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280-484: The Greater Serbian ideology includes claims to various territories aside from modern-day Serbia, including the whole of the former Yugoslavia except Slovenia and part of Croatia . According to Jozo Tomasevich , in some historical forms, Greater Serbian aspirations also included parts of Albania , Bulgaria , Hungary and Romania . Its inspiration comes from the medieval Serbian Empire which existed briefly in 14th-century Southeast Europe from 1346 to 1371, prior to

560-489: A market economy under the leadership of Prime Minister Ante Marković , who advocated shock therapy 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

840-805: A Crown Council to discuss the terms of the Pact and whether Yugoslavia should sign it. The Council's members were willing to agree, but only under the condition that Germany let its concessions be made public. Germany agreed and the Council approved the terms. Three cabinet ministers resigned on 20 March in protest of the impending signing of the Pact. The Germans reacted by imposing an ultimatum to accept by midnight 23 March or forfeit any further chances. Prince Paul and Cvetković obliged and accepted, despite believing German promises were "worthless". On 23 March, Germany's guarantee of Yugoslavia's territorial security and its promise not to use its railroads were publicised. In

1120-474: A Greater Serbia should be held by committing crime, I would never accept it; may Greater Serbia disappear, but to hold it by crime – no. If it were necessary to hold only a small Serbia by crime, I would not accept it. May small Serbia disappear, but to hold it by crime – no. And if there is only one Serb, and if I am that last Serb, to hold on by crime – I do not accept. May we disappear, but disappear as humans, because then we will not disappear, we will be alive in

1400-570: A Greater Serbia, rejecting the then existing boundaries of the Republics as the artificial creation of Tito's partisans. These included Šešelj 's Serbian Radical Party , claiming that the recent changes had rectified most of the anti-Serb bias that the Memorandum had alleged. Milošević supported the groups calling for a Greater Serbia, insisting on the demand for "all Serbs in one state". The Socialist Party of Serbia appeared to be defenders of

1680-418: A blueprint for Serbian national unification, with the primary concern of strengthening Serbia's position by inculcating Serbian and pro-Serbian national ideology in all surrounding peoples that are considered to be devoid of national consciousness. Because Načertanije was a secret document until 1906, it could not have affected national consciousness at the popular level. However, some scholars suggest that from

1960-407: A breakup of Yugoslavia on Greater Serbian lines, the document was in favor of Yugoslavia. Its support for Yugoslavia was however conditional on fundamental changes to end what the Memorandum argued was the discrimination against Serbia which was inbuilt into the Yugoslav constitution. The chief of these changes was abolition of the autonomy of Kosovo and Vojvodina . According to Norman Cigar, because

2240-519: 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 , United Kingdom or Australia . 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

2520-453: 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

2800-442: 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

3080-696: 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 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 ), and proceeded to form Serbian autonomous regions (SARs) throughout

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3360-486: A confederal system but also declared that should a confederal system be created, the external borders of Serbia would be an "open question", insinuating that his government would pursue creating a Greater Serbia if Yugoslavia was decentralized. Milosevic stated: "These are the questions of borders, essential state questions. The borders, as you know, are always dictated by the strong, never by weak ones." By this point several opposition parties in Serbia were openly calling for

3640-829: A conference between Prime Minister Tito of the NKOJ (representing the AVNOJ) and Prime Minister Ivan Šubašić of the royalist Yugoslav government-in-exile in London. 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

3920-791: A consequence of the Yugoslav Wars . Spanning an area of 255,804 square kilometres (98,766 sq mi) in the Balkans , Yugoslavia was bordered by the Adriatic Sea and Italy to the west, Austria and Hungary to the north, Bulgaria and Romania to the east, and Albania and Greece to the south. It was a one-party socialist state and federation governed by the League of Communists of Yugoslavia , and had six constituent republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina , Croatia , Macedonia , Montenegro , Serbia , and Slovenia . Within Serbia

4200-674: A continuation of that plan, and they could only be understood completely by reference to what had happened in Croatia and Bosnia." The Hague Trial Chamber found that the strategic plan of the Bosnian Serb leadership consisted of "a plan to link Serb-populated areas in BiH together, to gain control over these areas and to create a separate Bosnian Serb state, from which most non-Serbs would be permanently removed". It also found that media in certain areas focused only on Serb Democratic Party policy and reports from Belgrade became more prominent, including

4480-655: A coup but he was non-committal. Yugoslavia's situation worsened in October 1940 when Italy invaded Greece from Albania , and the initial failure of the Italians to make headway only increased Yugoslav apprehension that Germany would be forced to attack Greece in order to help Italy. In September and November 1940 respectively, Germany forced Hungary and Romania to accede to the Tripartite Pact . In early November 1940, Nedić, who believed that Germany would win

4760-551: A declaration of friendship, but Hitler insisted on accession to the Pact. Prince Paul warned that "I fear that if I follow your advice and sign the Tripartite Pact I shall no longer be here in six months." On 17 March, Prince Paul returned to Berchtesgaden and was told by Hitler that it was his last chance for Yugoslavia to join the Pact, renouncing this time the request for the use of Yugoslav railways in order to facilitate their accession. On 19 March, Prince Paul convened

5040-608: 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. The armed forces of SFR Yugoslavia consisted of the Yugoslav People's Army ( Jugoslovenska narodna armija , JNA), Territorial Defense (TO), Civil Defense (CZ) and Milicija (police) in wartime. Socialist Yugoslavia maintained

5320-547: 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 of Croatia and Petar Stambolić of Serbia) gained the support of Tito. At a party meeting in Brijuni , Ranković faced a fully prepared dossier of accusations and a denunciation from Tito that he had formed

5600-446: 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 enterprises , so that these continued to compete to an extent, even when they were part of a same composite organization. Yugoslav government-in-exile The Government of

5880-696: 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 to

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6160-548: A lesser extent during the early 1930s, intensified after the Anschluss in 1938. These combined intelligence operations were aimed at strengthening Yugoslavia and keeping her neutral while encouraging covert activities. From the outbreak of war British diplomacy focused on keeping Yugoslavia neutral, which the Ambassador Ronald Campbell apparently still believed possible. In mid-1940, German pressure on

6440-697: A long time, the Četniks were supported by the British , the United States , and the Yugoslavian royal government in exile of King Peter II. However, over the course of the war, effective power changed to the hands of Josip Broz Tito 's Communist Partisans . In 1943, Tito proclaimed the creation of the Democratic Federative Yugoslavia ( Demokratska federativna Jugoslavija ). The Allies gradually recognized Tito's forces as

6720-540: A military administration of Germany run by military governors, with a Serb civil government led by Milan Nedić . Nedić attempted to gain German recognition of Serbia as a successor state to Yugoslavia and claimed King Peter II as Serbia's monarch. Puppet states were also set up in Montenegro and southern Yugoslavia. Hungary occupied and annexed several northern regions . King Peter II , who had escaped into exile,

7000-624: A model of Communist orthodoxy. The Yugoslav government allied with the Soviet Union under Stalin and early in the Cold War 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

7280-460: A new Balkan Federation would see Bulgaria and Yugoslavia as a whole uniting on equal terms. As these negotiations began, Yugoslav representatives Edvard Kardelj and Milovan Đilas were summoned to Moscow alongside a Bulgarian delegation, where Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov attempted to browbeat them into accepting Soviet control over the merger between the countries, and generally tried to force them into subordination. The Soviets did not express

7560-643: A new Yugoslav Supreme Command in Cairo. The remnants of the Royal Yugoslav Army and Navy that had escaped the country were concentrated in Palestine and Egypt under his command. The government also appointed a special representative in the Middle East, Jovan Đonović, who was responsible for propaganda and communication with contacts in occupied Yugoslavia. Although the coup d'état had generated

7840-581: A new, unique economic system, and a diplomatic policy of non-alignment. Yugoslavia refused to take part in the Communist Warsaw Pact and instead took a neutral stance in the Cold War, becoming a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement 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

8120-804: 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 (CPSU), and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (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

8400-592: 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

8680-459: A pluralist democracy that guaranteed democratic liberties; personal freedom; freedom of speech , assembly , and religion ; and a free press . But by January 1945, Tito had shifted his government's emphasis away from pluralist democracy, claiming that though he accepted democracy, multiple parties were unnecessarily divisive amid Yugoslavia's war effort, and that the People's Front represented all

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8960-629: A political settlement with Vladko Maček , the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) leader. In January 1937, Prime Minister Milan Stojadinović met with Maček at Prince Paul's request, but Stojadinović was unable to contain Croat dissatisfaction with a Yugoslavia dominated by the Serbs. In 1938, the German annexation of Austria gave Yugoslavia a common border with Nazi -ruled Germany. That year,

9240-471: A rift in his own party. Communist officials Andrija Hebrang and Sreten Žujović 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,

9520-511: 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

9800-544: 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 of the Communist leadership from each republic

10080-732: A significant amount of goodwill towards the post-coup government in the West, that spirit had evaporated with the ignominious defeat of the government and armed forces during the invasion. Much of the early effort of the Serb members of the cabinet was focussed on fixing the blame for the defeat on the Ustaše or even on Croats more generally. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was soon divided by the Axis into several entities. Germany , Italy , Hungary , and Bulgaria annexed some border areas outright. A Greater Germany

