Former Yugoslavia is the largest state of the South Slavs. The political and military conflict in Yugoslavia in the early 90s of the 20th century led to the disintegration of the country into the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (which included Serbia and Montenegro), Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Macedonia. The final disintegration of the state of Yugoslavia ended in 2003-2006, when the SR Yugoslavia was first renamed into the state union of Serbia and Montenegro, and in 2006, Montenegro, after a referendum, withdrew from its membership.
General information
Capital – Belgrade
The official language and the language of international communication is Serbo-Croatian.
total area: 255.800 sq. km.
Population: 23,600,000 (1989)
National composition: Serbs, Croats, Bosnians (Slavs who converted to Islam during the Ottoman yoke), Slovenes, Macedonians, Albanians, Hungarians, Ruthenians, Gypsies, etc.
Monetary unit: dinar-krona (until 1920), KSHS dinar (until 1929), Yugoslav dinar (1929-1991)
Historical reference
Modern history of the former Yugoslavia begins in 1918, when the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (KHS) was formed. The date of creation of the state is December 1, 1918, when Dalmatia and Vojvodina - Yugoslav lands that belonged to Austria-Hungary, which collapsed in the fall of 1918, united with the kingdoms and.
In 1929, the state was renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. This name was adopted after the coup d'etat organized by the King of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Alexander on January 6, 1929. The state existed with this name until 1945.
After the end of the Second World War, on November 29, 1945, Yugoslavia became a socialist federation, which included six federal republics: Serbia (with autonomous regions - Vojvodina and Kosovo and Metohija), Macedonia (until that time it was an integral part of Serbia - Vardar Macedonia), Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The new state was named Democratic Federal Yugoslavia. In 1946 it was renamed the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FPRY). Since 1963, the state began to be called the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY).
The largest South Slavic state, Yugoslavia, ceased to exist in the 90s of the last century. Now at school, when studying new history, children are told about which countries Yugoslavia broke up into. `
Each of them today carries its own culture and history, one of the important pages of which is its entry into the once flourishing major power, 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 KSHS, which 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:
- Bosnia.
- Herzegovina.
- Dalmatia.
The political situation in the hastily created country could hardly be called stable. In 1929 there was a coup d'etat. As a result of this event, the KSHS changed its long name and became known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (KY).
This is not to say that there were no disagreements at all. Small conflicts broke out from time to time. None of them led to serious consequences. Many discontents were associated with the slow development of the state, whose government did not have the economic and political experience.
Beginning of disagreement
Attention is not often focused on this, but the beginning of disagreements between previously united peoples began during the Great Patriotic War. The fascist leadership adhered to a dishonest leadership principle based on the ancient Roman dogma of “divide and conquer.”
The 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 occupiers, but also with their fellow countrymen who helped them.
During the war the country was divided into pieces. Montenegro, Serbia, and the Croatian state appeared. Another part of the territories fell under the annexation of the Third Reich and the Nazis. It was during this period that cases of cruel genocide were noted, which could not but affect subsequent relations between peoples already in Peaceful time.
Post-war history
The torn parts of the state were reunited after the victory. The previous list of participants has been restored. The same 7 ethnic territories became part of Yugoslavia.
Within the country, its new government drew borders in such a way that there was no correspondence to the ethnic distribution of peoples. This was done in the hope of avoiding disagreements, which were not difficult to predict after what happened during the war.
The policy undertaken by the Yugoslav government has given positive results. In fact, relative order reigned on the territory of the state. 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.
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 this event served as a signal for nationalists of various ethnic groups to start conflicts with their neighbors.
Josip Broz Tito-Yugoslav revolutionary and political activist
After the collapse of the USSR, a series of falls of socialist regimes began around the world. At this time, Yugoslavia was gripped by a deep economic crisis. Nationalist parties ruled throughout the territory, each pursuing an unfair policy towards its recent brothers. So in Croatia, where I lived a large number of Serbs, the Serbian language was banned. The leaders of the nationalist movement began persecuting 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 a game at the Maksimir stadium fans of the Serbian and Croatian sides fought. As a result, after several weeks, a new independent state is formed - Slovenia. Its capital was a city with the romantic name Ljubljana.
Other republics that were part of a large state are also beginning preparations for withdrawal. At this time, disagreements and military skirmishes continue with mass casualties and threats of serious hostilities.
city and lake of the same name Orchid, Macedonia
The next on the list of retiring republics was. The role of its capital was taken over by the city of Skopje. 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, which remained legal until 2006.
The division of the once large state into small pieces did not produce the expected results. Conflicts within disparate territories continued. Interethnic strife, based on blood grievances dating back to the 40s of the last century, could not subside so quickly.
An independent state of the South Slavic peoples was formed in Europe in 1918. Since 1929 it began to be called Yugoslavia, in 1945, after the liberation of the country from fascist occupation, it was proclaimed the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, and in 1963 it received the name Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). It included the union republics of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro. In addition, two autonomous provinces were identified as part of Serbia - Vojvodina (with a significant Hungarian population) and Kosovo and Metohija (with a predominance of the Albanian population).
