The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in
Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
and
Southeast Europe
Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (al ...
. It emerged in 1945, following
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, and lasted until 1992, with the
breakup of Yugoslavia
The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
occurring as a consequence of the
Yugoslav Wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, SFR Yugoslavia from ...
. Spanning an area of in the
Balkans
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
, Yugoslavia was bordered by the
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to t ...
and
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
to the west, by
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
and
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
to the north, by
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
and
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
to the east, and by
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
and
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
to the south. It was a
one-party
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
socialist state
A socialist state, socialist republic, or socialist country, sometimes referred to as a workers' state or workers' republic, is a Sovereign state, sovereign State (polity), state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. The ...
and
federation
A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...
governed by the
League of Communists of Yugoslavia
The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, mk, Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na komunistite na Jugoslavija known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, sl, Komunistična partija Jugoslavije mk ...
, and had six constituent republics:
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
,
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
,
Macedonia,
Montenegro
)
, image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Podgorica
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, official_languages = M ...
,
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
, and
Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
. Within Serbia was the Yugoslav capital city of
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
as well as two autonomous Yugoslav provinces:
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
and
Vojvodina
Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Војводина}), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia. It lies within the Pannonian Basin, bordered to the south by the national capital ...
.
The SFR Yugoslavia traces its origins to 26 November 1942, when the
was formed during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
to resist
Axis occupation of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 unt ...
. Following the country's liberation,
King Peter II was deposed, the
monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutional monarchy) ...
was ended, and on 29 November 1945, the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was proclaimed. Led by
Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...
, the new
communist government
A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Comint ...
sided with the
Eastern Bloc
The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
at the beginning of the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
but pursued a policy of
neutrality following the
Tito–Stalin split
The Tito–Stalin split or the Yugoslav–Soviet split was the culmination of a conflict between the political leaderships of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, under Josip Broz Tito and Joseph Stalin, respectively, in the years following World W ...
in 1948; it became one of the founding members of the
Non-Aligned Movement
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide.
The movement originated in the aftermath o ...
, and transitioned from a
command economy
A planned economy is a type of economic system where investment, production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economy-wide economic plans and production plans. A planned economy may use centralized, decentralized, part ...
to
market-based socialism.
Following the
death of Tito on 4 May 1980, the
Yugoslav economy started to collapse, which increased unemployment and inflation. The economic crisis led to rising
ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism, also known as ethnonationalism, is a form of nationalism wherein the nation and nationality are defined in terms of ethnicity, with emphasis on an ethnocentric (and in some cases an ethnocratic) approach to various politi ...
and political dissidence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. With the
fall of communism
The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Natio ...
in
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...
, efforts to transition into a
confederation
A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
failed; the two wealthiest republics, Croatia and Slovenia, seceded and gained some international recognition in 1991. The federation dissolved along the borders of federated republics, hastened by the start of the Yugoslav Wars, and the federation formally broke up on 27 April 1992. Two republics, Serbia and Montenegro, remained within a reconstituted state known as the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
, or FR Yugoslavia, but this state was not recognized internationally as the official successor state to SFR Yugoslavia. ''
Former Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...
'' is now commonly used retrospectively.
Name
The name ''
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
'', an
Anglicised
Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...
transcription of ''Jugoslavija'', is a composite word made up of ''jug'' ('yug') (with the 'j' pronounced like an English 'y') and ''slavija''. The
Slavic word ''jug'' means 'south', while ''slavija'' ("Slavia") denotes a 'land of the
Slavs
Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...
'. Thus, a translation of ''Jugoslavija'' would be 'South-Slavia' or 'Land of the
South Slavs
South Slavs are Slavic peoples who speak South Slavic languages and inhabit a contiguous region of Southeast Europe comprising the eastern Alps and the Balkan Peninsula. Geographically separated from the West Slavs and East Slavs by Austria, Hu ...
'. The full official name of the federation varied significantly between 1945 and 1992.
[Benson, Leslie; ''Yugoslavia: a Concise History''; Palgrave Macmillan, 2001 ] Yugoslavia was formed in 1918 under the name
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Kingdom commonly refers to:
* A monarchy ruled by a king or queen
* Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy
Kingdom may also refer to:
Arts and media Television
* ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...
. In January 1929, King
Alexander I Alexander I may refer to:
* Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon 495–454 BC
* Alexander I of Epirus (370–331 BC), king of Epirus
* Pope Alexander I (died 115), early bishop of Rome
* Pope Alexander I of Alexandria (died 320s), patriarch of ...
assumed dictatorship of the kingdom and renamed it the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 unt ...
, for the first time making the term "Yugoslavia"—which had been used colloquially for decades (even before the country was formed)—the official name of the state.
After the Kingdom was occupied by the Axis during World War II, the
(AVNOJ) announced in 1943 the formation of the
Democratic Federal Yugoslavia
Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, also known as Democratic Federative Yugoslavia (DF Yugoslavia or DFY), was a provisional state established during World War II on 29 November 1943 through the Second Session of the Anti-Fascist Council for the Nation ...
(DF Yugoslavia or DFY) in the substantial resistance-controlled areas of the country. The name deliberately left the
republic
A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
-or-
kingdom
Kingdom commonly refers to:
* A monarchy ruled by a king or queen
* Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy
Kingdom may also refer to:
Arts and media Television
* ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...
question open. In 1945,
King Peter II was officially deposed, with the state reorganized as a republic, and accordingly renamed the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FPR Yugoslavia or FPRY), with the constitution coming into force in 1946.
In 1963, amid pervasive liberal constitutional reforms, the name ''Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia'' was introduced. The state is most commonly referred to by the latter name, which it held for the longest period of all. Of the three main Yugoslav languages, the Serbo-Croatian and Macedonian name for the state was identical, while Slovene slightly differed in capitalization and the spelling of the adjective ''Socialist''. The names are as follows:
*
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and ...
and
Macedonian
Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia.
Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to:
People Modern
* Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North M ...
**
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
: ''Socijalistička Federativna Republika Jugoslavija''
**
Cyrillic
, bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця
, fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs
, fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic
, fam3 = Phoenician
, fam4 = G ...
: Социјалистичка Федеративна Република Југославија
**
**
*
Slovene
** ''Socialistična federativna republika Jugoslavija''
Due to the length of the name, abbreviations were often used to refer to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, though the state was most commonly known simply as ''Yugoslavia''. The most common abbreviation is ''SFRY'', though ''SFR Yugoslavia'' was also used in an official capacity, particularly by the media.
History
World War II
On 6 April 1941, Yugoslavia was
invaded by the Axis powers led by
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
; by 17 April 1941, the country was fully occupied and was soon carved up by the
Axis
An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis
*Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinate ...
. Yugoslav resistance was soon established in two forms, the Royal
Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
Yugoslav Partisans
The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene: , or the National Liberation Army, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska (NOV), Народноослободилачка војска (НОВ); mk, Народноослобод ...
.
The Partisan supreme commander was
Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...
, and under his command, the movement soon began establishing "liberated territories" which attracted the attention of occupying forces. Unlike the various nationalist militias operating in occupied Yugoslavia, the Partisans were a pan-Yugoslav movement promoting the "
brotherhood and unity
Brotherhood and unity was a popular slogan of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia that was coined during the Yugoslav People's Liberation War (1941–45), and which evolved into a guiding principle of Yugoslavia's post-war inter-ethnic polic ...
" of Yugoslav nations and representing the republican, left-wing, and socialist elements of the Yugoslav political spectrum. The coalition of political parties, factions, and prominent individuals behind the movement was the
People's Liberation Front (''Jedinstveni narodnooslobodilački front'', JNOF), led by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ).
The Front formed a representative political body, the
(AVNOJ, ''Antifašističko Veće Narodnog Oslobođenja Jugoslavije'').
[Tomasevich, Jozo; ''War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration'', Volume 2; Stanford University Press, 2001 ] The AVNOJ, which met for the first time in Partisan-liberated
Bihać
Bihać ( cyrl, Бихаћ) is a city and the administrative centre of Una-Sana Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated on the banks of river Una in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina ...
on 26 November 1942 (
First Session of the AVNOJ
The Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia,, mk, Антифашистичко собрание за народно ослободување на Југославија commonly abbreviated as the AVNOJ, was a deliberat ...
), claimed the status of Yugoslavia's
deliberative assembly
A deliberative assembly is a meeting of members who use parliamentary procedure.
Etymology
In a speech to the electorate at Bristol in 1774, Edmund Burke described the British Parliament as a "deliberative assembly," and the expression became the ...
(parliament).
[ Lampe, John R.; ''Yugoslavia as History: Twice There Was a Country''; Cambridge University Press, 2000 ]
During 1943, the Yugoslav Partisans began attracting serious attention from the Germans. In two major operations, ''Fall Weiss'' (January to April 1943) and ''Fall Schwartz'' (15 May to 16 June 1943), the Axis attempted to stamp out the Yugoslav resistance once and for all. In the
Battle of the Neretva
Case White (german: Fall Weiss), also known as the Fourth Enemy Offensive ( sh, Četvrta neprijateljska ofenziva/ofanziva), was a combined Axis strategic offensive launched against the Yugoslav Partisans throughout occupied Yugoslavia during W ...
and the
Battle of the Sutjeska
Case Black (german: Fall Schwarz), also known as the Fifth Enemy Offensive ( sh-Latn, Peta neprijateljska ofanziva) in Yugoslav historiography and often identified with its final phase, the Battle of the Sutjeska ( sh-Latn, Bitka na Sutjesci ) ...
, the 20,000-strong Partisan Main Operational Group engaged a force of around 150,000 combined Axis troops.
In both battles, despite heavy casualties, the Group succeeded in evading the trap and retreating to safety. The Partisans emerged stronger than before and now occupied a more significant portion of Yugoslavia. The events greatly increased the standing of the Partisans, and granted them a favorable reputation among the Yugoslav populace, leading to increased recruitment. On 8 September 1943,
Fascist Italy capitulated to the
Allies
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
, leaving their occupation zone in Yugoslavia open to the Partisans. Tito took advantage of the events by briefly liberating the
Dalmatia
Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see #Name, names in other languages) is one of the four historical region, historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of ...
n shore and its cities. This secured Italian weaponry and supplies for the Partisans, volunteers from the cities previously annexed by
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, and Italian recruits crossing over to the Allies (the
Garibaldi Division
Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, patr ...
).
After this favourable chain of events, the AVNOJ decided to meet for the second time – now in Partisan-liberated
Jajce
Jajce (Јајце) is a town and municipality located in the Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the 2013 census, the town has a population of 7,172 inhabitants, with ...
. The
Second Session of the AVNOJ
The Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia,, mk, Антифашистичко собрание за народно ослободување на Југославија commonly abbreviated as the AVNOJ, was a deliberat ...
lasted from 21 to 29 November 1943 (right before and during the
Tehran Conference
The Tehran Conference (codenamed Eureka) was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943, after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. It was held in the Soviet Union's embassy i ...
), and came to a number of significant conclusions. The most significant of these was the establishment of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, a state that would be a
federation
A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...
of six equal South Slavic republics (as opposed to the allegedly
Serb
The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language.
The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
predominance in pre-war Yugoslavia). The council decided on a "neutral" name and deliberately left the question of "monarchy vs. republic" open, ruling that Peter II would only be allowed to return from exile in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
upon a favourable result of a pan-Yugoslav referendum on the question.
Among other decisions, the AVNOJ decided on forming a provisional executive body, the
National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia
The National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia ( sh, Nacionalni komitet oslobođenja Jugoslavije, sl, Nacionalni komite osvoboditve Jugoslavije, NKOJ), also known as the Yugoslav Committee of National Liberation, was the World War II pro ...
(NKOJ, ''Nacionalni komitet oslobođenja Jugoslavije''), appointing Tito as the Prime Minister. Having achieved success in the 1943 engagements Tito was also granted the rank of
Marshal of Yugoslavia
Marshal of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Maršal Jugoslavije, Маршал Југославије; sl, Maršal Jugoslavije; mk, Маршал на Југославија, Maršal na Jugoslavija) was the Highest military ranks, hig ...
. Favorable news also came from the Tehran Conference when the Allies concluded that the Partisans would be recognized as the Allied Yugoslav resistance movement and granted supplies and wartime support against the Axis occupation.
As the war turned decisively against the Axis in 1944, the Partisans continued to hold significant chunks of Yugoslav territory. With the Allies in Italy, the Yugoslav islands of the
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to t ...
were a haven for the resistance. On 17 June 1944, the Partisan base on the island of
Vis housed a conference between Tito, Prime Minister of the
NKOJ
The National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia ( sh, Nacionalni komitet oslobođenja Jugoslavije, sl, Nacionalni komite osvoboditve Jugoslavije, NKOJ), also known as the Yugoslav Committee of National Liberation, was the World War II pro ...
(representing the AVNOJ), and
Ivan Šubašić
Ivan Šubašić (; 7 May 1892 – 22 March 1955) was a Yugoslav Croat politician, best known as the last Ban of Croatia and prime minister of the royalist Yugoslav Government in exile during the Second World War.
Early life
He was born in Vuk ...
, Prime Minister of the royalist Yugoslav government-in-exile in London.
[Martin, David; ''Ally Betrayed: The Uncensored Story of Tito and Mihailovich''; New York: Prentice Hall, 1946] The conclusions, known as the
Tito-Šubašić Agreement, granted the King's recognition to the AVNOJ and the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia (DFY) and provided for the establishment of a joint Yugoslav coalition government headed by Tito with Šubašić as the foreign minister, with the AVNOJ confirmed as the provisional Yugoslav parliament.
Peter II's government-in-exile in London, partly due to pressure from the United Kingdom,
[Walter R. Roberts. ''Tito, Mihailović, and the allies, 1941–1945''. Duke University Press, 1987. Pp. 288.] recognized the state in the agreement, signed on 17 June 1944 between Šubašić and Tito.
The DFY's legislature, after November 1944, was the Provisional Assembly.
[Vojislav Koštunica, Kosta Čavoški. ''Party pluralism or monism: social movements and the political system in Yugoslavia, 1944–1949''. East European Monographs, 1985. Pp. 22.] The Tito-Šubašić agreement of 1944 declared that the state was a pluralist democracy that guaranteed: democratic liberties; personal freedom;
freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
,
assembly
Assembly may refer to:
Organisations and meetings
* Deliberative assembly, a gathering of members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions
* General assembly, an official meeting of the members of an organization or of their representa ...
, and
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
; and a
free press.
[Sabrina P. Ramet. The three Yugoslavias: state-building and legitimation, 1918–2005. Bloomington, Indiana, USA: Indiana University Press. Pp. 167–168.] However, by January 1945 Tito had shifted the emphasis of his government away from an emphasis on pluralist democracy, claiming that though he accepted democracy, he claimed there was no need for multiple parties, as he claimed that multiple parties were unnecessarily divisive in the midst of Yugoslavia's war effort and that the
People's Front represented all the Yugoslav people.
