Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (in Serbo-Croatian, Социјалистичка Федеративна Република Југославијa/Socijalistička Federativna Republika Jugoslavija), abbreviated RFS of Yugoslavia or RFSY, was the Yugoslav state that existed from the end of World War II until its dissolution in 1992, during the so-called "Yugoslav Wars". It was a socialist state made up of the federation of six minor republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.

Despite initially being aligned with the Eastern Bloc, from the Tito-Stalin Rupture of 1948 the country adopted a policy of neutrality and was one of the founding states of the Non-Aligned Movement. Until 1980, Yugoslavia was governed in practice by Josip Broz Tito, who maintained a distance from the Warsaw Pact countries and criticized the Soviet interventions in Hungary (1956), Czechoslovakia (1968) and Afghanistan (1979).

Following Tito's death in 1980, the rise of nationalist movements in the constituent republics in the late 1980s led to disencounter among multiple ethnic groups, followed by the failure of inter-republic talks for the transformation of the country and also because of the recognition of independence made by some European states in 1991. In addition, this occurred at a time when the country was suffering a severe economic and labor crisis. Ultimately, all these events would lead to a collapse of the Yugoslav state, its disintegration and final fall in 1992, eclipsed all this with the beginning of the Yugoslav wars.

Official names

The name of the state was actually common even before its official institution, being little used outside the official sphere. "Yugoslavia" it came from the Serbo-Croatian Jug (south) and Slavia (Slavic territory), a term by which it was designated since the XIX to the South Slavs, although usually not including the Bulgarians. Yugoslavia had originally been formed in 1918 as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, although in 1929 the country it was renamed Kingdom of Yugoslavia, being the first time that this term was used officially. After World War II, the full name of the country changed significantly throughout its existence. Between 1945 and 1990 it maintained various official names:

• Federal Democratic Republic of Yugoslaviaemployed between 1943 and 1946;
• Federal People ' s Republic of Yugoslavia (RFPY), employed between 1946 and 1963;
• Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (RFSY), employed between 1963 and 1990.

The state was more commonly known by the latter name, which remained in use for the longest period of all. The term 'Socialist Yugoslavia' was also used on many occasions. Due to the length of the term, the media resorted to the use of abbreviations such as RFSY or SFR Yugoslavia.

History

Origins and formation of the new state

On April 6, 1941, the Axis powers invaded Yugoslavia, taking control of the entire country in less than two weeks. In addition to the establishment of various collaborationist regimes (notably the Independent State of Croatia), various resistance movements against the German occupation also emerged: the "Chetniks" Serbs, led by Draža Mihajlović, and the "Partisans" communists, commanded by Josip Broz Tito. The king, Pedro II, and the main Yugoslav leaders established a government in exile in London. However, this government was never really effective and was frequently paralyzed by the bickering of the old Yugoslav political class, when no problems arose from the meddling of the young King Peter. The British began to tire of this situation, and they trusted more in the actions of the resistance in the interior that in the exile government. Internally, the Chetnik parties originally had the recognition and support of the Allies in the fight against the Germans and Italians, but the Chetniks were deeply anti-communist and sometimes even collaborated with the Germans (who were theoretically their main enemy) in the fight against the partisans. Tito's partisans, despite facing enormous pressure, managed to organize an effective resistance and eventually liberated large areas of German control, going so far as to establish the so-called Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) in Jajce between 29 November and December 4, 1943.

Yugoslav partisans, after the liberation of Mostar (March 1945).

By mid-1944, the Partisans had become undisputedly the main faction opposing the Axis, while Mihajlović and his Chetniks lost all confidence. Consequently, under pressure from the British and Americans, the Prime Minister in exile, the Croatian Ivan Šubašić, appointed Tito leader of the entire Yugoslav resistance at the end of August 1944. At the urging of the Anglo-Americans, talks began between the partisans and the exile government. On November 1 Tito and Prime Minister Šubašić reached a preliminary agreement, whereby the AVNOJ would initially become the Yugoslav parliament and a concentration government with eighteen ministers would be formed. By then the Partisan Army, in a joint operation with the Soviet Army, had liberated Belgrade, as well as much of Serbia and Macedonia. This had meant a clear reinforcement for Tito, while he established relations with the Soviet leader Iósif Stalin to coordinate military operations in other Yugoslav territories. Šubašić and his government arrived in Belgrade on February 16, 1945, while the king agreed to give Tito powers and a Regency Council was created to manage the transfer of powers. Peter II, who remained in London, accepted the new grudgingly and only under pressure from the Western allies, more interested in understanding with a possible future government led by Tito.