10360-526: A significant military industry of its own. With the American response in the Korean War serving as an example of the West's commitment, Stalin began backing down from war with Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia began a number of fundamental reforms in the early 1950s, bringing about change in three major directions: rapid liberalization and decentralization of the country's political system, the institution of

10640-478: A significant minority. In the territories which were under their military control, the Chetniks waged ethnic cleansing in a genocidal campaign against ethnic Croats and Bosnian Muslims . The Serbs today have a primary and basic duty – to create and organize a homogeneous Serbia which must consist of the entire ethnic territory on which the Serbs live. It was a point of discussion at a Chetnik congress which

10920-401: A socialist policy for the emancipation of women, targeting in particular the most backward rural areas. AFŽ activists were immediately confronted with the gap between officially proclaimed rights and women's daily lives. The reports drawn up by local AFŽ sections in the late 1940s and 1950s testify to the extent of patriarchal domination, physical exploitation and poor access to education faced by

11200-408: A specific view on Yugoslav-Bulgarian unification but wanted to ensure Moscow approved every decision by both parties. The Bulgarians did not object, but the Yugoslav delegation withdrew from the Moscow meeting. Recognizing the level of Bulgarian subordination to Moscow , Yugoslavia withdrew from the unification talks and shelved plans for the annexation of Albania in anticipation of a confrontation with

11480-476: A state that would be a federation of six equal South Slavic republics (as opposed to the allegedly Serb 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 be allowed to return from exile in London only upon a favourable result of a pan-Yugoslav referendum on the question. Among other decisions,

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11760-453: A strong military force. The JNA was the main organization of the military forces, 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

12040-481: A unification and homogenization by force was propounded by Petar II Petrović-Njegoš (1813–1851). Some authors claim that the roots of the Greater Serbian ideology can be traced back to Serbian minister Ilija Garašanin 's Načertanije (1844). Načertanije (Начертаније) was influenced by " Conseils sur la conduite a suivre par la Serbie ", a document written by Polish Prince Adam Czartoryski in 1843 and

12320-486: A unity of any sort between Serbs and the other nations. The idea of reclaiming historic Serbian territory has been put into action several times during the 19th and 20th centuries, notably in Serbia's southward expansion in the Balkan Wars . Serbia claimed "historical rights" to the possession of Macedonia , acquired by Stephen Dušan in fourteenth century. ...for economic independence, Serbia must acquire access to

12600-516: A variant of market socialism , which now entailed a policy of open borders. With heavy federal investment, tourism in SR Croatia 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

12880-475: A visa on arrival and, later onward, were issued a tourist card for short stays. Numerous reciprocal agreements for abolishing visas were implemented with other countries (mainly Western European), through the decade. For the International Year of Tourism in 1967 Yugoslavia suspended visa requirements for all countries it had diplomatic relations with. In the same year, Tito became active in promoting

13160-414: A week later by Tito on 9 June during his televised speech. In 1971 the leadership of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, notably Miko Tripalo and Savka Dabčević-Kučar , 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 of masovni pokret meaning mass movement , and led to

13440-510: Is a compound 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 '. Thus, a translation of Jugoslavija would be 'South-Slavia' or 'Land of the South Slavs '. The federation's official name varied considerably between 1945 and 1992. Yugoslavia

13720-548: Is a hypothetical boundary that describes the western extent of an irredentist nationalist Serbian state. It defines everything east of this line, Karlobag – Ogulin – Karlovac – Virovitica , as a part of Serbia , while the west of it would be within Slovenia , and all which might remain of Croatia . Such a boundary would give the majority of the territory of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to

14000-485: Is believed to have been responsible for numerous atrocities following the Balkan Wars in 1913. By 1914 the Greater Serbian concept was eventually replaced by the Yugoslav Pan-Slavic movement. The change in approach was meant as a means to gain support of other Slavs which neighboured Serbs who were also occupied by Austria-Hungary. The intention to create a south Slav or "Yugoslav" state was expressed in

14280-482: Is defined by the pattern of Serb settlement, irrespective of existing national borders—was to remain an underlying theme of the Greater Serbian ideal. Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (1986) was the single most important document to set into motion the pan-Serbian movement of the late 1980s which led to Slobodan Milošević 's rise to power and the subsequent Yugoslav wars. The authors of

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14560-511: Is one of the most contested of nineteenth-century Serbian history, with rival interpretations. Some scholars argue that Garašanin was an inclusive Yugoslavist, while others maintain that he was an exclusive Serbian nationalist seeking a Greater Serbia. The most notable Serbian linguist of the 19th century, Vuk Karadžić , was a follower of the view that all south Slavs that speak the Shtokavian dialect (of Serbo-Croatian ) were Serbs, speaking

14840-619: The Dienststelle Ribbentrop , arrived in Zagreb in preparation for a regime change. Simović named Maček as Deputy Prime Minister once again in the new government, but Maček was reluctant and remained in Zagreb while he decided what to do. While he considered the coup had been an entirely Serbian initiative aimed at both Prince Paul and the Cvetković–Maček Agreement, he decided that he needed to show HSS support for

15120-551: The Adriatic Sea and one part of the Albanian coastline: by occupation of the territory or by acquiring economic and transportation rights to this region. This, therefore, implies occupying an ethnographically foreign territory, but one that must be occupied due to particularly important economic interests and vital needs. Serbia gained significant territorial expansion in the Balkan Wars and almost doubled its territory, with

15400-711: The Battle of the Sutjeska , 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 evaded the trap and retreated to safety. The Partisans emerged stronger than before, occupying a more significant portion of Yugoslavia. The events greatly increased the Partisans' standing and granted them a favourable reputation among

15680-416: The Croatian Spring . Tito responded to the incident by purging the League of Communists of Croatia , 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. At this time, Ustaše -sympathizers outside Yugoslavia tried through terrorism and guerrilla actions to create

15960-427: The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (later renamed " Serbia and Montenegro "). The 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. In September 1992, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (consisting of Serbia and Montenegro ) failed to achieve de jure recognition as

16240-510: The Federated State of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FS Bosnia and Herzegovina), Federated State of Croatia (FS Croatia), Federated State of Macedonia (FS Macedonia), Federated State of Montenegro (FS Montenegro), Federated State of Serbia (FS Serbia), and Federated State of Slovenia (FS Slovenia). But the nature of its government remained unclear, and Tito was reluctant to include the exiled King Peter II in post-war Yugoslavia, as Winston Churchill demanded. In February 1945, Tito acknowledged

16520-681: The First World War , Serbia achieved a maximalist nationalist aspirations with the unification of the south Slavic regions of Austria-Hungary and Montenegro , into a Serbian-dominated Kingdom of Yugoslavia . During the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes , the government of the Kingdom pursued a linguistic Serbisation policy towards the Macedonians in Macedonia , then called "Southern Serbia" (unofficially) or " Vardar Banovina " (officially). The dialects spoken in this region were referred to as dialects of Serbo-Croatian . Either way, those southern dialects were suppressed with regards education, military and other national activities, and their usage

16800-416: The German-led invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941, these tensions grew to become one of the most brutal civil wars that occurred in World War II. The Royal Government soon capitulated and fled to exile in London . Resistance was initially made by the Chetniks , who defended the restoration of the Monarchy but would eventually collaborate with the Axis powers with the goal of forming a post-war Greater Serbia, and

17080-414: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929. Initially, the proponents of the Greater Serbia doctrine felt satisfied, since the main goal of uniting all Serbian-inhabited lands under the rule of a Serbian Monarchic dynasty was mostly achieved. During the inter-war period, the majority of Serbian politicians defended a strong centralised country, while their opponents demanded major autonomy for the regions. Following

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17360-446: The League of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY/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

17640-424: The Ottoman conquest of the Balkans . Some territories intended to be incorporated in the Greater Serbia exceeded the boundaries of the Serbian Empire, however. Following the growing nationalistic tendency in Europe from the 18th century onwards, such as the Unification of Italy , Serbia – after first gaining its principality within the Ottoman Empire in 1817 – experienced a popular desire for full unification with

17920-419: The Partisans , a multi-ethnic antifascist movement who waged a guerrilla campaign against occupying forces and supported the transformation of Yugoslavia into a socialist federal republic . The Serbs were largely divided into these two factions with differing ideologies and goals, leading to internal fighting. Others found themselves in the collaborationist factions of Milan Nedić and Dimitrije Ljotić such as

18200-455: The Republic of China were established with the Soviet Union's permission. Simultaneously, Yugoslavia maintained close contacts with the Chinese Communist Party and supported its cause in the Chinese Civil War . 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 (President of the Federal Assembly), and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. In

18480-406: 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

18760-414: The Royal Italian Army and subsequently captured by the British. In January 1942, command of this unit passed to Lieutenant Colonel Miloje Dinić, and on 19 February to Lt. Col. Milan Prosen, after Dinić was implicated in the pro-Mirković mutiny. (He and 57 other Guards were interned by the British at the Torah camp in March, along with all 346 of the Yugoslav Air Force's ground personnel.) In late February,