The People's Front coalition, headed by the KPJ and its general secretary Tito, was a major movement within the government. Other political movements that joined the government included the "Napred" movement represented by Milivoje Marković.
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
, the capital of Yugoslavia, was
liberated with the help of the Soviet
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
in October 1944, and the formation of a new Yugoslav government was postponed until 2 November 1944, when the Belgrade Agreement was signed and the provisional government formed. The agreements also provided for the eventual post-war elections that would determine the state's future system of government and economy.
By 1945, the Partisans were clearing out Axis forces and liberating the remaining parts of occupied territory. On 20 March 1945, the Partisans launched their General Offensive in a drive to completely oust the Germans and the remaining collaborating forces.
By the end of April 1945 the remaining northern parts of Yugoslavia were liberated, and chunks of southern German (Austrian) territory, and Italian territory around Trieste were occupied by Yugoslav troops. Yugoslavia was now once more a fully intact state, with its borders closely resembling their pre-1941 form and was envisioned by the Partisans as a "Democratic Federation", including six
federated states
A federated state (which may also be referred to as a state, a province, a region, a canton, a land, a governorate, an oblast, an emirate or a country) is a territorial and constitutional community forming part of a federation. Such states dif ...
: the
Federated State of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Bosna i Hercegovina, Социјалистичка Pепублика Босна и Херцеговина), commonly referred to as Socia ...
(FS Bosnia and Herzegovina),
Federated State of Croatia
The Socialist Republic of Croatia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Hrvatska, Социјалистичка Република Хрватска), or SR Croatia, was a constituent republic and federated state of the Social ...
(FS Croatia),
Federated State of Macedonia (FS Macedonia),
Federated State of Montenegro
The Socialist Republic of Montenegro ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Crna Gora, Социјалистичка Република Црна Гора), commonly referred to as Socialist Montenegro or simply Montenegro, was ...
(FS Montenegro),
Federated State of Serbia
, life_span = 1944–1992
, status = Constituent state of Yugoslavia
, p1 = Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia
, flag_p1 = Flag of German Reich (1935–1945).svg
, p2 ...
(FS Serbia), and
Federated State of Slovenia
The Socialist Republic of Slovenia ( sl, Socialistična republika Slovenija, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Slovenija, Социјалистичка Република Словенија), commonly referred to as Sociali ...
(FS Slovenia).
[Ramet, Sabrina P.; ''The Three Yugoslavias: State-building and Legitimation, 1918–2005''; Indiana University Press, 2006 ] The nature of its government, however, remained unclear, and Tito was highly reluctant to include the exiled King Peter II in post-war Yugoslavia as demanded by Winston Churchill. In February 1945, Tito acknowledged the existence of a
Regency
A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...
Council representing the King: the first and only act of the council as established on 7 March, however, was to proclaim a new government under Tito's premiership. The nature of the state was still unclear immediately after the war, and on 26 June 1945, the government signed the
United Nations Charter
The Charter of the United Nations (UN) is the foundational treaty of the UN, an intergovernmental organization. It establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the UN system, including its six principal organs: the ...
using only ''Yugoslavia'' as an official name, with no reference to either a Kingdom or a Republic. Acting as head of state on 7 March, the King appointed to his Regency Council constitutional lawyers Srđan Budisavljević,
Ante Mandić
Ante Mandić (2 June 1881 – 15 September 1959) was a lawyer and Croatian and Yugoslavian politician. During World War I, as a representative of the Yugoslav Committee in Saint Petersburg from 1915, he organised a Yugoslav volunteer detachment in ...
and Dušan Sernec. In doing so, the King empowered his Council to form a common
temporary government with NKOJ and accept Tito's nomination as Prime Minister of the first normal government. As authorized by the King, the Regency Council has thus accepted the Tito's nomination on 29 November 1945 when FPRY was declared. By this unconditional transfer of powers, King Peter II had
abdicated
Abdication is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority. Abdications have played various roles in the succession procedures of monarchies. While some cultures have viewed abdication as an extreme abandonment of duty, in other societ ...
to Tito.
[Charles D. Pettibone (2014]
The organization and order of battle of militaries in World War II
, Trafford Publishing, Bloomington, Indiana SAD, p.393. This date, when the second Yugoslavia was born under international law, had since been marked as Yugoslavia's national holiday ''
Day of the Republic'', however following the Communists' switch to
authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political '' status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic vot ...
, this holiday officially marked the 1943 Session of AVNOJ that coincidentally fell on the same day of the year.
["29 November, Yugoslavia: Day of the Republic"](_blank)
, Faculty of Humanities Research Projects page, University of Oslo, Norway. Publication date: 24 August 2008.
Postwar period
The first Yugoslav post-World War II elections were set for
11 November 1945. By this time the coalition of parties backing the Partisans, the People's Liberation Front (''Jedinstveni narodnooslobodilački front'', JNOF), had been renamed into the People's Front (''Narodni front'', NOF). The People's Front was primarily led by the KPJ and represented by Tito. The reputation of both benefited greatly from their wartime exploits and decisive success, and they enjoyed genuine support among the populace. However, the old pre-war political parties were reestablished as well.
As early as January 1945, while the enemy was still occupying the northwest, Tito commented:
![Josip Broz Tito uniform portrait](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Josip_Broz_Tito_uniform_portrait.jpg)
However, while the elections themselves were fairly conducted by a secret ballot, the campaign that preceded them was highly irregular.
Opposition newspapers were banned on more than one occasion, and in Serbia, the opposition leaders such as
Milan Grol
Milan Grol (12 September 1876 – 3 December 1952) was a Serbian literary critic, historian and politician. He was also director of the National Theatre of Serbia.
Biography
Milan Grol was born in Belgrade on 12 September 1876. He completed hi ...
received threats via the press. The opposition withdrew from the election in protest to the hostile atmosphere and this situation caused the three royalist representatives, Grol-Subasic-
Juraj Šutej
Juraj Šutej ( Podorašac, 4 December 1889 – Zagreb, 15 April 1976) was a lawyer and Croatian and Yugoslavian politician. He was a member of the Croatian Peasant Party (''Hrvatska seljačka stranka'', HSS). He was elected member of the Yugoslav P ...
, to secede from the provisional government. Indeed, voting was on a single list of People's Front candidates with provision for opposition votes to be cast in separate voting boxes, but this procedure made electors identifiable by
OZNA
The Department for People's Protection or OZNA ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Одељење за заштиту нaрода, Odjeljenje za zaštitu naroda, Odeljenje za zaštitu naroda; mk, Одделение за заштита на народот; sl, Oddele ...
agents. The election results of 11 November 1945 were decisively in favour of the former, with an average of 85% of voters of each
federated state
A federated state (which may also be referred to as a state, a province, a region, a canton, a land, a governorate, an oblast, an emirate or a country) is a territorial and constitutional community forming part of a federation. Such states d ...
casting their ballot for the People's Front.
On 29 November 1945, the second anniversary of the Second Session of the AVNOJ, the Constituent Assembly of Yugoslavia formally abolished the monarchy and declared the state a republic. The country's official name became the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FPR Yugoslavia, FPRY), and the six federated states became "People's Republics"
Yugoslavia became a
one-party state
A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties ...
and was considered in its earliest years a model of Communist orthodoxy.
The Yugoslav government allied with the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
under
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
and early on in the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
shot down two American airplanes flying in Yugoslav airspace on 9 and 19 August 1946. These were the first aerial shootdowns of western aircraft during the Cold War and caused deep distrust of Tito in the United States and even calls for military intervention against Yugoslavia. The new Yugoslavia also closely followed the
Stalinist
Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory o ...
Soviet model
Soviet-type economic planning (STP) is the specific model of centralized planning employed by Marxist–Leninist socialist states modeled on the economy of the Soviet Union (USSR).
The post-''perestroika'' analysis of the system of the Soviet e ...
of
economic development
In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and o ...
in this early period, some aspects of which achieved considerable success. In particular, the public works of that period organized by the government managed to rebuild and even improve the Yugoslav infrastructure (in particular the road system), with little cost to the state. Tensions with the West were high as Yugoslavia joined the
Cominform
The Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties (), commonly known as Cominform (), was a co-ordination body of Marxist-Leninist communist parties in Europe during the early Cold War that was formed in part as a replacement of the ...
, and the early phase of the Cold War began with Yugoslavia pursuing an aggressive foreign policy.
Having liberated most of the
Julian March
Venezia Giulia, traditionally called Julian March (Serbo-Croatian, Slovene: ''Julijska krajina'') or Julian Venetia ( it, Venezia Giulia; vec, Venesia Julia; fur, Vignesie Julie; german: Julisch Venetien) is an area of southeastern Europe wh ...
and
Carinthia
Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...
, and with historic claims to both those regions, the Yugoslav government began diplomatic maneuvering to include them in Yugoslavia. Both these demands were opposed by the West. The greatest point of contention was the port-city of
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...
. The city and its hinterland were liberated mostly by the Partisans in 1945, but pressure from the western Allies forced them to withdraw to the so-called "
Morgan Line
The Morgan Line was the line of demarcation set up after World War II in the region known as Julian March which prior to the war belonged to the Kingdom of Italy. The Morgan Line was the border between two military administrations in the region: t ...
". The
Free Territory of Trieste
The Free Territory of Trieste was an independent territory in Southern Europe between northern Italy and Yugoslavia, facing the north part of the Adriatic Sea, under direct responsibility of the United Nations Security Council in the aftermath ...
was established and separated into Zone A and Zone B, administered by the western Allies and Yugoslavia respectively. Initially, Yugoslavia was backed by Stalin, but by 1947 the latter had begun to cool towards the new state's ambitions. The crisis eventually dissolved as the
Tito–Stalin split
The Tito–Stalin split or the Yugoslav–Soviet split was the culmination of a conflict between the political leaderships of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, under Josip Broz Tito and Joseph Stalin, respectively, in the years following World W ...
started, with Zone A being granted to Italy, and Zone B to Yugoslavia.
Meanwhile,
civil war
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
raged in Greece – Yugoslavia's southern neighbour – between Communists and the right-wing government, and the Yugoslav government was determined to bring about a Communist victory.
Yugoslavia dispatched significant assistance, in terms of arms and ammunition, supplies, military experts on
partisan warfare
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of military occupation, occupation by some kind of insurgent activity.
The term can apply to the field element of resist ...
(such as General
Vladimir Dapčević
Vladimir may refer to:
Names
* Vladimir (name) for the Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Macedonian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak and Slovenian spellings of a Slavic name
* Uladzimir for the Belarusian version of the name
* Volodymyr for the Ukr ...
), and even allowed the
Greek Communist forces to use Yugoslav territory as a safe haven. Although the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, and (Yugoslav-dominated) Albania had granted military support as well, Yugoslav assistance was far more substantial. However, this Yugoslav foreign adventure also came to an end with the Tito–Stalin split, as the Greek Communists, expecting an overthrow of Tito, refused any assistance from his government. Without it, however, they were greatly disadvantaged and were defeated in 1949.
As Yugoslavia was the country's only Communist neighbour in the immediate post-war period, the
People's Republic of Albania
The People's Socialist Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika Popullore Socialiste e Shqipërisë, links=no) was the Marxist–Leninist one party state that existed in Albania from 1946 to 1992 (the official name of the country was the People's R ...
was effectively a Yugoslav satellite. Neighboring Bulgaria was under increasing Yugoslav influence as well, and talks began to negotiate the political unification of Albania and Bulgaria with Yugoslavia. The major point of contention was that Yugoslavia wanted to absorb the two and transform them into additional
federated republics
A federated state (which may also be referred to as a state, a province, a region, a canton, a land, a governorate, an oblast, an emirate or a country) is a territorial and constitutional community forming part of a federation. Such states di ...
. Albania was in no position to object, but the Bulgarian view was that a new
Balkan Federation
The Balkan Federation project was a left-wing political movement to create a country in the Balkans by combining Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey.
The concept of a Balkan federation emerged in the late 19th century from ...
would see Bulgaria and Yugoslavia as a whole uniting on equal terms. As these negotiations began, Yugoslav representatives
Edvard Kardelj
Edvard Kardelj (; 27 January 1910 – 10 February 1979), also known by the pseudonyms Bevc, Sperans and Krištof, was a Yugoslav politician and economist. He was one of the leading members of the Communist Party of Slovenia before World War II. ...
and
Milovan Đilas
Milovan Djilas (; , ; 12 June 1911 – 30 April 1995) was a Yugoslav communist politician, theorist and author. He was a key figure in the Partisan movement during World War II, as well as in the post-war government. A self-identified democrat ...
were summoned to Moscow alongside a Bulgarian delegation, where Stalin and
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov. ; (;. 9 March Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O._S._25_February.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O. S. 25 February">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dat ...
attempted to brow-beat them both into accepting Soviet control over the merger between the countries, and generally tried to force them into subordination.
The Soviets did not express a specific view on the issue of Yugoslav-Bulgarian unification but wanted to ensure both parties first approved every decision with Moscow. The Bulgarians did not object, but the Yugoslav delegation withdrew from the Moscow meeting. Recognizing the level of Bulgarian subordination to
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
, Yugoslavia withdrew from the unification talks and shelved plans for the annexation of Albania in anticipation of a confrontation with the Soviet Union.
Informbiro period
The Tito–Stalin, or Yugoslav–Soviet split, took place in the spring and early summer of 1948. Its title pertains to Tito, at the time the
Yugoslav Prime Minister
The prime minister of Yugoslavia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Премијер Југославије, Premijer Jugoslavije) was the head of government of the Yugoslavia, Yugoslav state, from the Creation of Yugoslavia, creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croa ...
(President of the Federal Assembly), and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. In the West, Tito was thought of as a loyal Communist leader, second only to Stalin in the Eastern Bloc. However, having largely liberated itself with only limited Red Army support,
Yugoslavia steered an independent course and was constantly experiencing tensions with the Soviet Union. Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav government considered themselves allies of Moscow, while Moscow considered Yugoslavia a satellite and often treated it as such. Previous tensions erupted over a number of issues, but after the Moscow meeting, an open confrontation was beginning.
Next came an exchange of letters directly between the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
"Hymn of the Bolshevik Party"
, headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow
, general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last)
, founded =
, banned =
, founder = Vladimir Lenin
, newspaper ...
(CPSU), and the KPJ. In the first CPSU letter of 27 March 1948, the Soviets accused the Yugoslavs of denigrating Soviet socialism via statements such as "socialism in the Soviet Union has ceased to be revolutionary". It also claimed that the KPJ was not "democratic enough", and that it was not acting as a vanguard that would lead the country to socialism. The Soviets said that they "could not consider such a Communist party organization to be Marxist-Leninist, Bolshevik". The letter also named a number of high-ranking officials as "dubious Marxists" (
Milovan Đilas
Milovan Djilas (; , ; 12 June 1911 – 30 April 1995) was a Yugoslav communist politician, theorist and author. He was a key figure in the Partisan movement during World War II, as well as in the post-war government. A self-identified democrat ...
