The former Yugoslavia is now called. Reasons for the collapse of Yugoslavia

The largest South Slavic state of Yugoslavia ceased to exist in the 90s of the last century. Now in school while studying new history children are told about the countries into which Yugoslavia broke up. `

Each of them today carries its own culture and history, one of the important pages of which is entry into the once flourishing great power, which is part of the powerful Socialist camp, with which the whole world reckoned.

The year of birth of the European state, located on the Balkan Peninsula, is 1918. Initially, it was called in the abbreviated version of KSHS, which in turn means the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The prerequisite for the formation of a new territorial unit was the collapse of Austria-Hungary. The new power united 7 small territories:

1. Bosnia.
2. Herzegovina.
3. Dalmatia.

The political situation in the hastily created country could hardly be called stable. In 1929 there was a coup d'état. As a result of this event, the KSHS changed its long name and became known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (KJ).

It cannot be said that there were no disagreements at all. Small conflicts broke out from time to time. None of them led to serious consequences. Many grievances were associated with the slow development of the state, whose government did not have economic and political experience.

Beginning of disagreement

Attention is not often focused on this, but the beginning of disagreements between the previously united peoples was laid back in the period of the Great Patriotic War. The fascist leadership adhered to a dishonest leadership principle based on the ancient Roman dogma of "divide and conquer".

Emphasis was placed on national differences, which was successful. Croats, for example, supported the Nazis. Their compatriots had to wage war not only with the invaders, but also with their countrymen who helped them.

During the war, the country was divided into pieces. Montenegro, Serbia, the Croatian state appeared. Another part of the territories fell under the annexation of the Third Reich, and the fascist. It was during this period that cases of brutal genocide were noted, which could not but affect the subsequent relations of peoples already in Peaceful time.

Post-war history

The torn parts of the state after the victory were reunited. The previous list of participants has been restored. All the same 7 ethnic territories became part of Yugoslavia.

Inside the country, her new government drew the borders in such a way that there was no correspondence with the ethnic distribution of peoples. This was done in the hope of avoiding controversy, which was easy to predict after what happened during the war.

The policy pursued by the government of Yugoslavia has yielded positive results. On the territory of the state, in fact, relative order reigned. But it was precisely this division undertaken after the war with the Nazis that later played a cruel joke and partially influenced the subsequent collapse of a large state unit.

The division of the country at the end of the 20th century

In the fall of 1991, President Josip Broz Tito died. It is believed that it was this event that served as a signal for nationalists of various ethnic groups to unleash conflicts with their neighbors.

Josip Broz Tito-Yugoslav revolutionary and politician

After the collapse of the USSR, a series of falls of socialist regimes began all over the world. At this time, Yugoslavia was gripped by the deepest economic crisis. Nationalist parties dominated the entire territory, each led an unfair policy towards recent brothers. So in Croatia, where he lived a large number of Serbs, the Serbian language was banned. The leaders of the nationalist movement began to persecute Serbian cultural figures. It was a challenge that could not but lead to conflict.

The beginning of the terrible war is considered to be the “Day of Wrath”, when during the game at the Maksimir stadium, fans of the Serbian and Croatian sides grappled in a fight. As a result, after a few weeks, a new independent state is formed - Slovenia. Its capital was the city with the romantic name of Ljubljana.

Other republics that were part of a large state are also beginning to prepare for the exit. At this time, disagreements and skirmishes continue with mass casualties and threats of unfolding serious hostilities.

city ​​and lake of the same name Orchid, Macedonia

The next in the list of retired republics was. The city of Skopje assumed the role of its capital. Immediately after Macedonia, the experience is repeated by Bosnia (Sarajevo), Herzegovina and Croatia (Zagreb). Only the union between Serbia and Montenegro remained unshakable. They entered into a new agreement that remained legal until 2006.

The division of the once large state into small pieces did not give the expected results. Conflicts within the scattered territories continued. Ethnic strife, based on blood resentment, originating back in the 40s of the last century, could not subside so quickly.

Attention! Kosovo is still only a partially recognized state, and Russia does not recognize it. But since this state actually exists (like the DPR, Nagorno-Karabakh, Taiwan or Somaliland), exercises border control and establishes its own order in a certain territory, it is more convenient to call it a separate state.

Short review

They like to compare Yugoslavia with the Soviet Union, and its collapse with the collapse of the USSR. I will take this comparison as a basis and briefly describe the main peoples of the former Yugoslavia by analogy with the peoples former Union.

Serbs are like Russians, an imperial-forming Orthodox people who united everyone, and then did not want to let go. The Serbs also believed that the whole world hated them, that they were a stronghold of the true faith and an outpost against the corrupting influence of the West. But after a decade of bloody wars with their neighbors, they somehow calmed down, stopped believing that the main thing in life is the greatness of Serbia and the protection of the Serbian people, and took up the organization of their country. In 2000, the Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic was overthrown, a sane government came to power, and since then Serbia has been developing like all normal countries.

Serbian priest and his friend.Vicinities of the city of Mokra Gora (Serbia)

Montenegrins are like Belarusians. A people more calm and less concerned about the great mission, close to the Serbs so much that it is even difficult to say what is the difference between them. Only Montenegrins (unlike Belarusians) have a sea, but (again, unlike Belarusians) do not have their own language. Montenegrins have been with the Serbs longer than others. Even when the Serbs finally recognized that Yugoslavia had collapsed, the Montenegrins formed a confederal state with them - the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. And only in 2006, at a referendum, a little more than half of the Montenegrins decided to leave the confederation and form a new state.


Montenegrin trucker. On the way from Cetinje to Kotor (Montenegro).

Croats are like Ukrainians, or rather, even Western Ukrainians. Although the Croats are close in language and culture to the Serbs and Montenegrins, they have long accepted Catholicism, considered themselves part of Europe and always considered themselves above any Orthodox cattle. They even had their own analogue of the "Banderites" - the so-called "Ustashe" (Croatian fascists who helped Hitler) and their own analogue of "Novorossia" (the so-called Serbian Krajina - a region of Croatia inhabited by Serbs and proclaimed independence in the early 1990s. ). However, the Croats were faster and more successful than the Ukrainians in crushing separatism and moving into Europe. Croatia has already become a member of the European Union and looks like a fairly prosperous and civilized country.


Croatian policemen and a saleswoman. Zagreb (Croatia)

Slovenes are like our Balts. Among the Yugoslavs, they have always been a more developed, civilized and European-oriented people. It seems that even the Serbs agreed with this, so they gave them independence relatively easily. Slovenians have been in the European Union and the Eurozone for a long time, they have a clean, pleasant, developed and safe country.


Former mayor of the Slovenian town of Kanal and director of the Hitchhiking Museum in Bled (Slovenia)

Bosnia and Herzegovina is difficult to compare with something, because in the history of the USSR there was no similar conflict. However, it can be imagined. Imagine purely hypothetically that in the early 1990s in Kazakhstan Russian population north of the country proclaimed an independent republic and started a war with the south, populated mainly by Kazakhs. At the same time, the Ukrainians living in Kazakhstan remembered their independence and, in the places of their compact residence, began to fight both Kazakhs and Russians. Later, the country would be divided into two autonomous parts - Russian and Kazakh-Ukrainian, and in the Russian part, no one would still recognize the government of Kazakhstan, hang Russian flags and wait for a reason to finally separate. Approximately such a story happened in Bosnia: first - a mutual war between Serbs, Bosnian Muslims and Croats, and then - the division of the country into two parts - Serbian and Muslim-Croatian.


City tram passengers. Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Macedonians - I don't even know what. One could compare them with Moldovans or Georgians - too Orthodox peoples living in small and poor countries. But Moldova and Georgia broke up into several parts, while Macedonia still retained its integrity. Therefore, let's say that Macedonia is like Kyrgyzstan, only Orthodox. The Serbs did not even fight here: Macedonia separated - and God bless her. The Yugoslav war came here in the early 2000s: in 2001, clashes broke out in the country between the Macedonian majority and the Albanian minority, which demanded more autonomy. Well, something like in Kyrgyzstan several times there were clashes between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz.


