(Redirected from Former Yugoslavia)
The 'Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia' (
Serbo-Croatian and
Macedonian (Cyrillic only): ''Socijalistička federativna republika Jugoslavija'' or ''Социјалистичка федеративна република Југославија'';
Slovenian: ''Socialistična federativna republika Jugoslavija'') was the
Yugoslav state that existed from the end of
World War II (1945) until it was formally dissolved in 1992 (''de facto'' dissolved in 1991 with no leaders representing it) amid the
Yugoslav wars. It was a
communist state that comprised the area of the present-day independent states of
Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Croatia,
Republic of Macedonia,
Montenegro,
Serbia and
Slovenia. In 1992, the two remaining states still committed to a union, Serbia and Montenegro, formed the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which was officially recognized as the successor of the SFRY by the international community in 2000.
Formed from the remains of the pre-war
Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the country was proclaimed in 1943 and named 'Democratic Federal Yugoslavia'. In 1946, it became the 'Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia'
[1] and in 1963 the 'Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia'.
Under the leadership of
Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslavia pursued a policy of neutrality during the
Cold War and became one of the founding members of the
Non-Aligned Movement.
History
Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was constituted at the
AVNOJ (Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia) conference in
Jajce,
Bosnia-Herzegovina (
November 29 -
December 4 1943) while negotiations with the royal
government in exile continued. On
November 29 1945 the Federative People's Republic of Yugoslavia was established as a
socialist state during the first meeting of democratically established and Communist-led Parliament in Belgrade. On
January 31,
1946, the
new constitution of FPR Yugoslavia selected the six constituent republics.
The first
prime minister was
Josip Broz Tito and
president Ivan Ribar. In 1953,
Tito was elected as president and later in 1974 named "
President for life."
Like the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia that preceded it, the SFRY bordered
Italy and
Austria to the northwest,
Hungary to the northeast,
Romania and
Bulgaria to the east,
Greece to the south,
Albania to the southwest, and the
Adriatic Sea to the west.
Yugoslavia, unlike other Eastern and Central European communist countries, chose a course independent of the
Soviet Union (see
Informbiro), and was a member of neither the
Warsaw pact nor
NATO. In 1961, Yugoslavia became a founding member of the
Non-Aligned Movement along with countries like India, Egypt and Indonesia and pursued one of its central-left influences that promoted a non-confrontational policy towards the U.S.
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 515.5 km², became part of the SFRY. Zone B was already occupied by the Yugoslav National Army.
In 1974, a new federal constitution was ratified that gave more autonomy to the individual republics, thereby basically fulfilling the main goals of the 1971
Croatian Spring movement. One of the provisions of the new constitution was that each republic officially had the option to declare independence from the federation.
After Tito's death in 1980, tensions between the various peoples grew. In June 1991,
Slovenia and
Croatia decided to end all the relationships with other federal republics and become independent states (allowed by the 1974 federal constitution, with the assent of the other republics), which was the end of the SFRY (as proclaimed by the
Arbitration Commission of the Peace Conference on the former Yugoslavia). They were followed by the republics of
Macedonia in September of 1991 and
Bosnia and Herzegovina in March of 1992.
Serbia and Montenegro generally did not agree with the fact that Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina were leaving. However, when Slovenia left, Serbia and Montenegro did vote in support of that idea. Some of the regions of Croatia (Kordun, Lika, Banija, parts of Dalamtia and Eastern Slavonia) and Bosnia had Serbian inhabitants (in varying proportions to the majority), and it was the plan of Slobodan Milošević to unite them all in a great Serbian republic. This however led to a conflict of interests. After the Serbian aggression (ethnic Serb uprisings in Croatia backed-up by federal Serbian controlled Army) Croats tried to strike a deal with Serbs to divide/trade the territories of Croatia and particularly Bosnia in an attempt to end or lessen the hostilities already going on in Croatia and emerging hostilities in Bosnia. This was done ignoring the population that didn't see itself as Serb or Croat - the moslem Bosnians. (See more in the articles
Ten-Day war,
Croatian War of Independence and
war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.)