Despite the kinship of all South Slavic peoples, significant religious and ethnolinguistic differences remained between them. Thus, Serbs, Montenegrins and Macedonians profess Orthodox religion, Croats and Slovenes – Catholic, and Albanians and Muslim Slavs – Islam. Serbs, Croats, Montenegrins and Muslim Slavs speak Serbo-Croatian, Slovenes speak Slovenian, and Macedonians speak Macedonian. In the SFRY, two scripts were used - based on the Cyrillic alphabet (Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia) and the Latin alphabet (Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina). It is important to emphasize that to these ethnolinguistic features were added very significant differences of a socio-economic nature, primarily between the more developed Croatia and Slovenia and the less developed other parts of the SFRY, which aggravated many social contradictions. For example, Orthodox and Catholics believed that one of the main reasons for the country's high unemployment rate was the high population growth in its Muslim areas.
For the time being, the authorities of the SFRY managed to prevent extreme manifestations of nationalism and separatism. However, in 1991–1992. ethnic intolerance, aggravated by the fact that many borders between the union republics were initially drawn without due consideration of the national-ethnic composition of the population, acquired a very large scale, and many political parties began to speak out under openly nationalist slogans. As a result, it was during these years that the SFRY collapsed: in 1991, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia separated from it, and in 1992, a new Yugoslav federation was formed - the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), which included Serbia and Montenegro (Fig. 10). This rapid disintegration of the SFRY occurred in various forms - both relatively peaceful (Slovenia, Macedonia) and extremely violent (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina).
The separation was of the most peaceful nature Slovenia, during which, although it was not possible to avoid a small armed conflict, it turned out to be only an episode in this rather calm “divorce” process. And in the future, no serious political, let alone military-political complications arose here.
Separation from the SFRY Macedonia was accompanied not by military, but by diplomatic conflict. After the declaration of independence of this state, neighboring Greece refused to recognize it. The point here is that until 1912 Macedonia was part of the Ottoman Empire, and after liberation from Turkish rule its territory was divided between Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Albania. Consequently, independent Macedonia, which separated from the SFRY, covered only one of the four parts of this historical region, and Greece feared that the new state would lay claim to its Greek part as well. Therefore, Macedonia was ultimately admitted to the UN with the wording “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”.
Rice. 10. Independent states that emerged on the site of the former SFRY
Much larger military-political complications accompanied the separation from the former SFRY Croatia, in the population of which in the early 1990s. the share of Serbs exceeded 12%, and some of its regions have long been considered originally Serbian. First of all, this applies to the so-called Military Region, a border region created back in the 16th–18th centuries. Austria and preserved in the 19th century. after the formation of Austria-Hungary along the border with Ottoman Empire. It was here that many Orthodox Serbs settled, fleeing persecution from the Turks. Based on their numerical superiority, these Serbs, even during the existence of the SFRY, announced the creation of their autonomous region of Krajina within the Federal Republic of Croatia, and after Croatia’s secession from the SFRY at the end of 1991, they proclaimed the formation of the independent Republic of Serbian Krajina with its center in the city of Knin , announcing its separation from Croatia. However, this self-proclaimed republic was not recognized by the UN, which sent a peacekeeping force to Croatia to prevent military development conflict. And in 1995, Croatia, choosing a moment when the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was economically greatly weakened by a tough embargo from Western countries, sent its troops into Krajna, and a few days later the republic of the Croatian Serbs ceased to exist. In 1998, Croatia also returned to itself the territory of Eastern Slavonia, captured by the Serbs back in 1991 as a result of a bloody military operation. This development of events gave rise to Serbian radicals to accuse the then President of the FRY, Slobodan Milosevic, of “betraying the Krajina.”
Rice. eleven. Settlement of the peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The former Soviet republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia became the arena of even more irreconcilable military-political and ethno-religious confrontation Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was distinguished by the most multinational composition of the population, which for many centuries served as the root cause of various kinds of ethnic conflicts. According to the 1991 census, Serbs made up 31% of its inhabitants, Muslims 44%, Croats 17%, and the rest from other ethnic groups. After the declaration of independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it turned out that Serbs constituted the majority in its northern and eastern regions, Muslims in the central regions, and Croats in the western regions (Fig. 11).
The reluctance of Serbs and Croats to find themselves in a Muslim state, and Muslims in a Christian one, from the very beginning of the independent existence of Bosnia and Herzegovina led to confrontation between them, which in the spring of 1992 escalated into a civil war. At its first stage, the victory was won by the Bosnian Serbs, who, relying on the forces of the Yugoslav army stationed in the republic, captured almost 3/4 of its entire territory, starting “ethnic cleansing” in Muslim areas and actually turning Muslim cities into enclaves, surrounded on all sides by Serbian troops. The most striking example of this kind is the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, the siege of which by the Serbs lasted more than three years and cost the lives of tens of thousands of its inhabitants. As a result of national-religious divisions in the territory with a predominance of the Serbian population, the Bosnian Republic of Srpska was proclaimed. Croats and Muslims first also formed their own republics, but in 1994, on the basis of an anti-Serbian alliance, they created a single Bosnian Muslim-Croat Federation.