19040-452: The Serbian Volunteer Corps . Beside this, other Yugoslav non-Serb nationalists took advantage of the situation and allied themselves with the Axis countries, regarding this moment as their historical opportunity of fulfilling their own irredentist aspirations. Another portion of non-Serbs also fought under the Partisan movement towards a united communist-led Yugoslavia. After the war, victorious Partisan leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito became

19320-843: The Serbian language . As this definition implied that large areas of continental Croatia, Dalmatia , and Bosnia and Herzegovina, including areas inhabited by Roman Catholics – Vuk Karadžić is considered by some to be the progenitor of the Greater Serbia program. More precisely, Karadžić was the shaper of modern secular Serbian national consciousness, with the goal of incorporating all indigenous Shtokavian speakers (Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, Muslim) into one, modern Serbian nation. German historian Michael Weithmann considers that Karadžić expressed dangerous ideological and political idea in scientific shape ie that all southern Slavs are Serbs while Czech historian Jan Rychlik consider that Karadžić became a propagator of greater Serbian ideology and uttered a theory according to which all Yugoslav people speaking

19600-482: The Serbs . This line was frequently referenced by Serbian politician Vojislav Šešelj . A greater Serbian state was supported for irredentist as well as economical reasons, as it would give Serbia a large coastline, heavy industries, agricultural farmland, natural resources and all of the crude oil (mostly found in the Pannonian Plain , and particularly in the Socialist Republic of Croatia ). There were various Serbian politicians associated with Slobodan Milošević in

19880-406: The Stalinist Soviet model of economic development in this period, some aspects of which achieved considerable success. In particular, the public works of the period organized by the government rebuilt and even improved Yugoslav infrastructure (in particular the road system) with little cost to the state. Tensions with the West were high as Yugoslavia joined the Cominform , and the early phase of

20160-719: The Syria and Lebanon campaign , while Nebojša undertook training exercises. Ten floatplanes of the Naval Air Force also escaped. On 3 June 1941, eight Dornier Do 22kj and two Rogožarski SIM-XIV-H formed the 2 (Yugoslav) Squadron of the No. 230 Squadron RAF , based in Aboukir . They participated in the Battle of Crete and patrolled the African coast until the unit was disbanded on 23 April 1942. In late 1943, Commander J. Saksida

20440-1021: The Takoradi air route . On 2 July 1942, the interned Yugoslav Air Force personnel and Guards in Alexandria were formed into the 244 Temporary Battalion of the King's Own Royal Regiment , but after a pro-Tito mutiny in November 1943, the unit was disbanded. Its personnel were transferred to the diminished Royal Guards, while 224 of the Air Force men joined the Balkan Air Force in Libya. Joined by Partisan volunteers, these men formed No. 352 Squadron RAF on 22 April 1944 and No. 352 Squadron on 1 July. They mainly flew Hawker Hurricanes and Supermarine Spitfires in operations over Yugoslavia in support of

20720-785: The United Kingdom , Alexander Cadogan , the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs , penned in his diary that the "Yugoslavs seem to have sold their souls to the Devil. All these Balkan peoples are trash." On 25 March, the pact was signed at the Belvedere palace in Vienna . German radio later announced that "the Axis Powers would not demand the right of passage of troops or war materials," while

21000-630: The United Kingdom . Hence, it is also referred to as the "Government in London" ( Vlada u Londonu , Влада у Лондону ). It was dissolved in March 1945. According to economics professor and historian Jozo Tomasevich , the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was politically weak from the moment of its creation in December 1918, and remained so during the interwar period mainly due to rigid centralism combined with strong ethno-religious identities. In particular,

21280-565: The Yugoslav economy began to collapse, which increased unemployment and inflation. The economic crisis led to rising ethnic nationalism and political dissidence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. With the fall of communism in Eastern Europe , efforts to transition into a confederation failed; the two wealthiest republics, Croatia and Slovenia, seceded and gained some international recognition in 1991. The federation dissolved along

21560-517: The "greatest crime in contemporary history". Yugoslavia's military academies trained left-wing activists from both Swapo (modern Namibia ) and the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania as part of Tito's efforts to destabilize South Africa under apartheid . In 1980, the intelligence services of South Africa and Argentina plotted to return the favor by covertly bringing 1,500 anti-communist urban guerrillas to Yugoslavia. The operation

21840-413: 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

22120-515: 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

22400-474: The 1980s only due to the safety valve provided by sending one million guest workers yearly to advanced industrialized countries in Western Europe . 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

22680-526: 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 in Sarajevo. For Yugoslavia, the games demonstrated Tito's continued vision of Brotherhood and Unity , as

22960-472: 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. Furthermore, during the break up of Yugoslavia,

23240-415: The 1990s. 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

23520-578: The AVNOJ ) and claimed the status of Yugoslavia's deliberative assembly (parliament). In 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 and

23800-670: The AVNOJ formed a provisional executive body, the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia (NKOJ, Nacionalni komitet oslobođenja Jugoslavije ), appointing Tito as prime minister. Having achieved success in the 1943 engagements, Tito was also granted the rank of Marshal of Yugoslavia . Favourable news also came from the Tehran Conference when the Allies concluded that the Partisans would be recognized as

24080-484: 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

24360-582: 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 were a haven for the resistance. On 17 June 1944, the Partisan base on the island of Vis housed

24640-615: The Allies (the Garibaldi Division ). After this favourable chain of events, the AVNOJ decided to meet for the second time, in Partisan-liberated Jajce . The Second Session of the AVNOJ lasted from 21 to 29 November 1943 (right before and during the Tehran Conference ) and came to a number of conclusions. The most significant of these was the establishment of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia,

24920-548: The Axis and prepared to face war with Germany, those who advocated peace with Germany, and those that were uncommitted. The Axis invasion of Yugoslavia began on 6 April. The bombing of Belgrade forced the government to seek shelter outside the city. From there, King Peter and Simović planned to leave for exile. Maček, refusing to leave the country, resigned on 7 April and designated Juraj Krnjević as his successor. Maček returned to Zagreb. Three other ministers also refused to leave Yugoslavia: Ivan Andres and Bariša Smoljan of

25200-674: The Axis powers led by Nazi Germany ; by 17 April 1941, the country was fully occupied and was soon carved up by the Axis . Yugoslav resistance was soon established in two forms, the Royal Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Communist Yugoslav Partisans . The Partisan supreme commander was Josip Broz Tito . Under his command, the movement soon began establishing "liberated territories" that attracted

25480-586: The Bulgarian-Yugoslav border. On 4 March, Prince Paul secretly met with Hitler in Berchtesgaden and was again pressured to sign the Pact. Hitler did not request troop passage through Yugoslavia and offered the Greek city of Salonika . A time limit for Prince Paul, who was uncommitted and "wavering", wasn't set. Prince Paul, in the middle of a cabinet crisis, offered a nonaggression pact and

25760-482: The Cold War began with Yugoslavia pursuing an aggressive foreign policy. Having liberated most of the Julian March and Carinthia , and with historic claims to both those regions, the Yugoslav government began diplomatic maneuvering to include them in Yugoslavia. The West opposed both these demands. The greatest point of contention was the port city of Trieste . The city and its hinterland were liberated mostly by

26040-586: The Croat leader Maček. While these negotiations were ongoing, Italy invaded Albania . In August 1939, the Cvetković–Maček Agreement was concluded to create the Banovina of Croatia , which was to be a relatively autonomous political unit within Yugoslavia. Separatist Croats considered the Agreement did not go far enough, while many Serbs believed it went too far. The Cvetković-led cabinet formed in

26320-617: 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 the Yugoslav central bank . In the Slovenian independence referendum , 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

26600-629: 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

26880-617: 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 (1389), the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo (1914), and the adoption of the Vidovdan Constitution (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

27160-470: The European Community 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

27440-546: 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. The Yugoslav Constitution was adopted in 1946 and amended in 1953 , 1963 , and 1974 . The League of Communists of Yugoslavia won the first elections, and remained in power throughout

27720-637: The HSS and Kulenović of the JMO. The government met on Yugoslav soil for the last time on 13 April near Pale . From there they travelled to Nikšić where they were flown out of the country to Athens. King Peter, all the main leaders of the coup d'état, most of Simović's cabinet and a number of government officials flew out of Yugoslavia to Greece on 14–15 April. After a brief stop in Athens, they travelled on to Jerusalem where they were temporarily accommodated. On 21 June,

28000-496: The International Commission on the Balkan Wars , Serbia consider annexed territories "as a dependency, a sort of conquered colony, which these conquerors might administer at their good pleasure". Newly acquired territories were subjected to military government , and were not included in Serbia's constitutional system. The opposition press demanded the rule of law for the population of the annexed territories and

28280-673: 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: We are not going to pay the balance on others' accounts, we are not going to serve as pocket money in anyone's currency exchange, we are not going to allow ourselves to become entangled in political spheres of interest. Why should it be held against our peoples that they want to be completely independent? And why should autonomy be restricted, or

