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Yugoslavia

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: General history

   SOS Children works in Yugoslavia. For more information see SOS Children
   in Yugoslavia

          See also: Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of
          Yugoslavia, and Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

   Yugoslavia (Jugoslavija in South Slavic languages, Југославија (
   Serbian, Macedonian Cyrillic): "Land of the South Slavs") describes
   three separate political entities that existed on the Balkan Peninsula
   in Europe, during most of the 20th century.

   The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( December 1, 1918– April 17, 1941), also
   known as the First Yugoslavia, was a monarchy formed as the "Kingdom of
   Serbs, Croats and Slovenes" after World War I and re-named on January
   6, 1929 by Alexander I of Yugoslavia. It was invaded on April 6, 1941
   by the Axis powers and capitulated eleven days later.

   The Second Yugoslavia (c.1943-), a socialist successor state to the
   Kingdom of Yugoslavia, existed under various names, including the
   "Democratic Federation of Yugoslavia (DFY)" (1943), the "Federal
   People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FPRY)" (1946), and the " Socialist
   Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY)" (1963). It disintegrated
   following the Yugoslav Wars, which led to the secession of most of the
   constituent elements of the SFRY.

   The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) (1992) was a federation on the
   territory of the two remaining republics of Serbia (including the
   autonomous provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo and Metohija) and
   Montenegro.

   On February 4, 2003, the state transformed into a loose commonwealth
   called Serbia and Montenegro and officially abolished the name
   "Yugoslavia." On June 3 and June 5, 2006, Montenegro and Serbia
   respectively declared their independence, thereby ending the last
   remnants of the former Yugoslav federation.

Background

Southern Slavic State

   The first idea of a state for all South Slavs emerged in the late 17th
   century, a product of visionary thinking of Croat writers and
   philosophers who believed that the only way for southern Slavs to
   regain lost freedom after centuries of occupation under the
   Austro-Hungarian Empire and Ottoman Empire would be to unite and free
   themselves of tyrannies and dictatorships. They gave it the name
   Ilirski Pokret (Illyric Movement) and gathered many prominent Croatian
   intellectuals and politicians around the new idea, but the movement
   started gaining large momentum only at the end of the 19th century,
   mainly because of the harsh policies against any freedom movements
   occupied southern Slavs could possibly have, practiced by both Austrian
   and Hungarian dictators. As the Ottoman Empire grew weaker and Serbia,
   Bulgaria and Greece grew stronger after the Berlin Congress, hope for
   sovereignty of the South Slavic peoples in the Habsburg Empire
   (Austria-Hungary) increased and the idea of a union between them became
   stronger.

   During the early period of the World War I (which started in 1914), a
   number of prominent political figures, including Ante Trumbić, Ivan
   Meštrović, Nikola Stojanović and others, from South Slavic lands under
   the Habsburg Empire, fled to London where they began work on forming
   Yugoslav Committee and their mission was to represent the south Slavs
   of the empire. They chose London as their headquarters.

The Yugoslav Committee

   The Yugoslav Committee (Jugoslavenski odbor) was officially formed on
   April 30, 1915 in London, and it began to raise funds, especially among
   South Slavs living in the Americas. Because of their stature, the
   members of the Yugoslav Committee were able to make their views known
   to the Allied governments, which began to take them increasingly
   seriously, especially as the fate of Austro-Hungarian Empire looked
   more uncertain.

   While the committee's basic aim was the unification of the Habsburg
   south Slav lands with Serbia (which was independent at the time), its
   more immediate concern was to head off Italian claims in Istria and
   Dalmatia, which was a very real concern. In 1915, the Allies had lured
   the Italians into the war with promise of substantial territorial gains
   in exchange. According to the secret London Pact, these included Istria
   and large parts of Dalmatia, where relatively substantial numbers of
   Italians lived in the coastal cities, compared to the surrounding
   Slavs.
   Lands offered to Serbia by the Allies in 1915.
   Enlarge
   Lands offered to Serbia by the Allies in 1915.

   Although in 1915 the Serbian Assembly had pledged itself to work for
   the liberation of all Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, non-Serb members of
   the Yugoslav Committee became alarmed when the Allies offered Serbia
   lands that had not been reserved for Italians. These included Bosnia,
   Herzegovina, Slavonia, Bačka and parts of Dalmatia. Croat members of
   the Committee feared a carve-up of Croat lands between Serbia and
   Italy. There were also quarrels about the designation and command of
   units of south Slav POWs in Russia now being mobilised to fight with
   the Allies. The Yugoslav Committee wanted them to fight in the Yugoslav
   name, while Nikola Pašić (Prime Minister of Serbia) seeing in this a
   "Croat Army", wanted them to fight under the Serbian flag.

Corfu agreement

   However, during June and July 1917, the Yugoslav committee met with the
   Serbian Government in Corfu and on 20 July a declaration that laid
   foundation of the post-war state was issued. The preamble stated that
   the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes were "the same by blood, by language, by
   the feelings of their unity, by the continuity and integrity of the
   territory which they inhabit undividedly, and by the common vital
   interests of their national survival and manifold development of their
   moral and material life". The future state was to be called the Kingdom
   of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and was to be constitutional monarchy
   under the Karađorđević dynasty.