On May 9, seven days after the Soviet Army captured Berlin, the partisans entered Zagreb, meeting no resistance. By then Nazi Germany had already surrendered, but despite this the fighting they would still last in the Slovenian area for a few more days, until the afternoon of May 15.

The military victory over the Nazis was an enormous success for Tito and the communists, who saw their popularity among the Yugoslav population strengthened. On the contrary, after four years of war the position of the monarchy had been left in a situation very precarious, as was also the case with the politicians of the pre-war period. On November 11, the first post-war Yugoslav elections took place, as had been agreed months before. Tito and the communists contested the elections under the National Unitary Liberation Front coalition, while the monarchists refused to participate in the elections and boycotted them. The coalition led by the communists managed to obtain an overwhelming victory with 90% of the votes. The electoral result confirmed the communists in power. A few weeks later, on November 29, 1945, the newly elected parliament accepted Tito's nomination for Prime Minister and in turn proclaimed the People's Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Pedro II, isolated and without support, was never able to return to Yugoslavia.

Postwar and break with Stalin

The new Yugoslav state was founded on the foundations of partisan resistance against the German occupation, something that lasted for decades to come. In fact, except for some limited aid from British and Soviet cooperation during the liberation of Belgrade, Yugoslavia was one of only two European countries to free itself from Nazi occupation through its own efforts.

Yugoslavia, a singular case

Yugoslavia, unlike other communist countries in Europe, chose an independent path from the Soviet Union and was not a member of the Warsaw Pact or NATO. Instead, it was one of the founding countries of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1956.

The most significant change in the SFRY's boundaries occurred in 1954, when the Free Territory of Trieste was dissolved by the Treaty of Trieste. Yugoslav Zone B, which covered 515.5 km², became part of the SFRY and was immediately occupied by the Yugoslav National Army.

Crisis of the 1980s

Tensions between the republics and nations of Yugoslavia intensified during the decade of the 1980s. The causes that led to the collapse of the country have been associated with nationalisms, ethnic conflicts, economic difficulties, frustration with the bureaucratic government, the influence of important figures in the country or international politics. Thus, nationalism has particularly been seen by many as the main cause of the Yugoslav breakup.

Since the 1970s, the Yugoslav communist regime was severely challenged by numerous internal dissensions, ranging from the nationalist-decentralizing faction led by Croats and Slovenes, which supported a decentralized federation granting greater autonomy to Croatia and Slovenia, to the centralist faction led by the Serbs, which supported a centralized federation that would ensure the interests of the Serbs throughout the federation, since in the country as a whole they constituted the main ethnic group. From the 1967 to 1972 protests in Croatia and the Kosovo of 1981, nationalist actions and doctrines began to constitute a cause of destabilization internally. The repression of nationalist movements by the communist regime possibly contributed to nationalist movements being identified as the main alternative to communism, in the same way that it helped to strengthen them. Thus, in the late 1980s, the Belgrade elite faced a strengthened opposition; by then the main opposition movements were led by protests by Kosovar and Montenegrin nationalists, while the "intelligentsia" Criticism from Serbia and Slovenia demanded more political reforms.