Serbia and
Montenegro formed the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in April 1992. The FRY was reformed and renamed
Serbia and Montenegro in 2003. In June 2006 it was split into the two independent countries when
Montenegro seceded after a
referendum.
Politics
The defining document of the state was the
Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which was amended in 1963 and 1974.
The
Communist Party of Yugoslavia had won the first elections, and remained in power throughout the state's existence. It was also called League of Communists of Yugoslavia, and it was composed of individual parties from each constituent republic.
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 leaders of communist Yugoslavia.
Ethnic nationalism which had deeply divided Yugoslavia as a kingdom, was repressed under Tito. Ethnic nationalism was not tolerated, and outspoken nationalists were either arrested or killed. However one nationalist uprising, the
Croatian Spring, managed to put pressure on the Yugoslav government to change the constitution in 1974. Among the changes were the right of any republic to unilaterally secede from Yugoslavia as well as the controversial internal division of Serbia, which created two autonomous provinces within it,
Vojvodina and
Kosovo. Both of these autonomous provinces had the same weight in voting power to that of the republics.
Dissolution of the SFRY
After Tito's death, ethnic nationalism began to rise again in Yugoslavia, especially in Kosovo between ethnic Albanians and Serbs. This coupled with economic problems in Kosovo and Serbia as a whole led to Serbian resentment of the 1974 constitutional reforms. In 1987, Serbian communist official
Slobodan Milošević made a departure from traditional communist neutrality on the issue of Kosovo separatism and autonomy by assuring Serbs that alleged mistreatment by ethnic Albanians would be stopped and afterwards began a campaign against the communist elite of Serbia and of Yugoslavia. Milošević and his allies took on an aggressive nationalist agenda of reviving Serbia within Yugoslavia, promising reforms and protection of Serbia and all Serbs. In a rally in Belgrade in 1988, Milošević made clear his perceptions of the situation facing Serbia in Yugoslavia, saying:
"At home and abroad, Serbia's enemies are massing against us. We say to them 'We are not afraid'. 'We will not flinch from battle'." Slobodan Milošević, 1988[2]
Through a series of revolts in Serbia and Montenegro, called the "Anti-bureaucratic revolution" Milošević and his political allies in Vojvodina, Kosovo, and the
Socialist Republic of Montenegro came to power.
Milošević's hardline stand on the issue of Kosovo separatism was opposed by most of the other republics, especially
Slovenia and
Croatia. Tensions between the republics and the ethnicities of Yugoslavia grew, leading to heated debate in the 1990 League of Communists congress which resulted in Slovenia and Croatia abdicating the party. The League of Communists collapsed shortly afterwards, beginning the stages of the eventual dissolution of the SFRY.
When the individual republics organized multi-party elections in the early 1990s, the Communist Parties mostly failed to win re-election and most of the elected governments took on nationalist lines, promising to protect their people either within or outside of Yugoslavia. In Croatia, controversial nationalist
Franjo Tuđman was elected to power who promised to protect Croatia from Milošević.
Croatian Serbs did not accept the legitimacy of Tuđman's nationalist government as they feared that his nationalist administration would bring about the persecution of Serbs, as the last nationalist-led Croatian state, the
Independent State of Croatia did during World War II. Croatian Serbs rebelled against the Croatian government in Knin.
In early 1991, with the crisis in Knin, the discovery of Croatian arms smuggling, and the apparent course towards independence by Croatia, the Yugoslav State Council led by Serbian representative
Borisav Jović called an emergency meeting in which a vote was called to decide if military action was needed to end the crisis in Croatia by providing protection for the Serbs. By one vote, the proposal was rejected, as the Bosnian Serb delegate voted against it, believing that there was still the possibility of diplomacy being able to solve the crisis. The state council was abandoned shortly afterwards.