28560-451: 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 , Aleksandar Ranković , Boris Kidrič , and Svetozar Vukmanović-Tempo ) inviting Tito to purge them, and thus cause

28840-474: The King appointed to his Regency Council constitutional lawyers Srđan Budisavljević, Ante Mandić , and Dušan Sernec. In doing so, he empowered his council to form a common temporary government with NKOJ and accept Tito's nomination as prime minister of the first normal government. The Regency Council thus accepted Tito's nomination on 29 November 1945 when FPRY was declared. By this unconditional transfer of power, King Peter II abdicated to Tito. This date, when

29120-422: The King was not authorised to return to the country until a plebiscite was held about the monarchy. After Šubašić returned to London, the king rejected the agreement and replaced Šubašić on 23 January 1945. But under British pressure, the king was compelled to call him back six days later and to accept the principle of a regency. Two weeks later, Šubašić and his ministers went to Belgrade. A new coalition government

29400-612: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Exile ( Serbo-Croatian : Vlada Kraljevine Jugoslavije u egzilu , Влада Краљевине Југославије у егзилу ) was an official government-in-exile of Yugoslavia , headed by King Peter II . It evacuated from Belgrade in April 1941, after the Axis invasion of the country , and went first to Greece , then to Palestine , then to Egypt , and finally, in June 1941, to

29680-427: The League of Communists of Yugoslavia (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

29960-442: The Memorandum included the most influential Serbian intellectuals, among them: Dobrica Ćosić , Pavle Ivić , Antonije Isaković , Dušan Kanazir , Mihailo Marković , Miloš Macura , Dejan Medaković , Miroslav Pantić , Nikola Pantić , Ljubiša Rakić , Radovan Samardžić , Miomir Vukobratović , Vasilije Krestić , Ivan Maksimović , Kosta Mihailović , Stojan Čelić and Nikola Čobelić . Philosopher Christopher Bennett characterized

30240-737: The Minister of Education, Bogoljub Kujundžić . The five were: the Slovene senate leader, Anton Korošec ; the leader of the Yugoslav Muslim Organization (JMO), Mehmed Spaho ; another JMO politician, Džafer Kulenović ; the Slovene Franc Snoj ; and the Serb Dragiša Cvetković . Prince Paul then dismissed Stojadinović and appointed Cvetković in his place, with a direction that he reach an agreement with

30520-555: The Muslim people maybe into extinction. Because the Muslim people cannot defend themselves if there is war here. 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

30800-676: The National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) announced in 1943 the formation of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia (DF Yugoslavia or DFY) in the country's substantial resistance-controlled areas. The name deliberately left the republic -or- kingdom 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

31080-587: The Niš declaration by Serbian prime minister Nikola Pašić in 1914, as well as in Serbia's regent Alexander 's statement in 1916. The documents showed that Serbia would pursue a policy that would integrate all territory that contained Serbs and southern Slavs (except Bulgarians), including Croats and Slovenes. The Treaty of London (1915) of the allies would assign to Serbia the territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Srem, Bačka, Slavonia (against Italian objections) and northern Albania (to be divided with Montenegro). After

31360-693: The Partisans in 1945, but pressure from the western Allies forced them to withdraw to the so-called " Morgan Line ". The Free Territory of Trieste was established and separated into Zones A and B, administered by the western Allies and Yugoslavia, respectively. Yugoslavia was initially backed by Stalin, but by 1947 he had begun to cool toward its ambitions. The crisis eventually dissolved as the Tito–Stalin split started, with Zone A granted to Italy and Zone B to Yugoslavia. Meanwhile, civil war raged in Greece – Yugoslavia's southern neighbour – between Communists and

31640-520: The Partisans, the People's Liberation Front ( Jedinstveni narodnooslobodilački front , JNOF), had been renamed 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. But the old pre-war political parties were also reestablished. As early as January 1945, while

31920-476: The SOE. The military conspirators brought to power the 17-year-old king, whom they declared to be of age to assume the throne, and a government of national unity was formed with Simović as prime minister and Maček and Slobodan Jovanović as his vice-premiers. In the wake of the coup, Simović's new government refused to ratify Yugoslavia's signing of the Tripartite Pact, but did not openly rule it out. Hitler, angered by

32200-551: The Second World War and genocide." Serbian historian Sima Ćirković stated that grumblings about Greater Serbia and pointing fingers at Garašanin's Načertanije and the "Memorandum" is not helping to solve the existing problems and that it is an abuse of history. Serbian academic Čedomir Popov considers that the allegations of "Greater Serbian intentions" are often used for politically anti-Serbian interests and that they are factually incorrect. Popov stated that throughout

32480-641: The Serb people in Yugoslavia. Serbian president Slobodan Milošević , who was also the leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia, repeatedly stated that all Serbs should enjoy the right to be included in Serbia. Opponents and critics of Milošević claimed that "Yugoslavia could be that one state but the threat was that, should Yugoslavia break up, then Serbia under Milošević would carve out a Greater Serbia". Major changes took place in Yugoslavia in 1990 when free elections brought opposition parties to power in Croatia and Slovenia. In 1990, power had seeped away from

32760-486: The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) published the SANU Memorandum . 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 was sent to bring calm to an ethnically driven protest by Serbs against

33040-619: The Serbian Prime Minister Dragutin Zelenović , who contended that Dubrovnik was historically Serbian, not Montenegrin. The international media gave immense attention to the bombardment of Dubrovnik and claimed this was evidence of Milošević 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

33320-664: The Serbian history there never was nor ever will be a Greater Serbia. Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia ), commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia , was a country in Central and Southeast Europe . It was established in 1945 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia , following World War II , and lasted until 1992, breaking up as

33600-574: The Serbs of the remaining territories, mainly those living in neighbouring entities. The idea of territorial expansion of Serbia was formulated in 1844 in Načertanije , a secret political draft of the Principality of Serbia made by Ilija Garašanin , a conservative statesman with Bismarckian aspirations. According to the draft, the new Serbian state could include the neighboring areas of Montenegro , Northern Albania , Bosnia and Herzegovina . In

33880-415: The Soviet Union, North Korea 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 after which the president's doctors advised him to rest. In August 1978, Chinese leader Hua Guofeng visited Belgrade, reciprocating Tito's China trip

34160-439: The Soviet Union. From the beginning, the foreign policy of the Yugoslav government under Tito assigned high importance to developing strong diplomatic relations with other nations, including those outside the Balkans and Europe. Yugoslavia quickly established formal relations with India , Burma , and Indonesia following their independence from the British and Dutch colonial empires . Official relations between Yugoslavia and

34440-420: The Soviets in 1948 and started to build its own way to socialism under the strong political leadership of Tito, sometimes informally called " Titoism ". The economic reforms began with the introduction of workers' self-management in June 1950. In this system, profits were shared among the workers themselves as workers' councils controlled production and the profits. An industrial sector began to emerge thanks to

34720-442: The Tripartite Pact, as long as the national interests of the country were protected. Von Heeren returned to his office to discover a message from Berlin instructing that contact with Yugoslav officials was to be avoided, and he was recalled to Berlin. No reply was given to Ninčić. On 2 April orders were issued for the evacuation of the German embassy, and the German chargé d'affaires advised the diplomats of friendly countries to leave

35000-406: The Tripartite Pact. He also pushed for the demobilisation of the Royal Yugoslav Army , and the granting of permission to transport German supplies through Yugoslavia's territory, along with greater economic cooperation. In exchange he offered a port near the Aegean Sea and territorial security. On 1 March, Yugoslavia was further isolated when Bulgaria signed the Pact and the German army arrived at

35280-400: 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

35560-399: 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 Czechoslovakia at the time. Yugoslavia had mixed relations towards Enver Hoxha 's Albania . Initially Yugoslav-Albanian relations were forthcoming, as Albania adopted

35840-471: 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

36120-413: 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

36400-412: 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 , Yugoslavia's capital, was liberated with the Soviet Red Army 's help in October 1944, and the formation of a new Yugoslav government

36680-433: The Yugoslav populace, leading to increased recruitment. On 8 September 1943, Fascist Italy capitulated to the Allies , leaving their occupation zone in Yugoslavia open to the Partisans. Tito took advantage of this by briefly liberating the Dalmatian shore and its cities. This secured Italian weaponry and supplies for the Partisans, volunteers from the cities previously annexed by Italy, and Italian recruits crossing over to

36960-432: The Yugoslav reformist elite to respond to rising social disorder. The collapse of communism throughout Eastern Europe in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 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

37240-424: 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 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 and began developing

37520-420: The aforementioned areas under a single umbrella name of "Serbian lands". The concept of Pan-Serbism espoused by these three was not an imperialist one, based upon the notion of Serbian conquest, but a rationalist one. They all believed that rationalism would overcome the barriers of religion that separated the Slavs into Orthodox Christians, Catholics, and Muslims, uniting the peoples as one nation. The idea of

37800-421: The alleged bias against Serbia. This was then followed by Milošević's anti-bureaucratic revolution in which the provincial governments of Vojvodina and Kosovo and the Republican government of Montenegro , were overthrown giving Milošević the dominating position of four votes out of eight in Yugoslavia's collective presidency. Milošević had achieved such a dominant position for Serbia because, according to Bennett,

