In the aftermath of the 1960 great earthquake in Skopje, and the supression of the Prague Spring in 1968 by the Warsaw Pact members, the authorities used the programs of Civil Protection and Total National Defence and Social Self-Defence, which became part of the educational curriculum, to work on preparing the population for the events of natural disasters or for attacks of internal and external enemies of the state.
With slogans such as “The enemy never sleeps”, the concept of the “armed people” was adopted. Shelters were built, students practiced shooting in shooting ranges, lectures and various courses were held in schools and enterprises. One of the most famous was a practice of the emergency procedures under the sonorous title “Nothing should surprise us”, held for the first time in Kutina in 1967. The practice was supposed to check the readiness of the population in case of natural disasters such as fire or earthquake. The first practice had 2000 participants but already in 1976, half of the Croatian population, i.e. two million and two hundred thousand people took part.