,
Aleksandar Ranković
Aleksandar Ranković ( nom de guerre Marko; sr-Cyrl, Александар Ранковић Лека; 28 November 1909 – 19 August 1983) was a Yugoslav communist politician, considered to be the third most powerful man in Yugoslavia after Jo ...
,
Boris Kidrič
Boris Kidrič (10 April 1912 – 11 April 1953) was a Slovene politician and revolutionary who was one of the chief organizers of the Slovene Partisans, the Slovene resistance against occupation by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy after Operatio ...
, and
Svetozar Vukmanović-Tempo Svetozar (Cyrillic script: Светозар) is a Slavic origin given name and may refer to:
*Svetozar Boroević (1856–1920), Austro-Hungarian Field Marshal
*Svetozar Čiplić (born 1965), Serbian politician
*Svetozar Đanić (1917–1941), Serb ...
) inviting Tito to purge them, and thus cause a rift in his own party. Communist officials
Andrija Hebrang and
Sreten Žujović
Sreten Žujović ( sr-cyr, Сретен Жујовић; 24 June 1899 – 11 June 1976) was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician and veteran of World War I and long-time communist.
Biography
He was born into a wealthy family, and was a Serb by natio ...
supported the Soviet view.
Tito, however, saw through it, refused to compromise his own party, and soon responded with his own letter. The KPJ response on 13 April 1948 was a strong denial of the Soviet accusations, both defending the revolutionary nature of the party and re-asserting its high opinion of the Soviet Union. However, the KPJ noted also that "no matter how much each of us loves the land of socialism, the Soviet Union, he can in no case love his own country less".
In a speech, the Yugoslav Prime Minister stated:
The 31-page-long Soviet answer of 4 May 1948 admonished the KPJ for failing to admit and correct its mistakes, and went on to accuse it of being too proud of their successes against the Germans, maintaining that the Red Army had "saved them from destruction" (an implausible statement, as Tito's partisans had successfully campaigned against Axis forces for four years before the appearance of the Red Army there).
This time, the Soviets named Tito and Edvard Kardelj as the principal "heretics", while defending Hebrang and Žujović. The letter suggested that the Yugoslavs bring their "case" before the Cominform. The KPJ responded by expelling Hebrang and Žujović from the party, and by answering the Soviets on 17 May 1948 with a letter which sharply criticized Soviet attempts to devalue the successes of the Yugoslav resistance movement.
On 19 May 1948, a correspondence by
Mikhail A. Suslov informed Tito that the Cominform (''Informbiro'' in
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and ...
), would be holding a session on 28 June 1948 in
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
almost completely dedicated to the "Yugoslav issue". The Cominform was an association of Communist parties that was the primary Soviet tool for controlling the political developments in the Eastern Bloc. The date of the meeting, 28 June, was carefully chosen by the Soviets as the triple anniversary of the
Battle of Kosovo Field
The Battle of Kosovo ( tr, Kosova Savaşı; sr, Косовска битка) took place on 15 June 1389 between an army led by the Serbia in the Middle Ages, Serbian Prince Lazar of Serbia, Lazar Hrebeljanović and an invading army of the ...
(1389), the
assassination of Archduke Ferdinand
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated on 28 June 1914 by Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip. They were shot at close range while ...
in
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...
(1914), and the adoption of the
Vidovdan Constitution
The Vidovdan Constitution was the first constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. It was approved by the Constitutional Assembly on 28 June 1921 despite the opposition boycotting the vote. The Constitution is named after the feast ...
(1921).
Tito, personally invited, refused to attend under a dubious excuse of illness. When an official invitation arrived on 19 June 1948, Tito again refused. On the first day of the meeting, 28 June, the Cominform adopted the prepared text of a resolution, known in Yugoslavia as the "Resolution of the Informbiro" (''Rezolucija Informbiroa''). In it, the other Cominform (Informbiro) members expelled Yugoslavia, citing "nationalist elements" that had "managed in the course of the past five or six months to reach a dominant position in the leadership" of the KPJ. The resolution warned Yugoslavia that it was on the path back to bourgeois capitalism due to its nationalist, independence-minded positions, and accused the party itself of "
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
".
This was followed by the severing of relations between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, beginning the period of Soviet–Yugoslav conflict between 1948 and 1955 known as the
Informbiro Period
The Informbiro period was an era of Yugoslavia's history following the Tito–Stalin split in mid-1948 that lasted until the country's partial rapprochement with the Soviet Union in 1955 with the signing of the Belgrade declaration. After Wor ...
.
After the break with the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia found itself economically and politically isolated as the country's Eastern Bloc-oriented economy began to falter. At the same time, Stalinist Yugoslavs, known in Yugoslavia as "cominformists", began fomenting civil and military unrest. A number of cominformist rebellions and military insurrections took place, along with acts of sabotage. However, the
Yugoslav security service (UBDA) led by Aleksandar Ranković, was quick and efficient in cracking down on insurgent activity. Invasion appeared imminent, as Soviet military units massed along the border with the
Hungarian People's Republic
The Hungarian People's Republic ( hu, Magyar Népköztársaság) was a one-party socialist state from 20 August 1949
to 23 October 1989.
It was governed by the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, which was under the influence of the Soviet Uni ...
, while the
Hungarian People's Army
The Hungarian People's Army ( hu, Magyar Néphadsereg) or the HPA was the military of the Hungarian People's Republic and the armed branch of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party from 1951 to 1990. It only saw combat in a foreign country once du ...
was quickly increased in size from 2 to 15 divisions. The UDBA began arresting alleged Cominformists even under suspicion of being pro-Soviet. However, from the start of the crisis, Tito began making overtures to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and the West. Consequently, Stalin's plans were thwarted as Yugoslavia began shifting its alignment. The West welcomed the Yugoslav-Soviet rift and in 1949 commenced a flow of economic aid, assisted in averting famine in 1950, and covered much of Yugoslavia's
trade deficit
The balance of trade, commercial balance, or net exports (sometimes symbolized as NX), is the difference between the monetary value of a nation's exports and imports over a certain time period. Sometimes a distinction is made between a balance ...
for the next decade. The United States began shipping weapons to Yugoslavia in 1951. Tito, however, was wary of becoming too dependent on the West as well, and military security arrangements concluded in 1953 as Yugoslavia refused to join
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
and began developing a significant military industry of its own.
With the American response in the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
serving as an example of the West's commitment, Stalin began backing down from war with Yugoslavia.
Reform
![Tito56789](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Tito56789.jpg)
Yugoslavia began a number of fundamental reforms in the early 1950s, bringing about change in three major directions: rapid
liberalization
Liberalization or liberalisation (British English) is a broad term that refers to the practice of making laws, systems, or opinions less severe, usually in the sense of eliminating certain government regulations or restrictions. The term is used m ...
and
decentralization
Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding planning and decision making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group.
Conce ...
of the country's political system, the institution of a new, unique economic system, and a diplomatic policy of non-alignment. Yugoslavia refused to take part in the Communist
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...
and instead took a neutral stance in the Cold War, becoming a founding member of the
Non-Aligned Movement
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide.
The movement originated in the aftermath o ...
along with countries like India, Egypt and Indonesia, and pursuing centre-left influences that promoted a non-confrontational policy towards the United States. The country distanced itself from the Soviets in 1948 and started to build its own way to socialism under the strong political leadership of Tito, sometimes informally called "
Titoism
Titoism is a political philosophy most closely associated with Josip Broz Tito during the Cold War. It is characterized by a broad Yugoslav identity, workers' self-management, a political separation from the Soviet Union, and leadership in the ...
". The economic reforms began with the introduction of
workers' self-management
Workers' self-management, also referred to as labor management and organizational self-management, is a form of organizational management based on self-directed work processes on the part of an organization's workforce. Self-management is a def ...
in June 1950. In this system, profits were shared among the workers themselves as
workers' council
A workers' council or labor council is a form of political and economic organization in which a workplace or municipality is governed by a council made up of workers or their elected delegates. The workers within each council decide on what thei ...
s controlled production and the profits. An industrial sector began to emerge thanks to the government's implementation of industrial and infrastructure development programs.
Exports of industrial products, led by
heavy machinery
Heavy equipment or heavy machinery refers to heavy-duty vehicles specially designed to execute construction tasks, most frequently involving earthwork operations or other large construction tasks. ''Heavy equipment'' usually comprises five e ...
, transportation machines (especially in the shipbuilding industry), and
military technology and equipment
Military technology is the application of technology for use in warfare. It comprises the kinds of technology that are distinctly military in nature and not civilian in application, usually because they lack useful or legal civilian application ...
rose by a yearly increase of 11%. All in all, the annual growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) through to the early 1980s averaged 6.1%.
Political liberalization began with the reduction of the massive state (and party) bureaucratic apparatus, a process described as the "whittling down of the state" by Boris Kidrič, President of the Yugoslav Economic Council (economics minister). On 2 November 1952, the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia introduced the "Basic Law", which emphasized the "personal freedom and rights of man" and the freedom of "free associations of working people". The Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) changed its name at this time to the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ), becoming a federation of six republican Communist parties. The result was a regime that was somewhat more humane than other Communist states. However, the LCY retained absolute power; as in all Communist regimes, the legislature did little more than rubber-stamp decisions already made by the LCY's Politburo. The UDBA, while operating with considerably more restraint than its counterparts in the rest of
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...
, was nonetheless a feared tool of government control. UDBA was particularly notorious for assassinating suspected "enemies of the state" who lived in exile overseas.
The media remained under restrictions that were somewhat onerous by Western standards, but still had somewhat more latitude than their counterparts in other Communist countries. Nationalist groups were a particular target of the authorities, with numerous arrests and prison sentences handed down over the years for separatist activities. Dissent from a radical faction within the party led by Milovan Đilas, advocating the near-complete annihilation of the state apparatus, was at this time put down by Tito's intervention.
In the early 1960s concern over problems such as the building of economically irrational "political" factories and inflation led a group within the Communist leadership to advocate greater decentralization. These liberals were opposed by a group around Aleksandar Ranković. In 1966 the liberals (the most important being Edvard Kardelj,
Vladimir Bakarić
Vladimir Bakarić (; 8 March 1912 – 16 January 1983) was a Yugoslav and Croatian communist revolutionary and a politician.
Bakarić helped to organise the partisan resistance in the Independent State of Croatia during World War II. From 1948 ...
of Croatia and
Petar Stambolić
Petar Stambolić (; 12 July 1912 – 21 September 2007) was a Serbian communist politician who served as the President of the Federal Executive Council of Yugoslavia from 1963 to 1967 and as President of the Presidency from 1982 until 1983.
Bio ...
of Serbia) gained the support of Tito. At a party meeting in
Brijuni
The Brijuni () or the Brijuni Islands (also known as the Brionian Islands; same as it, Brioni) are a group of fourteen small islands in the Croatian part of the northern Adriatic Sea, separated from the west coast of the Istrian peninsula by t ...
, Ranković faced a fully prepared dossier of accusations and a denunciation from Tito that he had formed a clique with the intention of taking power. That year (1966), more than 3,700 Yugoslavs fled to Trieste with the intention to seek political asylum in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
,
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
or
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. Ranković was forced to resign all party posts and some of his supporters were expelled from the party. Throughout the 1950s and '60s, the economic development and liberalization continued at a rapid pace.
The introduction of further reforms introduced a variant of
market socialism
Market socialism is a type of economic system involving the public, cooperative, or social ownership of the means of production in the framework of a market economy, or one that contains a mix of worker-owned, nationalized, and privately owned ...
, which now entailed a policy of open borders. With heavy federal investment, tourism in
SR Croatia
The Socialist Republic of Croatia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Hrvatska, Социјалистичка Република Хрватска), or SR Croatia, was a constituent republic and federated state of the Social ...
was revived, expanded, and transformed into a major source of income. With these successful measures, the Yugoslav economy achieved relative self-sufficiency and traded extensively with both the West and the East. By the early 1960s, foreign observers noted that the country was "booming", and that all the while the Yugoslav citizens enjoyed far greater liberties than the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc states. Literacy was increased dramatically and reached 91%, medical care was free on all levels, and life expectancy was 72 years.
[Michel Chossudovsky, International Monetary Fund, World Bank; ''The Globalisation of Poverty: Impacts of IMF and World Bank Reforms''; Zed Books, 2006; (University of California) ]
![TitoCarter19783](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/TitoCarter19783.jpg)
In 1971 the leadership of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, notably
Miko Tripalo
Ante "Miko" Tripalo (16 November 1926 – 11 December 1995) was a Croatian politician. He was one of the members of Croatian Spring, a movement for higher level of autonomy of SR Croatia within SFR Yugoslavia.
Biography
A son of a well-to-do far ...
and
Savka Dabčević-Kučar
Savka Dabčević-Kučar (6 December 1923 – 6 August 2009) was a Croatian politician. She was one of the most influential Croatian female politicians during the communist period, especially during the Croatian Spring when she was deposed. Sh ...
, allied with nationalist non-party groups, began a movement to increase the powers of the individual federated republics. The movement was referred to as MASPOK, a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words[Croatian Spring
The Croatian Spring ( hr, Hrvatsko proljeće), or Maspok, was a political conflict that took place from 1967 to 1971 in the Socialist Republic of Croatia, at the time part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. As one of six republic ...](_blank)
. Tito responded to the incident by purging the Croatian Communist party, while Yugoslav authorities arrested large numbers of the Croatian protesters. To avert ethnically driven protests in the future, Tito began to initiate some of the reforms demanded by the protesters.
["Yugoslavia: Tito's Daring Experiment"](_blank)
''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'', 9 August 1971 At this time,
Ustaše
The Ustaše (), also known by anglicised versions Ustasha or Ustashe, was a Croats, Croatian Fascism, fascist and ultranationalism, ultranationalist organization active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945, formally known as the Ustaš ...
-sympathizers outside Yugoslavia tried through terrorism and guerrilla actions to create a separatist momentum, but they were unsuccessful, sometimes even gaining the animosity of fellow Roman Catholic Croatian Yugoslavs. From 1971 on, the republics had control over their economic plans. This led to a wave of investment, which in turn was accompanied by a growing level of debt and a growing trend of imports not covered by exports. Many of the demands made in the Croatian Spring movement in 1971, such as giving more autonomy to the individual republics, became reality with the new federal constitution 1974. While the constitution gave the republics more autonomy, it also awarded a similar status to two autonomous provinces within Serbia:
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
, a largely ethnic
Albanian
Albanian may refer to:
*Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular:
**Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans
**Albanian language
**Albanian culture
**Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
populated region, and
Vojvodina
Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Војводина}), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia. It lies within the Pannonian Basin, bordered to the south by the national capital ...
, a region with Serb majority but large numbers of ethnic minorities, such as
Hungarians
Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Urali ...