At the same time, a turning point occurred in the course of the war, not in favor of the Serbs, which is explained by several reasons. Firstly, the UN Security Council imposed strict international sanctions against the government of the FRY, accused of interfering in the affairs of a neighboring state and armed support for the struggle of the Bosnian Serbs. Secondly, the leader of the unrecognized Bosnian Republic of Srpska, Radovan Karadzic, was accused of organizing “ethnic cleansing” and declared a war criminal. Thirdly, the Western allies and many Muslim states began to arm the Bosnian Muslim army, whose combat capability increased markedly as a result. Finally, fourthly, American, British and French planes began bombing Bosnian Serb positions.
The Bosnian War ended in the late autumn of 1995. According to the peace agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina formally retained its status independent state with a single president, parliament, central government and other authorities. But in fact it was divided into two parts. One of them was formed by the Muslim-Croat federation with a territory of 26 thousand km 2, a population of 2.3 million people and a capital in Sarajevo, which has its own president, parliament and government. On the other part, the Republic of Srpska was formed with a territory of 25 thousand km 2, a population of more than 1 million people and the capital in Banja Luka. The configuration of the territory of the Republika Srpska is very bizarre: following the settlement of the Bosnian Serbs, it seems to border the more compact territory of the Muslim-Croat federation on the northern and eastern sides. Republika Srpska also has its own president, parliament and government.
Both the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Republika Srpska are self-proclaimed states, since neither is recognized by the UN. Many of the previous contradictions remain between them, especially taking into account the insufficiently clearly defined border line. So, new armed conflicts can be avoided here mainly due to the fact that at the end of 1995, NATO troops, and then the UN peacekeeping contingent, were brought into Bosnia and Herzegovina under the flag of peacekeeping; his mandate has already been extended several times. The international peacekeeping force also includes Russian troops.
However, all this is only a visible stabilization of the situation, which has not solved the main controversial issues. For example, peacekeeping forces were unable to ensure the return of refugees to their places of former residence. But this is perhaps the main task of democratizing life in Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the UN, the number of refugees in the entire territory of the former SFRY amounted to 2.3 million people, and the vast majority of them are in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Fig. 12). And only about 400 thousand of them returned, including a little more than 200 thousand to Bosnia and Herzegovina. It can be added that the mass exodus of Serbs from Sarajevo led to the fact that this once multinational city actually turned into a mono-ethnic one, where the share of Serbs was reduced to several percent.
Rice. 12. Flows of refugees in the territory of the former SFRY
The next act of the Yugoslav drama took place in the late 1990s. and was associated with the problems of the historical area Kosovo and Metohija, located in the southern part of Serbia. This region occupies 11 thousand km 2, and its population, 9/10 of which are Muslim Albanians, is 1.9 million people.
The historical region of Kosovo and Metohija (Kosovo occupies its eastern flat part, and Metohija its western mountainous part) played a huge role in the formation of Serbian statehood. This is evidenced by numerous historical and architectural monuments that have survived to this day. However, in the XIV century. Kosovo's early heyday was interrupted by the invasion of the Ottoman Turks. It was here, on the ever-famous Kosovo Field, that a decisive battle took place between the army of the Turkish Sultan Murad I and the Serbian militia, which was defeated by the Turks. From that time on, the lands of Kosovo and Metohija began to fall into desolation and at the same time were populated by Albanians who accepted the Muslim faith. Gradually, there were more and more Albanians here, and after Turkey lost its possessions in Europe and independent Albania was formed in 1912, Kosovo Albanians began to make attempts to reunite their lands with it. To some extent, they were realized only in 1941, when Nazi Germany, having occupied Yugoslavia, created “Greater Albania” consisting of Albania, most of Kosovo and Metohija and part of the Macedonian and Montenegrin lands with the Albanian population.
After the Second World War, the historical region of Kosovo and Metohija, as part of first the people's and then the socialist federal Yugoslavia, received quite broad autonomy from the very beginning, and according to the 1974 constitution, this autonomous region actually became an independent subject of the federation with very broad rights (with the exception of the right to secede from Serbia). However, in the early 1980s, after the death of the country's leader, Marshal Tito, Albanian nationalism and separatism intensified again, and anti-Serbian protests began in Kosovo. In response to this, in 1989, the Serbian central authorities effectively abolished the autonomy of Kosovo and Metohija. However, this action further aggravated the situation in the region, and it was aggravated by the fact that in all main economic indicators Kosovo occupied last place in the country: its share in national income and industrial production was only 2%. But in terms of the number of unemployed and the share of illiterate people, Kosovo ranked first.
When the collapse of the SFRY began, the Kosovar Albanians also declared independence and created the Republic of Kosovo. Since the Serbian authorities, naturally, did not recognize this republic, dual power actually arose in the region. In preparation for war, Kosovo Albanians created their own military organization - the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Illegal supplies of weapons to Kosovo from Albania began, and militants arrived from there.