The unification of South Slavs

   As the Habsburg Empire dissolved, a National Council of Slovenes,
   Croats and Serbs took power in Zagreb on 6 October 1918. On 29 October,
   the Croatian Sabor or parliament declared independence and vested its
   sovereignty in the new State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. The
   Yugoslav Committee was given the task of representing the new state
   abroad. However quarrels broke out immediately about the terms of the
   proposed union with Serbia. Svetozar Pribićević, a Croatian Serb, a
   leader of the Croatian-Serbian Coalition and vice-precedent of the
   state, wanted an immediate and unconditional union. Others (non-Serbs),
   who favoured a federal Yugoslavia were more hesitant. They feared that
   Serbia would simply annex the former Habsburg territories. The National
   Council's authority was limited and the Italians were moving to take
   more territory than they had been allotted in an agreement with the
   Yugoslav Committee. Political opinion was divided and Serbian ministers
   said that if Croats insisted on their own republic or sort of
   independence, then Serbia would simply take areas inhabited by the
   Serbs and already occupied by the Serbian Army. After much debate the
   National Council agreed to unification with Serbia, although its
   declaration stated that the final organization of the state should be
   left to the future Constituent Assembly. The most prominent opponent of
   this decision was Stjepan Radić, the leader of the Croatian Peasant
   Party (Hrvatska Seljačka Stranka, HSS). However, the Kingdom of Serbs,
   Croats and Slovenes was declared on 1 December 1918 in Belgrade.

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

   Map showing banovinas in 1929
   Enlarge
   Map showing banovinas in 1929

King Alexander's dictatorship

   Following this, King Aleksandar I banned national political parties in
   1929, assumed executive power and renamed the country Yugoslavia. He
   hoped to curb separatist tendencies and mitigate nationalist passions.
   However, the balance of power changed in international relations: in
   Italy and Germany, Fascists and Nazis rose to power, and Stalin became
   the absolute ruler in the Soviet Union. None of these three states
   favoured the policy pursued by Aleksandar I. In fact, the first two
   wanted to revise the international treaties signed after World War I,
   and the Soviets were determined to regain their positions in Europe and
   pursue a more active international policy. Yugoslavia was an obstacle
   for these plans and King Aleksandar I was the pillar of the Yugoslav
   policy.

   Alexander attempted to create a genuine Yugoslavia. He decided to
   abolish Yugoslavia's historic regions and new internal boundaries were
   drawn for provinces or banovinas. The banovinas were named after
   rivers. Many politicians were jailed or kept under tight police
   surveillance. The effect of Alexander's dictatorship was to further
   alienate the non-Serbs of the idea of unity.

   During an official visit to France in 1934, the king was assassinated
   in Marseilles by an experienced marksman from Ivan Mihailov's IMRO in
   the cooperation of the Ustaše, a Croatian separatist organization that
   pursued Nazi policies. Alexander was succeeded by his eleven year old
   son Peter II and a regency council headed by his cousin Prince Paul.

The 1930s in Yugoslavia

   The international political scene in the late 1930s was marked by
   growing intolerance between the principal figures, by the aggressive
   attitude of the totalitarian regimes and by the certainty that the
   order set up after World War I was losing its strongholds and its
   sponsors were losing their strength. Supported and pressured by Fascist
   Italy and Nazi Germany, Croatian leader Vlatko Maček and his party
   managed the creation of the Croatian banovina (administrative province)
   in 1939. The agreement specified that Croatia was to remain part of
   Yugoslavia, but it was hurriedly building an independent political
   identity in international relations.

   Prince Paul submitted to the fascist pressure and signed the Tripartite
   Treaty in Vienna on March 25th, 1941, hoping to still keep Yugoslavia
   out of the war. But this was at the expense of popular support for
   Paul's regency. Senior military officers were also opposed to the
   treaty and launched a coup d'état when the king returned on March 27th.
   Army General Dušan Simović seized power, arrested the Vienna
   delegation, exiled Paul, and ended the regency, giving 17 year old King
   Peter full powers.

The beginning of World War II in Yugoslavia

   Hitler then decided to attack Yugoslavia on April 6 1941, followed
   immediately by an invasion of Greece where Mussolini had previously
   been repelled. (As a result, the launch of Operation Barbarossa was
   delayed by four weeks, which proved to be a costly decision.)

Yugoslavia during the Second World War

The invasion of Yugoslavia

   At 5:15 a.m. on April 6, 1941, German, Italian, Hungarian, and
   Bulgarian forces attacked Yugoslavia. The Luftwaffe bombed Belgrade and
   other major Yugoslav cities. On April 17th, representatives of
   Yugoslavia's various regions signed an armistice with Germany at
   Belgrade, ending eleven days of resistance against the invading German
   Wehrmacht. More than three hundred thousand Yugoslav officers and
   soldiers were taken prisoners.

The Independent State of Croatia

   In the Independent State of Croatia, Serbs, Jews and Gypsies were
   marched to the Jasenovac concentration camp
   Enlarge
   In the Independent State of Croatia, Serbs, Jews and Gypsies were
   marched to the Jasenovac concentration camp

   The Axis Powers occupied Yugoslavia and split it up. The Independent
   State of Croatia was established as a Nazi puppet-state, ruled by the
   Catholic fascist militia known as the Ustaše that came into existence
   in 1929, but was relatively limited in its activities until 1941.
   German troops occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as part of Serbia
   and Slovenia, while other parts of the country were occupied by
   Bulgaria, Hungary and Italy.