. These reforms satisfied most of the republics, especially Croatia and the Albanians of Kosovo and the minorities of Vojvodina. But the 1974 constitution deeply aggravated Serbian Communist officials and Serbs themselves who distrusted the motives of the proponents of the reforms. Many Serbs saw the reforms as concessions to Croatian and Albanian nationalists, as no similar autonomous provinces were made to represent the large numbers of Serbs of
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
or
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
. Serb nationalists were frustrated over Tito's support for the recognition of
Montenegrins
Montenegrins ( cnr, Црногорци, Crnogorci, or ; lit. "Black Mountain People") are a South Slavic ethnic group that share a common Montenegrin culture, history, and language, identified with the country of Montenegro.
Genetics
Accordin ...
and
Macedonians as independent nationalities, as Serbian nationalists had claimed that there was no ethnic or cultural difference separating these two nations from the Serbs that could verify that such nationalities truly existed. Tito maintained a busy, active travelling schedule despite his advancing age. His 85th birthday in May 1977 was marked by huge celebrations. That year, he visited
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
, the Soviet Union,
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
and finally China, where the post-Mao leadership finally made peace with him after more than 20 years of denouncing the SFRY as "revisionists in the pay of capitalism". This was followed by a tour of France, Portugal, and
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
after which the president's doctors advised him to rest. In August 1978, Chinese leader
Hua Guofeng
Hua Guofeng (; born Su Zhu; 16 February 1921 – 20 August 2008), alternatively spelled as Hua Kuo-feng, was a Chinese politician who served as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and Premier of the People's Republic of China. The design ...
visited Belgrade, reciprocating Tito's China trip the year before. This event was sharply criticized in the Soviet press, especially as Tito used it as an excuse to indirectly attack Moscow's ally
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
for "promoting divisiveness in the Non-Aligned Movement". When China
launched a military campaign against Vietnam the following February, Yugoslavia openly took Beijing's side in the dispute. The effect was a rather adverse decline in
Soviet Union-Yugoslavia relations
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
. During this time, Yugoslavia's first
nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...
was under construction in
Krško
Krško (; german: Gurkfeld) is a town in eastern Slovenia. It is the seat of the City municipality of Krško. The town lies on the Sava River and on the northwest edge of the Krško Plain ( sl, Krško polje), which is part of the larger Krka Flat ...
, built by US-based
Westinghouse. The project ultimately took until 1980 to complete because of disputes with the United States about certain guarantees that Belgrade had to sign off on before it could receive nuclear materials (which included the promise that they would not be sold to third parties or used for anything but peaceful purposes).
Post-Tito period
Tito died on 4 May 1980 due to complications after surgery. While it had been known for some time that the 87-year-old president's health had been failing, his death nonetheless came as a shock to the country. This was because Tito was looked upon as the country's hero in World War II and had been the country's dominant figure and identity for over three decades. His loss marked a significant alteration, and it was reported that many Yugoslavs openly mourned his death. In the Split soccer stadium, Serbs and Croats visited the coffin among other spontaneous outpourings of grief, and a funeral was organized by the League of Communists with hundreds of world leaders in attendance (See
Tito's state funeral). After Tito's death in 1980, a new
collective presidency
President is a common title for the head of state in most republics. The president of a nation is, generally speaking, the head of the government and the fundamental leader of the country or the ceremonial head of state.
The functions exercis ...
of the Communist leadership from each republic was adopted. At the time of Tito's death the Federal government was headed by
Veselin Đuranović
Veselin Đuranović (; 17 May 1925 – 30 August 1997) was a Yugoslav communist politician.
Biography
Đuranović was born near Danilovgrad, in what was then the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He served as the chairman of the executive ...
(who had held the post since 1977). He had come into conflict with the leaders of the Republics arguing that Yugoslavia needed to economize due to the growing problem of foreign debt. Đuranović argued that a devaluation was needed which Tito refused to countenance for reasons of national prestige. Post-Tito Yugoslavia faced significant fiscal debt in the 1980s, but its good relations with the United States led to an American-led group of organizations called the "Friends of Yugoslavia" to endorse and achieve significant debt relief for Yugoslavia in 1983 and 1984, though economic problems would continue until the state's dissolution in the 1990s. Yugoslavia was the host nation of the
1984 Winter Olympics
The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: ''XIV. Zimske olimpijske igre''; Cyrillic: XIV Зимске олимпијске игре; mk, XIV Зимски олимписки игр ...
in Sarajevo. For Yugoslavia, the games demonstrated Tito's continued vision of
Brotherhood and Unity
Brotherhood and unity was a popular slogan of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia that was coined during the Yugoslav People's Liberation War (1941–45), and which evolved into a guiding principle of Yugoslavia's post-war inter-ethnic polic ...
, as the multiple nationalities of Yugoslavia remained united in one team, and Yugoslavia became the second Communist state to hold the Olympic Games (the Soviet Union held them in
1980
Events January
* January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission.
* January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC.
* January 9 – ...
). However, Yugoslavia's games had Western countries participating, while the Soviet Union's Olympics were boycotted by some. In the late 1980s, the Yugoslav government began to deviate from communism as it attempted to transform to a
market economy
A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand, where all suppliers and consumers ...
under the leadership of Prime Minister
Ante Marković
Ante Marković (; 25 November 1924 – 28 November 2011) was a Croatian and Yugoslav politician, businessman and engineer. Marković is most notable for having served as the last prime minister of SFR Yugoslavia.
Early life
Marković, was a Bos ...
, who advocated
shock therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatric treatment where a generalized seizure (without muscular convulsions) is electrically induced to manage refractory mental disorders.Rudorfer, MV, Henry, ME, Sackeim, HA (2003)"Electroconvulsive the ...
tactics to privatize sections of the Yugoslav economy. Marković was popular, as he was seen as the most capable politician to be able to transform the country to a liberalized democratic federation, though he later lost his popularity, mainly due to rising unemployment. His work was left incomplete as Yugoslavia broke apart in the 1990s.
Dissolution and war
Tensions between the republics and nations of Yugoslavia intensified from the 1970s to the 1980s. The causes for the collapse of the country have been associated with nationalism, ethnic conflict, economic difficulty, frustration with government bureaucracy, the influence of important figures in the country, and international politics. Ideology and particularly nationalism has been seen by many as the primary source of the break up of Yugoslavia.
[Dejan Jović. ''Yugoslavia: a state that withered away''. Purdue University Press, 2009. p. 19] Since the 1970s, Yugoslavia's Communist regime became severely splintered into a liberal-decentralist nationalist faction led by Croatia and Slovenia that supported a decentralized federation with greater local autonomy, versus a conservative-centralist nationalist faction led by Serbia that supported a centralized federation to secure the interests of Serbia and Serbs across Yugoslavia – as they were the largest ethnic group in the country as a whole. From 1967 to 1972 in Croatia and
1968
The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide.
Events January–February
* January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
* Januar ...
and
1981 protests in Kosovo
In March and April 1981, a student protest in Pristina, the capital of the then Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo, led to widespread protests by Kosovo Albanians demanding more autonomy within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. ...
, nationalist doctrines and actions caused ethnic tensions that destabilized the country.
The suppression of nationalists by the state is believed to have had the effect of identifying nationalism as the primary alternative to communism itself and made it a strong underground movement.
[Dejan Jović. ''Yugoslavia: a state that withered away''. Purdue University Press, 2009. p. 21.] In the late 1980s, the Belgrade elite was faced with a strong opposition force of massive protests by Kosovo Serbs and Montenegrins as well as public demands for political reforms by the critical intelligentsia of Serbia and Slovenia.
In economics, since the late 1970s a widening gap of economic resources between the developed and underdeveloped regions of Yugoslavia severely deteriorated the federation's unity.
Dejan Jović
Dejan Jović (; born 12 April 1968) is a political scientist from Croatia. He is a full-time professor at the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Zagreb. From 2012 to 2020, Jović was editor-in-chief of the '' Croatian Political S ...
. ''Yugoslavia: a state that withered away''. Purdue University Press, 2009. p. 15 The most developed republics, Croatia and Slovenia, rejected attempts to limit their autonomy as provided in the 1974 Constitution.
Public opinion in Slovenia in 1987 saw better economic opportunity in independence from Yugoslavia than within it.
There were also places that saw no economic benefit from being in Yugoslavia; for example, the autonomous province of Kosovo was poorly developed, and per capita GDP fell from 47 percent of the Yugoslav average in the immediate post-war period to 27 percent by the 1980s.
However, economic issues have not been demonstrated to be the sole determining factor in the break up, as Yugoslavia in this period was the most prosperous Communist state in Eastern Europe, and the country in fact disintegrated during a period of economic recovery after the implementation of the economic reforms of Ante Marković's government.
[Dejan Jović. ''Yugoslavia: a state that withered away''. Purdue University Press, 2009. p. 16] Furthermore, during the break up of Yugoslavia, the leaders of Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, all declined an unofficial offer by the
European Community
The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...
to provide substantial economic support to them in exchange for a political compromise.
However, the issue of economic inequality between the republics, autonomous provinces, and nations of Yugoslavia resulted in tensions with claims of disadvantage and accusations of privileges against others by these groups.
Political protests in Serbia and Slovenia, which later developed into ethnic-driven conflict, began in the late 1980s as protests against the alleged injustice and bureaucratization of the political elite.
[Dejan Jović. ''Yugoslavia: a state that withered away''. Purdue University Press, 2009. p. 18] Members of the political elite managed to redirect these protests against "others".
Serb demonstrators were worried about the disintegration of the country and alleged that "the others" (Croats, Slovenes, and international institutions) were deemed responsible.
The Slovene intellectual elite argued that "the others" (Serbs) were responsible for "Greater Serbian expansionist designs", for economic exploitation of Slovenia, and for the suppression of Slovene national identity.
These redirection actions of the popular protests allowed the authorities of Serbia and Slovenia to survive at the cost of undermining the unity of Yugoslavia.
Other republics such as Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia refused to follow these tactics taken by Serbia and Slovenia, later resulting in the defeat of the respective League of Communists of each republic to nationalist political forces.
From the point of view of international politics, it has been argued that the end of the Cold War contributed to the break up of Yugoslavia because Yugoslavia lost its strategic international political importance as an intermediary between the Eastern and Western blocs.
[Dejan Jović. ''Yugoslavia: a state that withered away''. Purdue University Press, 2009. p. 26.] As a consequence, Yugoslavia lost the economic and political support provided by the West, and increased pressure from the
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...
(IMF) to reform its institutions made it impossible for the Yugoslav reformist elite to respond to rising social disorder.
The collapse of communism throughout Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union undermined the country's ideological basis and encouraged anti-communist and nationalist forces in the Western-oriented republics of Croatia and Slovenia to increase their demands.
Nationalist sentiment among ethnic Serbs rose dramatically following the ratification of the 1974 Constitution, which reduced the powers of
SR Serbia
, life_span = 1944–1992
, status = Constituent state of Yugoslavia
, p1 = Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia
, flag_p1 = Flag of German Reich (1935–1945).svg
, p2 ...
over its autonomous provinces of
SAP Kosovo
The Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Socijalistička Autonomna Pokrajina Kosovo, Социјалистичка Аутономна Покрајина Косово, separator=" / ", sq, Krahina Socialiste Autonome e Kosovë ...
and
SAP Vojvodina
The Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina ( sh, / ) was one of two autonomous provinces within the Socialist Republic of Serbia, in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The province is the direct predecessor to the moder ...
. In Serbia, this caused increasing xenophobia against Albanians. In Kosovo (administered mostly by ethnic Albanian Communists), the Serbian minority increasingly put forth complaints of mistreatment and abuse by the Albanian majority. Feelings were further inflamed in 1986, when the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) published the
SANU Memorandum
The Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, known simply as the SANU Memorandum ( sr-cyr, Меморандум САНУ), was a draft document produced by a 16-member committee of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) from ...
. In it, Serbian writers and historians voiced "various currents of Serb nationalist resentment." The SKJ was at the time united in condemning the memorandum, and continued to follow its anti-nationalist policy.
In 1987, Serbian Communist official
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević (, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997 (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic of ...
was sent to bring calm to an ethnically-driven protest by Serbs against the Albanian administration of SAP Kosovo. Milošević had been, up to this point, a hard-line Communist who had decried all forms of nationalism as treachery, such as condemning the SANU Memorandum as "nothing else but the darkest nationalism". However, Kosovo's autonomy had always been an unpopular policy in Serbia, and he took advantage of the situation and made a departure from traditional Communist neutrality on the issue of Kosovo. Milošević assured Serbs that their mistreatment by ethnic Albanians would be stopped. He then began a campaign against the ruling Communist elite of SR Serbia, demanding reductions in the autonomy of Kosovo and Vojvodina. These actions made him popular amongst Serbs and aided his rise to power in Serbia. Milošević and his allies took on an aggressive nationalist agenda of reviving SR Serbia within Yugoslavia, promising reforms and protection of all Serbs. Milošević proceeded to take control of the governments of Vojvodina, Kosovo, and the neighboring
Socialist Republic of Montenegro
The Socialist Republic of Montenegro ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Crna Gora, Социјалистичка Република Црна Гора), commonly referred to as Socialist Montenegro or simply Montenegro, was ...
in what was dubbed the "
Anti-Bureaucratic Revolution" by the Serbian media. Both the SAPs possessed a vote on the Yugoslav Presidency in accordance to the 1974 constitution, and together with Montenegro and his own Serbia, Milošević now directly controlled four out of eight votes in the collective head-of-state by January 1990. This only caused further resentment among the governments of Croatia and Slovenia, along with the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo (
SR Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Bosna i Hercegovina, Социјалистичка Pепублика Босна и Херцеговина), commonly referred to as Socia ...
and
SR Macedonia
The Socialist Republic of Macedonia ( mk, Социјалистичка Република Македонија, Socijalistička Republika Makedonija), or SR Macedonia, commonly referred to as Socialist Macedonia or Yugoslav Macedonia, was ...
remained relatively neutral).
Fed up by Milošević's manipulation of the assembly, first the delegations of the
League Communists of Slovenia led by Milan Kučan, and later the
League of Communists of Croatia
League of Communists of Croatia ( sh, Savez komunista Hrvatske or SKH) was the Croatian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ). It came into power in 1945. Until 1952, it was known as Communist Party of Croatia (''Komunistička ...
, led by
Ivica Račan
Ivica Račan (; 24 February 1944 – 29 April 2007) was a Croatian politician who served as Prime Minister of Croatia from 2000 to 2003, heading two centre-left coalition governments.
Račan became the first prime minister of Croatia not to be a ...
, walked out during the extraordinary
14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia
The 14th (Extraordinary) Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia ( Serbian Latin: , Cyrillic: ) was held from 20 to 22 January 1990, in the Belgrade Sava Centar. The highest organ of both the government and the party, it was the last C ...