In the economic field, since the end of the 1970s an ever-widening gap opened up on account of the economic resources administered between the developed and underdeveloped Yugoslav regions that would end up seriously deteriorating the unity of the federation. The most developed republics, Croatia and Slovenia, rejected all attempts to reduce their levels of autonomy and privilege as originally provided for in the 1974 Constitution. By 1987 public opinion in Slovenia saw better economic opportunities in independence from Yugoslavia than permanence. within the federation. On the other side were those territories, such as the autonomous province of Kosovo, which had not benefited so much from the federation. However, economic problems have not proven to be the only determining factor in the disintegration of Yugoslavia, since in the Cold War period the Yugoslav federation was the most prosperous communist state in Eastern Europe and the country, in fact, it disintegrated during a period of economic recovery after the implementation of economic reforms by the Ante Markovic government. However, it is undeniable that the issue of economic inequality between the republics, autonomous provinces, and nations of Yugoslavia gave rise to tensions with the claims for unfavorable treatment and accusations of privileges between the different Yugoslav nations.

Until then, Tito's leadership had managed to prevent nationalist tensions from consummating as such. But his death marked a qualitative leap in the confrontations between the different factions of the communist party, which from then on found itself lacking effective and charismatic leadership.

Breakup and dissolution

After Tito's death in 1980, and in the midst of an economic crisis, tensions between the country's peoples grew, in the same way that the European powers geostrategically rethought the area. Thus, and after the rise of nationalist parties to power, two of its constituent republics, Slovenia and Croatia, declared their independence. Shortly after, the Republic of Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina would follow. It is the beginning of the first Yugoslav Wars. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was replaced by the new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, now made up only of Serbia and Montenegro. In turn, this was dissolved in 2003, with the creation of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. This state was also disintegrated after a Montenegrin plebiscite in 2006, giving rise to the independent republics of Montenegro and Serbia.

A feeling of "Yugonostalgia" it developed rapidly after the fall of the country. In the 21st century, most people who lived in the country feel nostalgic for social stability, the ability to travel freely, the level of education and the social welfare system that existed in Yugoslavia.

Government and politics

The state was organized according to the Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which was amended in 1963 and 1974. The Communist Party of Yugoslavia, winner of the elections held after World War II, remained in power throughout throughout the existence of the state. Also called the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, it was made up of the communist parties of each constituent republic. Josip Broz Tito was the main leader of the SFRY and its president from its creation until his death in 1980, but there were other important politicians, especially after Tito's death.

In the early 1990s, after a process of state reform and privatization carried out since Tito's death, multiparty elections were held in the different republics. The communist parties, in many cases fragmented or renowned, lost power.

Foreign Policy

Under Tito's rule, Yugoslavia adopted a policy of neutrality during the Cold War period. Both a close relationship with developing countries and cordial relations with the United States and Western European countries developed. Even before he adopted this policy, Stalin had considered Tito a traitor and publicly condemned him, leading to the Tito-Stalin split in 1948. In 1968, after the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union, Tito added a additional defensive line on Yugoslavia's borders with the Warsaw Pact countries. Throughout the Cold War period, the country led an independent course, founding the Non-Aligned Movement, in collaboration with Egypt and India.

Yugoslavia provides significant assistance to anti-colonial movements in the Third World. The Yugoslav delegation is the first to take the demands of the Algerian National Liberation Front to the United Nations. In January 1958, the French navy stopped the cargo ship Slovenija off the coast of Oran, whose holds were full of weapons for the insurgents. Diplomat Danilo Milic explains that “Tito and the leading core of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia actually saw the Third World liberation struggles as a replica of their own struggle against the fascist occupiers. They vibrated to the rhythm of the advances or retreats of the FLN or the Vietcong". Thousands of Yugoslav aid workers went to Guinea after its decolonization and while the French government tried to destabilize the country. Tito also helped the liberation movements in the Portuguese colonies and considered the assassination of Patrice Lumumba in 1961 as "the greatest crime in modern history." The country's military academies welcome militants from SWAPO (Namibia) and the Pan-African Congress (South Africa). Instead, its relations are more distant with the African National Congress (ANC), closer to the Soviet Union.

On January 1, 1967, Yugoslavia became the first communist country to open its borders to all foreign visitors and abolish visiting requirements.

In that same year Tito was very active in promoting a peaceful resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In his plan, he provided that the Arab countries would recognize the State of Israel in exchange for Israel returning the territories it had conquered.The Arab states rejected his proposal for "land for peace." However, from that same year Yugoslavia stopped recognizing Israel, as a result of the Six Day War. In 1968 Tito tried to mediate in the conflict in Czechoslovakia, offering support to the Czechoslovakian leader Alexander Dubček in the face of Soviet pressure on the country.