The situation became especially aggravated in 1998, when the Yugoslav authorities tried to liquidate the KLA bases. Western countries actually supported the Albanian separatists, who openly declared their intention to secede from the FRY. Negotiations began with the participation of various kinds of mediators, which, however, led nowhere. As a result, the Serbs were faced with a choice: either give up Kosovo or enter into an unequal struggle with NATO. They preferred the second path, and then, without the sanction of the UN Security Council, NATO countries began massive bombing of Yugoslavia, and the military contingents of this bloc actually occupied Kosovo, dividing the territory into areas of responsibility. So Kosovo actually turned into a protectorate Western countries, under the management of the UN mission (UNMIK) and NATO control. But Albanian nationalists continued to insist on complete independence of the region, despite the UN Security Council resolution on preserving the territorial integrity of Serbia. At the same time, they relied on the support of the United States and European Union countries, which intervened in this essentially intra-Serbian conflict, proving that Kosovo is a unique case and will not lead to a chain reaction in other self-proclaimed states. Serbia, Russia and many other countries opposed such a policy, which violates the principle of the territorial integrity of states. Lengthy negotiations did not produce results, and in February 2008, the Kosovo parliament unilaterally adopted a declaration of sovereignty. But it was not accepted by Serbia, which did not want to lose 15% of its territory, Russia, China and dozens of other countries of the world. Due to the position of permanent Security Council members Russia and China, Kosovo has no chance of joining the UN.
In 2000–2002 on the territory of the former SFRY there was a new aggravation of internal and foreign policy situation. This time it was associated with Macedonia and Montenegro.
Aggravation of the situation in Macedonia also directly related to Kosovo.
Approximately a third of the population of Macedonia are Muslim Albanians, living compactly in areas adjacent to the territories of Albania and Kosovo. At the same time, the number and share of Albanians in the population of this country is gradually increasing due to higher rates natural increase, characteristic of this ethnic community, and increased in Lately migration influx. The events that took place here in the spring of 2001, when large groups Albanian militants invaded Macedonia from Kosovo and began shelling its populated areas, essentially representing another attempt to implement the old idea of creating a “Greater Albania.” These actions caused discord in the relationship between Macedonian Albanians and ethnic Macedonians, who had previously always coexisted relatively peacefully. Not only ethnic, but also economic divisions between them intensified. Local Albanians also began to demand self-determination. Truces between Albanians and Macedonians were made and broken many times. As a result, NATO sent its peacekeeping contingent to Macedonia.
Worsening relations between the two components The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - Serbia and Montenegro - has been brewing for a long time. Management Montenegro began to insist not even on transforming the federation into a confederation, but on secession from the FRY and gaining complete independence. A referendum on this issue was being prepared. Only thanks to the efforts of Western diplomacy at the beginning of 2002, it was possible to achieve a more or less compromise solution - on the transformation of the FRY into a new state called Serbia and Montenegro. The final formalization of the confederation of Serbia and Montenegro took place at the end of 2002, and at the beginning of 2003 it became the 45th member of the Council of Europe. However, the new state lasted only until May 2008; the new government of Montenegro held a referendum on full sovereignty, for which 55% of all residents voted. Thus, a new state appeared on the map of Europe, and the collapse of Yugoslavia was completely completed.
Moscow State University professor E.B. Valev, a leading specialist in the geography of the Balkan countries, called one of his works devoted to the problems of the former SFRY “The Yugoslav Tangle.” Indeed, such a phrase is perhaps most suitable for characterizing the geopolitical and national-religious situation that has developed in last decade in this part of Europe.
Final, second in a row collapse of Yugoslavia occurred in 1991–1992. The first occurred in 1941 and was the result of the defeat of the Yugoslav kingdom at the beginning of World War II. The second was associated not only with the crisis of the socio-political system of Yugoslavia and its federal structure, but also with the crisis of Yugoslav national identity.
Thus, if the unification of the Yugoslavs stemmed from their lack of confidence in their ability to survive and assert themselves as self-sufficient nations, being in a hostile environment, then the second disintegration was the result of this self-assertion, which, it must be recognized, occurred precisely thanks to the existence of a federal state. At the same time, the experience of 1945–1991 It also showed that the reliance on collectivist interests, even in the soft regime of Yugoslav socialism, did not justify itself. The “time bomb” was the belonging of the Yugoslav peoples to three mutually
hostile civilizations. Yugoslavia was doomed to collapse from the start.
On December 18, 1989, in his report to parliament, the penultimate Prime Minister of the SFRY A. Markovic, speaking about the causes of the economic catastrophe in which Yugoslavia found itself, made a bitter but truthful conclusion - that economic system“market, self-governing, humane, democratic” socialism, which Tito created and which they built for more than 30 years with the help of Western loans and allies, in the conditions of 1989, without annual systematic subsidies from the IMF and other organizations, is unviable. In his opinion, in 1989 there are only two paths.
Either return to a planned economy, or with open eyes carry out a complete restoration of capitalism with all the ensuing consequences. The first path, according to A. Markovich, unfortunately, in the conditions of 1989 is unrealistic, because it requires Yugoslavia to rely on the strength of the socialist community and the USSR, but under the leadership of Gorbachev, the socialist countries have weakened so much that not only others, but also themselves are unlikely to can help. The second path is possible only if Western investment is ensured in full.
Western capital must be given guarantees that it can buy whatever it wants in Yugoslavia - land, factories, mines, roads, and all this must be guaranteed by a new union law, which must be adopted immediately. Markovich turned to Western capital with a request to accelerate investments and take over the management of their implementation.