(January 1990), effectively dissolving the all-Yugoslav party. Along with external pressure, this caused the adoption of multi-party systems in all of the republics. When the individual republics organized their multi-party elections in 1990, the ex-Communists mostly failed to win re-election. In Croatia and Slovenia, nationalist parties won their respective elections. On 8 April 1990 the first multiparty elections in Slovenia (and Yugoslavia) since the Second World War were held. Demos coalition won the elections and formed a government which started to implement electoral reform programs. In Croatia, the
Croatian Democratic Union
The Croatian Democratic Union ( hr, Hrvatska demokratska zajednica, lit=Croatian Democratic Community, HDZ) is the major conservative, centre-right political party in Croatia. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in Croa ...
(HDZ) won the election promising to "defend Croatia from Milošević" which caused alarm among Croatia's large Serbian minority.
Croatian Serbs, for their part, were wary of HDZ leader
Franjo Tuđman
Franjo Tuđman (; 14 May 1922 – 10 December 1999), also written as Franjo Tudjman, was a Croatian politician and historian. Following the country's independence from Yugoslavia, he became the first president of Croatia and served as p ...
's nationalist government and in 1990, Serb nationalists in the southern Croatian town of
Knin
Knin (, sr, link=no, Книн, it, link=no, Tenin) is a city in the Šibenik-Knin County of Croatia, located in the Dalmatian hinterland near the source of the river Krka, an important traffic junction on the rail and road routes between Zagr ...
organized and formed a separatist entity known as the
SAO Krajina
The Serbian Autonomous Oblast of Krajina ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Srpska autonomna oblast Krajina, Српска аутономна област Крајина) or SAO Krajina () was a self-proclaimed Serbian autonomous region (oblast) wit ...
, which demanded to remain in union with the rest of the Serb populations if Croatia decided to secede. The government of Serbia endorsed the Croatian Serbs' rebellion, claiming that for Serbs, rule under Tuđman's government would be equivalent to the World War II fascist
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia ( sh, Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH; german: Unabhängiger Staat Kroatien; it, Stato indipendente di Croazia) was a World War II-era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Fascist It ...
(NDH) which committed genocide against Serbs during World War II. Milošević used this to rally Serbs against the Croatian government and Serbian newspapers joined in the warmongering. Serbia had by now printed $1.8 billion worth of new money without any backing of Yugoslav central bank. In the Slovenian independence referendum, 1990, held on 23 December 1990, a vast majority of residents voted for independence. 88.5% of all electors (94.8% of those participating) voted for independence – which was declared on 25 June 1991.
Both Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence on 25 June 1991. On the morning of 26 June, units of the Yugoslav People's Army's 13th Corps left their barracks in Rijeka, Croatia, to move towards Slovenia's borders with Italy. The move immediately led to a strong reaction from local Slovenians, who organized spontaneous barricades and demonstrations against the YPA's actions. There was, as yet, no fighting, and both sides appeared to have an unofficial policy of not being the first to open fire. By this time, the Slovenian government had already put into action its plan to seize control of both the international Ljubljana Airport and the Slovenia's border posts on borders with Italy, Austria and Hungary. The personnel manning the border posts were, in most cases, already Slovenians, so the Slovenian take-over mostly simply amounted to changing of uniforms and insignia, without any fighting. By taking control of the borders, the Slovenians were able to establish defensive positions against an expected YPA attack. This meant that the YPA would have to fire the first shot. It was fired on 27 June at 14:30 in Divača by an officer of YPA. The conflict spread into the ten days war, with many soldiers wounded and killed in which the YPA was ineffective. Many unmotivated soldiers of Slovenian, Croatian, Bosnian or Macedonian nationality deserted or quietly rebelled against some (Serbian) officers who wanted to intensify the conflict. It also marked the end of the YPA, which was until then composed by members of all Yugoslav nations. After that YPA consisted mainly of men of Serbian nationality.
On 7 July 1991, whilst supportive of their respective rights to national self-determination, the European Community pressured Slovenia and Croatia to place a three-month moratorium on their independence with the
Brijuni Agreement
The Brioni Agreement, also known as the Brioni Declaration ( hr, Brijunska deklaracija, sr, Brionska deklaracija, italics=yes, sr-Cyrl, Брионска декларација, sl, Brionska deklaracija), is a document signed by representativ ...
(recognized by representatives of all republics). During these three months, the Yugoslav Army completed its pull-out from Slovenia. Negotiations to restore the Yugoslav federation with diplomat Lord
Peter Carington and members of the European Community were all but ended. Carington's plan realized that Yugoslavia was in a state of dissolution and decided that each republic must accept the inevitable independence of the others, along with a promise to Serbian President Milošević that the European Union would ensure that Serbs outside of Serbia would be protected. Milošević refused to agree to the plan, as he claimed that the European Community had no right to dissolve Yugoslavia and that the plan was not in the interests of Serbs as it would divide the Serb people into four republics (Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Croatia). Carington responded by putting the issue to a vote in which all the other republics, including Montenegro under Momir Bulatović, initially agreed to the plan that would dissolve Yugoslavia. However, after intense pressure from Serbia on Montenegro's president, Montenegro changed its position to oppose the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
With the Plitvice Lakes incident of late March/early April 1991, the Croatian War of Independence broke out between the Croatian government and the rebel ethnic Serbs of the SAO Krajina (heavily backed by the by-now Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army). On 1 April 1991, the SAO Krajina declared that it would secede from Croatia. Immediately after Croatia's declaration of independence, Croatian Serbs also formed the SAO Western Slavonia and the SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia. These three regions would combine into the Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) on 19 December 1991. The influence of xenophobia and ethnic hatred in the collapse of Yugoslavia became clear during the war in Croatia. Propaganda by Croatian and Serbian sides spread fear, claiming that the other side would engage in oppression against them and would exaggerate death tolls to increase support from their populations. In the beginning months of the war, the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army and navy deliberately shelled civilian areas of Split and Dubrovnik, a UNESCO world heritage site, as well as nearby Croat villages.
Yugoslav media claimed that the actions were done due to what they claimed was a presence of fascist Ustaše forces and international terrorists in the city.
UN investigations found that no such forces were in Dubrovnik at the time.
Croatian military presence increased later on. Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Đukanović, at the time an ally of Milošević, appealed to Montenegrin nationalism, promising that the capture of Dubrovnik would allow the expansion of Montenegro into the city which he claimed was historically part of Montenegro, and denounced the present borders of Montenegro as being "drawn by the old and poorly educated Bolshevik cartographers".
![Vukovar water tank](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Vukovar_water_tank.jpg)
At the same time, the Serbian government contradicted its Montenegrin allies by claims by the Serbian Prime Minister Dragutin Zelenović contended that Dubrovnik was historically Serbian, not Montenegrin.
The international media gave immense attention to bombardment of Dubrovnik and claimed this was evidence of Milosevic pursuing the creation of a Greater Serbia as Yugoslavia collapsed, presumably with the aid of the subordinate Montenegrin leadership of Bulatović and Serb nationalists in Montenegro to foster Montenegrin support for the retaking of Dubrovnik.
In Vukovar, ethnic tensions between Croats and Serbs exploded into violence when the Yugoslav army Siege of Vukovar, entered the town in November 1991. The Yugoslav army and Serbian paramilitaries devastated the town in urban warfare and the destruction of Croatian property. Serb paramilitaries committed atrocities against Croats, killing over 200, and displacing others to add to those who fled the town in the Vukovar massacre. With Bosnia's demographic structure comprising a mixed population of Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats, the ownership of large areas of Bosnia was in dispute. From 1991 to 1992, the situation in the multi-ethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina grew tense. Its parliament was fragmented on ethnic lines into a plurality Bosniak faction and minority Serb and Croat factions. In 1991, the controversial nationalist leader Radovan Karadžić of the largest Serb faction in the parliament, the Serb Democratic Party (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Serb Democratic Party gave a grave and direct warning to the Bosnian parliament should it decide to separate, saying: "This, what you are doing, is not good. This is the path that you want to take Bosnia and Herzegovina on, the same highway of hell and death that Slovenia and Croatia went on. Don't think that you won't take Bosnia and Herzegovina into hell, and the Muslim people maybe into extinction. Because the Muslim people cannot defend themselves if there is war here." Radovan Karadžić, 14 October 1991.
![Evstafiev-sarajevo-building-burns](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Evstafiev-sarajevo-building-burns.jpg)
In the meantime, behind the scenes, negotiations began between Milošević and Tuđman to divide Bosnia and Herzegovina into Serb and Croat administered territories to attempt to avert war between Bosnian Croats and Serbs. Bosnian Serbs held the November 1991 referendum which resulted in an overwhelming vote in favor of staying in a common state with Serbia and Montenegro. In public, pro-state media in Serbia claimed to Bosnians that Bosnia and Herzegovina could be included a new voluntary union within a new Yugoslavia based on democratic government, but this was not taken seriously by the Bosnia and Herzegovina's government. On 9 January 1992, the Bosnian Serb assembly proclaimed a separate Republic of the Serb people of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the soon-to-be Republika Srpska, Republic of Srpska), and proceeded to form Serbian autonomous regions (SARs) throughout the state. The Serbian referendum on remaining in Yugoslavia and the creation of Serbian autonomous regions (SARs) were proclaimed unconstitutional by the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the independence referendum sponsored by the Bosnian government was held on 29 February and 1 March 1992. That referendum was in turn declared contrary to the Bosnian and federal constitution by the federal Constitution Court and the newly established Bosnian Serb government; it was also largely boycotted by the Bosnian Serbs. According to the official results, the turnout was 63.4%, and 99.7% of the voters voted for independence. It was unclear what the two-thirds majority requirement actually meant and whether it was satisfied. Following the secession of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 27 April 1992, the SFR Yugoslavia had, de facto, dissolved into five successor states: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia and the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
(later renamed "Serbia and Montenegro"). Badinter Commission later (1991–1993) noted that Yugoslavia disintegrated into several independent states, so it is not possible to talk about the secession of Slovenia and Croatia from Yugoslavia.
Post-1992 UN membership
In September 1992, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (consisting of Republic of Serbia (1992–2006), Serbia and Republic of Montenegro (1992–2006), Montenegro) failed to achieve ''de jure'' recognition as the continuation of the Socialist Federal Republic in the United Nations. It was separately recognised as a successor alongside Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia. Before 2000, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia declined to re-apply for membership in the United Nations and the United Nations Secretariat allowed the mission from the SFRY to continue to operate and accredited representatives of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to the SFRY mission, continuing work in various United Nations organs. It was only after the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević, that the Government of FR Yugoslavia applied for UN membership in 2000.
Politics
Constitution
![Novi Beograd - The SIV building](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Novi_Beograd_-_The_SIV_building.jpg)
The Constitution of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav Constitution was adopted in 1946 Yugoslav Constitution, 1946 and amended in 1953 Yugoslav constitutional amendments, 1953, 1963 Yugoslav Constitution, 1963, and 1974 Yugoslav Constitution, 1974. The League of Communists of Yugoslavia won the first elections, and remained in power throughout the state's existence. It was composed of individual Communist parties from each constituent republic. The party would reform its political positions through party congresses in which delegates from each republic were represented and voted on changes to party policy, the last of which was held in 1990. Yugoslavia's parliament was known as the Federal Assembly of the SFRY, Federal Assembly which was housed in the building which currently houses Serbia's parliament. The Federal Assembly was composed entirely of Communist members. The primary political leader of the state was Josip Broz Tito, but there were several other important politicians, particularly after Tito's death: see the List of members of the Presidency of Yugoslavia, list of leaders of Communist Yugoslavia. In 1974, Tito was elected President-for-life of Yugoslavia. After Tito's death in 1980, the single position of president was divided into a collective Presidency, where representatives of each republic would essentially form a committee where the concerns of each republic would be addressed and from it, collective federal policy goals and objectives would be implemented. The head of the collective presidency was rotated between representatives of the republics. The collective presidency was considered the head of state of Yugoslavia. The collective presidency was ended in 1991, as Yugoslavia fell apart. In 1974, major reforms to Yugoslavia's constitution occurred. Among the changes was the controversial internal division of Serbia, which created two autonomous provinces within it, Vojvodina and Kosovo. Each of these autonomous provinces had voting power equal to that of the republics, but retroactively they participated in Serbian decision-making as constituent parts of SR Serbia.
Federal units
Internally, the Yugoslav federation was divided into six constituent states. Their formation was initiated during the war years, and finalized in 1944–1946. They were initially designated as ''federated states'', but after the adoption of the first federal Constitution, on 31 January 1946, they were officially named as ''people's republics'' (1946-1963), and later as ''socialist republics'' (from 1963 forward). They were constitutionally defined as mutually equal in rights and duties within the federation. Initially, there were initiatives to create several Autonomous area, autonomous units within some federal units, but that was enforced only in Serbia, where two autonomous units (Vojvodina and Kosovo) were created (1945).
In alphabetical order, the republics and provinces were:
Foreign policy
Under Tito, Yugoslavia adopted a policy of nonalignment in the Cold War. It developed close relations with developing countries by having a leading role in the Non-Aligned Movement, as well as maintaining cordial relations with the United States and Western European countries. Stalin considered Tito a traitor and openly offered condemnation towards him. Yugoslavia provided major assistance to anti-colonialist movements in the Third World. The Yugoslav delegation was the first to bring the demands of the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeria), National Liberation Front to the United Nations. In January 1958, the French navy boarded the Slovenija cargo ship off Oran, whose holds were filled with weapons for the insurgents. Diplomat Danilo Milic explained that "Tito and the leading nucleus of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia really saw in the Third World's liberation struggles a replica of their own struggle against the fascist occupants. They vibrated to the rhythm of the advances or setbacks of the FLN or Vietcong."
Thousands of Yugoslav cooperants travelled to Guinea after its decolonisation and as the French government tried to destabilise the country. Tito also helped the liberation movements of the Portuguese colonies. He saw the murder of Patrice Lumumba in 1961 as the "greatest crime in contemporary history". The country's military schools hosted activists from Swapo (Namibia) and the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (South Africa). In 1980, the secret services of South Africa and Argentina planned to bring 1,500 anti-communist guerrillas to Yugoslavia. The operation was aimed at overthrowing Tito and was planned during the Olympic Games period so that the Soviets would be too busy to react. The operation was finally abandoned due to Tito's death and while the Yugoslav armed forces raised their alert level.
On 1 January 1967, Yugoslavia was the first Communist country to open its borders to all foreign visitors and abolish visa requirements. In the same year, Tito became active in promoting a peaceful resolution of the Arab–Israeli conflict. His plan called for Arab countries to recognize the State of Israel in exchange for Israel returning territories it had gained. The Arab countries rejected his land for peace concept. However, that same year, Yugoslavia no longer recognized Israel.
In 1968, following the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Tito added an additional defense line to Yugoslavia's borders with the Warsaw Pact countries. Later in 1968, Tito then offered Czechoslovak leader Alexander Dubček that he would fly to Prague on three hours notice if Dubček needed help in facing down the Soviet Union which was occupying Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Czechoslovakia at the time.