In December 1990, a referendum was held in Slovenia where a vast majority of residents voted for independence. Both Slovenia and Croatia declared it's independence on June 25th 1991. A short period of violence occured in Slovenia, which ended with Yugoslavia accepting Slovenia's independence, however in Croatia, its independence was not accepted, as Serbs had boycotted the referendum and wished to stay within Yugoslavia, and war broke out between Croatia and Yugoslavia. Also negotiations to restore the Yugoslav federation were all but ended during discussions with diplomar
Lord Peter Carington and members of the European Community. Carington's plan realized that Yugoslavia was in a state of dissolution and decided that each republic must accept the inevitable independence of each other, along with a promise to Serbian President Milošević that the E.U. would insure 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).
[3] Carington responded by putting the issue to a vote in which all the other republics, including Montenegro under Bulatovic, all initially agreed to the plan that would dissolve Yugoslavia.
[4] However after intense pressure from Serbia was put on Montenegro's President, Montenegro changed its position to oppose the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
[5]
The final blow to the SFRY came in 1992, with the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina unilaterally separated from Yugoslavia after a referendum on independence was held, again in spite of Serb boycotts of the vote. After the separation of Bosnia & Herzegovina, the SFRY was abolished after Serbia and Montenegro agreed to create a new Yugoslav state, the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, consisting of only Serbia and Montenegro, therby ending the former communist Yugoslav state completely.
Foreign relations
Under
Tito, Yugoslavia adopted a policy of neutrality in the Cold War. It developed close relations with developing countries (see
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.
Military
Main articles: Yugoslav People's Army
Much like the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia that preceded it, the socialist Yugoslavia maintained a strong military force.
The
Yugoslav People's Army or JNA/JLA was the main organization of the military forces. It was composed of the ground army, navy and aviation. Most of it's military equipment and pieces were domestically produced
soviet-bloc designs under licence.
The regular army mostly originated from the
Yugoslav Partisans of the
Second World War. Yugoslavia also had a thriving
arms industry and sold to such nations as
Kuwait,
Iraq,
Myanmar amongst many others. Yugoslavian companies like
Zastava Arms would re-produce
Soviet design weaponry under licence as well as create weaponry from scratch.
SOKO was an example of a successful design by Yugoslavia before the
Yugoslav wars.
Each of the six Republics had their own "territorial defense", a National Guard of sorts, which were established in the frame of a new doctrine called “general people’s resistance” as an answer to the brutal end of the
Prague Spring by the
Warsaw Pact in
Czechoslovakia.
Administrative divisions
Internally, the state was divided into six Socialist Republics, and two Socialist Autonomous Provinces 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 capital in
Sarajevo;
#
Socialist Republic of Croatia, with capital in
Zagreb;
#
Socialist Republic of Macedonia, with capital in
Skopje;
#
Socialist Republic of Montenegro, with capital in
Titograd (now Podgorica);
#
Socialist Republic of Serbia, with capital in
Belgrade, which also contained:
#:5a.
Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, with capital in
Priština;
#:5b.
Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, with capital in
Novi Sad;
#
Socialist Republic of Slovenia, with capital in
Ljubljana.
Demographics
Main articles: Demographics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
SFRY recognised "nations" (''narodi'') and "nationalities" (''narodnosti'') separately; the former including the constituent Slavic peoples, and the latter other Slavic and non-Slavic ethnic groups, including the
Hungarians and
Albanians.
The country consisted of six republics, with their appropriate constitutional nations:
★
Slovenia -
Slovenes
★
Croatia -
Croats (and
Serbs up to 1990) (whereas
Hungarians,
Muslims,
Italians and
Jews were recognized minorities - as well as Serbs since 1990)
★
Bosnia and Herzegovina -
Serbs,
Croats (and
Muslims since 1974;
Yugoslavs since 1990)
★
Serbia -
Serbs and
all of its citizens
★
★
Vojvodina (linguistic groups):
Serbo-Croat speakers,
Hungarians,
Romanians,
Slovaks,
Rusyns.