Resistance movements

   Yugoslavs opposing the Nazis organized resistance movement. Those
   inclined towards supporting the old Kingdom of Yugoslavia joined the
   Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland, also known as the Chetniks, a
   multiethnic, though largely Serb, royalist guerilla army led by
   Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović. Those inclined towards supporting the
   Communist Party (Komunistička partija), and were against the King,
   joined the Yugoslav National Liberation Army Narodno Oslobodilacka
   Vojska (NOV), led by Josip Broz Tito .
   Children in Jasenovac
   Enlarge
   Children in Jasenovac

   The NOV initiated a guerrilla campaign which was developed into the
   largest resistance army in occupied Western and Central Europe. The
   Chetniks initially made notable incursions and were supported by the
   exiled royal government as well as the Allies, but were soon restrained
   from taking wider actions due to German reprisals against the Serb
   civilian population.

   For every killed soldier, the Germans executed 100 civilians, and for
   each wounded, they killed 50. Regarding the human cost as too high, the
   Chetniks' terminated war activities against the Germans, and the Allies
   eventually switched to support the NOV.

   However, NOV carried on its guerrilla warfare. The demographic loss is
   estimated at 1,027,000 individuals by Vladimir Žerjavić and Bogoljub
   Kočović, an estimate accepted by the United Nations, while the official
   Yugoslav authorities claimed 1,700,000 casualties. Very high losses
   were among Serbs who lived in Bosnia and Croatia, as well as Jewish and
   Roma minorities, high also among all other non- collaborating
   population.

   During the war, the communist-led partisans were de facto rulers on the
   liberated territories, and the NOV organized people's committees to act
   as civilian government. In Autumn of 1941, the partisans established
   the Republic of Užice in the liberated territory of western Serbia. In
   November 1941, the German troops occupied this territory again, while
   the majority of partisan forces escaped towards Bosnia.

   On November 25, 1942, the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation
   of Yugoslavia (Antifašističko Vijeće Narodnog Oslobođenja Jugoslavije)
   was convened in Bihać. The council reconvened on November 29, 1943 in
   Jajce and established the basis for post-war organisation of the
   country, establishing a federation (this date was celebrated as
   Republic Day after the war).

The liberation of Yugoslavia

   The NOV was able to expel the Axis from Serbia in 1944 and the rest of
   Yugoslavia in 1945. The Red Army aided in liberating Belgrade as well
   as some other territories, but withdrew after the war was over. In May
   1945, NOV met with allied forces outside former Yugoslav borders, after
   taking over also Trieste and parts of Austrian southern provinces
   Styria and Carinthia. This was the territory populated predominantly by
   Slovenes (and Croats in Istria). However, the NLA withdrew from Trieste
   in June of the same year.

   Westerner attempts to reunite the partisans, who denied supremacy of
   the old government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and the emigration
   loyal to the king, led to the Tito-Šubašić Agreement in June 1944,
   however Tito was seen as a national hero by the citizens, so he gained
   the power in post-war independent communist state, starting as a prime
   minister.

The Second Yugoslavia

   Numbered map of Yugoslav republics and provinces
   Enlarge
   Numbered map of Yugoslav republics and provinces

   On January 31, 1946 the new constitution of Federal People's Republic
   of Yugoslavia, modeling the Soviet Union, established six Socialist
   Republics, a Socialist Autonomous Province, and a Socialist Autonomous
   District that were part of SR Serbia. The federal capital was Belgrade.
   Republics and provinces were (in alphabetical order):
    1. Socialist republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the capital in
       Sarajevo,
    2. Socialist republic of Croatia, with the capital in Zagreb,
    3. Socialist republic of Macedonia, with the capital in Skopje,
    4. Socialist republic of Montenegro, with the capital in Titograd (now
       Podgorica),
    5. Socialist republic of Serbia, with the capital in Belgrade, which
       also contained:
       5a. Socialist autonomous district of Kosovo and Metohija, with the
       capital in Priština
       5b. Socialist autonomous province of Vojvodina, with the capital in
       Novi Sad
    6. Socialist republic of Slovenia, with the capital in Ljubljana.

   In 1974, the two provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo-Metohija (for the
   latter had by then been upgraded to the status of a province), as well
   as the republics of Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro, were granted
   greater autonomy to the point that Albanian and Hungarian became
   nationally recognised minority languages and the Serbo-Croat of Bosnia
   and Montenegro altered to a form based on the speech of the local
   people and not on the standards of Zagreb and Belgrade.

   Vojvodina and Kosovo-Metohija form a part of the Republic of Serbia.
   The country distanced itself from the Soviets in 1948 (cf. Cominform
   and Informbiro) and started to build its own way to socialism under
   strong political leadership of Josip Broz Tito. The country criticized
   both Eastern bloc and NATO nations and, together with other countries,
   started the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961, which remained the official
   affiliation of the country until it dissolved.

The economy

   Although rigorously socialist in developing its industrial base,
   Yugoslavia allowed a certain amount of capitalist incursions, in the
   spirit of pluralism. This openness to western investment, however,
   sowed the seeds of the federation's demise. Meanwhile, Yugoslavia
   enjoyed stability and peace. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the growth
   of Yugoslavia's gross domestic product averaged 6.1%. There was 91%
   literacy and an average life expectancy of 72 years. The state provided
   housing, health care, education, and child care. Citizens lived well on
   a per capita income of $3,000 a year (in 1980 dollars), with one month
   paid vacation, plus a year's maternity leave, if needed. Respect for
   workers was a central concern of government and society.

The government

   1968. Yugoslav Communist Party celebration
   Enlarge
   1968. Yugoslav Communist Party celebration

   On April 7, 1963 the nation changed its official name to Socialist
   Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Tito was named President for life.