Our friend - an Albanian from the Macedonian city of Tetovo (on the right) and his friend

Well, Kosovo is obviously Chechnya. A region that officially could not secede from Serbia, but which nevertheless long and stubbornly resisted. The result turned out to be formally different (Kosovo achieved de facto independence, but Chechnya did not), but peace and tranquility have been established there, and one can go there without fear.


Street corn vendor in Pristina (Kosovo)

Albania does not belong to Yugoslavia, but has always been close to this region. Josip Broz Tito, the leader of socialist Yugoslavia, even wanted to annex Albania to Yugoslavia as another union republic. There is a version that he allowed the Albanians to live in Kosovo in order to show them the benefits of living in his country, after which all of Albania, in unison, was to enter Yugoslavia. As a result, Albania never visited part of Yugoslavia, but has always been considered a congenial and eternally poor neighbor. In general, Albania for Yugoslavia is something like Mongolia for the Soviet Union.


Albanian girl. City of Durres (Albania)

For a deeper dive into the history of Yugoslavia and Yugoslavia, I recommend the wonderful documentary film by Leonid Mlechin "The Yugoslav Tragedy". The film does not lean towards the pro-Serbian or anti-Serbian side, does not depict anyone as white and fluffy, and quite honestly tries to tell about the time when people in the former Yugoslavia went crazy en masse and started killing each other.

Relation to the past

Yugoslavia was by socialist standards a very developed country. Here was the highest standard of living among the socialist countries, not counting the GDR. In Russia, the older generation may still remember that a trip to Yugoslavia was almost equal to a trip to a capitalist country.

Then in the early 1990s there was a war, an economic downturn and unemployment. Therefore, many people still treat the socialist past normally and even with nostalgia. It is clear that socialism is remembered warmer in less developed countries(Bosnia, Serbia, etc.), and in more developed countries (Slovenia and Croatia) it is more likely to be treated negatively.


Graffiti on the wall in the city of Cetinje (Montenegro)

Even before the trip, I heard that the Balkan peoples still respect Josip Broz Tito, the leader of Yugoslavia in 1945-1980, despite the fact that in the early 1990s. so actively derbanili his inheritance. This is true - in many cities in the former Yugoslavia, including Croatian, Macedonian and Bosnian, there are Tito streets and squares.

Although Tito was a dictator, he was soft by the standards of the 20th century. He carried out repressions only against his political opponents, and not against entire ethnic groups or social groups. In this regard, Tito is more like Brezhnev or Franco than like Hitler and Stalin. Therefore, in the people's memory, his image is rather positive.


The grave of Josip Broz Tito in the Museum of the History of Yugoslavia in Belgrade (Serbia)

Interestingly, Tito - the son of a Croat and a Slovene - actively mixed the population, encouraged interethnic marriages and cohabitation different peoples. His goal was to create a new nation - "Yugoslavs". We met such people several times - those who were born from mixed marriages or are married to a representative of another nation. But he failed to finish the job. During the collapse of the country, it turned out that there were no Yugoslavs, just as there was no "Soviet people", but there are different peoples.


City of Travnik (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Then there was the "Yugoslav War" - a series of armed conflicts in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia. It was the bloodiest war on the European continent since the Second World War, more than 100 thousand people died in it. The level of mutual hatred of the peoples, who had lived peacefully next to each other not long before, has increased to an extreme degree. Still, it's amazing how quickly people are able to divide into "us" and "them" and violently destroy each other. Unfortunately, there are always gopniks who will only be glad that it has become possible to kill, rob and rape, and not just like that, but for a lofty idea - say, for Allah or for the Orthodox faith.

People in the Balkans went crazy on the basis of national and religious hatred very quickly, but, fortunately, they came to their senses just as quickly. The conflict has not turned into an eternally smoldering one, as in some Palestine or Nagorno-Karabakh. When the main troglodyte cannibals left power, the new governments quickly tuned in to constructive cooperation. For example, in 2003 the presidents of Croatia and Serbia formally apologized to each other for what their predecessors had done.


City of Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

And this is most pleasing when traveling through the former Yugoslavia - the former enmity is almost forgotten and people gradually got used to the fact that not enemies live nearby, but exactly the same people. Today, Serbs, Croats, Bosnian Muslims coexist peacefully and travel to visit each other, on business, to visit relatives. The worst thing they told me was that some car with Serbian license plates in Croatia could get scratched on the door.

Probably the same feelings would be in Western Europe in the 1960s. The war seems to have been quite recently, but there is no mutual hatred and people are already worried about completely different issues.

True, some tension is still felt in Serbian regions outside of Serbia. Serbs living in Kosovo and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it seems, still have not come to terms with the fact that they have become a national minority in a foreign state. Perhaps the same is happening with the Serbs in Croatia. They do not like and do not recognize these new states of theirs, they hang Serbian flags everywhere and scold both the government of their current states and the Serbian government (they say that Serbia betrayed and forgot them). But even in these places it is now safe - for example, Serbs can safely travel to Albanian areas and vice versa. So let's hope that sooner or later all these contradictions will be resolved.


Bridge across the Serbian and Albanian parts of the city of Mitrovica (Kosovo)

Economy and level of development

What is most surprising about Yugoslavia is how good the countries that made it up look. Of course, they are far from Western Europe, but still they are noticeably ahead of the countries of the former Soviet Union. There are very good roads here, including high-speed autobahns, in the villages there are good and beautiful houses, all the fields are sown, new trams and buses run around the cities, the streets in the cities are clean and well-maintained.


Sleeping area of ​​the city of Novi Sad (Serbia)

A characteristic feature is that almost everywhere in the former Yugoslavia it is very clean. In cities, there is no layer of dirt or dust on different surfaces, like ours, you can almost always sit on a curb or steps without fear for the cleanliness of your pants. There are no clouds of dust from passing cars, and there are no dirty roadsides on country roads, so you can fearlessly put your backpack down when you catch a car.

In short, although the Yugoslavs are also Slavs and also experienced socialism, for some reason they know the simple rules, thanks to which the cities remain clean. Those interested in this topic can read Varlamov's post "How to make sidewalks" and Lebedev's post "Russian Drist"; it describes in detail and clearly why our cities are dirty, but European ones are not.


Berat city center (Albania)

This picture is circulating on the Balkan Internet.

Translation: “Ships and planes disappear in this triangle. And in this triangle, young people, investments, happiness and the future are disappearing.

It seems to me that the Balkans (if they painted the picture) are too self-critical. All these countries are developing and looking quite good. Especially when compared with our Slavic triangle Russia-Ukraine-Belarus, where for the past few years, investments and the future have really disappeared.

The poorest country in the region is Albania, but it also looks relatively good. The outback there is generally much better than the Russian one. Things are somewhat better in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo. Even better - in Croatia, and very good - in Slovenia.


Village in eastern Serbia

People and mentality

The Balkans are mostly Slavs who survived several decades of socialism. Therefore, in their character you can find a lot in common with us. As I said, people here are not particularly religious, and the fascination with Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Islam has become more of a fashion than a deeply conscious choice. The Albanian, with whom we stayed in Pristina, convinced us that all the problems in Europe were from Muslims, and if it were his will, he would have expelled all Muslims from Europe. To my question: "Aren't Albanians Muslims?" he replied: “Come on, these are European Muslims! We are completely different, we have no religious fanaticism!”


Rules of conduct in the mosque. Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

People here are a little more careless about the law than Western Europeans. This, of course, has its pluses for the traveler - for example, the car can stop and pick you up in a place where stopping is prohibited. But there are also disadvantages - for example, the same car in the city will park on the sidewalk and interfere with pedestrians.

Our Belgrade acquaintance, a completely pro-Western guy with a European mindset, nevertheless, said that you don’t have to pay for the bus fare, “and if they come in to check tickets, go to the door, stand with your back to the controllers and don’t react to their remarks - they are likely to fall behind quickly.” Very familiar attitude to established rules.

It is sad that many are beginning to scold America (they say, she quarreled everyone in the Balkans) and praise Putin (here, they say, a normal leader, we need such a one). Such an infantile attitude to politics is a little annoying - like one big uncle came and ruined everything, but another big uncle should come and fix everything, and we are not in business at all.