A reasonable question may arise: why is it that the United States, and at the same time the IMF and the West as a whole, which so generously financed Tito’s regime, suddenly at the end of the 80s. stopped not only financial support, but also changed their policy towards Yugoslavia by 180 degrees? Objective analysis shows that in 1950–1980 the Tito regime was necessary for the West as Trojan horse in the fight against the socialist community led by the Soviet Union. But everything comes to an end. Tito dies in 1980, and closer to the mid-80s. the Yugoslav mouthpiece of anti-Sovietism becomes completely unnecessary - the West found the conductors of its destructive policy in the very leadership of the USSR.
Powerful German capital, dulled until the second half of the 1980s, but now rekindled, is turning its gaze to Yugoslavia, all in debt and without reliable allies. By the beginning of the 1990s. West Germany, having swallowed the GDR, truly becomes the leading force in Europe. Arrangement internal forces in Yugoslavia by this time also favored defeat. The partyocracy of the Union of Communists (UC) has completely lost its authority among the people. Nationalist forces in Croatia, Slovenia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina receive systematically powerful support from Germany, the USA, Western monopolies, the Vatican, Muslim emirs and bigwigs. In Slovenia, the UK received only 7% of the votes, in Croatia no more than 13%. In Croatia the nationalist Tudjman comes to power, in Bosnia the Islamic fundamentalist Izetbegovic, in Macedonia the nationalist Gligorov, in Slovenia the nationalist Kucan.
Almost all of them are from the same deck of the degenerated Tito leadership of the UK. The sinister figure of Izetbegovic is especially colorful. He fought in World War II in the famous SS Handzardivizion, which fought against the Soviet Army at Stalingrad, and also “became famous” as a punitive formation of the Nazis in the fight against the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. For his atrocities, Izetbegovic was tried by a people's court in 1945, but he did not stop his activities, now in the form of a nationalist, fundamentalist, separatist.
All these odious figures, having spent some time in opposition to the ruling elite of the Union of Communists, were waiting in the wings. Tudjman and Kucan are closely connected with German politicians and German capital, Izetbegovic - with Islamic extremists in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran. All of them, as if on cue, put forward slogans of separatism, secession from Yugoslavia, the creation of “independent” states, referring (the irony of fate!) to the Leninist principle of the right of nations to self-determination up to and including secession.
Germany also had special interests. Having united herself two years before the start of the war in Yugoslavia, she did not want to see a strong state at her side. Moreover, the Germans had long-standing historical scores to settle with the Serbs: the Slavs never submitted to the warlike Germans, despite two terrible interventions of the 20th century. But in 1990, Germany remembered its allies in the Third Reich - the Croatian Ustasha. In 1941, Hitler gave statehood to the Croats who had never had it before. Chancellor Kohl and German Foreign Minister Genscher did the same.
The first conflict arose in mid-1990 in Croatia, when the Serbs, of whom there were at least 600 thousand in the republic, in response to increasing demands for secession, expressed their will to remain part of federal Yugoslavia. Soon Tudjman is elected president, and in December the parliament (Sabor), with the support of Germany, adopts the country's constitution, according to which Croatia is indivisible unitary state- despite the fact that the Serbian community, called Serbian or Knin (after the name of its capital) Krajna, historically, since the 16th century, existed in Croatia. The 1947 constitution of this former socialist republic stated that Serbs and Croats had equal rights.
Now Tudjman declares Serbs a national minority! It is obvious that they do not want to put up with this, wanting to gain autonomy. They hastily created militia units to protect against the Croatian “territorial defense troops.” Krajna was proclaimed in February 1991 and announced its secession from Croatia and annexation to Yugoslavia. But the neo-Ustashi did not want to hear about it. War was approaching, and Belgrade tried to curb it with the help of units of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), but the military was already on opposite sides of the barricade. Serb soldiers came to the defense of Krajna, and hostilities began.
There was also bloodshed in Slovenia. On June 25, 1991, the country declared its independence and demanded that Belgrade withdraw its army; The time for playing with the confederal model of state has passed. Already at that time, the head of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, declared Ljubljana’s decision to be hasty and called for negotiations. But Slovenia was not going to talk and again demanded the withdrawal of troops, this time in the form of an ultimatum. On the night of June 27, fighting began between the JNA and Slovenian self-defense units, who tried to take key military installations by force. During the week of battles, the casualties numbered in the hundreds, but then “ global community” and convinced the Yugoslav government to begin withdrawing the army, guaranteeing its safety. Seeing that it was useless to prevent Slovenia from separating, Milosevic agreed, and on July 18 the troops began to leave the former Soviet republic.
On the same day as Slovenia, June 25, 1991, Croatia declared its independence, where the war had been going on for almost six months. The fierceness of the fighting is evidenced by the number of deaths; According to the Red Cross, their number for the year amounted to ten thousand people! Croatian troops carried out the first ethnic cleansing in Europe since World War II: three hundred thousand Serbs fled the country that same year. At that time, the Russian democratic press, which had kindergarten ideas about geopolitics, blamed Milosevic for everything: since he is a communist, that means he is bad, but the fascist Tudjman heads the democratic party, which means he is good. Western diplomacy also adhered to this position, accusing Milosevic of plans to create a “Greater Serbia.” But this was a lie, because the president demanded only autonomy for the Serbs who had inhabited Western and Eastern Slavonia for centuries.