   In SFRY, each republic and province had its own constitution, supreme
   court, parliament, president and prime minister. At the top of the
   Yugoslav government were the President (Tito), the federal Prime
   Minister, and the federal Parliament (a collective Presidency was
   formed after Tito's death in 1980).

   Also important were the Communist Party presidents for each republic
   and province, and the president of Central Committee of the Communist
   Party.

   Josip Broz Tito was the most powerful person in the country, followed
   by republican and provincial premiers and presidents, and Communist
   Party presidents. A wide variety of people suffered from his disfavor.
   Slobodan Penezić Krcun, Tito's chief of secret police in Serbia, fell
   victim to a dubious traffic incident after he started to complain about
   Tito's politics. The Interior Minister Aleksandar Ranković lost all of
   his titles and rights after a major disagreement with Tito regarding
   state politics. Sometimes ministers in government, such as Edvard
   Kardelj or Stane Dolanc, were more important than the Prime Minister.

   The suppression of national identities escalated with the so-called
   Croatian Spring of 1970-1971, when students in Zagreb organized
   demonstrations for greater civil liberties and greater Croatian
   autonomy. The regime stifled the public protest and incarcerated the
   leaders, but many key Croatian representatives in the Party silently
   supported this cause, so a new Constitution was ratified in 1974 that
   gave more rights to the individual republics in Yugoslavia and
   provinces in Serbia.

Ethnic tensions and the economic crisis

   The post-World War II Yugoslavia was in many respects a model of how to
   build a multinational state. The Federation was constructed against a
   double background: an inter-war Yugoslavia which had been dominated by
   the Serbian ruling class; and a war-time slaughter in which the Nazis
   made use of the earlier Serbian oppression to use Croatian fascism for
   barbarous acts against the Serbs and also exploited anti-Serb sentiment
   amongst the Kosovar Albanians - and some elements in the Bosnian Muslim
   - population to bolster their rule.

   There has been one structural element in the post-World War II Yugoslav
   state's stability: the joint concern of the USSR and the USA to
   maintain the integrity of Yugoslavia as a neutral state on the
   frontiers of the super-power confrontation in Europe.

   The economic crisis was the product of disastrous errors by Yugoslav
   governments in the 1970s, borrowing vast amounts of Western capital in
   order to fund growth through exports. Western economies then entered
   recession, blocked Yugoslav exports and created a huge debt problem.
   The Yugoslav government then accepted the IMF's conditionalities which
   shifted the burden of the crisis onto the Yugoslav working class.
   Simultaneously, strong social groups emerged within the Yugoslav
   Communist Party, allied to Western business, banking and state
   interests and began pushing towards neoliberalism, to the delight of
   the US. It was the Reagan administration which, in 1984, had adopted a
   " Shock Therapy" proposal to push Yugoslavia towards a capitalist
   restoration.

   This, naturally, undermined a central pillar of the state: the
   socialist link between the Communist Party and the working class. The
   forms and effects of this varied in different parts of Yugoslavia.
   First in Kosovo in 1981, where the links between Yugoslav communism and
   the population had always been the weakest and where the economic
   crisis was most intense, there was an uprising demanding full
   republican status for Kosovo, as well as unification with Albania.

   In 1989 Jeffrey Sachs was in Yugoslavia helping the Federal government
   under Ante Marković prepare the IMF/World Bank " Shock Therapy"
   package, which was then introduced in 1990 just at the time when the
   crucial parliamentary elections were being held in the various
   republics.

   One aspect of Yugoslavia's " Shock Therapy" programme was both unique
   within the region and of great political importance in 1989-90. The
   bankruptcy law to liquidate state enterprises was enacted in the 1989
   Financial Operations Act which required that if an enterprise was
   insolvent for 30 days running, or for 30 days within a 45 day period,
   it had to settle with its creditors either by giving them ownership or
   by being liquidated, in which case workers would be sacked, normally
   without severance payments.

   In 1989, according to official sources, 248 firms were declared
   bankrupt or were liquidated and 89,400 workers were laid off. During
   the first nine months of 1990 directly following the adoption of the
   IMF programme, another 889 enterprises with a combined work-force of
   525,000 workers suffered the same fate. In other words, in less than
   two years "the trigger mechanism" (under the Financial Operations Act)
   had led to the lay off of more than 600,000 workers out of a total
   industrial workforce of the order of 2.7 million. A further 20% of the
   work force, or half a million people, were not paid wages during the
   early months of 1990 as enterprises sought to avoid bankruptcy. The
   largest concentrations of bankrupt firms and lay-offs were in Serbia,
   Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Kosovo. Real earnings were in a
   free fall, social programmes had collapsed creating within the
   population an atmosphere of social despair and hopelessness. This was a
   critical turning point in the Yugoslav tragedy.

   In the spring of 1990, Marković was by far the most popular politician,
   not only in Yugoslavia as a whole, but in each of its constituent
   republics. He should have been able to rally the population for
   Yugoslavism against the particularist nationalisms of Milošević in
   Serbia or Tuđman in Croatia and he should have been able to count on
   the obedience of the armed forces. He was supported by 83% of the
   population in Croatia, by 81% in Serbia and by 59% in Slovenia and by
   79% in Yugoslavia as a whole. This level of support showed how much of
   the Yugoslav population remained strongly committed to the state's
   preservation.