Putin, as usual, is much more loved here than in Russia itself - and not only Serbs, but even some Croats, Albanians and representatives of other nationalities. One might think that they are saying this out of politeness, but no - when we answered that we ourselves were cool towards Putin, people were surprised. How can you not love him, he is so bravely fighting America? True, T-shirts with Putin are sold only where the Serbs live, in other places it is somehow not customary to demonstrate this.


T-shirts for sale in Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

In general, there is almost always a common language and topics for conversation with the Yugoslavs. Even if people have completely different political views, but, so to speak, the cultural code is still common: they understand our problems, and we understand their problems. You travel through the former Yugoslavia, almost like in your native land, but which looks and develops much better.

-

The content of the article

YUGOSLAVIA, a state that existed in 1918–1992 in southeastern Europe, in the northwestern and central parts of the Balkan Peninsula. Capital - Belgrade (about 1.5 million people - 1989). Territory- 255.8 thousand sq. km. Administrative-territorial division(until 1992) - 6 republics (Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina) and 2 autonomous regions (Kosovo and Vojvodina), which were part of Serbia. Population - 23.75 million people (1989). State languages- Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian and Macedonian; Hungarian and Albanian were also recognized as official languages. Religion– Christianity and Islam. Currency unit- Yugoslav dinar. National holiday - November 29 (the day of the creation of the National Liberation Committee in 1943 and the proclamation of Yugoslavia as a People's Republic in 1945). Yugoslavia has been a member of the UN since 1945, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) since 1964, and a number of other international organizations.

Geographic location and boundaries.

Population.

In terms of population, Yugoslavia ranked first among the Balkan countries. On horseback 1940s in the country lived approx. 16 million people, in 1953 the population was 16.9 million, in 1960 - approx. 18.5 million, in 1971 - 20.5 million, in 1979 - 22.26 million, and in 1989 - 23.75 million people. Population density - 93 people. per 1 sq. km. The natural increase in 1947 was 13.9 per 1,000 people, in 1975 - 9.5, and in 1987 - 7. Birth rate - 15 per 1,000 people, mortality - 9 per 1,000 people, infant mortality - 25 per 1,000 newborns. The average life expectancy is 72 years. (Data for 1987).

Press, television and radio broadcasting.

More than 2.9 thousand newspapers were published in Yugoslavia with a circulation of approx. 13.5 million copies. The largest daily newspapers were Vecherne Novosti, Politika, Sport, Borba (Belgrade), Vecherni List, Sportske Novosti, Viesnik (Zagreb) and others. More than 1.2 thousand were published. magazines, the total circulation of which was approx. 10 million copies. The work of all radio stations and television centers was coordinated by the Yugoslav Radio and Television, created in 1944-1952. Worked ok. 200 radio stations and 8 television centers.

HISTORY

By the time the First World War began, most of the Yugoslav lands were part of the Habsburg monarchy (Slovenia - from the 13th century, Croatia - from the 16th century, Bosnia and Herzegovina - in 1878-1908). During the war, Austro-Hungarian, German and Bulgarian troops occupied Serbia in 1915 and Montenegro in 1916. The kings and governments of Serbia and Montenegro were forced to leave their countries.

History of the countries that were part of Yugoslavia before 1918 cm. BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA; MACEDONIA; SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO; SLOVENIA; CROATIA.

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

At the beginning of the First World War of 1914, the Serbian government declared that it was fighting for the liberation and unification of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. Political emigrants from Slovenia and Croatia formed the Yugoslav Committee in Western Europe, which began to campaign for the creation of a united Yugoslav (Yugoslav) state. On July 20, 1917, the Serbian government in exile and the Yugoslav Committee announced a joint declaration on the island of Corfu (Greece). It contained demands for the separation of Serbian, Croatian and Slovenian lands from Austria-Hungary and their unification with Serbia and Montenegro into a single kingdom under the control of the Serbian dynasty Karageorgievich. In August 1917, representatives of the emigrant Montenegrin Committee of National Unification also joined the declaration.

Opportunities for the implementation of the plan presented themselves in the autumn of 1918, when the Habsburg monarchy, unable to withstand the burden of the war, began to disintegrate. Local power in the South Slavic lands was taken by the people's veche. On October 6, 1918, the Central People's Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs met in Zagreb, which on October 25 announced the abolition of all laws linking the Slavic regions with Austria and Hungary. The creation of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (GSHS) was proclaimed. Meanwhile, the Entente troops and Serbian units, having broken through the front, occupied the territories of Serbia and Montenegro. On November 24, the People's Council elected a committee to carry out the unification of the SSHS with Serbia and Montenegro. On December 1, 1918, these states officially united into the Yugoslav state - the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (KSHS). The Serbian monarch Peter I (1918-1921) was proclaimed king, but in reality the functions of regent were transferred to Prince Alexander. In 1921 he took the throne.

On December 20, 1918, the first central government was formed, headed by the leader of the Serbian Radical Party, Stojan Protic. The cabinet included representatives of 12 Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian and Muslim parties (from the right to the social democrats). In March 1919, a provisional parliament of the country, the State Council, was established.

The economic and social situation in the new state remained catastrophic. Decline in production, inflation, unemployment, shortage of land, problem of employment former soldiers posed a serious challenge to the government. The internal political situation was aggravated by the bloody clashes that continued in December 1918 in Croatia, Montenegro, Vojvodina and other regions. In the spring of 1919, a powerful wave of strikes arose among railroad workers, miners, and workers in other professions. In the countryside there were stormy protests of the peasants demanding land. The government was forced to start carrying out an agrarian reform, which provided for the redemption of the landlords' land by the peasants. The authorities forced the low exchange rate of the Austrian currency against the Serbian dinar, which led to a deterioration in the economic situation of the population and caused new protests.

The question of the forms of the future state structure remained acute. Supporters of the former Montenegrin monarchy opposed the united state, and the Croatian Peasants' Party (HCP), led by Stepan Radic, demanded that Croatia be granted the right to self-determination (for which it was persecuted by the authorities). Various projects of state structure were put forward - from centralist to federalist and republican.

The government formed in August 1919 by the leader of the Serbian Democrats, Ljubomir Davidovich (it also included Social Democrats and a number of small non-Serbian parties), adopted a law on an 8-hour working day, tried to cope with the state budget deficit (by raising taxes) and curb inflation by implementation of monetary reform. However, these measures did not prevent a new wave of strikes in the con. 1919.

In February 1920, the radical Protich returned to the post of head of government, having received the support of the clerical "Slovenian People's Party" and the "People's Club". In April of the same year, the authorities crushed a general railroad strike. In May, a coalition cabinet of Democrats, Slovenian clerics and other parties was led by another radical leader, Milenko Vesnic. His government held elections in November 1920 for the Constituent Assembly. The bloc of radicals and democrats failed to achieve a majority in them (the democrats won 92, and the radicals 91 out of 419 seats). The influence of the left parties increased: the communists came in third place, having received approx. 13% of the vote and 59 seats, and HKP ("Croatian People's Peasant Party") - in fourth (50 seats). The HCP achieved an absolute majority in Croatia. In December 1920, it was renamed the Croatian Republican Peasant Party (HRKP) and proclaimed its goal to proclaim an independent Croatian Republic.

Under these conditions, the government of the KSHS, reflecting mainly the interests of the Serbian elite, decided to strike at its opponents. On December 30, 1920, the Decree "Obznana" was adopted, which prohibited the propaganda activities of the Communist Party and associated workers' organizations and trade unions; their property was confiscated and the activists arrested. On January 1, 1921, the leader of the Radical Party, Nikola Pasic, formed a cabinet, which included representatives of Serbian radicals, democrats, farmers, as well as Muslims and small parties.

In 1921 the HRCP deputies were forced to leave the Constituent Assembly. On June 28, 1921, the KSHS constitution was adopted, according to which the kingdom was proclaimed a centralized state. The constitution was called "Vidovdan" because it was approved on the day of St. Vid. After a series of assassination attempts on Prince Alexander and a number of politicians, in August 1921 the assembly passed a law On the protection of security and order in the state who officially outlawed the Communist Party. In March 1923, in the elections to the National Assembly, the radicals received 108 out of 312 seats. Pasic formed a one-party radical cabinet, which in 1924 included representatives of the Independent Democratic Party, which broke away from the Democrats.