★
★
Kosovo and Metohija:
Albanians,
Serbo-Croat speakers
★
Montenegro -
all of its citizens
★
Macedonia -
Macedonians
Also, there was the
Yugoslav ethnic designation, for the people who wanted to identify with the entire country, including people who were born to parents in mixed marriages.
Cultural diversity was a major factor for the dissolution of the federation.
Nationalism during Tito's rule was cracked down upon wherever it sprung up (e.g. the "Croatian Spring" of the mid 1970s or the Memorandum of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in mid 1980s).
Tito's successors chose a different way towards the nationalists, instead promoting their ideas and taking their side on some issues, claiming they will defend them and fight, even war, for their cause. Nationalists from other ethnic groups responded with arguments such as "During your [Tito's] rule, our culture had been cracked down upon, our people oppressed ... but now you won't anymore" and so forth, initiating hatred towards the different nationalities.
Economy
Main articles: Economy of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
1978 issue of a 1000 dinar note.
Despite common origins, the economy of socialist Yugoslavia was much different from economies of the Soviet Union and other Eastern European socialist countries, especially after the
Yugoslav-Soviet break-up of 1948. Rather than being owned by the state, companies were
socially owned and managed with workers' self-management. 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.
With the exception of a recession in mid-1960s, the country's economy prospered formidably. Unemployment was low and the education level of the work force steadily increased. Due to Yugoslavia's neutrality and a 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.
The fact that Yugoslavs were allowed to emigrate freely from 1960s onwards prompted many to find work in Western Europe, notably
Germany. This contributed to keeping unemployment in check and also acted as a source of capital and foreign currency.
In 1970s, the economy was reorganized according to
Edvard Kardelj's theory of
associated labour, in which the right to decision making and a share in profits of
socially owned companies is based on the investment of labour. All companies were transformed into ''organizations of associated labour''. The smallest, ''basic organizations of associated labour'', 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 labour'', which could be large companies or even whole industry branches in a certain area. Most executive decision making was based in
enterprises, so that these continued to compete to an extent even when they were part of a same composite organization. The appointment of managers and strategic policy of composite organizations were, depending on their size and importance, in practice 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 labour'' were also introduced into 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
Yugoslav wars, consequent loss of market, as well as mismanagement and/or non-transparent privatization brought further economic trouble for all former republics of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Only
Slovenia's economy grew steadily after the initial shock and slump.
Croatia reached its 1990
GDP in 2003, a feat yet to be accomplished by other former Yugoslav republics.
The currency of the SFRY was the
Yugoslav dinar.
Miscellaneous
★ Yugoslavia used to be described as a small country with big problems: seven neighbouring countries, six
republics, five
nationalities, four
languages, three
religions, two
alphabets and one
political party.
[2]
★ Yugoslavia was also stated to be surrounded with "worries" ("brigama" in Serbo-Croatian). That word could be constructed using the first letters of the names of the surrounding countries (Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, Greece, Albania, Hungary (Mađarska in Serbo-Croatian) and Austria).
★ Yugoslavia shared the same melody for national anthem with Poland. Its first lyrics were written in 1834 under the title
Hey, Slovaks (Hej, Slováci) and it has since served as the anthem of the
Pan-Slavic movement, the anthem of the
Sokol physical education and political movement, as well as the anthem of the WWII 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. http://www.marxists.org/subject/yugoslavia/music/servie-serbian.mp3
References
1. [1] Proclamation of Constitution of the Feredative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, 31. 1. 1946.
2.
Yugoslavia The Old Demons Arise John Borrell
See also
★
Yugoslavia
★
History of the Balkans
★
Music of Yugoslavia
★
SFR Yugoslav Pop Rock scene
★
History of computer hardware in the SFRY
★
Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
★
Unique Master Citizen Number
★
External links
★
Orders and Decorations of the SFRY
★
List of leaders of SFRY
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