38080-417: 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

38360-402: The areas populated mostly by non-Serbs ( Albanians , Bulgarians , Turks and others). Serbia's most important goal of the Balkan Wars was access to the open sea. so the Kingdom of Serbia occupied most of the interior of Albania and Albania's Adriatic coast . A series of massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars were committed by the Serbian and Montenegrin Army . According to the Report of

38640-435: The army of the Kingdom of Serbia retreated from Durrës in April 1913 under pressure of the naval fleet of Great Powers , but it remained in other parts of Albania for the next two months. The secret military society called Unity or Death, popularly known as the Black Hand , headed by Serbian colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević Apis , which took an active and militant stance on the issue of a Greater Serbian state. This organization

38920-431: 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

39200-557: The battalion was 850 strong and well-trained. It was attached to the 25th Brigade , 10th (Indian) Division . Before the end of the year, monarchist and communist (pro-Tito) factions had appeared in the ranks; numbers dwindled. Barely the size of a company, a rump unit was sent to the Italian theatre with its brigade in March 1944. It was disbanded soon after, despite the recruitment of 2,000 captured Slovene conscripts assembled in Algiers by Prosen. The British refused to ferry these men to Cairo, so they were assigned labour duties. After

39480-404: The birth of 'illegitimate' children. Article 24 of the Constitution affirmed the equality of women in society, stating that: "Women have equal rights with men in all areas of state, economic and socio-political life." At the end of the 1940s, the Women's Antifascist Front of Yugoslavia (AFŽ), an organization founded during the Resistance to involve women in politics, was tasked with implementing

39760-438: The border with the Hungarian People's Republic , while the Hungarian People's Army 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 and the West. Consequently, Stalin's plans were thwarted as Yugoslavia began shifting its alignment. The West welcomed

40040-498: The borders of federated republics, hastened by the start of the Yugoslav Wars, and formally broke up on 27 April 1992. Two republics, Serbia and Montenegro, remained within a reconstituted state known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , or FR Yugoslavia, but this state was not recognized internationally as the sole successor state to SFR Yugoslavia . " Former Yugoslavia " is now commonly used retrospectively. The name Yugoslavia , an anglicised transcription of Jugoslavija ,

40320-514: 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-Day 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

40600-463: 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, and were represented in the Serbian assembly. The 1946 Yugoslav Constitution aimed to unify family law throughout Yugoslavia and to overcome discriminatory provisions, particularly concerning economic rights, inheritance, child custody and

40880-415: The changes were unlikely to be accepted passively, the implementation of the Memorandum's program would only be possible by force. With the rise to power of Milošević the Memorandum's discourse became mainstream in Serbia. According to Bennett, Milošević used a rigid control of the media to organize a propaganda campaign in which the Serbs were the victims and stressed the need to readjust Yugoslavia due to

41160-403: The claimed lands. He proposed ways to influence Croats and Slavic Muslims, who Garašanin regarded as "Serbs of Catholic faith" and "Serbs of Islamic faith". The document also emphasized the necessity of cooperation between the Balkan nations and it advocated that the Balkans should be governed by the nations from the Balkans. This plan was kept secret until 1906 and has been interpreted by some as

41440-419: The commander of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force , Lieutenant General Dušan Simović , was involved in three coup plots—two early in the year driven by Serb opposition to the concordat with the Vatican and a later one sparked by dissatisfaction with results of the December elections . On the evening of 3 February 1939, five ministers resigned from the government in response to a Serb nationalist speech made by

41720-495: The conflict. It also marked the end of the YPA, which was until then composed by members of all Yugoslav nations. After that, the 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 (recognized by representatives of all republics). During these three months,

42000-416: 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 called by that name, which it held for the longest period. Of the three main Yugoslav languages, the Serbo-Croatian and Macedonian names for the state were identical, while Slovene slightly differed in capitalization and

42280-419: 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

42560-477: The controversial nationalist leader Radovan Karadžić of the largest Serb faction in the parliament, the 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

42840-492: 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 (UDBA) led by Aleksandar Ranković, was quick and efficient in cracking down on insurgent activity. Invasion appeared imminent, as Soviet military units massed along

43120-497: The country. On 3 April, Führer Directive 26 was issued, detailing the plan of attack and command structure for the invasion. Hungary and Bulgaria were promised the Bačka and Yugoslav Macedonia respectively and the Romanian army was asked not to take part, holding its position at the countries' border. Internal conflict in Hungary over the invasion plans between the army and Teleki led to the Prime Minister's suicide that same evening. Also on 3 April, Edmund Veesenmayer , representing

43400-426: The country. He was a positivist , non-romantic liberal who was opposed to both fascism and communism, but was not directly connected to any political party. Simović was dropped from the cabinet, as was Ilić, who had been Minister of the Army. The latter was replaced by Mihailović, but because he was in Yugoslavia, the government in London was now in the hands of civilians. Ivan Šubašić took office on 1 June 1944. He

43680-441: The coup and anti-German incidents in Belgrade, gathered his senior officers and ordered that Yugoslavia be crushed without delay. On the same day as the coup he issued Führer Directive 25 which called for Yugoslavia to be treated as a hostile state. Italy was to be included in the operations and the directive made specific mention that "[e]fforts will be made to induce Hungary and Bulgaria to take part in operations by offering them

43960-401: The coup, although it made a significant contribution to the mass street protests in many cities that signalled popular support for the coup after it occurred. The coup was successful and overthrew the three-member regency as well as the government of Cvetković. The coup had been planned for several months, but the signing of the Tripartite Pact spurred the organisers to carry it out, encouraged by

44240-457: The democratic system of government. In 1929, democracy was abandoned and a royal dictatorship was established by King Alexander . The king attempted to weaken the ethnic divisions in the country by creating administrative divisions ( Serbo-Croatian Latin : banovine ) based on rivers rather than traditional regions. By 1933, however, discontent in the largely Croat -populated Sava Banovina had developed into full-blown civil disorder, which

44520-453: 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

44800-448: The early 1990s who publicly espoused such views: Mihalj Kertes , Milan Babić , Milan Martić , Vojislav Šešelj , Stevan Mirković . In his speeches and books, Šešelj claimed that all of the population of these areas are in fact ethnic Serbs, of Orthodox, Roman Catholic or Muslim faith. However, outside of Šešelj's Serbian Radical Party , the line as such was never promoted in recent Serbian political life. Milošević believes he now has

45080-410: The early 20th century, all political parties of the Kingdom of Serbia (except for the Social Democratic Party ) were planning to create a Balkan Federation , generally accepted the idea of uniting all Serbs into one only Serbian state which would be a part of the Balkan federation. From the creation of the Principality until the First World War, the territory of Serbia was constantly expanding. After

45360-447: 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, opposition leaders such as Milan Grol received threats via the press. The opposition withdrew from the election in protest of the hostile atmosphere, which caused the three royalist representatives, Grol, Šubašić, and Juraj Šutej , to secede from

45640-453: The end of the Balkan Wars , the Kingdom of Serbia achieved the expansion towards the south, but there was a mixed reaction to the events, for the reason that the promises of lands gaining access to the Adriatic Sea were not fulfilled. Instead, Serbia received the territories of Vardar Macedonia that was intended to become part of the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Serbian Army had to leave those coastal territories that would become part of

45920-410: The enemy was still occupying the northwest, Tito commented: I am not in principle against political parties because democracy also presupposes the freedom to express one's principles and one's ideas. But to create parties for the sake of parties, now, when all of us, as one, must direct all our strength in the direction of driving the occupying forces from our country, when the homeland has been razed to

46200-433: The existence of a Regency Council representing the King, but the council's first and only act 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 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,

46480-431: The extension of the constitution of the Kingdom of Serbia to these regions. The Royal Serbian Army captured Durazzo ( Albanian : Durrës ) on 29 November 1912 without any resistance. Orthodox Christian metropolitan of Durrës Jakob gave a particularly warm welcome to the new authorities. Due to Jakob's intervention to the Serbian authorities several Albanian guerrilla units were saved and avoided execution. However,

46760-419: The fall of Yugoslavia, 105 personnel of the Royal Yugoslav Navy , under Commander Z. V. Adamić , joined the Mediterranean Fleet at Alexandria in Egypt. Two motor torpedo boats (MTBs), Durmitor and Kajmakčalan , and a submarine, Nebojša , ran the gauntlet of the Adriatic, evading the Italian Navy , and arrived in Suda Bay on 22–23 April before proceeding to Alexandria. The MTBs participated in

47040-400: The federal government to the republics and were deadlocked over the future of Yugoslavia with the Slovene and Croatian republics seeking a confederacy and Serbia a stronger federation. Gow states, "it was the behavior of Serbia that added to the Croatian and Slovene Republic's belief that no accommodation was possible with the Serbian Republic's leadership". The last straw was on 15 May 1991 when

47320-423: The federation. Initially, there were initiatives to create several 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: Under Tito, Yugoslavia adopted a policy of nonalignment in the Cold War. It developed close relations with developing countries by having