HRKP, gaining 4% fewer votes in the elections than the Serbian radicals, won 70 seats. Party leader Radić proposed to unite the opposition and transform the KSHS into a federation. Having been refused, he went to an agreement with the ruling radicals. In the summer of 1923 he was forced to go abroad, and in his homeland he was declared a traitor. In domestic politics Pasic's government widely resorted to methods of repression against political opponents. In the beginning. 1924 it lost the support of Parliament and dissolved it for 5 months. In response, the opposition accused him of violating the constitution. In an atmosphere of mass discontent in July 1924, Pasic was forced to resign.

The government of the democrat Davidovich (July-November 1924), which also included Slovenian clerics and Muslims, promised to ensure the peaceful and equal coexistence of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, as well as to establish diplomatic relations with the USSR. The new government restored the regional administrative office in Zagreb. The charges against Radić were also dropped and he was allowed to return to the country. In November 1924 Pasic returned to power in alliance with the Independent Democrats. In December, the government banned the HRKP and ordered the arrest of Radić, and new elections were held in February for the National Assembly. On them, the radicals received 155 out of 315 seats, and the supporters of the HRKP - 67. The authorities ordered the abolition of the mandates of the Croatian Republicans, but then Pasic held secret negotiations with the imprisoned Radic and made him refuse to put forward slogans of Croatian independence. The Croatian leader was released and appointed minister. In July 1925, Pasic headed a new coalition government, which included representatives of the radicals and the HRKP. It passed the reactionary law on the press, raised the tax on wages and made changes to agrarian reform, allowing the landowners to sell the land to be alienated to strong farms of wealthy peasants. In April 1926, the cabinet resigned due to the refusal of the Croatian coalition partners to ratify the convention with Italy, in which the CCHS made significant economic concessions to the neighboring state. The new government was formed by the radical Nikolai Uzunovich, who promised to pay Special attention development of agriculture and industry, help attract foreign capital, reduce taxes and government spending as part of austerity. But the country's political system remained unstable. The "Radical Party" split into 3 factions, the "Democratic Party" - into 2. At the beginning. 1927 HRPK withdrew from the government, and Slovenian clerics became Uzunovich's support. In February 1927, the opposition demanded that the minister of the interior be brought to justice, who was accused of mass police reprisals against voters during local elections. The scandal gained international resonance and Uzunovich resigned.

In April 1927, the radical V. Vukicevic headed the government, which consisted of radicals and democrats, who were later joined by Slovenian clerics and Bosnian Muslims. During the early parliamentary elections (September 1927), the radicals won 112 seats, while the opposition HRCP won 61 seats. The government refused to provide state assistance to the unemployed, to reduce the debt of the peasants and to unify the tax legislation. The confrontation between the authorities and the opposition grew. The HRKP agreed with the Independent Democrats to form a bloc. A split deepened in the "Democratic Party", and its various factions left the government coalition. There were mass demonstrations of protest, strikes and peasant uprisings. Opposition deputies who accused the regime of corruption were often forcibly removed from the Assembly. On June 20, 1928, in the midst of disputes over the ratification of economic agreements with Italy, the radical P. Racic shot two Croatian deputies in the parliament hall and wounded Radic, who died of his wounds in August of the same year. In Croatia, mass protests and demonstrations escalated into barricade battles. The opposition refused to return to Belgrade and demanded new elections.

In July 1928, the leader of the clerical "Slovenian People's Party" Anton Koroshets formed a government that included radicals, democrats and Muslims. He promised to carry out tax reform, provide credit to the peasants and reorganize the state apparatus. At the same time, the authorities continued to arrest oppositionists, and laws were being prepared to tighten censorship and give the police the right to interfere in the activities of local governments. As the social crisis worsened, the government of Koroshetz resigned at the end of December 1928. On the night of January 5-6, 1929, King Alexander carried out a coup d'état: he dissolved parliament, local governments, political parties and public organizations. The law on the 8-hour working day was also repealed and severe censorship was established. The formation of the government was entrusted to General P. Zhivkovich.

Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

The established military-monarchist regime announced its intention to save the country's unity. The KSHS was renamed the "Kingdom of Yugoslavia". The administrative-territorial reform carried out in October 1929 abolished the historically established regions. The strengthening of pro-Serbian tendencies, manifested incl. in preferential lending to agriculture in Serbian regions, as well as in the field of education, led to the intensification of separatist activities in Croatia (“Ustashe”) and in other regions of the country.

In the beginning. In the 1930s, Yugoslavia was gripped by an acute economic crisis. In an attempt to mitigate its impact, the government created the Agrarian Bank, introduced until 1932 a state monopoly on the export of agricultural products, but categorically refused to regulate working conditions and wages. The protests of the workers were suppressed by the police.

In September 1931, the king promulgated a new constitution that significantly expanded the powers of the monarch. The elections to the Assembly held in November 1931 were boycotted by the opposition. In December 1931 the ruling coalition was reorganized into new batch, which received the name "Yugoslav Radical Peasant Democracy" (since July 1933 it was called the "Yugoslav National Party", UNP).

After the representatives of Slovenia and Croatia left the government, in April 1932 Zhivkovic was replaced as prime minister by V. Marinkovic, in July of the same year the cabinet was headed by M. Srskich. In January 1934, Uzunovich was again appointed head of the government.

In October 1934, King Alexander of Yugoslavia was assassinated in Marseille by a Macedonian nationalist. Power in the country passed to the minor king Peter II, and the regency council was headed by Prince Paul. In foreign policy the new authorities were ready to compromise with Germany and Italy, in the interior - with the moderate factions of the opposition.

In May 1935, the government headed by B. Jeftich from December 1934 held parliamentary elections. The UNP won 303 seats, the united opposition 67. But there was a split in the government bloc. The formation of the Cabinet was entrusted to the former Minister of Finance M. Stojadinovic, who created in 1936 a new party - the Yugoslav Radical Union (YURS). Stojadinović attracted some of the former radicals, Muslims and Slovenian clerics to his side, promising to implement decentralization state power and solve the so-called. "Croatian question". However, negotiations with the opposition HRKP failed. The government went to reduce the debt obligations of the peasants (frozen in 1932), issued a law on cooperatives. In foreign policy, it went for rapprochement with Italy and Germany, which became the main trading partner of Yugoslavia.

Early elections to the Assembly (December 1938) showed a significant strengthening of the opposition: it collected 45% of the votes, while the HRPK received an absolute majority of votes in Croatia. Party leader V. Macek said that further coexistence with the Serbs is impossible until the Croats receive complete freedom and equality.

The new government was formed in February 1939 by the YRS representative D. Cvetkovich. In August 1939, the authorities signed an agreement with V. Maczek, and representatives of the HRPK entered the cabinet along with the "Democratic Party" and the "Peasant Party" of Serbia. In September 1939 Croatia gained autonomy. The government of the autonomy was headed by Ban Ivan Shubashich.

In May 1940, Yugoslavia signed an agreement on trade and navigation with the USSR, and in June of the same year officially established diplomatic relations with it. After some hesitation, Cvetkovic leaned towards cooperation with Germany. In March 1941, the government discussed the question of joining the Germany-Italy-Japan bloc. A majority of ministers voted in favor of the move, and the losing minority left the cabinet. On March 24, the reorganized government unanimously approved the agreement, and it was formally signed in Vienna.

The signing of this document caused mass protests in Belgrade, held under anti-German and anti-fascist slogans. The army went over to the side of the demonstrators. On March 25, 1941, a new government headed by General D. Simovich was formed. The agreement with Germany was terminated. King Peter II was declared of age. The coup was supported by the underground communists. On April 5, Yugoslavia signed a treaty of friendship and non-aggression with the USSR. The next day, German troops (with the support of Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania) invaded the country.

The period of occupation and the people's liberation war.