Yugoslavia had mixed relations towards Enver Hoxha's
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
. Initially Yugoslav-Albanian relations were forthcoming, as Albania adopted a common market with Yugoslavia and required the teaching of Serbo-Croatian to students in high schools. At this time, the concept of creating a Balkan Federation was being discussed between Yugoslavia, Albania, and Bulgaria. Albania at this time was heavily dependent on economic support of Yugoslavia to fund its initially weak infrastructure. Trouble between Yugoslavia and Albania began when Albanians began to complain that Yugoslavia was paying too little for Albania's natural resources. Afterward, relations between Yugoslavia and Albania worsened. From 1948 onward, the Soviet Union backed Albania in opposition to Yugoslavia. On the issue of Albanian-dominated Kosovo, Yugoslavia and Albania both attempted to neutralize the threat of nationalist conflict, Hoxha opposed Albanian nationalism, as he officially believed in the world communist ideal of international brotherhood of all people, though on a few occasions in the 1980s he made inflammatory speeches in support of Albanians in Kosovo against the Yugoslav government, when public sentiment in Albania was firmly in support of Kosovo's Albanians.
Economy
Despite their common origins, the socialist economy of Yugoslavia was much different from the economy of the Soviet Union and the economies of the Eastern Bloc, especially after the Yugoslav–Soviet break-up of 1948. Though they were state-owned enterprises, Yugoslav companies were nominally collectively managed by the employees themselves through
workers' self-management
Workers' self-management, also referred to as labor management and organizational self-management, is a form of organizational management based on self-directed work processes on the part of an organization's workforce. Self-management is a def ...
, albeit with state oversight dictating wage bills and the hiring and firing of managers
The occupation and liberation struggle in World War II left Yugoslavia's infrastructure devastated. Even the most developed parts of the country were largely rural, and the little industry the country had was largely damaged or destroyed. Unemployment was a chronic problem for Yugoslavia:
[Mieczyslaw P. Boduszynski]
Regime Change in the Yugoslav Successor States: Divergent Paths toward a New Europe
, p. 66-67 the unemployment rates were amongst the highest in Europe during its existence and they did not reach critical levels before the 1980s only due to the safety valve provided by sending one million guest workers yearly to advanced industrialized countries in Western Europe.
[Mieczyslaw P. Boduszynski: Regime Change in the Yugoslav Successor States: Divergent Paths toward a New Europe, p. 63] The departure of Yugoslavs seeking work began in the 1950s, when individuals began slipping across the border illegally. In the mid-1960s, Yugoslavia lifted emigration restrictions and the number of emigrants increased rapidly, especially to West Germany. By the early 1970s, 20% of the country's labor force or 1.1 million workers were employed abroad. This was also a source of capital and foreign currency for Yugoslavia.
Due to Yugoslavia's neutrality and its leading role in the Non-Aligned Movement, Yugoslav companies exported to both Western and Eastern markets. Yugoslav companies carried out construction of numerous major infrastructural and industrial projects in Africa, Europe and Asia. In the 1970s, the economy was reorganized according to Edvard Kardelj's theory of associated labor, in which the right to decision-making and a share in profits of worker-run cooperatives is based on the investment of labour. All companies were transformed into ''organizations of associated labor''. The smallest, ''basic organizations of associated labor'', roughly corresponded to a small company or a department in a large company. These were organized into ''enterprises'' which in turn associated into ''composite organizations of associated labor'', which could be large companies or even whole-industry branches in a certain area. Most executive decision-making was based in Organization, enterprises, so that these continued to Competition, compete to an extent, even when they were part of a same composite organization.
In practice, the appointment of managers and the strategic policies of composite organizations were, depending on their size and importance, often subject to political and personal influence-peddling. In order to give all employees, the same access to decision-making, the ''basic organisations of associated labor'' were also applied to public services, including health and education. The basic organizations were usually made up of no more than a few dozen people and had their own workers' councils, whose assent was needed for strategic decisions and appointment of managers in enterprises or public institutions.
The results of these reforms however were not satisfactory. There have been rampant wage-price inflations, substantial rundown of capital plant and consumer shortages, while the income gap between the poorer Southern and the relatively affluent Northern regions of the country remained.
The self-management system stimulated the inflationary economy that was needed to support it. Large state-owned enterprises operated as monopolists with unrestricted access to capital that was shared according to political criteria.
The oil crisis of 1973 magnified the economic problems, which the government tried to solve with extensive foreign borrowing. Although such actions resulted in a reasonable rate of growth for a few years (GNP grew at 5.1% yearly), such growth was unsustainable since the rate of foreign borrowing grew at an annual rate of 20%.
After the relatively prosperous 70s, life conditions deteriorated in Yugoslavia in the 1980s, and were reflected in soaring unemployment rates and inflation. In the late 1980s, the unemployment rate in Yugoslavia was over 17%, with another 20% Underemployment, underemployed; with 60% of the unemployed under the age of 25. Real net personal income declined by 19.5%.
The nominal GDP per capita of Yugoslavia at current prices in US dollars was at $3,549 in 1990. The central government tried to reform the self-management system and create an open market economy with considerable state ownership of major industrial factories, but Strike action, strikes in major plants and hyperinflation in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, hyperinflation held back progress.
The Yugoslav wars and consequent loss of market, as well as mismanagement and/or non-transparent privatization, brought further economic trouble for all the former republics of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
The Yugoslav currency was the Yugoslav dinar.
Various economic indicators around 1990 were:
:Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2,700% (1989 est.)
:Unemployment rate: 15% (1989)
:GNP: $129.5 billion, per capita $5,464; real growth rate – 1.0% (1989 est.)
:Budget: revenues $6.4 billion; expenditures $6.4 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (1990)
:Exports: $13.1 billion (f.o.b., 1988); commodities—raw materials and semimanufactures 50%, consumer goods 31%, capital goods and equipment 19%; partners—EC 30%, CEMA 45%, less developed countries 14%, US 5%, other 6%
:Imports: $13.8 billion (c.i.f., 1988); commodities—raw materials and semimanufactures 79%, capital goods and equipment 15%, consumer goods 6%; partners—EC 30%, CEMA 45%, less developed countries 14%, US 5%, other 6%
:External debt: $17.0 billion, medium and long term (1989)
:Electricity: 21,000,000 kW capacity; 87,100 million kWh produced, 3,650 kWh per capita (1989)
Transportation
Air transport
![JAT DC-10-30 (6068614970)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/JAT_DC-10-30_%286068614970%29.jpg)
In the interwar period, air transport in Yugoslavia was organised by the privately owned Aeroput company, but its post-war operations were suspended due to nationalization and near-total fleet destruction during the war.
The first plan for the post-war public air transport reconstruction was introduced by the Commission for the Economic Reconstruction on 28 December 1944.
The plan envisaged a national network which would include
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
, Zagreb, Ljubljana,
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...
, Titograd, Skopje, Novi Sad, Kraljevo, Niš, Borovo, Croatia, Borovo, Rijeka, Zadar, Split, Croatia, Split, Dubrovnik, Banja Luka, Mostar, Maribor and
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...
.
Initial charter public flights were organised by military planes, while the first regular international line after the war was introduced on 6 October 1945 between Belgrade and Prague.
The initial public fleet consisted of four old German planes (Junkers Ju 52) and four Tukans purchased in France in 1945-46.
In August 1945 Yugoslavia received 11 Soviet Lisunov-Li 2 planes, but their usage was quickly discontinued in international transport, and partially discontinued in domestic transport, due to concerns over inadequate safety.
Yugoslavia therefore initiated purchase of 10 American excess and therefore cheap C-47 planes in 1946.
However, as Yugoslavia at the time was still a close Soviet ally, the US rejected the proposal pushing Yugoslavia to purchase three DC-3s in Belgium which would be the basic type of planes in Yugoslav public fleet all up until 1960s.
The Yugoslav national public air transport company JAT Airways was established in April 1947.
While being a Communist country, after the Tito–Stalin split Yugoslavia initiated a period of military neutrality and non-alignment. Its airlines were supplied by both the East and the West. JAT Airways, JAT Yugoslav Airlines became the flag carrier by absorbing the previous company Aeroput. During its existence it grew to become one of the leading airlines in Europe both by fleet and destinations. Its fleet included most of the Western-built aircraft, and destinations included five continents. By the 1970s more airlines were created, namely Aviogenex, Adria Airways and Pan Adria Airways, mostly focused in the growing tourist industry. The capital Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, Belgrade Airport became the regional hub offering flights, either by the national airline JAT, or by other airlines, to all important destinations worldwide. Aside from Belgrade, most international flights would include a stop in Zagreb Airport, the second national airport in terms of passenger and cargo capacity; the two became the sole international hubs. All secondary airports such as the ones in Sarajevo Airport, Sarajevo, Skopje Airport, Skopje, Split Airport, Split or Ljubljana Airport, Ljubljana were directly linked to international flights through either Belgrade or Zagreb, while a number of tourism-oriented destinations were developed, such as Dubrovnik Airport, Dubrovnik, Rijeka Airport, Rijeka, Ohrid Airport, Ohrid, Tivat Airport, Tivat and others.
Railways
The railway system in Yugoslavia was operated by the Yugoslav Railways. Much of the infrastructure was inherited from the pre-WWII period, and SFRY period was marked by the extension and electrification of the rails. Electric and diesel locomotives were introduced in number from the 1960s onwards. Much of the early rolling stock were European produced, while with time were being replaced with domestically built locomotives, mostly from KONČAR Group, Rade Končar and carriages, mostly from GOŠA. The main two projects during SFRY period were electrification of the Zagreb–Belgrade railway, and the building of the highly challenging Belgrade–Bar railway. Yugoslav railways operated a number of international services, such as the Orient Express.
Roads
The core of the road network in Yugoslavia was the Brotherhood and Unity Highway which was a highway that stretched over , from the
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n border at Rateče near Kranjska Gora in the northwest via Ljubljana, Zagreb, Belgrade and Skopje to Gevgelija on the Greece, Greek border in the southeast. It was the main modern highway in the country, connecting four constituent republics. It was the pioneer highway in Central-Eastern Europe, and the main link between Central and Western Europe with South-Eastern Europe and Middle East. Construction began on the initiative of President Tito. The first section between Zagreb and Belgrade was built with the effort of the Yugoslav People's Army and volunteer Youth work actions, Youth Work Actions and was opened in 1950. The section between Ljubljana and Zagreb was built by 54,000 volunteers in less than eight months in 1958.
Maritime and river transportation
With its extensive coast in the Adriatic sea, Yugoslavia included several large ports such as Split, Rijeka, Zadar or Pula. Ferries providing passenger service were established linking Yugoslav ports with several ports in Italy and Greece. Regarding rivers, the Danube was navigable throughout its entire course in Yugoslavia, linking the ports of Belgrade, Novi Sad, and Vukovar with Central Europe and the Black sea. Long stretches of rivers Sava, Drava and Tisza were also navigable.
Urban
Accompanying the high urban growth, urban transportation in Yugoslavia was significantly developed in all republic capitals and major cities. Urban bus networks existed in all cities, while many also included trolleybuses and trams. Despite having been planned for decades, Belgrade Metro never materialised, and Belgrade became the major capital in Europe not to have metro. Instead, Belgrade city authorities opted for the development of urban rail transport, Beovoz, and an extensive tram, bus and trolley network.
Besides capital Belgrade, other cities developed tram networks as well. The urban rail transport infrastructure in Yugoslavia consisted of:
* Bosnia and Herzegovina:
** Trams in Sarajevo
* Croatia:
** Zagreb tram system
** Osijek tram system
** Dubrovnik tram, Dubrovnik tram system up to 1970
** Trams in Rijeka, Rijeka tram system up to 1952
* Serbia:
** Belgrade tram system
** Niš tram system up to 1958
** Novi Sad tram system up to 1958
** Subotica tram system up to 1974
* Slovenia:
** Ljubljana tram system up to 1958
** Piran tram system up to 1953
In the Kingdom of Italy, there were also the Opatija tram and trams in Pula in Istria province, after 1947 (''de facto'' 1945) ceded to Yugoslavia.
Communications
Radio and television
One of the founding members of the European Broadcasting Union, Yugoslav Radio Television, known as JRT, was the national public broadcasting system in Yugoslavia. It consisted of eight subnational administrative division, subnational radio and television broadcast centers with each one headquartered in one of the six constituent republics and two autonomous provinces. Each television center created its own programming independently, and some of them operated several channels. This subnational broadcasting centers became public broadcasters of the newly independent states, with altered names, after the break-up of Yugoslavia. Croatian Radiotelevision, Zagreb Radio started broadcasting on 15 May 1926, and was the first public broadcasting facility in Southeast Europe. On the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Zagreb Radio station, on 15 May 1956, the first television programme was broadcast. This was the first TV station in Yugoslavia and would later become a color station in 1972. Radio Television of Serbia, RT Belgrade and Radiotelevizija Slovenija, RT Ljubljana started broadcasting its television programmes two years later, in 1958.
Geography
![sfrj](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Sfrj.png)
Like the Kingdom of Yugoslavia that preceded it, the SFRY bordered Italy and Austria to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast,
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
and
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
to the east, Greece to the south, Albania to the southwest, and the Adriatic Sea to the west. During the socialist period it was common for history and geography teachers to teach their students that Yugoslavia bordered with "''brigama''", a Serbo-Croatian word meaning ''worries'' and that was an acronym of the initials of all the countries Yugoslavia bordered with, transformed into a mnemonic principle used for both, easy learning and ironic reminder of the difficult relations Yugoslav people had with its neighbors in the past. The most significant change to the borders of the SFRY occurred in 1954, when the adjacent Free Territory of Trieste was dissolved by the Treaty of Osimo. The Yugoslav Zone B, which covered , became part of the SFRY. Zone B was already occupied by the Yugoslav National Army. In 1991, the SFRY's territory disintegrated as the independent states of Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina separated from it, though the Yugoslav military controlled parts of Croatia and Bosnia prior to the state's dissolution. By 1992, only the republics of Serbia and Montenegro remained committed to union, and formed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in that year.
Demographics
Ethnic groups
The SFRY recognised "nations" ''(narodi)'' and "nationalities" ''(narodnosti)'' separately; the former included the constituent South Slavic peoples (Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Muslims (ethnic group), Muslims (from 1971), Serbs and Slovenes), while the latter included other Slavic and non-Slavic ethnic groups such as Slovaks, Bulgarians, Rusyns and Czechs (Slavic); or Albanians, Hungarians, Romani people, Romani, Turkish people, Turks, Romanians, Vlachs, Italians, and Germans (non-Slavic). In total, about 26 known sizeable ethnic groups were known to live in Yugoslavia. There was also a Yugoslavs, Yugoslav ethnic designation, for the people who wanted to identify with the entire country, including people who were born to parents in mixed marriages.