Yugoslavia had mixed relations with the Enver Hoxha regime in Albania. Initially, Albanian-Yugoslav relations were close, since Albania had adopted a common market together with Yugoslavia and had required the study of Serbo-Croatian for local students. In addition, at that time the possibility of creating a Balkan Federation was being discussed between Yugoslavia, Albania and Bulgaria. But from 1948 relations between the two countries worsened: after the Tito-Stalin break, the Soviet Union supported Albania against to the Yugoslavs. The break was consummated when in 1950 the Tito government withdrew its diplomats from Tirana.

In 1980, the secret services of South Africa and Argentina plan to land 1,500 anti-communist guerrillas in Yugoslavia. The operation was to lead to the overthrow of Tito and was planned during the Olympics so that the Soviets would be too busy to react. The operation was eventually abandoned due to Tito's death and the Yugoslav armed forces having raised their alert level.

Political-administrative organization

Geographical map of Yugoslavia.

Internally, the state was divided into 6 socialist republics, and 2 autonomous socialist provinces that were part of RS Serbia. The federal capital was Belgrade. The republics and provinces were (in alphabetical order):

Republics

Republics of Yugoslavia

Flag	Shield	Home	Fin	Location	Name	Capital	Current country
		1943	1992		Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina	Sarajevo	Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina
		1943	1991		Socialist Republic of Croatia	Zagreb	CroatiaCroatia
		1944	1991		Socialist Republic of Macedonia	Skopie	Northern MacedoniaNorthern Macedonia
		1943	1992		Socialist Republic of Montenegro	Degree	Montenegro Montenegro
		1943	1992		Socialist Republic of Serbia	Belgrade	SerbiaSerbia
		1944	1991		Socialist Republic of Slovenia	Ljubljana	SloveniaSlovenia

Autonomous provinces

Autonomous provinces of Yugoslavia

Flag	Shield	Home	Fin	Location	Name	Capital	Current country
		1946	1974		Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metojia	Pristina	SerbiaSerbia
		1974	1992		Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo	Pristina	SerbiaSerbia
		1943	1991		Socialist Autonomous Province of Voivodina	Novi Sad	SerbiaSerbia

Economy

Economically, the country was organized under the guidelines of self-management socialism (one of the best-known expressions of so-called market socialism). There was the possibility of creating companies with up to five workers, dedicated to certain sectors. The rest of the companies were public, and were controlled by the workers of each company, who decided how to organize and invest, and among whom the profits and losses were distributed. The products of the state companies were later sold on the private market, which sometimes led to competition between them in order to help them. Despite the common origin, the economy of Yugoslavia was very different from the economy of the Soviet Union and the rest of the Eastern bloc countries, especially after the break of relations between the USSR and Yugoslavia (1948). During the post-war period, the communications network had to be extensively rebuilt due to the damage it had suffered during the war, especially the railway network.

Steam locomotive of the Yugoslav Railways (JŽ), towards 1971. Despite the modernization of the country, the economy had many fluctuations until the 1990s.

Although the state owned the major companies, these cooperative production enterprises were socially managed and organized by the workers themselves much like the kibbutz in Israel. Unlike the rest of the Soviet bloc countries, the Yugoslav economy was not centralized. The occupation and fighting during the second world war devastated the infrastructure. Even the most developed parts of the country turned out to be very rural places, with little or total absence of industrial infrastructure (secondary to war damage).

With the exception of the recession in the mid-1960s, the country's economy developed well during the Tito years. Between 1952 and the late 1970s, average GDP growth in Yugoslavia was around 6%, more than in the Soviet Union or Western European countries. The Oil Crisis of 1973 magnified the economic problems of the country. country, although the government tried to resolve the situation with a large foreign debt. Despite the fact that these actions resulted in a reasonable rate of growth for a few years (GNP grew at 5.1% per year), this growth was in practice unsustainable since the rate of external indebtedness grew at an annual rate of 20%.