It is characteristic that Tudjman declared Zagreb, a city located precisely in Western Slavonia, to be the capital of Croatia; less than a hundred kilometers away was Knin, the capital of the historical Serbian Region. Fierce fighting broke out on the Zagreb-Knin line. The Croatian government, naturally supported by NATO countries, demanded the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops. But not a single Serbian soldier would leave Krajna, seeing the atrocities of the revived Ustasha. The JNA units, transformed into the Serbian self-defense forces (since Milosevic nevertheless ordered the withdrawal of troops), were headed by General Ratko Mladic. By November 1991, troops loyal to him besieged Zagreb and forced Tudjman to negotiate.
The indignation of the “world community” knew no bounds. From this time on, the information blockade of the Serbs began: everyone talks about their largely invented crimes Western media, but the Serbs themselves are deprived of the right to vote. Germany and the United States and their allies decide to punish them for their self-will: in December 1991, the Council of Ministers of the EU (not the UN!) imposed sanctions against Federal Yugoslavia (of which by that time only Serbia and Montenegro remained) allegedly for violating the UN ban for arms supplies to Croatia. They somehow did not pay attention to the fact that Tudjman’s gangs were armed no worse than the Serbs. Since then, the economic strangulation of Yugoslavia has begun.
The following facts indicate what the Croatian state gradually became. To begin with, the Ustasha symbols and army uniforms were restored. Honorary pensions were then awarded to Ustasha veterans and they received special civilian status; President Tudjman personally made one of these murderers a member of parliament. Catholicism was proclaimed the only state religion, although at least 20% of the Orthodox population still remained in the country. In response to such a “gift,” the Vatican recognized the independence of Croatia and Slovenia earlier than Europe and the United States, and the Pope on March 8, 1993, from the window of his office overlooking St. Peter’s Square, cursed the Serbs and prayed to God for vengeance! It got to the point that Tudjman began to seek the reburial of the remains of the main Croatian fascist Ante Pavelic from Spain. Europe was silent.
On November 21, 1991, the third federal republic, Macedonia, declared its independence. It turned out to be more perspicacious than Slovenia and Croatia: first it got the UN to send in peacekeeping troops, and then demanded the withdrawal of the JNA. Belgrade did not object, and the southernmost Slavic republic became the only one to break away without bloodshed. One of the first decisions of the Macedonian government was to refuse to allow the Albanian minority to create an autonomous region in the west of the country - the Republic of Illyria; so the peacekeepers did not have to sit idle.
On December 9 and 10, 1991 in Maastricht, the heads of 12 states of the European Economic Community (EEC) decide to recognize all new states (Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia) within the boundaries corresponding to the administrative division of the former Yugoslavia. Purely conditional borders, hastily drawn by Tito’s henchmen in 1943, so as not to formally give the Serbs more rights than all other peoples, are now recognized as state borders. In Croatia, the Serbs did not even receive autonomy! But since it actually already existed (no one lifted the siege of Zagreb, and the Ustasha turned out to be strong only in words), Krayne is assigned a certain “special status”, which will henceforth be guarded by 14,000 “blue helmets” (“peacekeeping” UN troops). The Serbs, although with reservations, are getting their way. The war ends, and self-government bodies are formed in Krayna. This small republic existed for just over three years...
But Maastricht laid another ethnic mine. The most ethnically complex republic of Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, has not yet declared its independence. The southwestern part of the country has been inhabited by Croats since ancient times; it was part of the historical region of Dalmatia. In the north adjacent to Slavonia, northwest, east (on the border with Serbia) and most of central regions the majority were Serbs. The Sarajevo area and the south were inhabited by Muslims. In total, 44% of Muslims, 32% of Orthodox Serbs, 17% of Catholic Croats, 7% of other nations (Hungarians, Albanians, Jews, Bulgarians, etc.) lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina. By “Muslims” we mean basically the same Serbs, but those who converted to Islam during the years of the Turkish yoke.
The tragedy of the Serbs lies in the fact that the same people, divided by religion, shot at each other. In 1962, Tito, by a special decree, ordered all Yugoslav Muslims to henceforth be considered one nation. “Muslim” has since been recorded in the “nationality” column. The situation on the political scene was also difficult. Back in 1990, in parliamentary elections, Croats voted for the Croatian Democratic Commonwealth (the Bosnian branch of Tudjman's party), Serbs for the Democratic Party (leader Radovan Karadzic), Muslims for the Democratic Action Party (leader Alija Izetbegovic, who was also elected chairman of parliament , i.e. the head of the country).
On Bosnia and Herzegovina, on January 11, 1992, the following decision was made in Maastricht: the EEC will recognize its sovereignty if the majority of the population votes for it in a referendum. And again along existing administrative boundaries! The referendum took place on February 29, 1992; it became the first page of the tragedy. Serbs did not come to vote, wanting to remain in the Federal Yugoslavia, Croats and Muslims came to vote, but in total - no more than 38% of total number population. After this, in violation of all conceivable norms of democratic elections, the referendum was extended by Izetbegovic for another day, and many armed people in black uniforms and green headbands immediately appeared on the streets of Sarajevo - Alija lost no time to establish independence. By the evening of the second day, almost 64% had already voted, naturally, the absolute majority was “for”.