The balance of forces of the parties was unequal, the Yugoslav army was defeated within 10 days, and Yugoslavia was occupied and divided into zones of occupation. A pro-German government was formed in Serbia, Slovenia was annexed to Germany, Vojvodina to Hungary, and Macedonia to Bulgaria. In Montenegro, the regime of Italian, and since 1943 - German occupation was established. Croatian nationalists-"Ustashe" led by Ante Pavelic proclaimed the creation of the Independent State of Croatia, captured Bosnia and Herzegovina and launched a massive terror against Serbs and Jews.

The king and government of Yugoslavia emigrated from the country. In 1941, on the initiative of the emigrant authorities, the creation of armed detachments of Serbian Chetnik partisans began under the command of General D. Mikhailovich, who received the post of Minister of War. The partisans fought not only against the occupying forces, but also attacked the communists and non-Serb minorities.

Large-scale resistance to the invaders was organized by the Yugoslav communists. They created the Headquarters of the partisan detachments and began to form rebel units, raising uprisings in various parts country. The detachments were united into the People's Liberation Army under the command of Communist Party leader Josip Tito. On the ground, rebel authorities were created - people's liberation committees. In November 1942, the first session of the Anti-Fascist Council for the People's Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) was held in Bihac. At the second session of AVNOJ, held on November 29, 1943 in the town of Yayce, the veche was transformed into the supreme Legislature, who formed the interim government - the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia, headed by Marshal Tito. The veche proclaimed Yugoslavia a democratic federal state and spoke out against the return of the king to the country. In May 1944, the king was forced to appoint I. Šubašić as the prime minister of the émigré cabinet. Great Britain sought an agreement between the emigration and the partisans, led by the Communist Party. After negotiations between Šubašić and Tito (July 1944), a single democratic government was formed.

In the autumn of 1944, Soviet troops, who fought fierce battles with the German army, entered the territory of Yugoslavia. In October, as a result of joint actions of the Soviet and Yugoslav units, Belgrade was liberated. The complete liberation of the country's territory ended by May 15, 1945 by detachments of the Yugoslav army (NOAU) without the participation of Soviet troops. Yugoslav troops also occupied Fiume (Rijeka), Trieste and Slovene-populated Carinthia, which were part of Italy. The latter was returned to Austria, and according to the peace treaty with Italy concluded in 1947, Rijeka and most of Trieste went to Yugoslavia.

Introduction

Declaration of Independence: June 25, 1991 Slovenia June 25, 1991 Croatia September 8, 1991 Macedonia November 18, 1991 Croatian Commonwealth of Herceg-Bosna (annexed to Bosnia in February 1994) December 19, 1991 Republic of Serbian Krajina February 28, 1992 Republika Srpska April 6, 1992 Bosnia and Herzegovina September 27, 1993 Autonomous Region of Western Bosnia (Destroyed in Operation Storm) June 10, 1999 Kosovo under the "protectorate" of the UN (Formed as a result of the NATO War against Yugoslavia) June 3, 2006 Montenegro February 17, 2008 Republic of Kosovo

During the civil war and disintegration, four of the six union republics (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia) separated from the SFRY at the end of the 20th century. At the same time, UN peacekeeping forces were introduced into the territory, first of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and then of the autonomous province of Kosovo.

In Kosovo and Metohija, in order to resolve the inter-ethnic conflict between the Serbian and Albanian populations according to the UN mandate, the United States and its allies conducted a military operation to occupy the autonomous province of Kosovo, which was under UN protectorate.

Meanwhile, Yugoslavia, in which at the beginning of the 21st century there were two republics, turned into Lesser Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro): from 1992 to 2003 - the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, (FRY), from 2003 to 2006 - the confederal State Union of Serbia and Montenegro (GSSN). Yugoslavia finally ceased to exist with the withdrawal from the union of Montenegro on June 3, 2006.

One of the components of the collapse can also be considered the declaration of independence on February 17, 2008 of the Republic of Kosovo from Serbia. The Republic of Kosovo was part of the Socialist Republic of Serbia as an autonomy called the Socialist Autonomous Region of Kosovo and Metohija.

1. Opposing sides

The main sides of the Yugoslav conflicts:

Serbs led by Slobodan Milosevic;

Bosnian Serbs, led by Radovan Karadzic;

Croats, led by Franjo Tudjman;

Bosnian Croats, led by Mate Boban;

Krajina Serbs, led by Goran Hadzic and Milan Babic;

Bosniaks, led by Aliya Izetbegovic;

Autonomist Muslims, led by Fikret Abdic;

Kosovo Albanians, led by Ibrahim Rugova (actually Adem Yashari, Ramush Hardinay and Hashim Thaci).

In addition to them, the UN, the United States and their allies also participated in the conflicts, Russia played a prominent, but secondary role. The Slovenes participated in an extremely fleeting and unimportant two-week war with the federal center, while the Macedonians did not take part in the war and gained independence peacefully.

1.1. Fundamentals of the Serbian position

According to the Serbian side, the war for Yugoslavia began as a defense of a common power, and ended with a struggle for the survival of the Serbian people and for their unification within the borders of one country. If from the republics of Yugoslavia each had the right to secede on a national basis, then the Serbs as a nation had the right to prevent this division where it seized territories inhabited by the Serb majority, namely in Serbian Krajina in Croatia and in the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina

1.2. Basics of the Croatian position

The Croats argued that one of the conditions for joining the federation was the recognition of the right to secede from it. Tuđman often said that he was fighting for the realization of this right in the form of a new independent Croatian state (which some associated with the Ustashe Independent State of Croatia).

1.3. Fundamentals of the Bosnian position

The Bosnian Muslims were the smallest of the fighting groups.

Their position was rather unenviable. The President of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegovic, avoided taking a clear position until the spring of 1992, when it became clear that the former Yugoslavia was no more. Then Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence following a referendum.

Bibliography:

RBC daily from 18.02.2008:: In focus:: Kosovo headed by "Serpent"

1. DecayYugoslavia and the formation of independent states in the Balkans

   Abstract >> History

   … 6. FRY in the years of crisis transformation. 13 DecayYugoslavia and the formation of independent states in the Balkans ... by force. The most important reasons and factors that led to decayYugoslavia are historical, cultural and national differences ...

2. Decay Austro-Hungarian Empire

   Abstract >> History

   ... other powers nevertheless recognized Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia lasted until World War II, ... GSHS (later Yugoslavia), a potential rival in the region. But in decay empires for ... were changed after the partition of Czechoslovakia and decayYugoslavia, but in general Hungary and …

3. Russia's attitude towards the conflict in Yugoslavia (2)

   Abstract >> Historical figures

   … with a very strong center. Decay federation meant for Serbia a weakening ... of the republic, namely in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Decay SFRY on independent states can ... tension that determines the social climate Yugoslavia, more and more complemented by the threatening ...

4. Yugoslavia- history, decay, war

   Abstract >> History

   Yugoslavia- history, decay, war. Events in Yugoslavia early 1990s ... Constitution of the Federal People's Republic Yugoslavia(FPRY), which secured ... and Eastern Europe the Communist Party Yugoslavia decided to introduce in the country ...

5. Abstract of lectures on the history of the southern and western Slavs in the Middle Ages and modern times

   Lecture >> History

   ... in the northwestern republics and a real threat decayYugoslavia forced the Serbian leader S. Milosevic to ... quickly overcome the main Negative consequences decayYugoslavia and take the path of a normal economic ...

I want more like this...

Yugoslavia - history, disintegration, war.

The events in Yugoslavia in the early 1990s shocked the whole world. The horrors of civil war, the atrocities of "national cleansing", the genocide, the exodus from the country - since 1945 Europe has not seen anything like it.

Until 1991, Yugoslavia was the largest state in the Balkans. Historically, the country was inhabited by people of many nationalities, and over time, the differences between ethnic groups increased. Thus, the Slovenes and Croats in the northwestern part of the country became Catholics and USE the Latin alphabet, while the Serbs and Montenegrins, who lived closer to the south. adopted the Orthodox faith and used the Cyrillic alphabet for writing.

These lands attracted many conquerors. Croatia was occupied by Hungary. 2 subsequently became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; Serbia, like most of the Balkans, was annexed to the Ottoman Empire, and only Montenegro was able to defend its independence. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, due to political and religious factors, many residents converted to Islam.

