Yugoslavia

Posted February 24th, 2008 by Anonymous

Yugoslavia ("Jugoslavija" in the Latin alphabet, "Југославија" in Cyrillic; English: South Slavia, or literally The Land of South Slavs ) describes three political entities that existed successively on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, during most of the 20th century. The seven countries that were once part of Yugoslavia are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia.

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1 December 1918–November 29, 1943/1945), 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 6 January 1929 by Alexander I of Yugoslavia. It was invaded on 6 April 1941 by the Axis powers and its army capitulated eleven days later. The legal royal government in exile was recognized and supported by Allied forces. In 1943, the communist led resistance movement proclaimed a new country called Democratic Federal Yugoslavia. The Kingdom was officially abolished in 1945.

In 1946, the country was renamed to Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. The parliamentary democracy was suspended and a communist state was established. In 1963, the country was renamed again to Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). Starting in 1991, the SFRY disintegrated in the Yugoslav Wars which followed the secession of most of the republic's constituent elements.

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) (April 27, 1992–February 4, 2003), was a federation on the territory of the two remaining republics of Serbia (including the province of Vojvodina, Kosovo) and Montenegro.

The Union of Serbia and Montenegro was formed on February 4, 2003, 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 loose agreement. On February 18, 2008, Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia, further dividing the former country.

Yugoslavs opposing the Nazis organized a 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 Oslobodilačka Vojska or NOV), led by Josip Broz Tito, a Croatian national. Chetniks were allies of United States in Europe and they saved over 150 American pilots during operation : "Vazdušni Most".

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 Zerjavic 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, Bosnia. The council reconvened on November 29, 1943, in Jajce, also in Bosnia 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 territory populated predominantly by Italians and Slovenes. However, the NOV withdrew from Trieste in June of the same year.

Western 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

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):

Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the capital in Sarajevo,
Socialist Republic of Croatia, with the capital in Zagreb,
Socialist Republic of Macedonia, with the capital in Skopje,
Socialist Republic of Montenegro, with the capital in Titograd (now Podgorica),
Socialist Republic of Serbia, with the capital in Belgrade, which also contained:

5a. Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, with the capital in Priština

5b. Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, with the capital in Novi Sad
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 the 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.

Demographics

The population of Yugoslavia according to the 1981 census was 22.4 million.

Changes in Yugoslavian Religious Demographics

The government

On 7 April 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 general secretaries for each republic and province, and the general secretary 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

More tidbits about Yugoslavia.

LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - Former Slovenian President Janez Drnovsek, an architect of the country's independence from the former Yugoslavia, died after a long battle with cancer, Slovenian news agency STA reported on Saturday. Drnovsek, 57, was...

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) - Former President Janez Drnovsek, who helped lead Slovenia to independence from Yugoslavia and later enthralled many of his countrymen by adopting a New Age lifestyle, died Saturday, his office said. He was 57.

Former Slovenian President Janez Drnovšek, an architect of the country's independence from the former Yugoslavia, died after a long battle with cancer.

Buen artículo resumen de la historia reciente de Kosovo y la antigua Yugoslavia: desde los hechos previos al conflicto bélico de los balcanes, hasta el pasado domingo, cuando Kosovo proclamo de forma unilateral su indpendencia. Ni espectacularidad, ni reinterpretaciones, ni vueltas de tuerca; sólo neutralidad y rigor informativo de los hechos...

The question does arise: is Kosovo's independence the end of the disintegration of the old Yugoslavia or might it continue?

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