Languages
The population of Yugoslavia spoke mainly three languages: Serbo-Croatian,
Slovene and
Macedonian
Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia.
Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to:
People Modern
* Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North M ...
.
Serbo-Croatian was spoken by the populations in the federated republics of SR Serbia, SR Croatia, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina and SR Montenegro – a total of 17 million people by the late 1980s. Slovene was spoken by approximately 2 million inhabitants of SR Slovenia, while Macedonian was spoken by 1.8 million inhabitants of Socialist Republic of Macedonia, SR Macedonia. National minorities used their own languages as well, with 506,000 speaking Hungarian language, Hungarian (primarily in SAP Vojvodina), and 2,000,000 persons speaking Albanian language, Albanian in SR Serbia (primarily in SAP Kosovo), SR Macedonia and SR Montenegro. Turkish language, Turkish, Romanian language, Romanian (primarily in SAP Vojvodina), and Italian language, Italian (primarily in Istria and parts of Dalmatia) were also spoken to a lesser extent.
The Yugoslav Albanians, almost exclusively Ghegs, chose to use the unified standard language of Albania predominantly based on Tosk Albanian (a different dialect), for political reasons.
The three main languages all belong to the South Slavic languages, South Slavic language group and are thus similar, allowing most people from different areas to understand each other. Intellectuals were mostly acquainted with all three languages, while people of more modest means from SR Slovenia and SR Macedonia were provided an opportunity to learn Serbo-Croatian during the compulsory service in the federal military. Serbo-Croatian itself is made-up of three dialects, Shtokavian, Kajkavian, and Chakavian, with Shtokavian used as the standard official dialect of the language. Official Serbo-Croatian (Shtokavian), was divided into two similar variants, the Croatian (Western) variant and Serbian (Eastern) variant, with minor Differences between standard Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian, differences telling the two apart.
Two alphabets used in Yugoslavia were: the Latin alphabet and the Cyrillic script. Both alphabets were modified for use by Serbo-Croatian in the 19th century, thus the Serbo-Croatian Latin alphabet is more closely known as Gaj's Latin alphabet, while Cyrillic is referred to as the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet. Serbo-Croatian uses both alphabets, Slovene uses only the Latin alphabet, and Macedonian uses only the Cyrillic alphabet. Bosnian and Croatian variants of the language used exclusively Latin, while the Serbian variant used both Latin and Cyrillic.
Emigration
The small or negative population growth in the former Yugoslavia reflected a high level of emigration. Even before the breakup of the country, during the 1960s and 1970s, Yugoslavia was one of the most important "sending societies" of international migration. An important receiving society was Immigration from the former Yugoslavia to Switzerland, Switzerland, target of an estimated total of 500,000 migrants, who now account for more than 6% of total Swiss population. Similar numbers emigrated to Germany, Austria, Australia, Sweden and to North America.
Military
The armed forces of SFR Yugoslavia consisted of the Yugoslav People's Army (''Jugoslovenska narodna armija'', JNA), Territorial Defense (TO), Civil Defense (CZ) and ''Militsiya, Milicija'' (police) in wartime. Socialist Yugoslavia maintained a strong military force. JNA was the main organization of the military forces plus the remnacents of the royal Yugoslav army, and was composed of the ground army, navy and aviation. Militarily, Yugoslavia had a policy of self-sufficiency. Due to its policy of neutrality and non-alignment, efforts were made to develop the country's military industry to provide the military with all its needs, and even for export. Most of its military equipment and pieces were domestically produced, while some was imported both from the East and the West. The regular army mostly originated from the Yugoslav Partisans of World War II. Yugoslavia had a thriving arms industry and exported to nations such as Kuwait, Iraq, and Myanmar, Burma, among others (including a number of staunchly anti-communist regimes like Guatemala). Yugoslav companies like Zastava Arms produced Soviet-designed weaponry under license as well as creating weaponry from scratch, ranging from police pistols to airplanes. SOKO was an example of a successful military aircraft design by Yugoslavia before the Yugoslav wars. Beside the federal army, each of the six republics had their own respective Territorial Defense Forces. They were a national guard of sorts, established in the frame of a new military doctrine called "General Popular Defense" as an answer to the brutal end of the Prague Spring by the Warsaw Pact in Czechoslovakia in 1968. It was organized on republic, autonomous province, municipality and local community levels. As Breakup of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia splintered, the army factionalized along ethnic lines, and by 1991–92 Serbs made up almost the entire army as the separating states formed their own.
Education
Period of the existence of the SFR Yugoslavia was marked by significant development in the field of education.
The immediate period after the World War II was marked by the organization of widespread literacy (''analfabetism'') courses which resulted in decrease in the number of illiterate citizens (particularly Women in Yugoslavia, women who constituted 70% of students) from 4,408,471 (44.6% of population above 10 years in 1931) to 3,162,941 (25.4% of population above 10 years in 1948), 3,066,165 (21% in 1961), 2,549.571 (15.1% in 1971), and 1,780.902 (9,5% in 1981) and with continuous increasing average age among illiterate population.
In 1946 there were 10,666 elementary schools with 1.441.679 students and 23.270 teachers while the number of elementary school students peaked in 1975/76 academic year with 2,856,453 students.
The country introduced universal eight year elementary public education in 1958.
Between 1946 and 1987 the number of high schools in Yugoslavia rose from 959 to 1248 with 6.6% of population with high school diploma in 1953 and 25.5% in 1981.
Only 0.6% of population held higher education degree in 1953 with number rising to 1.3% in 1961, 2.8% in 1971 and 5.6% in 1981.
While economy and job market of the interwar kingdom was unable to absorb significantly smaller numbers of qualified workers post-war Yugoslav economy was despite the improvements continually faced with the lack of qualified workforce.
Universities
![Univerza Ljubljana](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Univerza_Ljubljana.jpg)
The University of Zagreb (founded 1669), University of Belgrade (founded 1808) and the University of Ljubljana (founded 1919) already existed before the creation of Socialist Yugoslavia. Between 1945 and 1992 numerous universities were established throughout the country:
[Enciklopedija Jugoslavije, 2. Ausg., Band 6, Artikel ''Jugoslavija'', Abschnitt ''Nauka'', S. 510 f.]
* University of Sarajevo (1949)
* Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, University of Skopje (1949)
* University of Novi Sad (1960)
* University of Niš (1965)
* University of Pristina (1969–1999), University of Pristina (1970)
* University of Arts in Belgrade (1973)
* University of Rijeka (1973)
* University of Split (1974)
* University of Montenegro, University of Titograd (1974)
* University of Banja Luka (1975)
* University of Maribor (1975)
* University of Osijek (1975)
* University of Kragujevac (1976)
* University of Tuzla (1976)
* University of Mostar (1977)
* University of Bitola (1979)
Arts
Prior to the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Yugoslavia had a modern multicultural society. Characteristic attention was based on the concept of brotherhood and unity and the memory of the Communist Yugoslav Partisans' victory against fascists and nationalists as the rebirth of the Yugoslav people, although all forms of art flourished freely unlike in other socialist counties. In the SFRY the history of Yugoslavia during World War II was omnipresent, and was portrayed as a struggle not only between Yugoslavia and the Axis Powers, but as a struggle between good and evil within Yugoslavia with the multiethnic Yugoslav Partisans were represented as the "good" Yugoslavs fighting against manipulated "evil" Yugoslavs – the Croatian Ustaše and Serbian Chetniks. The SFRY was presented to its people as the leader of the non-aligned movement and that the SFRY was dedicated to creating a just, harmonious, Marxist world.
Artists from different ethnicities in the country were popular amongst other ethnicities, and the film industry in Yugoslavia avoided nationalist overtones until the 1990s. Unlike in other socialist societies, Yugoslavia was considered tolerant to a popular and classical art as long as it was not overly critical of the ruling regime, which made Yugoslavia appear to be a free country despite its one-party regime structure.
Literature
![S](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/S._Kragujevic%2C_Ivo_Andric%2C_1961.jpg)
Significant number of Yugoslav writers supported Yugoslav Partisans efforts during the World War II with some of the most prominent of them being Vladimir Nazor, Oton Župančič, Matej Bor, Kočo Racin, Kajuh, Ivan Goran Kovačić, Skender Kulenović and Branko Ćopić.
Socialist realism was a dominant style in the first couple of years after the war yet much more pluralistic attitude developed over the years.
Throughout the period Yugoslav literature was approached as an umbrella term for various local literatures with their own characteristics and inner diversity.
The most important international breakthrough for the Yugoslav literature was 1961 Nobel Prize for Literature laureate award to Ivo Andrić.
Other prominent Yugoslav writers of the era were Miroslav Krleža, Meša Selimović, Mak Dizdar and others.
Graphic arts
Notable painters included: Đorđe Andrejević Kun, Petar Lubarda, Mersad Berber, Milić od Mačve and others. Prominent sculptor was Antun Augustinčić who made a monument standing in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.
Film
The Yugoslav cinema featured notable actors Danilo Stojković, Ida Kravanja, Ljuba Tadić, Fabijan Šovagović, Mirko Bogataj, Mustafa Nadarević, Bata Živojinović, Boris Dvornik, Ratko Polič, Ljubiša Samardžić, Dragan Nikolić, Pavle Vujisić, Arnold Tovornik, Volodja Peer, Mira Banjac, Stevo Žigon, Voja Brajović, Ivo Ban, Miki Manojlović, Svetlana Bojković, Miodrag Petrović Čkalja, Zoran Radmilović, Špela Rozin, Josif Tatić, Milan Gutović, Milena Dravić, Milena Zupančič, Bekim Fehmiu, Neda Arnerić, Janez Škof, Rade Šerbedžija, Mira Furlan, Ena Begović and others. Film directors included: Emir Kusturica, Dušan Makavejev, Duša Počkaj, Goran Marković (film director), Goran Marković, Lordan Zafranović, Goran Paskaljević, Živojin Pavlović and Hajrudin Krvavac. Many Yugoslav films featured eminent foreign actors such as Orson Welles, Sergei Bondarchuk, Franco Nero and Yul Brynner in the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Academy Award nominated ''The Battle of Neretva'', and Richard Burton in ''Battle of Sutjeska (film), Sutjeska''. Also, many foreign films were shot on locations in Yugoslavia including domestic crews, such as ''Force 10 from Navarone (film), Force 10 from Navarone'', ''Armour of God (film), Armour of God'', as well as ''Escape from Sobibor''.
Music
Traditional music
Prominent traditional music artists were the award-winning Tanec ensemble, the Romani music, Gypsy music performer Esma Redžepova and others. A very popular genre in Yugoslavia, also exported to other neighboring countries, and also popular among the Yugoslav emigration worldwide, was the Narodna muzika. The Slovenian most popular folk music was played by Avsenik brothers (Ansambel bratov Avsenik) and Lojze Slak.The Serbian folk music, folk music emerged in force during the 1970s and 1980s, and by the 1980s and 1990s the so-called novokomponovana muzika style appeared and gave place to controversial turbo-folk style. Lepa Brena in the 1980s become the most popular singer of the Yugoslavia, and a top-selling female recording artist with more than 40 million records sold. Folk performers enjoyed great popularity and became constant presence in the tabloids and media. Yugoslav music scene in its diverse genres became known internationally, from traditional folklor music being appreciated worldwide, through rock-pop music being appreciated in Eastern, and lesser extent, Western Europe, to turbo-folk music being widely exported to neighboring countries.
Classical music
The pianist Ivo Pogorelić and the violinist Stefan Milenković were internationally acclaimed classical music performers, while Jakov Gotovac was a prominent composer and a conductor.
Popular music
As a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, Yugoslavia was far more open to Western culture than other socialist countries, and the western-influenced popular music was socially accepted and well covered in the media, which included numerous concerts, music magazines, radio and TV shows. The Popular music in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav rock scene, which emerged in the late 1950s, generally followed Western European and American trends with local and Eastern European influence. The most notable Yugoslav rock acts included Atomsko Sklonište, Azra, Bajaga i Instruktori, Đorđe Balašević, Bijelo Dugme, Buldožer, Crvena Jabuka, Zdravko Čolić, Divlje Jagode, Ekatarina Velika, Električni Orgazam, Film (band), Film, Galija, Haustor, Idoli, Indexi, Korni Grupa, KUD Idijoti, Laboratorija Zvuka, Lačni Franz, Laibach (band), Laibach, Leb i Sol, Josipa Lisac, Pankrti, Paraf, Parni Valjak, Partibrejkers, Pekinška Patka, Plavi Orkestar, Prljavo Kazalište, Psihomodo Pop, Riblja Čorba, September (band), September, Smak, Šarlo Akrobata, Time (rock band), Time, YU Grupa, Zabranjeno Pušenje and others. It was the only Communist country that took part in the Eurovision Song Contest, starting in Eurovision Song Contest 1961, 1961, even before some Western Bloc, Western nations, with the group Riva (music group), Riva winning in Eurovision Song Contest 1989, 1989.
Architectural heritage
Although Yugoslav cities and towns architecturally resembled and followed the styles of Central and Southeastern Europe, what became most characteristic of the SFRY period was the creation of a modernist or brutalist style architecture buildings and neighborhoods. Yugoslav cities expanded greatly during this period and the government often opted for the creation of modernist planned neighborhoods to accommodate the growing working middle-class. Such typical examples are the Novi Beograd and Novi Zagreb neighborhoods in two major cities.
* Yugoslav World War II monuments and memorials
* People's Heroes of Yugoslavia monuments
Sports
FPR/SFR Yugoslavia developed a strong athletic sports community, notably in team sports such as association football, basketball, handball, water polo, and volleyball.
Football
The country's biggest footballing achievement came on the club level with Red Star Belgrade winning the 1990–91 European Cup, beating Olympique de Marseille in the 1991 European Cup Final, final played on 29 May 1991. Later that year, they became world club champions by beating Colo-Colo 3–0 in the 1991 Intercontinental Cup, Intercontinental Cup.
Previously, Red Star had reached the 1978–79 UEFA Cup Two-legged tie, two-legged 1979 UEFA Cup Final, final, while their Belgrade Večiti derbi, cross-town rivals FK Partizan, Partizan had been the 1965–66 European Cup 1966 European Cup Final, finalists. GNK Dinamo Zagreb, Dinamo Zagreb 1967 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Final, won the 1966–67 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. Furthermore, NK Čelik Zenica, Čelik Zenica (twice), Red Star Belgrade, FK Vojvodina, Vojvodina, Partizan, NK Iskra Bugojno, Iskra Bugojno, and FK Borac Banja Luka, Borac Banja Luka won the Mitropa Cup; while FK Velež Mostar, Velež Mostar, HNK Rijeka, Rijeka, Dinamo Zagreb, and FK Radnički Niš, Radnički Niš, each won the Balkans Cup.