   But Marković had coupled his Yugoslavism with the IMF " Shock Therapy"
   programme and EC conditionality and it was this which gave the
   separatists in the North West and the nationalists in Serbia their
   opening. The appeal of the separatists in Slovenia and Croatia to their
   electorates involved offering to repudiate the Marković-IMF austerity
   and by doing so help their republics prepare to leave Yugoslavia
   altogether and "join Europe". The appeal of Milošević in Serbia was
   based around the idea that the West was acting against the Serbian
   people's interests. These nationalist appeals were ultimately
   successful: in every republic, beginning with Slovenia and Croatia in
   the spring, governments ignored the monetary restrictions of Marković's
   stabilisation programme in order to win votes.

   The newly elected regional government then turned their efforts to the
   break-up of the country. They were aided by the US government's stance
   of sidelining Yugoslav cohesion in favour of pushing ahead with the "
   Shock Therapy" programme. Indeed, it is likely that the internal
   dynamics towards Yugoslav collapse into civil war may have been
   inadvertently accelerated by the actions of the Bush administration.
   The few European states with strategic interests in the Yugoslav
   theatre tended to favour fragmentation.

   It would be wrong, of course, to suggest that there were no other,
   specifically Yugoslav, structural flaws which helped to generate the
   collapse. For instance, many would argue that the decentralised Market
   Socialism was a disastrous experiment for a state in Yugoslavia's
   geopolitical situation. The 1974 Constitution, though better for the
   Kosovar Albanians, had given increased power to the republics, whilst
   dampening the institutional and material power of the federal
   government. Tito's authority substituted for this weakness until his
   death in 1980, after which the state and Communist Party became
   increasingly paralyzed and thrown into crisis.

Breakup

   An animated series of maps showing the breakup of the second
   Yugoslavia; The different colors represent the areas of control Key:
   ██ Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of
   Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro, Serbia ██ Slovenia ██ Croatia
   ██ Republic of Macedonia ██ Bosnia and Herzegovina ██ Federation of
   Bosnia and Herzegovina ██ Republika Srpska ██ Brčko District ██ Kosovo
   ██ Montenegro
   Enlarge
   An animated series of maps showing the breakup of the second
   Yugoslavia; The different colors represent the areas of control
   Key:
   ██ Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of
   Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro, Serbia ██ Slovenia ██ Croatia
   ██ Republic of Macedonia ██ Bosnia and Herzegovina ██  Federation of
   Bosnia and Herzegovina ██  Republika Srpska ██  Brčko District
   ██ Kosovo ██ Montenegro

   After Tito's death on May 4, 1980, ethnic tensions grew in Yugoslavia,
   bolstered by open support from a number of western countries, listed in
   the next paragraphs. They all used the legacy of the Constitution of
   1974 to throw the system of decision-making into a state of paralysis,
   all the more hopeless as the conflict of interests, fueled and icited
   by external supporters of the break-up between the republics, had
   become irreconcilable. The constitutional crisis that inevitably
   followed played in favour of Slovenia and Croatia and their strongly
   expressed demands for looser ties within Federation.

   The collapse of Yugoslavia was the result of both internal and external
   factors. Assigning comparative weight to the external as against the
   internal factors in the generalised crisis that shook Yugoslavia in
   1990-1991 is definitely a very simple matter. Without understanding the
   roles of the Western powers in helping to produce and channel the
   crisis, it is difficult to understand the disintegration of Yugoslavia.
   The fundamental cause of the Yugoslav collapse was not an economic
   crisis. This was barely a pretext used by social groups in Yugoslavia
   and their tutors in the West to undermine the collectivised core of the
   economy and push Yugoslavia towards a "capitalist restoration" which
   inevitably led to disastrous war and hundreds of thousands of innocent
   people being murdered in order to save the face of dying and collapsing
   capitalism. Many European governments had their interests and wanted
   the break-up of Yugoslavia, something not true in the case of any other
   part of East Central Europe at that time. Their pressure thus combined
   with the general Western drive for capitalism to speed the break-up
   during 1989-90. On one side were a number of European states eager to
   gain "independence" for Slovenia and Croatia; on the other side was the
   United States, eager only to ensure that Yugoslavia paid its debts to
   Western banks and "globalised" its political economy through "Shock
   Therapy" in order to ensure a regime in the country open for the
   Western multinationals. Whether decimated or not.

   The forces eager to see the break-up of Yugoslavia through independence
   for Slovenia and Croatia were the Vatican, Austria, Hungary, Germany,
   the US and more ambivalently Italy. Italy which had its own crisis of
   identity and looked at speeding up "democratic processes" as a way of
   diverting similar sentiments seeking independence for northern Italy.
   Through graphic pictures of the drama unfolding in the neighbouring
   Yugoslavia attracted attention from countries such as the UK, the
   Netherlands, Albania and even such distant countries as Australia,
   Saudi-Arabia, Libya, and Al-Qaida's Afghan-tested Mujaheedins. Since
   the mid-1980s, the Vatican and Austria had started an active campaign
   in East Central and Eastern Europe to rebuild their influence there and
   by 1989-90 the Vatican was openly championing independence for Slovenia
   and Croatia. The real goal of Austrian policy was to expand Austria's
   regional influence since it "saw the Yugoslav crisis as an auspicious
   moment for self-assertion".

   In the summer of 1991 the European Council was finally prompted to warn
   Austria that if it continued its energetic efforts to break up
   Yugoslavia it would be excluded from eventual EC membership but even
   that threat did not stop Austrian efforts.

   The Hungarian government of József Antall, elected in the Spring of
   1990, adopted a policy very much in line with that of Austria, but with
   additional Hungarian goals vis-à-vis Serbia's Vojvodina Province.