47600-485: The fighting in the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s was the result of an attempt to keep Serbs unified. Mihailo Marković , the Vice President of the Main Committee of Serbia's Socialist Party , rejected any solution that would make Serbs outside Serbia a minority. He proposed establishing a federation consisting of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Serbs residing in the Serbian Autonomous Region of Krajina , Slavonia , Baranja , and Srem . So I say: if

47880-444: 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

48160-454: The first inscription of cultural and natural landmarks in Yugoslavia. 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

48440-514: 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 (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 's nationalist government and in 1990, Serb nationalists in

48720-449: 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

49000-400: 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, recognized the state in the agreement, signed by Šubašić and Tito on 17 June 1944. The DFY's legislature, after November 1944, was the Provisional Assembly. The Tito-Šubašić agreement of 1944 declared that the state was

49280-465: The government over his Radio Velebit program based in Italy. On 5 April the new cabinet met for the first time. While the first two conditions set by Maček were met, the appointment of regents was impracticable given Prince Peter had been declared to be of age. Involving representatives from across the political spectrum, Simović's cabinet was "extremely disunited and weak". It included members who fell into three groups; those who were strongly opposed to

49560-416: The government resulted in the resignation of the Minister of the Interior , Dr. Stanoje Mihaldžić, who had been organising covert anti-Axis activities. In mid to late 1940, British intelligence became aware of coup plotting, but managed to side-track the plans, preferring to continue working through Prince Paul. The Special Operations Executive (SOE) office in Belgrade went to significant lengths to support

49840-433: The government's implementation of industrial and infrastructure development programs. Exports of industrial products, led by heavy machinery , transportation machines (especially in the shipbuilding industry), and military technology and equipment 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

50120-426: The governments of Croatia and Slovenia, along with the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo ( SR Bosnia and Herzegovina and SR Macedonia remained relatively neutral). Fed up by Milošević's manipulation of the assembly, first the delegations of the League of Communists of Slovenia led by Milan Kučan , and later the League of Communists of Croatia , led by Ivica Račan , walked out during the extraordinary 14th Congress of

50400-466: The governments of Vojvodina, Kosovo, and the neighboring Socialist Republic of Montenegro 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

50680-425: The ground when we have nothing but our awareness and our hands ... we have no time for that now. And here is a popular movement [the People's Front]. Everyone is welcome within it, both communists and those who were Democrats and radicals, etc., whatever they were called before. This movement is the force, the only force which can now lead our country out of this horror and misery and bring it to complete freedom. While

50960-476: The handover to Tito's forces, which occurred in August. The negotiations for the transfer of the vessels under British command took place on Vis . The royal representative was Captain Ivan Kern , whom Tito later promoted to rear admiral. The eleven aircraft of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force to make it to Alexandria were requisitioned by the British. Several Savoia-Marchetti SM.79s piloted by Yugoslavs joined No. 117 Squadron RAF and flew transport missions along

51240-434: The hands of the living God. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) accused Slobodan Milošević and other Serb leaders of committing crimes against humanity which included murder, forcible population transfer , deportation and " persecution on political, racial or religious grounds." Tribunal prosecutor's office has accused Milosevic of "the gravest violations of human rights in Europe since

51520-405: The head of state of Yugoslavia until his death in 1980. During this period the country was divided in six republics. In 1976, within the Socialist Republic of Serbia two autonomous provinces, SAP Kosovo and SAP Vojvodina , were created. During this period, most of the Greater Serbian ideology followers were incarcerated as accused of betrayal, or exiled. Within the rest of the Serbian population,

51800-452: 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: the unemployment rates were amongst the highest in Europe during its existence and they did not reach critical levels before

52080-412: The historic opportunity to, once and for all, settle accounts with the Croats and do what Serbian politicians after World War I did not – rally all Serbs in one Serbian state. The war crimes charges against Milošević are based on the allegation that he sought the establishment of a "Greater Serbia". Prosecutors at the Hague argued that "the indictments were all part of a common scheme, strategy or plan on

52360-403: The incorporation of the parts of the defeated Austro-Hungarian Empire where Serbs lived to Serbia, opposed by the ones that supported an idea of uniting not only all the Serbian lands, but also to include other South Slav nations into a new country. The Serbian Royal family of Karađorđević was set to rule this new state, called Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes , that would be renamed to

52640-407: The individual republics, became reality with the 1974 Yugoslav Constitution . While the constitution gave the republics more autonomy, it also awarded a similar status to two autonomous provinces within Serbia: Kosovo , a largely ethnic Albanian populated region, and Vojvodina , a region with Serb majority but large numbers of ethnic minorities, such as Hungarians . These reforms satisfied most of

52920-561: The inter-war period. Yet full equality was far from being achieved. 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 people's republics (1946–1963), and later socialist republics (from 1963 forward). They were constitutionally defined as mutually equal in rights and duties within

53200-518: The island of Vis in the Adriatic Sea in order to meet with Tito and try to form a coalition government. Tito agreed to postpone a decision on the form of government until the end of the war, and Šubašić, for his part, recognised that only the partisan administration of the Yugoslav territory would receive support. He also promised that the government would include only people who had not previously opposed Tito and his organisation, and that it would concentrate on securing international support. The agreement

53480-523: 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

53760-425: 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

54040-444: The king and most of the cabinet arrived in London. Several members of the cabinet that left Yugoslavia did not travel to London, and ended up in the United States or Canada. Some politicians and government officials travelled to Cape Town, South Africa, where they constituted a reserve government of sorts. Bogoljub Ilić , who remained Minister of the Army and Navy and also became Chief of the General Staff in place of Simović, established

54320-454: The king dismissed the prime minister, Ilić and Mirković, provoking a mutiny by officers supportive of the Air Force general. The king then appointed Colonel Dragoljub Mihailović , leader of the Četniks in Yugoslavia, as minister and chief of staff to replace Ilić in absentia ; he then appointed General Petar Živković to act as Mihailović's deputy in London and Cairo. Mihailović was dismissed in August 1944 as Allied support shifted away from

54600-413: The largest ethnic group in the country as a whole. From 1967 to 1972 in Croatia and 1968 and 1981 protests in Kosovo , 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. In

54880-539: The late 1980s as protests against the alleged injustice and bureaucratization of the political elite. 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

55160-523: 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. The most developed republics, Croatia and Slovenia, rejected attempts to limit their autonomy as provided in

55440-519: The leaders of Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, all declined an unofficial offer by the European Community 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

55720-408: The legal successor state to Kingdom of Yugoslavia , it was a provisionally governed state formed to unite the Yugoslav resistance movement to the occupation of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers . Following the country's liberation, King Peter II was deposed, the monarchical rule was ended, and on 29 November 1945, the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was proclaimed. Led by Josip Broz Tito ,

56000-511: The majority of women, particularly in the countryside. AFŽ also led a campaign against the full veil, which covered the whole body and face, until it was banned in the 1950s. By the 1970s, thirty years after women's rights were enshrined in the Yugoslav Constitution, the country had undergone a rapid process of modernisation and urbanisation. Women's literacy and access to the labour market had reached unprecedented levels, and inequalities in women's rights had been considerably reduced compared to

56280-459: The memorandum as "an elaborate, if crude, conspiracy theory." The memorandum claimed systematic discrimination against Serbs and Serbia culminating with the allegation that the Serbs of Kosovo and Metohija were being subjected to genocide. According to Bennett, despite most of these claims being obviously absurd, the memorandum was merely one of several similar polemics published at the time. The Memorandum's defenders claim that far from calling for

56560-413: 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

56840-414: 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 ). 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

57120-409: The new communist government sided with the Eastern Bloc at the beginning of the Cold War but pursued a policy of neutrality following the 1948 Tito–Stalin split ; it became a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement , and transitioned from a command economy to market-based socialism . The country was renamed Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1963. After Tito died on 4 May 1980,

57400-543: The new government and that joining it was necessary. On 4 April he travelled to Belgrade and accepted the post, on several conditions; that the new government respect the Cvetković–Maček Agreement and expand the autonomy of the Banovina Croatia in some respects, that the new government respect the country's accession to the Tripartite Pact, and that one Serb and one Croat temporarily assume the role of regents. That same day exiled Croatian politician and Ustaše leader Ante Pavelić called for Croats to start an uprising against

57680-504: 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 separation 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

57960-420: The newly formed Principality of Albania . This event, together with the Austro-Hungarian Annexation of Bosnia , frustrated Serbian aspirations, since there was still a large number of Serbs remaining out of the Kingdom. The Serbian victory in the First World War was supposed to serve as compensation to this situation and there was an open debate between the followers of the Greater Serbia doctrine, that defended

58240-399: The occupying forces' attention. Unlike the various nationalist militias operating in occupied Yugoslavia, the Partisans were a pan-Yugoslav movement promoting the " brotherhood and unity " of Yugoslav nations and representing the Yugoslav political spectrum's republican, left-wing, and socialist elements. The coalition of political parties, factions, and prominent individuals behind the movement