Due to the neutrality of the Yugoslav state and its leadership in the Non-Aligned Movement, Yugoslavia had the ability to export to both western and eastern markets. Yugoslav companies were able to create numerous industrial projects in Africa, Europe and Asia.

On the other hand, the question of unemployment in communist Yugoslavia was a chronic problem. Unemployment rates were among the highest in Europe during its existence and if they did not reach critical levels before the 1980s they would only due to the safety valve provided by the shipment of "guest"workers; annually to the advanced industrialized countries of Western Europe. The fact that Yugoslavs were able to migrate freely since 1960 allowed the working class to find work in Western Europe. This in turn contributed to lower unemployment rates and also acted as a source of capital.

Economic data

Gross Domestic Product per capita (nominal) in the different republics, in 1989, along with their population, data from the 2020 Maddison Project Database.

The table shows the difference between the economies of the different republics: the Socialist Republic of Croatia had a per capita income higher than Portugal and comparable to Greece, the same with Slovenia, while the Socialist Republic of Bosnia it had, along with Albania, the lowest per capita income in Europe.

Sports

Football

The national soccer team qualified for seven Soccer World Cups, obtaining its best results in the 1930 Cup in Uruguay and in the 1962 Cup in Chile, finishing fourth. The country also qualified for five European Championships, although it only participated in four because it was prohibited from participating in Euro 1992 due to the UN embargo, as a result of the start of the Yugoslav Wars. The best results were obtained in the 1960 and 1968 championships, when on both occasions they ended up playing in the final and in both cases they lost (in 1960 against the Soviet Union, and in 1968 against Italy).

In addition, the Yugoslav Olympic Team (under-23) won the gold medal during the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, after having won several consecutive silver medals - at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, at the Olympic Games of 1952 in Helsinki and in the Olympic Games of 1956 in Melbourne - as well as the bronze medal during the Olympic Games of 1984 in Los Angeles.

Basketball

Unlike soccer, which inherited much of its infrastructure and tradition during the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, basketball had hardly any tradition in Yugoslavia. Basketball thus developed essentially from scratch, within communist Yugoslavia through enthusiasts such as Nebojša Popović, Bora Stanković, Radomir Šaper, Aca Nikolić, or Ranko Žeravica.

Even so, it didn't take long for the Yugoslav National Team to become a contender on the world stage. The country's most notable results were winning three World Basketball Championships (in 1970, 1978 and 1990, a gold medal at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, as well as five European Championships (three of them consecutively in 1973, 1975 and 1977, followed by two more in 1989 and 1991).

Balonmano

The National Handball Team won two Olympic gold medals during the Olympic Games in Munich 1972 and Los Angeles 1984. However, the SFR of Yugoslavia never competed in the European Championship because the competition was established from 1994 The country also won the Handball Championship in 1986. However, SFR Yugoslavia never got to compete in the European Championship because the competition was established in 1994. In 1988 the International Handball Federation (IFH) chose Veselin Vujović as the best Player of the Year.

On the part of the women's team, the game also produced some notable results: the women's team won Olympic gold in 1984, while in the World Championship in 1973 the women's team was champion. Like, in 1988 the player Svetlana Kitić was chosen as the best player of the year.

Armed Forces

JNA Emblema.

The armed forces of Yugoslavia were grouped into the Yugoslav People's Army or JNA (Serbo-Croatian: Jugoslovenska narodna armija, transliterated into Cyrillic as Југословенска народна армија; Slovene: Jugoslovanska ljudska armada), which was organized in 1945 after the re-founding of Yugoslavia. The roots of the JNA were in the Communist-organized Partisan Army led by Josip "Broz" Tito during World War II. At the end of the war it was the fourth most important Army in Europe.

The JNA had four branches:

• Yugoslav Land Forces (KoV)
• Yugoslav Army (JRM)
• Yugoslav Air Force (JRV)
• Territorial Defense (TO)

Given the country's ethnic, linguistic, and cultural diversity, the JNA played a decisive role in building the Yugoslav state.