   These manoeuvres by Austria and Hungary to break up Yugoslavia were, of
   course, then overshadowed by the German government's drive to
   derecognise Yugoslavia through giving recognition to Slovenia and
   Croatia. The German government's open championing of Yugoslavia's
   break-up did not occur until the late Spring of 1991, but long before
   that both Slovenia and Croatia were getting encouragement from Bonn for
   their efforts.

   Germany was only happy to help disappearance of the country it still
   owed almost hundred billions of US dollars in the name of World War II
   reparations. It was the money that helped Germany to be born twice.
   First, when Jugoslav President Tito offered Germany to repay the debt
   when it recovers from the repaying other countries, and then when
   Germans realised that if Jugoslavia disappears, Germany could finance,
   otherwise disastrous, re-unification with East Germany. If Jugoslavia
   did not breakup, Germany would not have been able to finance its own
   re-union.

   There was thus a focused and co-ordinated coalition involving Austria,
   Germany, Hungary and the Vatican all pushing for the same goal:
   Yugoslavia's break up.

   This campaign on the surface, was not supported by the United States,
   which championed Yugoslav unity as did Britain and France. But for the
   US unity was not the main thing: its policy was principally governed by
   its concern to ensure the imposition of "Shock Therapy" on the country
   as a whole via the IMF. As they always did, they kept the posture of
   trying to help, when in the background, through their vasals, US was
   pushing hard for the breakup, looking greedily at real estate and
   strategic positions around the country, along the long ago proposed
   highway to Turkey.

   The only European states which did have a strategic interest in the
   Yugoslav theatre tended to want to break it up. It would be wrong, of
   course, to suggest that there were no other, specifically Yugoslav,
   structural flaws which helped to generate the collapse. Many so-called
   "experts" would argue that the decentralised Market Socialism was a
   disastrous experiment for a state in Yugoslavia's geopolitical
   situation. Nothing could have been further from the truth, as the
   stellar growth and rapid industrialisation have demonstrated. So
   external enemies had to play through the system in order to destabilise
   the country and make it look like it was crumbling under its own
   problems. Economy and the political system, being socialist one, were
   the great excuses for imperialist capitalism. The 1974 Constitution,
   though better for the Kosovar Albanians, gave too much to the
   republics, crippling the institutional and material power of the
   Federal government. Tito's authority substituted for this weakness
   until his death in 1980, after which the state and Communist Party
   became increasingly paralyzed and thrown into crisis. In 1990-1991,
   then, Yugoslavia was in the grip of a dynamic towards break-up despite
   the fact that the overwhelming majority of its population did not
   favour such a course.

   In 1986, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts drafted a memorandum
   addressing some burning issues concerning position of Serbs as the most
   numerous people in Yugoslavia. Although the largest Yugoslav republic
   in territory and population, Serbia had been dispossessed of its
   attributes of statehood by the new 1974 Constitution. Because its two
   autonomous provinces had de facto prerogatives of full-fledged
   republics, Serbia found that its hands were tied, for the republican
   government could not take nor carry out decisions that would apply to
   the provinces. Since the provinces had a vote in the Federal Presidency
   Council, they even entered into coalition with other republics, thus
   outvoting Serbia. Serbia's political impotence made it possible for
   others to exert pressure on 2 million Serbs (20% of total Serbian
   population) living outside Serbia.

   Serbian communist leader Slobodan Milošević sought to restore pre-1974
   Serbian sovereignty, which republics of Slovenia and Croatia denounced
   as the revival of great Serbian hegemonism. Autonomy of Vojvodina and
   of Kosovo and Metohija was reduced, though both entities retained a
   vote in the Yugoslav Presidency Council.

   As a result, the ethnic Albanian miners in Kosovo organized strikes,
   which dovetailed into ethnic conflict between the Albanians and the
   non-Albanians in the province. At 77% of the population of Kosovo in
   the 1980's, ethnic- Albanians were the majority. The number of Slavs in
   Kosovo (mainly Serbs) was falling fast due to ever increasing violence
   of albanians against Serbian population, and by 1999 they formed as
   little as 10% of the total population. Far cry from the days when it
   was the other way around, not even hundred years ago.

   Meanwhile Slovenia, under the presidency of Milan Kučan, along with
   Croatia openly supported Albanian miners, and initial strikes turned
   into widespread demonstrations demanding Kosovo republic. This angered
   Serbia's leadership who proceeded to use police to restrain the
   violence. As police was insufficient force, the Federal Army was
   rightly ordered by the Yugoslav Presidency to restore order.

   In January 1990, the extraordinary 14th Congress of the League of
   Communists of Yugoslavia was convened. For the most time, the Slovenian
   and Serbian delegations were arguing over the future of the League of
   Communists and Yugoslavia. The Serbian delegation, led by Milošević,
   insisted on a policy of "one person, one vote", which would empower the
   majority population, the Serbs. In turn, the Slovenians, supported by
   Croatians, sought to reform Yugoslavia as to devolve power even more to
   republics, but were voted down. As a result, the Slovenian, and
   eventually Croatian delegation left the Congress, and the all-Yugoslav
   Communist party was dissolved.