The results of the referendum were recognized by the “world community” as valid. On the same day, the first blood was shed: a wedding procession passing by an Orthodox church was attacked by a group of militants. The Serb carrying the national flag (this is required according to the Serbian wedding ceremony) was killed, the rest were beaten and wounded. The city was immediately divided into three districts, and the streets were blocked with barricades. The Bosnian Serbs, represented by their leader Karadzic, did not recognize the referendum and hastily, literally within a week, held their own referendum, where they spoke out in favor of a unified state with Yugoslavia. The Republic of Srpska was immediately proclaimed with its capital in the city of Pale. The war, which only a week ago seemed impossible, broke out like a haystack.
Three Serbias appeared on the map of the former Yugoslavia. The first is the Serbian Province in Croatia (capital - Knin), the second is the Republika Srpska in Bosnia (capital - Pale), the third is the Serbian Republic (capital - Belgrade), part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, proclaimed in the spring of 1992, which the second part included Montenegro (capital - Podgorica). Belgrade, unlike the EEC and the United States, did not recognize an independent Bosnia and Herzegovina. Milosevic demanded an end to the unrest in Sarajevo and the fighting that began throughout the country, demanded guarantees of autonomy for the Bosnian Serbs, and called for the UN to intervene. At the same time, he ordered the troops to remain in the barracks for now, but to prepare for a possible evacuation; in the event of armed attempts to seize weapons depots and other military facilities - to defend themselves. In response to Milosevic's demands, Izetbegovic... declared war on Serbia, Montenegro and the JNA on April 4, 1992, signing an order for general mobilization. Further more.
In April 1992, the Croatian regular army invaded the territory of Bosnia from the West (during the conflict its strength reached 100,000 people) and committed mass crimes against the Serbs. UN Security Council Resolution 787 orders Croatia to immediately withdraw its troops from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Nothing of the kind followed. The UN remained silent. But by resolution No. 757 of May 30, 1992, the UN Security Council introduces an economic embargo against Serbia and Montenegro! The reason was an explosion at a market in Sarajevo, which, according to most foreign observers in this city, was carried out by Muslim terrorists.
On April 8, 1992, the United States recognized the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina; At that time, the war was already in full swing there. From the very beginning of the process collapse of Yugoslavia US ruling circles took an open anti-Serbian position and did not hesitate to support all separatists. When it came to the creation of Serbian autonomy, the United States did everything to prevent this. The reasons for this behavior are not difficult to find. Firstly, the desire to completely destroy the communist camp; The States understood very well that the unifying element in Yugoslavia was the Serbian people, and if they were given hard times, the country would fall apart. Serbs in general, as representatives of the Orthodox civilization, have never enjoyed the favor of the West.
Secondly, the oppression of the Serbs undermined the authority of Russia, which was unable to protect its historical allies; with this the States showed all countries oriented towards the former Soviet Union that now they are the only superpower in the world, and Russia no longer has any weight.
Thirdly, the desire to find support and sympathy from the Islamic world, with which tense relations remained due to the American position on Israel; The behavior of Middle Eastern countries directly affects oil prices, which, due to American imports of petroleum products, have a significant impact on the US economy.
Fourth, support for Germany’s position on the former Yugoslavia, in order to prevent even a hint of divergence of interests of NATO countries.
Fifthly, the spread of its influence in the Balkan region, which constitutes one of the stages of the plan to create a new world order in which the United States will have absolute power; The fact that such sentiments dominate part of American society is evidenced by the writings of ideologists of American imperialism such as Z. Brzezinski, F. Fukuyama, etc. To achieve this, it was planned to create several “pocket” Balkan states, burdened with constant interethnic conflicts. The existence of these dwarfs would be supported by the United States and its UN instrument in exchange for pro-American policies. Relative peace would be supported by NATO military bases, which would have absolute influence over the entire Balkan region. Assessing the situation today, we can say that the United States has achieved what it wanted: NATO reigns supreme in the Balkans...
At the turn of 1980–1990 Only in Serbia and Montenegro did progressive forces, having dissociated themselves from the rotten leadership of the Union of Communists, torn apart by nationalist aspirations and unable to make any constructive decisions to save the country from collapse, take a different path. Having organized the Socialist Party, they came out under the slogans of preserving a united, indivisible Yugoslavia and won the elections.
The union of Serbia and Montenegro lasted until May 2006. In a referendum organized by the ardent Westerner Djukanovic, Montenegro's president, its population voted by a small majority for independence from Serbia. Serbia has lost access to the sea.