58520-451: The official document mentioned only troops and omitted mention of war materials. Likewise the pledge to give Salonika to Yugoslavia does not appear on the document. On the following day, Serb demonstrators gathered on the streets of Belgrade shouting "Better the grave than a slave, better a war than the pact" (Serbo-Croatian Latin: Bolje grob nego rob, Bolje rat nego pakt ). A coup d'état occurred on 27 March 1941 in Belgrade . The coup

58800-449: The old communist authorities had failed to stand up to him. During August 1988, supporters of the Anti-Bureaucratic Revolution were reported to have shouted Greater Serbia themed chants of "Montenegro is Serbia!" Croatia and Slovenia denounced the demands by Milošević for a more centralized system of government in Yugoslavia and they began to demand that Yugoslavia be made a full multi-party confederal state. Milošević claimed that he opposed

59080-431: The opposition to the anti-Axis Cvetković government, which undermined the hard-won balance in Yugoslav politics that government represented. SOE Belgrade was entangled with pro-Serb policies and interests, and disregarded or underestimated warnings from SOE Zagreb and British diplomats in that city, who better understood the situation in Yugoslavia as a whole. In October 1940, Simović was again approached by plotters planning

59360-405: The outgoing Serb president of the collective presidency along with the Serb satellites on the presidency blocked the succession of the Croatian representative Stjepan Mesić as president. According to Gow, from this point on Yugoslavia de facto "ceased to function". The Virovitica–Karlovac–Karlobag line ( Serbian : Вировитица–Карловац–Карлобаг линија / Virovitica–Karlovac–Karlobag linija )

59640-467: The part of the accused [Milošević] to create a 'Greater Serbia', a centralized Serbian state encompassing the Serb-populated areas of Croatia and Bosnia and all of Kosovo, and that this plan was to be achieved by forcibly removing non-Serbs from large geographical areas through the commission of the crimes charged in the indictments. Although the events in Kosovo were separated from those in Croatia and Bosnia by more than three years, they were no more than

59920-475: 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. As a consequence, Yugoslavia lost the economic and political support provided by the West, and increased pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to reform its institutions made it impossible for

60200-561: The presentation of extremist views and promotion of the concept of a Greater Serbia, just as in other parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina the concept of a Greater Croatia was openly advocated. Vuk Drašković , leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement , called for the creation of a Greater Serbia which would include Serbia, Kosovo, Vojvodina, Macedonia and Montenegro, as well as regions within Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia with high concentrations of Serbs. About 160,000 Croats were expelled from territories Serbian forces sought to control. Much of

60480-455: The primary source of the break up of Yugoslavia. 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

60760-424: The prospect of regaining Bačka and Macedonia". Furthermore, the directive stated that "[i]nternal tensions in Yugoslavia will be encouraged by giving political assurances to the Croats". On 30 March, Foreign Minister Momčilo Ninčić summoned the German ambassador Viktor von Heeren and handed him a statement which declared that the new government would accept all its international obligations, including accession to

61040-408: 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, a procedure that made electors identifiable by OZNA agents. The election results of 11 November 1945 were decisively in favour of the People's Front, which received an average of 85% of the vote in each federated state . On 29 November,

61320-429: The ratification of the 1974 Constitution, which reduced the powers of SR Serbia over its autonomous provinces of SAP Kosovo and SAP Vojvodina . 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

61600-438: The recognition of Montenegrins 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 ,

61880-502: 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

62160-454: The regime countered with a series of assassinations and arrests of key Croatian opposition figures. When Alexander was assassinated in Marseille in 1934 by the Croatian nationalists, his cousin Prince Paul took over the regency , ruling on behalf of Alexander's 11-year-old son, Peter II . In the aftermath of Alexander's assassination, Yugoslavia was isolated both militarily and diplomatically. Prince Paul repeatedly attempted to negotiate

62440-410: The religious differences that had earlier divided them. However, one might argue that such a definition is very partisan: Karadžić himself eloquently and explicitly professed that his aim was to unite all native Shtokavian speakers whom he identified as Serbs . Therefore, Vuk Karadžić's central linguistic-political aim was the growth of the realm of Serbdom according to his ethnic-linguistic ideas and not

62720-403: The religious primacy of the Serbian Orthodox Church in national affairs and discrimination against Roman Catholics and Muslims compounded the dissatisfaction of the non- Serb population. The kingdom's internal politics became ethnically polarised, a phenomenon that has been referred to as the "national question" in Yugoslavia. Until 1929, this state of affairs was maintained by subverting

63000-438: The remaining collaborating forces. By the end of April, the remaining northern parts of Yugoslavia were liberated, and Yugoslav troops occupied chunks of southern German (Austrian) territory and Italian territory around Trieste. 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 :

63280-514: 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 or Bosnia and Herzegovina . Serb nationalists were frustrated over Tito's support for

63560-419: The rest of Eastern Europe, 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

63840-413: The retaking of Dubrovnik . In Vukovar , ethnic tensions between Croats and Serbs exploded into violence when the Yugoslav army 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

64120-455: The revised version by Polish ambassador to Serbia, Franjo Zach , " Zach's Plan ". "A plan must be constructed which does not limit Serbia to her present borders, but endeavors to absorb all the Serbian people around her." The work claimed lands that were inhabited by Bulgarians, Macedonians, Albanians, Montenegrins, Bosnians, Hungarians and Croats as part of Greater Serbia. Garašanin's plan also included methods of spreading Serbian influence in

64400-418: The rhythm of the advances or setbacks of the FLN or Vietcong ." Thousands of Yugoslav military advisors travelled to Guinea after its decolonisation and as the French government tried to destabilise the country. Tito also covertly helped left-wing nationalist movements to destabilize the Portuguese colonial empire . Tito saw the murder of Patrice Lumumba by Belgian-backed Katangan separatists in 1961 as

64680-478: The right-wing government, and the Yugoslav government was determined to bring about a Communist victory. Yugoslavia dispatched significant assistance—arms and ammunition, supplies, and military experts on partisan warfare (such as General Vladimir Dapčević )—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 also granted military support, Yugoslav assistance

64960-423: The second Yugoslavia was born under international law, was thereafter marked as Yugoslavia's national holiday Day of the Republic , but after the Communists' switch to authoritarianism , this holiday officially marked the 1943 Session of AVNOJ that coincidentally fell on the same date. The first Yugoslav post-World War II elections were set for 11 November 1945 . By that time, the coalition of parties backing

65240-406: 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 and was considered in its earliest years

65520-430: The second half of the nineteenth century to the outbreak of World War I, “leading political groups and social strata in Serbia were thoroughly imbued with the ideas in the Nacertanije and differed only in intensity of feeling and political conceptualization”. Political insecurity, more so than Yugoslavism or Serbian nationalism, appeared to be the prevailing reasoning behind the idea of expanding Serbian borders. The document

65800-490: The shtokavian dialect are Serbs. There are at least 5 million people who speak the same language, but by religion they can be split into three groups ... Only the first 3 million call themselves Serbs , but the rest will not accept the name. This view is not shared by Andrew Baruch Wachtel ( Making a Nation, Breaking a Nation ) who sees him as a partisan of South Slav unity, albeit in a limited sense, in that his linguistic definition emphasized what united South Slavs rather than

66080-407: 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 , albeit with state oversight dictating wage bills and

66360-516: The southern Croatian town of Knin organized and formed a separatist entity known as the SAO Krajina , 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 (NDH) which committed genocide against Serbs during World War II. Milošević used this to rally Serbs against

66640-408: The spelling of the adjective Socialist . The names are as follows: Due to the name's length, abbreviations were often used for the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, though it 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. On 6 April 1941, Yugoslavia was invaded by

66920-461: 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 which was housed in the building which currently houses Serbia's parliament. The Federal Assembly

67200-424: 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. 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

67480-443: The stronger opposition to the German occupation. They began to send most of their aid to Tito's Partisans, rather than to the Royalist Četniks . On 16 June 1944, the Tito–Šubašić agreement was signed, merging the de facto and the de jure governments of Yugoslavia. During his exile, King Peter II was educated at Cambridge University , served in the Royal Air Force and married Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark , who

67760-447: The subject of dispute? We will not be dependent on anyone ever again! 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

68040-417: The successes of the Yugoslav resistance movement. On 19 May 1948, a correspondence by Mikhail Suslov informed Tito that the Cominform ( Informbiro in Serbo-Croatian ), would be holding a session on 28 June 1948 in Bucharest 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

68320-455: 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

68600-584: The threat of an attack by the Germans from Bulgarian territory, and the unwillingness of the British to promise practical military support. By late 1940, British policy towards the government of Yugoslavia had shifted from acceptance of Yugoslav neutrality to pressuring the country for support in the war against Germany. In January 1941, the US placed additional pressure on Prince Paul, urging non-cooperation with Germany. On 14 February, Adolf Hitler met with Cvetković and Yugoslav foreign minister Aleksandar Cincar-Marković , and requested Yugoslavia's accession to

68880-435: 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". At the same time, the Serbian government contradicted its Montenegrin allies through claims by