When the Ottoman Empire began to lose its former power, Austria captured Bosnia and Herzegovina, thereby expanding its influence in the Balkans. In 1882, Serbia was reborn as an independent state: the desire to liberate the Slavic brothers from the yoke of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy then united many Serbs.

Federal Republic

On January 31, 1946, the Constitution of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FPRY) was adopted, which fixed its federal structure in the composition of six republics - Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro, as well as two autonomous (self-governing) regions - Vojvodina and Kosovo.

Serbs were the largest ethnic group in Yugoslavia - 36% of the inhabitants. They inhabited not only Serbia, nearby Montenegro and Vojvodina: many Serbs also lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Kosovo. In addition to Serbs, the country was inhabited by Slovenes, Croats, Macedonians, Albanians (in Kosovo), a national minority of Hungarians in the region of Vojvodina, as well as many other small ethnic groups. Fairly or not, but representatives of other national groups believed that the Serbs were trying to get power over the whole country.

Beginning of the End

National questions in socialist Yugoslavia were considered a relic of the past. However, one of the most serious internal problems has become tension between different ethnic groups. The northwestern republics of Slovenia and Croatia prospered, while the standard of living of the southeastern republics left much to be desired. Mass indignation was growing in the country - a sign that the Yugoslavs did not at all consider themselves a single people, despite 60 years of existence within the framework of one power.

In 1990, in response to events in Central and Eastern Europe, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia decided to introduce a multi-party system in the country.

In the 1990 elections, Milosevic's socialist (former communist) party won a large number of votes in many regions, but achieved a decisive victory only in Serbia and Montenegro.

There were heated debates in other regions. Harsh measures aimed at crushing Albanian nationalism met with a decisive rebuff in Kosovo. In Croatia, the Serb minority (12% of the population) held a referendum in which it was decided to achieve autonomy; frequent clashes with the Croats led to a revolt of the local Serbs. The biggest blow to the Yugoslav state was the referendum in December 1990, which declared the independence of Slovenia.

Of all the republics, only Serbia and Montenegro now sought to maintain a strong, relatively centralized state; in addition, they had an impressive advantage - the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), capable of becoming a trump card during future debates.

Yugoslav War

In 1991, the SFRY broke up. In May, the Croats voted to secede from Yugoslavia, and on June 25, Slovenia and Croatia officially declared their independence. There were battles in Slovenia, but the positions of the federals were not strong enough, and soon the JNA troops were withdrawn from the territory of the former republic.

The Yugoslav army also came out against the rebels in Croatia; in the ensuing war, thousands of people were killed, hundreds of thousands were forced to leave their homes. All attempts by the European community and the UN to force the parties to cease fire in Croatia were in vain. The West was at first reluctant to watch the collapse of Yugoslavia, but soon began to condemn "Great Serbian ambitions."

Serbs and Montenegrins resigned themselves to the inevitable split and proclaimed the creation of a new state - the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Hostilities in Croatia were over, although the conflict was not over. A new nightmare began when ethnic tensions in Bosnia escalated.

A UN peacekeeping force was sent to Bosnia, with varying success, managing to stop the slaughter, alleviate the fate of the besieged and starving population, and create "safe zones" for Muslims. In August 1992, the world was shocked by the revelation of the brutal treatment of people in POW camps. The United States and other countries openly accused the Serbs of genocide and war crimes, but at the same time they still did not allow their troops to intervene in the conflict, later, however, it turned out that not only the Serbs were involved in the atrocities of that time.

Threats of air attacks by UN forces forced the JNA to give up their positions and end the siege of Sarajevo, but it was clear that the peacekeeping efforts to preserve the multi-ethnic Bosnia had failed.

In 1996, a number of opposition parties formed a coalition called "Unity", which soon organized in Belgrade and other major cities Yugoslavia mass demonstrations against the ruling regime. However, in the elections held in the summer of 1997, Milosevic was again elected president of the FRY.

After fruitless negotiations between the government of the FRY and the Albanian leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (blood was still shed in this conflict), NATO announced an ultimatum to Milosevic. Starting from the end of March 1999, rocket and bomb strikes began to be carried out almost every night on the territory of Yugoslavia; they ended only on June 10, after the signing by representatives of the FRY and NATO of an agreement on the deployment of international security forces (KFOR) to Kosovo.

Among the refugees who left Kosovo during the hostilities, there were approximately 350 thousand people of non-Albanian nationality. Many of them settled in Serbia, where the total number of displaced persons reached 800,000, and the number of those who lost their jobs was about 500,000.

In 2000, parliamentary and presidential elections were held in the FRY and local elections were held in Serbia and Kosovo. The opposition parties nominated a single candidate - the leader of the Democratic Party of Serbia Vojislav Kostunica - for the presidency. On September 24, he won the election, gaining more than 50% of the vote (Milosevic - only 37%). In the summer of 2001, the former president of the FRY was extradited to the International Tribunal in The Hague as a war criminal.

On March 14, 2002, with the mediation of the European Union, an agreement was signed on the creation of a new state - Serbia and Montenegro (Vojvodina became autonomous shortly before that). However, interethnic relations are still too fragile, and domestic political and economic situation unstable in the country. In the summer of 2001, shots were fired again: Kosovo militants became more active, and this gradually developed into an open conflict between Kosovo Albanian and Macedonia, which lasted about a year. Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, who authorized the transfer of Milosevic to the tribunal, was killed on March 12, 2003 by a sniper rifle. Apparently, the "Balkan knot" will not be untied soon.

In 2006, Montenegro finally separated from Serbia and became an independent state. The European Union and the United States made an unprecedented decision and recognized the independence of Kosovo as a sovereign state.

Breakup of Yugoslavia

Like all countries of the socialist camp, Yugoslavia in the late 80s was shaken by internal contradictions caused by the rethinking of socialism. In 1990, for the first time in the post-war period, free parliamentary elections were held in the republics of the SFRY on a multi-party basis. In Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, the communists were defeated. They won only in Serbia and Montenegro. But the victory of the anti-communist forces not only did not mitigate the inter-republican contradictions, but also painted them in national-separatist tones. As in the situation with the collapse of the USSR, the Yugoslavs were taken by surprise by the suddenness of the uncontrolled collapse of the federal state. If the role of the "national" catalyst in the USSR was played by the Baltic countries, then in Yugoslavia this role was taken by Slovenia and Croatia. The failure of the GKChP speech and the victory of democracy led to the bloodless formation of their state structures by the former republics during the collapse of the USSR.

The disintegration of Yugoslavia, unlike the USSR, took place according to the most sinister scenario. The democratic forces that were emerging here (primarily Serbia) failed to avert the tragedy, which led to grave consequences. As in the USSR, national minorities, feeling a decrease in pressure from the Yugoslav authorities (increasingly making various kinds of concessions), immediately asked for independence and, having been refused by Belgrade, took up arms, further events and led to the complete collapse of Yugoslavia.

A. Markovich

I. Tito, a Croat by nationality, creating a federation of Yugoslav peoples, sought to protect it from Serbian nationalism. Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had long been the subject of disputes between Serbs and Croats, received a compromise state status, first of two, and then of three peoples - Serbs, Croats and ethnic Muslims. As part of the federal structure of Yugoslavia, Macedonians and Montenegrins received their own nation states. The 1974 Constitution provided for the creation of two autonomous provinces on the territory of Serbia - Kosovo and Vojvodina. Thanks to this, the issue of the status of national minorities (Albanians in Kosovo, Hungarians and over 20 ethnic groups in Vojvodina) on the territory of Serbia was settled. Although the Serbs living on the territory of Croatia did not receive autonomy, but according to the Constitution they had the status of a state-forming nation in Croatia. Tito was afraid that the state system he had created would collapse after his death, and he was not mistaken. Serb S. Milosevic, thanks to his destructive policy, the trump card of which was the game on the national feelings of the Serbs, destroyed the state created by "old Tito".