   Following the fall of communism in the rest of Eastern Europe, each of
   the republics held multi-party elections in 1990. The unresolved issues
   remained. In particular, Slovenia and Croatia elected governments
   oriented towards independence (under Milan Kučan and Franjo Tuđman,
   respectively), while Serbia and Montenegro elected candidates who
   favoured Yugoslav unity. In Croatia there was growing advocacy of
   "Croatian state and historical rights", the Serbs were stripped of
   their national and constitutional rights, thus becoming demoted from a
   constituent nation of Croatia to national minority. Following this, the
   Serbs proclaimed the emergence of Serbian Autonomous Areas (known later
   as Republic of Serb Krajina) in Croatia. Croatia embarked upon illegal
   importation of arms, mainly from Hungary, and were caught red-handed
   when Yugoslav Counter Intelligence (KOS, Kontra-obavještajna Služba)
   showed a video of a secret meeting between Croatian Defence Minister
   Martin Špegelj and two men. Špegelj announced that they were at war
   with the army and gave instructions about arms smuggling as well as
   methods of dealing with the Yugoslav Army's officers stationed in
   Croatian cities.

   In March 1990, during the demonstrations in Split (Croatia), a young
   Yugoslav conscript was pushed off the tank after driving it through
   people. Also guns were fired from army bases through Croatia.
   Elsewhere, tensions were running high.

   In the same month, the Yugoslav People's Army (Jugoslovenska Narodna
   Armija, JNA) met with the Presidency of Yugoslavia (an eight member
   council composed of representatives from six republics and two
   autonomous provinces) in an attempt to get them to declare a state of
   emergency which would allow for the army to take control of the
   country. The representatives of Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and
   Metohija, and Vojvodina voted for the decision, while Croatia ( Stipe
   Mesić), Slovenia ( Janez Drnovšek), Macedonia ( Vasil Tupurkovski) and
   Bosnia and Hercegovina ( Bogić Bogićević) voted against. The tie
   delayed an escalation of conflicts, but not for long.

   Following the first multi-party election results, the republics of
   Slovenia and Croatia, further seeking to provoke the JNA into declaring
   a state of emergency, proposed transforming Yugoslavia into a loose
   confederation of six republics in the autumn of 1990, however Milošević
   rejected all such proposals, arguing that like Slovenes and Croats, the
   Serbs should also have a right to self-determination.

   On March 9, 1991 demonstrations were held against Slobodan Milošević in
   Belgrade, but the police and the military were deployed in the streets
   in order to restore order, killing two people. In late March 1991, the
   Plitvice Lakes incident was one of the first sparks of open war in
   Croatia. The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) maintained an impression of
   being neutral, but as time went on, it was becoming more and more
   involved in state politics.

   On June 25, 1991, Slovenia and Croatia became the first republics to
   declare illegal independence from Yugoslavia. In Slovenia, Slovenian
   people's defence (paramilitary force) seized the Yugoslav border posts
   with Austria and Italy taking down the Yugoslav and raising the
   Slovenian flag. Following day ( June 26), the Federal Executive Council
   speifically ordered the army to take control of the internationally
   recognized borders.

   The Yugoslav People's Army forces based in barracks in Slovenia and
   Croatia, attempted to carry out the task within next 48 hours. However,
   due to the misinformation given to the Yugoslav Army conscripts, and
   the fact that the majority of them did not wish to engage in a war on
   their home soil, the Slovene territorial defence forces retook most of
   the posts within several days with only minimal loss of life on both
   sides. Recently the Austrian ORF TV station showed footage of several
   young Yugoslav soldiers at Holmec (border crossing with Austria),
   carrying a white cloth and raising their hands in the air, apparently
   to surrender to the Slovenian territorial defence, before gunfire was
   heard and the troops were seen falling down. However, none were killed
   in the incident. Ceasefire was agreed on. In the Brioni Agreement,
   agreed upon by representatives of all republics, the international
   community pressured Slovenia and Croatia to place a three-month
   moratorium on their illegal independence declarations. During these
   three months, the Yugoslav Army completed its pull-out of Slovenia, but
   in Croatia, a bloody war broke out in the autumn of 1991. Ethnic Serbs,
   who had created the Republic of Serbian Krajina in heavily
   Serb-populated regions resisted the forces of the republic of Croatia
   who were trying to bring that breakaway region back under Croatian
   jurisdiction. In some places, the Yugoslav Army acted as a buffer zone,
   in others it was protecting the Serbs from new and illegal Croatian
   Army disguised as police force.
   War in former Yugoslavia
   Enlarge
   War in former Yugoslavia
   Countries of former Yugoslavia
   Enlarge
   Countries of former Yugoslavia

   In September 1991, the Republic of Macedonia also declared independence
   illegaly, becoming the only former republic to gain sovereignty without
   resistance from the Belgrade based Yugoslav authorities. 500 U.S.
   soldiers were then deployed under the U.N. banner to monitor
   Macedonia's northern borders with the Republic of Serbia, Yugoslavia.
   Macedonia's first president, Kiro Gligorov, maintained good relations
   with Belgrade and the other breakaway republics and there have to date
   been no problems between Macedonian and Serbian border police even
   though small pockets of Kosovo and the Preševo valley complete the
   northern reaches of the historical region known as Macedonia, which
   would otherwise create a border dispute if ever Macedonian nationalism
   should resurface (see IMORO).

   As a result of the conflict, the United Nations Security Council
   unanimously adopted UN Security Council Resolution 721 on November 27,
   1991, which paved the way to the establishment of peacekeeping
   operations in Yugoslavia.