On the national team level, Yugoslavia national football team, FPR/SFR Yugoslavia qualified for seven FIFA World Cups, the best result coming in 1962 FIFA World Cup, 1962 in Chile with a 4th-place finish (equalizing the Kingdom of Yugoslavia achievement from 1930 FIFA World Cup, 1930). The country also played in four UEFA European Football Championship, European Championships. The best results came in 1960 and 1968 when the team lost in the finals—in 1960 European Nations' Cup Final, 1960 to Soviet Union and in UEFA Euro 1968 Final, 1968 to Italy. Yugoslavia was also the first non-Western European country to host a European Championship, UEFA Euro 1976.
Additionally, the Yugoslavia Olympic football team, Yugoslav Olympic team won gold at the Football at the 1960 Summer Olympics, 1960 Olympics in Rome, having previously won silver at the three preceding Olympic Games —Football at the 1948 Summer Olympics, 1948 in London, Football at the 1952 Summer Olympics, 1952 in Helsinki, and Association football at the 1956 Summer Olympics, 1956 in Melbourne. The team additionally won bronze in Football at the 1984 Summer Olympics, 1984 in Los Angeles.
In the youth category, Yugoslavia national under-20 football team, Yugoslavia under-20 team qualified for just two FIFA World Youth Championships, but won in 1987 FIFA World Youth Championship, 1987 in Chile while the Yugoslavia national under-21 football team, Yugoslav under-21 team qualified for four UEFA European Under-21 Football Championships winning the inaugural edition in 1978 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, 1978 and coming runners-up in 1990 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, 1990.
On the individual player front, Yugoslavia produced some notable performers on the world stage; such as Rajko Mitić, Stjepan Bobek, Bernard Vukas, Vladimir Beara, Dragoslav Šekularac, Milan Galić, Josip Skoblar, Ivan Ćurković, Velibor Vasović, Dragan Džajić, Safet Sušić, Dragan Stojković, Dejan Savićević, Darko Pančev, Robert Prosinečki, and others.
Basketball
Unlike football which inherited a lot of its infrastructure and know-how from the pre-World War II Kingdom of Yugoslavia, basketball had very little prior heritage. The sport was thus nurtured and developed from scratch within the Communist Yugoslavia through individual enthusiasts such as Nebojša Popović, Borislav Stanković, Bora Stanković, Radomir Šaper, Aleksandar Nikolić, Aca Nikolić, and Ranko Žeravica. Though a member of FIBA since 1936, the national team didn't qualify for a major competition until after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. In 1948, the country's umbrella basketball association, Basketball Federation of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav Basketball Federation (KSJ), was established.
Following its major competition debut at EuroBasket 1947, Yugoslavia national basketball team, Yugoslav national team didn't take long to become a contender on world stage with the first medal, a silver, coming at EuroBasket 1961. The country's most notable results were winning three FIBA World Championships (in 1970 FIBA World Championship, 1970, 1978 FIBA World Championship, 1978, and 1990 FIBA World Championship, 1990), a gold medal at the Basketball at the 1980 Summer Olympics, 1980 Olympics in Moscow, in addition to five Eurobasket, European Championships (three of them consecutively EuroBasket 1973, 1973, EuroBasket 1975, 1975, and EuroBasket 1977, 1977, followed by two more consecutive ones in EuroBasket 1989, 1989 and EuroBasket 1991, 1991). As a result of the 1970 FIBA World Championship win, basketball experienced a significant surge of popularity throughout the country, leading to the authorities initiating construction of a number of indoor sporting facilities. Some of the arenas built during this period include: Zagreb's Dom Sportova (1972), Belgrade's Hala Pionir (1973), Sportska dvorana Baldekin, Baldekin Sports Hall in Šibenik (1973), Dvorana Mladosti in Rijeka (1973), Hala Pinki in the Belgrade municipality of Zemun (1974), Čair Sports Center in Niš (1974), Kragujevac's Hala Jezero (1978), Morača Sports Center in Titograd (1978), Arena Gripe, Gripe Sports Centre in Split (1979), etc.
Simultaneously, on the club level, a multi-tier league system was established in 1945 with the First Federal Basketball League, First Federal League at the top of the pyramid. Initially played outdoors—on concrete and clay surfaces—and contested from early spring until mid autumn within the same calendar year due to weather constraints, 1967–68 Yugoslav First Basketball League, league games began to be played indoors from October 1967 despite the country still lacking appropriate infrastructure. Initially played in makeshift fair halls and industrial warehouses, club basketball in Yugoslavia experienced a significant organizational upgrade following the 1970 FIBA World Championship win with the country's Communist authorities authorizing construction of dozens of indoor sporting arenas around the country so that many clubs found permanent homes. Yugoslav clubs won the Euroleague, European Champion's Cup, the continent's premiere basketball club competition, on seven occasions—KK Bosna in 1978–79 FIBA European Champions Cup, 1979, KK Cibona in 1985 FIBA European Champions Cup Final, 1985 and 1986 FIBA European Champions Cup Final, 1986, KK Split, Jugoplastika Split in 1989 FIBA European Champions Cup Final Four, 1989, 1990 FIBA European Champions Cup Final Four, 1990, and 1991 FIBA European Champions Cup Final Four, 1991, and KK Partizan in 1992 FIBA European League Final Four, 1992.
Notable players included Radivoj Korać, Ivo Daneu, Krešimir Ćosić, Zoran Slavnić, Dražen Dalipagić, Dragan Kićanović, Mirza Delibašić, Dražen Petrović, Vlade Divac, Dino Rađa, Toni Kukoč, and Žarko Paspalj.
Water polo
Water polo is another sport with strong heritage in the era that predates the creation of Communist Yugoslavia. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, the Yugoslav national team had always been a contender, but never quite managed to make the final step. It was in the 1968 Olympics that the generation led by Mirko Sandić and Ozren Bonačić finally got the gold, beating Soviet Union after extra time. The country won two more Olympic golds – in 1984 and 1988. It also won two World Championship titles – in 1986 and 1991, the latter coming without Croatian players who by that time had already left the national team. And finally, the team won only one European Championship title, in 1991, after failing to do so for previous 40 years during which it always finished second or third. The 1980s and early 1990s were the golden age for Yugoslav water polo during which players such as Igor Milanović, Perica Bukić, Veselin Đuho, Deni Lušić, Dubravko Šimenc, Milorad Krivokapić, Aleksandar Šoštar, etc. established themselves as the best in the world.
Handball
Yugoslavia won two Olympic gold medals – Handball at the 1972 Summer Olympics, 1972 in Munich (handball returned as an Olympic sport following a 36-year absence) and Handball at the 1984 Summer Olympics, 1984 in Los Angeles. The country also won the World Men's Handball Championship, World Championships title in 1986 World Men's Handball Championship, 1986. SFR Yugoslavia never got to compete at the European Men's Handball Championship, European Championship because the competition got established in 1994. Veselin Vujović was voted IHF World Player of the Year, World Player of the Year in 1988 (first time the vote was held) by International Handball Federation, IHF. Other notable players over the years included Abaz Arslanagić, Zoran Živković (handballer), Zoran "Tuta" Živković, Branislav Pokrajac, Zlatan Arnautović, Mirko Bašić, Jovica Elezović, Mile Isaković, etc. On the women's side, the game also yielded some notable results – the women's team won Olympic gold in Handball at the 1984 Summer Olympics, 1984 while it also won World Women's Handball Championship, World Championship in 1973 World Women's Handball Championship, 1973. Just like Veselin Vujović in 1988 on the men's side, Svetlana Kitić was voted the World Player of the Year for the same year. There was great enthusiasm in Yugoslavia when Sarajevo was selected as the site of the 1984 Winter Olympic Games.
Individual sports
FPR/SFR Yugoslavia also managed to produce a multitude of successful athletes in individual disciplines. Tennis had always been a popular and well-followed sport in the country. Still, due to lack of financial means for tennis infrastructure and support of individual athletes, the participation rates among the Yugoslav youngsters for tennis were always low compared to other sports. All this meant that talented players determined to make it to pro level mostly had to rely on their own families rather than the country's tennis federation. Yugoslav players still managed to produce some notable results, mostly in the women's game. In 1977 French Open – Women's Singles, 1977, the country got its first Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam champion when clay court specialist Mima Jaušovec won at French Open, Roland Garros, beating Florența Mihai; Jaušovec reached two more French Open finals (in 1978 French Open – Women's Singles, 1978 and 1983 French Open – Women's Singles, 1983), but lost both of them. It was with the rise of teenage phenom Monica Seles during the early 1990s that the country became a powerhouse in female tennis: she won five Grand slam events under the flag of SFR Yugoslavia – two French Opens, two Australian Opens, and one US Open. She went on to win three more Grand Slam titles under the flag of FR Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) as well as yet one more Grand Slam after immigration to the United States. In men's tennis, Yugoslavia never produced a Grand Slam champion, though it had two finalists. In 1970 French Open – Men's Singles, 1970, Željko Franulović reached the French Open final, losing to Jan Kodeš. Three years later, in 1973 French Open – Men's Singles, 1973, Nikola Pilić also reached the French Open final, but lost it to Ilie Năstase. Skiers have been very successful in World Cup competitions and the Olympics (Bojan Križaj, Jure Franko, Boris Strel, Mateja Svet). Winter-spots had a special boost during the 1984 Winter Olympics held in Sarajevo. Gymnast Miroslav Cerar won a number of accolades, including two Olympic gold medals during the early 1960s. During the 1970s a pair of Yugoslav boxers, heavyweight Mate Parlov and welterweight Marijan Beneš, won multiple championships. During the late 1970s and into the 1980s, their results were matched by heavyweight Slobodan Kačar. For many years, Yugoslavia was considered the second strongest ''chess'' nation in the world after the Soviet Union. Arguably the biggest name in Yugoslav chess was Svetozar Gligorić, who played in three Candidates Tournaments between 1953 and 1968 and in 1958 won the Golden Badge as the best athlete in Yugoslavia.
National anthem
Yugoslavia and Poland shared the melody of its national anthem. Its first lyrics were written in 1834 under the title "Hey, Slavs, Hej, Sloveni" () and it has since served as the anthem of the Pan-Slavism, Pan-Slavic movement, the anthem of the Sokol physical education and political movement, and the anthem of the World War II-era Slovak Republic, Yugoslavia, and Serbia and Montenegro. The song is also considered to be the second, unofficial anthem of the Slovaks. Its melody is based on "Mazurek Dąbrowskiego", which has been also the anthem of Poland since 1926, but it is much slower and more accentuated. "Hey, Slavs" was not constitutionally recognized as the state anthem until 1988 (and as temporary until 1977), as it was meant to be a temporary anthem of Yugoslavia until a more Yugoslav-themed replacement was found, which never happened.
Legacy
![Former Yugoslavia 2008](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Former_Yugoslavia_2008.PNG)
The present-day states which succeeded Yugoslavia are still today sometimes collectively referred to as the former Yugoslavia (or shortened as Ex-Yu or similar). These countries are, listed chronologically:
* Slovenia (since 1991)
* Croatia (since 1991)
* North Macedonia (Prespa agreement, formerly Macedonia; since 1991)
* Bosnia and Herzegovina (since 1992)
* Serbia and Montenegro, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Republic of Serbia (1992–2006), Serbia and Republic of Montenegro (1992–2006), Montenegro; 1992–2006)
** Montenegro (since 2006)
** Serbia (since 2006)
*** Kosovo (since 2008; International recognition of Kosovo, independence disputed)
In 2001 former constituent republics reached the partially implemented Agreement on Succession Issues of the Former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that became effective on 2 June 2004.
Remembrance of the time of the joint state and its perceived positive attributes is referred to as Yugo-nostalgia. People who identify with the former Yugoslav state may self-identify as Yugoslavs. The social, linguistic, economic and cultural ties between former Yugoslav countries are sometimes referred to as the "Yugosphere".
All of the successor states are or were candidates for European Union membership, with Slovenia and Croatia being the two who have already joined the union. Accession of Slovenia to the European Union, Slovenia joined in 2004, and Accession of Croatia to the European Union, Croatia followed in 2013. Accession of North Macedonia to the European Union, North Macedonia, Accession of Montenegro to the European Union, Montenegro and Accession of Serbia to the European Union, Serbia are official candidates. Accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the European Union, Bosnia and Herzegovina has submitted an application and Accession of Kosovo to the European Union, Kosovo has not submitted an application but is recognized as a potential candidate for a possible future enlargement of the European Union.
All states of the former Yugoslavia, with the exception of Kosovo, have subscribed to the Stabilisation and Association Process with the EU. European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo is a deployment of EU police and civilian resources to Kosovo in an attempt to restore Kosovo#Law, rule of law and combat the widespread Crime in Kosovo, organized crime.
The successor states of Yugoslavia continue to have a List of countries by population growth rate, population growth rate that is close to zero or negative. This is mostly due to emigration, which intensified during and after the Yugoslav Wars, during the 1990s to 2000s, but also due to low birth rates. More than 2.5 million refugees were created by the fighting in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, Kosovo, which led to a massive surge in North American immigration. Close to 120,000 Yugoslav Americans, refugees from the former Yugoslavia were registered in the United States from 1991 to 2002, and 67,000 Yugoslav Canadians, migrants from the former Yugoslavia were registered in Canada between 1991 and 2001.
[Carl-Ulrik Schierp, 'Former Yugoslavia: Long Waves of International Migration' in: ed. R. Cohen, ''The Cambridge survey of world migration'', Cambridge University Press, 1995, , 285–298.][Nancy Honovich, ''Immigration from the Former Yugoslavia: Changing face of North America'', Mason Crest Publishers, 2004.][Dominique M. Gross, ''Immigration to Switzerland, the case of the former Republic of Yugoslavia'', World Bank Publications, 2006.][Yugoslav immigration](_blank)
(Encyclopedia of Immigration).
Net population growth over the two decades between 1991 and 2011 was thus practically zero (below 0.1% p.a. on average). Broken down by territory:
Notes
References
Sources
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External links
at marxists.org
Yugoslavia's Self-Management by Daniel Jakopovich"Yugoslavia: the outworn structure" (CIA) Report from November 1970CWIHP at the Wilson Center for Scholars: Primary Document Collection on Yugoslavia in the Cold War
{{Authority control
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,
1945 establishments in Yugoslavia, Socialist Yugoslavia
1963 establishments in Yugoslavia, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
1992 disestablishments in Yugoslavia, Socialist Yugoslavia
1992 disestablishments in Europe, Yugoslavia
1940s in Yugoslavia, *
1950s in Yugoslavia, *
1960s in Yugoslavia, *
1970s in Yugoslavia, *
1980s in Yugoslavia, *
1990s in Yugoslavia, *
Communist states, Yugoslavia
20th century in Kosovo
20th century in Montenegro
20th century in Slovenia
Yugoslav Bosnia and Herzegovina, .
One-party states, Yugoslavia
Former socialist republics, Yugoslavia
States and territories established in 1945, Yugoslavia
States and territories disestablished in 1992, Yugoslavia
Former member states of the United Nations, Yugoslavia