Let's not forget that the first challenge to Yugoslavia's political balance came from the Albanians in the autonomous province of Kosovo in southern Serbia. The population of the region by that time was almost 90% Albanians and 10% Serbs, Montenegrins and others. In April 1981, the majority of Albanians took part in demonstrations, rallies, demanding the status of a republic for the province. In response, Belgrade sent troops to Kosovo, declaring a state of emergency there. The situation was aggravated by the Belgrade “recolonization plan”, which guaranteed the Serbs moving to the region, work and housing. Belgrade sought to artificially increase the number of Serbs in the region in order to annul the autonomous formation. In response, the Albanians began to leave the Communist Party and perpetrate repressions against the Serbs and Montenegrins. By the autumn of 1989, demonstrations and riots in Kosovo were ruthlessly suppressed by the Serbian military authorities. By the spring of 1990, the Serbian National Assembly announced the dissolution of the government and the people's assembly of Kosovo and introduced censorship. The Kosovo issue had a distinct geopolitical dimension to Serbia, which was concerned about Tirana's plans to create a "Greater Albania", which meant the inclusion of ethnic Albanian areas such as Kosovo and parts of Macedonia and Montenegro. Serbia's actions in Kosovo gave it a very bad reputation in the eyes of the world community, but it is ironic that the same community said nothing when a similar incident took place in Croatia in August 1990. The Serbian minority in the town of Knin in the Serbian Krajina decided to hold a referendum on the question of cultural autonomy. As in Kosovo, this turned into riots, quelled by the Croatian leadership, which rejected the referendum as unconstitutional.

Thus, in Yugoslavia, by the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, all the prerequisites were created for the entry of national minorities into the struggle for their independence. Neither the Yugoslav leadership nor the world community could prevent this except by force of arms. Therefore, it is not surprising that events in Yugoslavia unfolded with such swiftness.

Slovenia was the first to take the official step of breaking off relations with Belgrade and defining its independence. The tension between the "Serbian" and "Slavic-Croatian" blocs in the ranks of the Union of Communists of Yugoslavia reached its climax in February 1990 at the XIV Congress, when the Slovenian delegation left the meeting.

At that time, there were three plans for the state reorganization of the country: confederal reorganization, put forward by the Presidiums of Slovenia and Croatia; federal reorganization - of the Union Presidium; "Platform on the future of the Yugoslav state" - Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. But the meetings of the republican leaders showed that the main goal of the multi-party elections and the referendum was not the democratic transformation of the Yugoslav community, but the legitimization of the programs for the future reorganization of the country put forward by the leaders of the republics.

Slovenian public opinion since 1990 began to look for a solution in the withdrawal of Slovenia from Yugoslavia. On July 2, 1990, the Parliament, elected on a multi-party basis, adopted the Declaration on the Sovereignty of the Republic, and on June 25, 1991, Slovenia declared its independence. Serbia already in 1991 agreed with the withdrawal of Slovenia from Yugoslavia. However, Slovenia sought to become the legal successor of a single state as a result of "disengagement", and not secession from Yugoslavia.

In the second half of 1991, this republic took decisive steps towards achieving independence, thus determining to a large extent the pace of development of the Yugoslav crisis and the behavior of other republics. First of all, Croatia, which feared that with the withdrawal of Slovenia from Yugoslavia, the balance of power in the country would be upset to its detriment. The unsuccessful end of the inter-republican negotiations, the growing mutual distrust between national leaders, as well as between the Yugoslav peoples, the arming of the population on a national basis, the creation of the first paramilitary formations - all this contributed to the creation of an explosive situation that led to armed conflicts.

The climax of the political crisis came in May-June as a result of the declaration of independence of Slovenia and Croatia on June 25, 1991. Slovenia accompanied this act with the capture of border checkpoints, where the insignia of the state distinction of the republic were installed. The government of the SFRY, headed by A. Markovic, recognized this as illegal and the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) guarded the external borders of Slovenia. As a result, from June 27 to July 2, battles took place here with well-organized detachments of the republican territorial defense of Slovenia. The six-day war in Slovenia was short and inglorious for the JNA. The army did not achieve any of its goals, losing forty soldiers and officers. Not much compared to the future thousands of victims, but proof that no one will give up their independence just like that, even if it has not yet been recognized.

In Croatia, the war took on the character of a clash between the Serb population, who wanted to remain part of Yugoslavia, on the side of which the JNA soldiers were, and the Croatian armed units, who sought to prevent the separation of part of the territory of the republic.

In the elections to the Croatian Parliament in 1990, the Croatian Democratic Community won. In August - September 1990, armed clashes between local Serbs and the Croatian police and guards began here in Klinskaya Krajina. In December of the same year, the Council of Croatia adopted a new Constitution, declaring the republic "unitary and indivisible".

The allied leadership could not accept this, since Belgrade had its own plans for the future of the Serbian enclaves in Croatia, in which a large community of Serbian expatriates lived. The local Serbs responded to the new Constitution by creating the Serbian Autonomous Region in February 1991.

On June 25, 1991 Croatia declared its independence. As in the case of Slovenia, the government of the SFRY declared this decision illegal, declaring claims to part of Croatia, namely the Serbian Krajina. On this basis, fierce armed clashes took place between Serbs and Croats with the participation of JNA units. In the Croatian war, there were no longer minor skirmishes, as in Slovenia, but real battles using various types of weapons. And the losses in these battles on both sides were enormous: about 10 thousand killed, including several thousand civilians, more than 700 thousand refugees moved to neighboring countries.

At the end of 1991, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution on sending to Yugoslavia peacekeeping forces, and the EU Council of Ministers imposed sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro. In February-March 1992, on the basis of a resolution, a contingent of UN peacekeeping forces arrived in Croatia. It also included a Russian battalion. With the help of international forces, hostilities were somehow contained, but the excessive cruelty of the warring parties, especially in relation to the civilian population, pushed them to mutual revenge, which led to new clashes.

On the initiative of Russia, on May 4, 1995, at an urgently convened meeting of the UN Security Council, the invasion of Croatian troops into the zone of separation was condemned. At the same time, the Security Council condemned the Serbian shelling of Zagreb and other civilian concentration centers. In August 1995, after the punitive operations of the Croatian troops, about 500 thousand Krajina Serbs were forced to flee their lands, and the exact number of victims of this operation is still unknown. So Zagreb solved the problem of a national minority on its territory, while the West turned a blind eye to the actions of Croatia, limiting itself to calls for an end to the bloodshed.

The center of the Serbian-Croatian conflict was moved to the territory that was disputed from the very beginning - to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Here, the Serbs and Croats began to demand the division of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina or its reorganization on a confederate basis by creating ethnic cantons. The Party of Democratic Action of Muslims headed by A. Izetbegovic, which advocated a unitary civil republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, did not agree with this demand. In turn, this aroused the suspicion of the Serbian side, who believed that it was about creating an "Islamic fundamentalist republic", 40% of the population of which were Muslims.

All attempts at a peaceful settlement for various reasons did not lead to the proper result. In October 1991, the Muslim and Croatian deputies of the Assembly adopted a memorandum on the sovereignty of the republic. The Serbs, on the other hand, found it unacceptable for them to remain with minority status outside of Yugoslavia, in a state dominated by the Muslim-Croatian coalition.

In January 1992, the republic appealed to the European Community to recognize its independence, the Serb deputies left the parliament, boycotted its further work and refused to participate in the referendum, in which the majority of the population voted for the creation of a sovereign state. In response, the local Serbs created their own Assembly, and when the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina was recognized by the EU countries, the USA, Russia, the Serbian community announced the creation of the Serbian Republic in Bosnia. The confrontation escalated into an armed conflict, with the participation of various armed formations, ranging from small armed groups to the JNA. Bosnia and Herzegovina on its territory had great amount equipment, weapons and ammunition that were stored there or were left by the JNA that left the republic. All this became an excellent fuel for the outbreak of armed conflict.

In her article, former British Prime Minister M. Thatcher wrote: “Terrible things are happening in Bosnia, and it looks like it will be even worse. Sarajevo is under constant shelling. Gorazde is besieged and is about to be occupied by the Serbs. Massacres are likely to begin there... Such is the Serbian policy of "ethnic cleansing", that is, the expulsion of the non-Serb population from Bosnia...