   In Bosnia and Herzegovina in November 1991, the Bosnian Serbs held a
   referendum which resulted in an overwhelming vote in favour of staying
   in a common state with Serbia and Montenegro. On January 9, 1992 the
   Bosnian Serb assembly proclaimed a separate "Republic of the Serb
   people of Bosnia and Herzegovina". The referendum and creation of SARs
   were proclaimed unconstitutional by the government of Bosnia and
   Herzegovina, and declared illegal and invalid. However, in
   February-March 1992 the government held a national referendum on
   Bosnian independence from Yugoslavia. That referendum was in turn
   declared contrary to the BiH and Federal constitution by the federal
   Constitution court and newly established Bosnian Serb government; it
   was largely boycotted by the Bosnian Serbs. The turnout was somewhere
   between 64-67% and 98% of the voters voted for independence. It was
   unclear what the two-thirds majority requirement actually meant and
   whether it was satisfied . The republic's government declared its
   independence on 5 April, and since that decision was made without the
   consent of all three nations living in Bosnia (the votes of Serbs were
   ignored, though such decision should be supported by all Bosnian
   nations), the Serbs immediately declared the independence of Republika
   Srpska to protect their rights. The war in Bosnia followed shortly
   thereafter. The so-called Badinter Commission formed by the European
   Community triumphantly, to delight of the countries and enemies of
   Jugoslavia that worked so hard towards its destuction, declared in
   early 1992 that the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had
   "dissolved".

The end of the Second Yugoslavia

   Various dates are considered as the end of the Socialist Federal
   Republic of Yugoslavia:
     * June 25, 1991, when Croatia and Slovenia declared independence
     * October 8, 1991, when the July 9th moratorium on Slovenian and
       Croatian secession was ended and Croatia restated its illegal
       independence in Croatian Parliament (that day is celebrated as
       Independence Day in Croatia)
     * January 15, 1992, when Slovenia and Croatia were internationally
       recognized
     * April 6, 1992, full recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s
       independence by the United States and most European countries
     * April 28, 1992, the formation of FRY (see below)

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

   The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia consisted of Serbia and Montenegro.
   Enlarge
   The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia consisted of Serbia and Montenegro.

   The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) was formed on April 28, 1992,
   and it consisted of the former Socialist Republics of Serbia and
   Montenegro.

   The war in the western parts of former Yugoslavia ended in 1995 with
   U.S.-sponsored peace talks in Dayton, Ohio, which resulted in the
   so-called Dayton Agreement.

   In Kosovo, throughout the 1990s, the leadership of the Albanian
   population had been pursuing tactics of non-violent resistance in order
   to achieve independence for the province. In 1996, radical Albanians
   formed the Kosovo Liberation Army which carried out armed actions in
   the southern Serbian province. The Yugoslav reaction involved the
   indiscriminate use of force against civilian populations, and caused
   many ethnic-Albanians to flee their homes. Following the Racak incident
   and unsuccessful Rambouillet Agreement in the early months of 1999,
   NATO proceeded to bombard Serbia and Montenegro for more than two
   months, until the Milošević's government submitted to their demands and
   withdrew its forces from Kosovo. See Kosovo War for more information.
   Since June 1999, the province has been governed by peace-keeping forces
   from NATO and Russia, although all parties continue to recognize it as
   a part of Serbia.

   Milošević's rejection of claims of a first-round opposition victory in
   new elections for the Federal presidency in September 2000 led to mass
   demonstrations in Belgrade on October 5 and the collapse of the
   regime's authority. The opposition's candidate, Vojislav Koštunica took
   office as Yugoslav president on October 6, 2000. On Saturday, March 31,
   2001, Milošević surrendered to Yugoslav security forces from his home
   in Belgrade, following a recent warrant for his arrest on charges of
   abuse of power and corruption. On June 28 he was driven to the
   Yugoslav-Bosnian border where shortly after he was placed in the
   custody of SFOR officials, soon to be extradited to the United Nations
   International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. His trial on
   charges of genocide in Bosnia and war crimes in Croatia and in Kosovo
   and Metohija began at The Hague on February 12, 2002, and he died there
   on 11 March 2006, while his trial was still ongoing. On April 11, 2002,
   the Yugoslav parliament passed a law allowing extradition of all
   persons charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal.

   In March 2002, the Governments of Serbia and Montenegro agreed to
   reform the FRY in favour of a new, much weaker form of cooperation
   called Serbia and Montenegro. By order of the Yugoslav Federal
   Parliament on February 4, 2003, Yugoslavia, at least nominally, ceased
   to exist. A federal government remained in place in Belgrade but
   assumed largely ceremonial powers. The individual governments of Serbia
   and of Montenegro conducted their respective affairs almost as though
   the two republics were independent. Furthermore, customs were
   established along the traditional border crossings between the two
   republics.

   On May 21, 2006, 86 percent of eligible Montenegrin voters turned out
   for a special referendum on the independence of Montenegro from the
   state union with Serbia. They voted 55.5% in favour of independence,
   recognised as above the 55% threshold set by the European Union for
   formal recognition of the independence of Montenegro. On June 3, 2006,
   Montenegro officially declared its independence, with Serbia following
   suit two days later, effectively dissolving the last vestige of the
   former Yugoslavia.

Legacy

   The present-day countries created from the former parts of Yugoslavia
   are:
     * Bosnia and Herzegovina
     * Croatia
     * Montenegro
     * Republic of Macedonia
     * Serbia
     * Slovenia

   The first former Yugoslav republic to join the European Union was
   Slovenia, which applied in 1996 and became a member in 2004. Croatia
   applied for membership in 2003, and could join before 2010. Republic of
   Macedonia applied in 2004, and will probably join by 2010–2015. The
   remaining three republics have yet to apply so their acceptance
   generally isn't expected before 2015. See also: Enlargement of the
   European Union
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslavia"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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