69160-402: 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,

69440-415: The unit was ordered to relieve the Czechoslovak contingent at the siege of Tobruk , but was diverted to join the 11th Brigade , 4th (Indian) Division in Libya. In April, it retreated to Halfaya Pass and then to Mersa Matruh . In July, it was reassigned to the 9th (British) Army in Mandatory Palestine to guard the oil refinery at Haifa . In January 1943, when Lt. Col. Franc Stropnik assumed command,

69720-643: The vast majority became strong supporters of this new Non-Aligned Yugoslavia. The first person to formulate the modern idea of Pan-Serbism was Dositej Obradović (1739–1811), a writer and thinker who dedicated his writings to the "Slavoserbian people", which he described as "the inhabitants of Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, Dalmatia, Croatia, Syrmium, Banat, and Bačka", and who he regarded as all his "Serbian brethren, regardless of their church and religion". Other proponents of Pan-Serbism included historian Jovan Rajić and politician and lawyer Sava Tekelija , both of whom published works incorporating many of

70000-399: The wake of the agreement was resolutely anti-Axis, and included five members of the HSS, with Maček as deputy Prime Minister. By the time of the German invasion of Poland and subsequent outbreak of World War II in September 1939, the Yugoslav Intelligence Service was cooperating with British intelligence agencies on a large scale across the country. This cooperation, which had existed to

70280-505: The war, proposed to the government that it abandon its neutral stance and join the Axis as soon as possible in the hope that Germany would protect Yugoslavia against its "greedy neighbors". A few days later Prince Paul, having realised the impossibility of following Nedić's advice, replaced him. Germany's planned invasion of Greece would be simplified if Yugoslavia could be neutralised. Over the next few months, Prince Paul and his ministers laboured under overwhelming German diplomatic pressure,

70560-504: 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

70840-481: 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 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 . During this time, Yugoslavia's first nuclear reactor

71120-493: The Četniks. On 7 March 1945, the king dissolved the government and disbanded the armed forces, proclaiming Tito's Partisans on the ground to be the sole legitimate government and military. The first unit of the Royal Yugoslav Army to be formed in exile was the 1st Battalion, Royal Yugoslav Guards, under Major Živan Knežević. It comprised a headquarters and four rifle companies (A, B, C and D). Of its original complement of 505 men, 411 were Slovenes who had been conscripted into

71400-403: 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. On 2 June 1968, student demonstrations led to wider mass youth protests in capital cities across Yugoslavia. They were gradually stopped

71680-452: Was adopted. At the time of Tito's death the Federal government was headed by Veselin Đuranović (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

71960-439: 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 the Yugoslav armed forces raising their alert level. After World War II, Yugoslavia became a leader in international tourism among socialist states, motivated by both ideological and financial purposes. In the 1960s, many foreigners were able to get

72240-428: Was an example of a successful military aircraft design by Yugoslavia before the Yugoslav wars. Beside the federal army, each of the 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

72520-434: Was appointed to negotiate with Tito because of his special position in the Croatian Peasant Party, his loyalty to the Karađorđević dynasty , his moderation in comparison with other Croatian politicians, and his experience in difficult situations. Nevertheless, his nomination after months of British pressure on the king depended on the elimination of Mihailovich from the cabinet. Ten days after his nomination, Šubašić fled to

72800-419: 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. 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

73080-406: 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 . Albania was in no position to object, but the Bulgarian view was that

73360-431: Was expanded to include most of Drava Banovina . Italy added the Governorship of Dalmatia and more than a third of western Drava Banovina to the Italian Empire . An expanded Croatia was recognized by the Axis as the Independent State of Croatia ( Nezavisna Država Hrvatska , NDH). On paper, the NDH was a kingdom, and the 4th Duke of Aosta was crowned as King Tomislav II of Croatia. The rump Serbian territory became

73640-403: Was far more substantial. But this Yugoslav foreign adventure also came to an end with the Tito–Stalin split, as the Greek Communists, expecting Tito's overthrow, refused any assistance from his government. Without it, they were greatly disadvantaged, and were defeated in 1949. As Yugoslavia was the country's only Communist neighbour in the immediate postwar period, the People's Republic of Albania

73920-426: Was formed in 1918 under the name Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes . In January 1929, King Alexander I assumed dictatorship of the kingdom and renamed it the Kingdom of Yugoslavia , for the first time making "Yugoslavia"—which had been used colloquially for decades (even before the country was formed)—the state's official name. After the Axis occupied the kingdom during World War II, the Anti-Fascist Council for

74200-425: Was formed on 7 March, in which Tito controlled 20 ministers of 28. This ended the government in exile. In exile, the Royal Yugoslav Forces were initially under the command of General Bogoljub Ilić as minister of the Army, Navy and Air Force and chief of the General Staff, and General Borivoje Mirković as commander of the Air Force. There were initially about 1,000 men in these forces in Cairo . On 12 January 1942,

74480-515: Was given command of a torpedo boat flotilla based at Malta , which included some former Yugoslav MTBs that had been captured by Italy in 1941 and then surrendered to the Allies after Italy's armistice , as well as three minelayers: Melinje , Miljet and Villa . The Yugoslav Navy was also operating eight former American PT boats and, after 11 January 1944, the ex- HMS Mallow (renamed Nada ), out of Livorno in Italy. In March 1945, all Royal Yugoslav vessels assembled at Ancona in preparation for

74760-435: Was held in the village of Ba in central Serbia in January 1944; however, Moljević's ideas were never put into practice due to the Chetniks' defeat by Josip Broz Tito 's Partisans (initially a movement predominantly composed of Serbs which became more multi-ethnic by this time) and it is difficult to assess how influential they were, due to the lack of records from the Ba congress. Nonetheless, Moljević's core idea—that Serbia

75040-460: 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, primarily those who were non-aligned as well as others like Iraq , and Ethiopia . 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

75320-446: Was on the path back to bourgeois capitalism due to its nationalist, independence-minded positions, and accused the party itself of " Trotskyism ". 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 . After the break with the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia found itself economically and politically isolated as

75600-425: Was organized on republic, autonomous province, municipality and local community levels. Given that its role was mainly defense, it had no formal officer training regime, no offensive capabilities and little military training. As 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. Despite their common origins,

75880-476: 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-populated 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

76160-457: Was planned and conducted by a group of pro-Western Serb -nationalist Royal Yugoslav Air Force and Royal Guard officers formally led by Simović. For practical purposes several others performed leadership roles in the conduct of the coup. Some other civilian leaders were probably aware of the coup before it was launched and moved to support it once it occurred, but they were not among the organisers. The Communist Party of Yugoslavia played no part in

76440-413: Was postponed until 2 November 1944, when the Belgrade Agreement was signed. The agreements also provided for postwar elections to 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, the Partisans launched their General Offensive in a drive to completely oust the Germans and

76720-548: Was punishable. During World War II , the Serbian royalist Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland which was headed by General Draža Mihailović attempted to define its vision of a postwar future. One of its intellectuals was the Bosnian Serb nationalist Stevan Moljević who, in 1941, proposed in a paper which was titled " Homogenous Serbia " that an even larger Greater Serbia should be created, incorporating not only Bosnia and much of Croatia but also chunks of Romania , Bulgaria , Albania and Hungary in areas where Serbs don't represent

77000-467: Was signed on 16 June with no consultation by Šubašić or with the king. After his return, Šubašić formed a government of five ministers, with two of them proposed by Tito. Mihailovich lost his position as war minister. He refused to recognise the new government and continued to proclaim his loyalty to the king. On 12 September, the king went on the radio to ask people to support Tito. Šubašić met with Tito in Belgrade on 1 November. Under their agreement,

77280-434: Was still recognized as king of the whole state of Yugoslavia by the Allies . Starting on 13 May 1941, the largely Serbian " Yugoslav Army of the Fatherland " ( Jugoslovenska vojska u otadžbini , or JVUO, or Četniks ) resisted the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia (the Chetniks later collaborated with the Axis). This anti-German and anti-communist resistance movement was commanded by Royalist General Draža Mihailović . For

77560-422: 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 Anti-Fascist Council for the People's Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ, Antifašističko Veće Narodnog Oslobođenja Jugoslavije ). The AVNOJ met for the first time in Partisan-liberated Bihać on 26 November 1942 ( First Session of

77840-400: Was the Yugoslav capital city of Belgrade as well as two autonomous Yugoslav provinces: Kosovo and Vojvodina . The country emerged as Democratic Federal Yugoslavia on 29 November 1943, during the second session of the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia midst World War II in Yugoslavia . Recognised by the Allies of World War II at the Tehran Conference as

78120-414: Was the only child of the late King Alexander I of Greece and Princess Aspasia of Greece and Denmark . Jovanović took office as prime minister on 11 January 1942 with the dismissal of Simović. His original appointment as vice-premier in the Simović government had been in recognition of the respect he engendered, and because he was seen as a Serb counterpart to Maček as an overall leader of the Serbs across

78400-586: Was under construction in Krško , 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). In 1979, seven selection criteria comprising Ohrid , Dubrovnik , Split , Plitvice Lakes National Park , Kotor , Stari Ras and Sopoćani were designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites , making it

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