; so we are extremely happy. None of us used annual leave; soon we will go on a collective vacation, and then we will come again, so that we can finally finish the bridge in March".

On sunny May 29, 1976, at 11,15:XNUMX a.m., he walked into the festively decorated Titograd railway station Blue train with Tito and the then highest party and state leaders of Yugoslavia, republics and provinces. One hundred thousand people welcome! The Belgrade-Bar railway was put into traffic. Generations have dreamed of that day; fantasized, wished...

At one time, Duke Gavro Vuković, the Montenegrin Minister of Foreign Affairs, advocated realizing the idea of ​​building a trans-Balkan railway from the lower course of the Danube to the Adriatic Sea, i.e. the Bar. He held talks with the French and Italian governments, the Italian King Vittorio Emanuele and the Russian ambassador to Cetinje, because he was aware of the great importance this railway would have for Montenegro. Italy and France believed that the project could be of great economic benefit for the Balkan nations, and especially for Montenegro. The Russian government, however, refused to support this idea, because, as noted by Duke Gavro, it believed that Montenegro did not need economic development, but to remain a patriarchal military camp... Instructive.

Unwarranted criticism

Just as there are critics of the Bar-Boljara highway today, there were also those who opposed the construction of the Bar-Belgrade railway.

In the Green Lounge iconic Titograd hotel Montenegro, at a ceremonial lunch on May 29, 1976. Tito said:

"We left Belgrade to test this railway, with the entire Yugoslav leadership, with representatives of the republics and the Federation. We wanted to show that those criticisms directed at us when we asked for that railway to be built were not justified! The decision to build the railroad has been fully realized today," Tito emphasized. "We checked that track now, and I can say that everything went great. Therefore, it is a great merit of our builders, workers, technicians and engineers, all those who with their mental and physical abilities overcame such difficult problems imposed by the construction of such a railway. We really admired that grandiose work…”

The centuries-old wish of the Montenegrin people has come true. The "Railway of Dreams" has arrived, and Montenegro is networked with modern roads...

And: said Vito Nikolić: "Strong roads sing in me, / roads as good as a father's palm..."