From the very beginning, the supposedly independent Serb military formations in Bosnia operate in close contact with the Serbian army high command in Belgrade, which actually supports them and supplies them with everything necessary for waging war. The West should present an ultimatum to the Serbian government, demanding, in particular, to stop economic support for Bosnia, sign an agreement on the demilitarization of Bosnia, facilitate the unimpeded return of refugees to Bosnia, etc.”

Held in August 1992 in London international Conference led to the fact that the leader of the Bosnian Serbs R. Karadzic promised to withdraw troops from the occupied territory, to transfer heavy weapons, to close the camps where Muslims and Croats were kept. S. Milosevic agreed to allow international observers into the JNA units stationed in Bosnia, pledged to recognize the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina and respect its borders. The parties fulfilled their promises, although the peacekeepers have more than once had to call on the warring parties to end the clashes and ceasefire.

Obviously, the international community should have demanded from Slovenia, Croatia and then Bosnia and Herzegovina to give certain guarantees to the national minorities living on their territory. In December 1991, when the war was going on in Croatia, the EU adopted criteria for the recognition of new states in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, in particular, “guaranteeing the rights of ethnic and national groups and minorities in accordance with the commitments made within the framework of the CSCE; respect for the inviolability of all borders, which cannot be changed otherwise than by peaceful means by common consent." This criterion was not very strictly enforced when it came to Serb minorities.

Interestingly, the West and Russia at this stage could have prevented violence in Yugoslavia by formulating clear principles for self-determination and putting forward preconditions for the recognition of new states. The legal basis would have great value because it has a decisive influence on such serious issues as territorial integrity, self-determination, the right to self-determination, the rights of national minorities. Russia, of course, should have been interested in developing such principles, since it faced and still faces similar problems in the former USSR.

But it is especially striking that after the bloodshed in Croatia, the EU, followed by the US and Russia, repeated the same mistake in Bosnia, recognizing its independence without any preconditions and without regard for the position of the Bosnian Serbs. The rash recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina made war there inevitable. Although the West forced the Bosnian Croats and Muslims to coexist in one state and, together with Russia, tried to put pressure on the Bosnian Serbs, the structure of this federation is still artificial, and many do not believe that it will last long.

The prejudiced attitude of the EU towards the Serbs as the main culprits of the conflict also makes one think. At the end of 1992 - beginning of 1993. Russia has raised several times in the UN Security Council the issue of the need to influence Croatia. The Croats initiated several armed clashes in the Serbian Krajina, disrupting a meeting on the Krajina problem organized by representatives of the UN, they tried to blow up a hydroelectric power station on the territory of Serbia - the UN and other organizations did nothing to stop them.

The same tolerance distinguished the attitude international community to the Bosnian Muslims. In April 1994, the Bosnian Serbs were subjected to air strikes by NATO for their attacks on Gorazde, which were interpreted as a threat to the safety of UN personnel, although some of these attacks were instigated by Muslims. Encouraged by international condescension, Bosnian Muslims have resorted to the same tactics in Brcko, Tuzla and other Muslim enclaves under the protection of UN forces. They tried to provoke the Serbs by attacking their positions, because they knew that the Serbs would again be subjected to NATO air raids if they tried to retaliate.

By the end of 1995, the Russian Foreign Ministry was in an extremely difficult position. The state's policy of rapprochement with the West led to the fact that Russia supported practically all the initiatives of Western countries to resolve conflicts. The dependence of Russian policy on regular foreign exchange loans led to the rapid advancement of NATO in the role of the leading organization. And yet, Russia's attempts to resolve conflicts were not in vain, forcing them to periodically sit down opposing sides to the negotiating table. Carrying out political activity within the boundaries permitted by its Western partners, Russia has ceased to be a factor determining the course of events in the Balkans. Russia once voted for the establishment of peace by military means in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the use of NATO forces. Having a military training ground in the Balkans, NATO no longer represented any other way to solve any new problem, except for the armed one. This played a decisive role in resolving the Kosovo problem, the most dramatic of the Balkan conflicts.

The civil war in the former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia was a series of armed inter-ethnic conflicts that eventually led to the complete collapse of the country in 1992. The territorial claims of different peoples that were part of the republic until that moment, and the acute interethnic confrontation demonstrated a certain artificiality of their unification under the socialist banner of the power, which was called Yugoslavia.

Yugoslav wars

It is worth noting that the population of Yugoslavia was very diverse. Slovenes, Serbs, Croats, Macedonians, Hungarians, Romanians, Turks, Bosnians, Albanians, Montenegrins lived on its territory. All of them were unevenly distributed among the 6 republics of Yugoslavia: Bosnia and Herzegovina (one republic), Macedonia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Croatia, Serbia.

The so-called "10-day war in Slovenia", unleashed in 1991, laid the foundation for prolonged hostilities. The Slovenes demanded recognition of the independence of their republic. During the hostilities from the Yugoslav side, 45 people were killed, 1.5 hundreds were injured. From Slovenian - 19 killed, about 2 hundred wounded. 5 thousand soldiers of the Yugoslav army were taken prisoner.

This was followed by a longer (1991-1995) war for the independence of Croatia. Its secession from Yugoslavia was followed by armed conflicts already within the new independent republic between the Serb and Croat populations. The Croatian war claimed the lives of more than 20 thousand people. 12 thousand - from the Croatian side (moreover, 4.5 thousand are civilians). Hundreds of thousands of buildings were destroyed, and all material damage is estimated at 27 billion dollars.

Almost simultaneously with this, another one broke out inside Yugoslavia, which was falling apart into its components. Civil War- Bosnian (1992-1995). It was attended by several ethnic groups at once: Serbs, Croats, Bosnian Muslims and the so-called autonomist Muslims living in the west of Bosnia. Over 100 thousand people were killed in 3 years. The material damage is colossal: 2,000 km of roads were blown up, 70 bridges were demolished. The railroad has been completely destroyed. 2/3 of the buildings are destroyed and unusable.

In the war-torn territories, concentration camps were opened (on both sides). During the hostilities, there were egregious cases of terror: mass rape of Muslim women, ethnic cleansing, during which several thousand Bosnian Muslims were killed. All those killed were civilians. Croatian militants shot even 3-month-old children.

Crisis in the countries of the former socialist bloc

If you do not go into the subtleties of all interethnic and territorial claims and grievances, then you can give approximately the following description of the civil wars described: the same thing happened with Yugoslavia that happened at the same time with the Soviet Union. The countries of the former socialist bloc experienced an acute crisis. The socialist doctrine of "friendship of fraternal peoples" ceased to operate, and everyone wanted independence.

The Soviet Union in terms of armed clashes and the use of force in comparison with Yugoslavia literally "got off with a slight fright." The collapse of the USSR was not as bloody as it was in the Serb-Croat-Bosnian region. Following the Bosnian War, protracted armed confrontations began in Kosovo, Macedonia and Southern Serbia (or the Presevo Valley) on the territory of the former Republic of Yugoslavia. In total, the civil war in the former Yugoslavia lasted 10 years, until 2001. The victims number in the hundreds of thousands.

The reaction of the neighbors

This war was characterized by exceptional cruelty. Europe, guided by the principles of democracy, initially tried to keep aloof. The former "Yugoslavs" had the right to find out their territorial claims themselves and to sort things out within the country. At first, the Yugoslav army tried to resolve the conflict, but after the collapse of Yugoslavia itself, it was abolished. In the first years of the war, the Yugoslav armed forces also showed inhuman cruelty.

The war has dragged on too long. Europe and, above all, the United States decided that such a tense and prolonged confrontation could threaten the security of other countries. The mass ethnic cleansings, which claimed the lives of tens of thousands of innocent people, caused particular indignation in the world community. In response to them, in 1999, NATO began to bomb Yugoslavia. Russian government clearly opposed such a solution to the conflict. President Yeltsin said that NATO aggression could push Russia to take more decisive action.

But after the collapse of the Union, only 8 years have passed. Russia itself was greatly weakened. The country simply did not have the resources to unleash the conflict, and there were no other levers of influence yet. Russia was not able to help the Serbs, and NATO was well aware of this. The opinion of Russia was simply ignored then, because it weighed too little in the political arena.