***Materials from the site www.publicevents.ru
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In the 1840s, a movement arose in the Balkans aimed at the political unification of all southern Slavs - Serbs, Croats, Slovenes and Bulgarians (this movement was often confused with Serbia's desire to unite all Serbs in one state - Greater Serbia). During the uprising in Bosnia and Herzegovina against the Turkish yoke and during the Serbo-Turkish and Russian-Turkish wars in 1876-1878, the movement to unite the southern Slavs intensified again. However, after 1880, confrontation between Serbian, Bulgarian and Croatian nationalism began, Serbia’s dependence on Austria increased, and at the very moment when it achieved complete independence from Turkey. This temporarily diminished the hopes of the Yugoslav peoples for national liberation and unification. In the late 1890s, especially after 1903 and the replacement of the Obrenovic dynasty by the Karadjordjevic dynasty, the South Slav movement again gained strength not only in Serbia, but also in Croatia, Slovenia, Vojvodina, Bosnia and Herzegovina and even in divided Macedonia.
In 1912, Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Greece, having formed a military-political alliance, attacked Turkey and captured Kosovo and Macedonia (1st Balkan War, 1912-1913). Rivalry between Serbia and Bulgaria and Bulgaria and Greece led to the 2nd Balkan War (1913), the defeat of Bulgaria and the division of Macedonia between Serbia and Greece. The Serbian occupation of Kosovo and Macedonia thwarted Austrian plans to annex Serbia and control the road to Thessaloniki. At the same time, Serbia was faced with the problem of the status of ethnic minorities (Turks, Albanians and Hellenized Vlachs) and how to govern peoples who were ethnically or linguistically similar (Macedonian Slavs) but had different story and social structure.
Austria-Hungary, which pursued a policy of economic pressure and political blackmail towards Serbia, annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, and its general staff began to develop a plan for war against Serbia. This policy pushed a certain part of the Yugoslav nationalists in Bosnia to commit terrorist acts. On June 28, 1914, the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was shot dead in Sarajevo. Hostilities soon began between Austria and Serbia, giving impetus to the outbreak of the First World War.
During the war, Serbian, Croatian and Slovenian political leaders agreed on main goal in this war - the national unification of these three peoples. The principles of the organization of the Yugoslav state were discussed: the Serbs from the Kingdom of Serbia were inclined towards a centralized option, while the Serbs from Vojvodina, Croats and Slovenes preferred a federal option. On December 1, 1918, the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, led by the Serbian Karadjordjevic dynasty, was proclaimed in Belgrade. The question of centralism or federalism remained unresolved.
In 1918, the Great National Assembly of Montenegro voted for unification with the new state. The kingdom also included Vojvodina, Slavonia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, a significant part of Dalmatia and most of territories of Austria where the population who spoke the Slovenian language lived. But she failed to get part of Dalmatia (Zadar region) and Istria, which went under peace treaties to Italy, the Klagenfurt-Villach region in Carinthia, whose population voted in a plebiscite (1920) to join Austria, Fiume (Rijeka), first captured by troops D "Annunzio (1919), and then turned into a free city (1920) and eventually included by Mussolini in Italy (1924).
In the period after the First World War and the Russian Revolution, the ideas of communism spread among peasants and workers in the eastern part Central Europe. In the elections of 1920, the new Socialist Workers' Party of Yugoslavia (communists), renamed the same year as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, received 200 thousand votes, the majority of which were cast in the economically more backward areas of the country, as well as in Belgrade and Zagreb; at the moment when the troops of Soviet Russia were moving towards Warsaw, she called for the creation of the Yugoslav Soviet Republic. In 1921 the government banned communist and anarchist propaganda and forced the communist movement underground. The Serbian Radical Party of Nikola Pasic put forward a draft constitution that envisaged a unicameral parliament, the division of the country into 33 administrative units, strict executive branch. The boycott of the constitutional assembly (Constituent Assembly) by the Croatian Republican Peasant Party (since 1925 - the Croatian Peasant Party), which advocated a federal constitution, simplified the adoption (1921) of a constitution providing for a centralized state.
The leader of the Croatian Peasant Party, Stjepan Radic, first boycotted the People's Assembly, but then joined Pasic's government. In 1926 Pašić died, and his party split into three factions. The large number of warring parties, corruption, scandals, nepotism, slander and the substitution of party principles for political ambitions have become integral elements political life countries. In June 1928, one of the Serbian deputies at a parliament meeting shot and killed several Croatian deputies, including Stjepan Radić.
King Alexander, who himself was largely responsible for the escalation political conflicts, in January 1929 dissolved parliament, suspended the constitution, banned the activities of all political parties, established a dictatorship and changed the name of the country (since 1929 - the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). During the dictatorship, national tensions intensified, as the communists advocated the independence of Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia. The rebel Croatian Ustasha, a pro-fascist organization that advocated Croatian independence and led by Zagreb lawyer Ante Pavelić, as well as the pro-Bulgarian Internal Macedonian-Odrin Revolutionary Organization (IMORO), which advocated Macedonian independence, found support in Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria. In October 1934, VMORO and the Ustasha participated in organizing the assassination of King Alexander in Marseille.
During the regency led by Prince Paul, the country's situation worsened. Paul and his minister Milan Stojadinović weakened the Little and Balkan Entente - Yugoslavia's system of alliances with Czechoslovakia and Romania, as well as with Greece, Turkey and Romania; they flirted with Nazi Germany, signed treaties with Italy and Bulgaria (1937) and allowed the creation of a party with a fascist and authoritarian bent. In August 1939, the leader of the Croatian Peasant Party, Vladko Macek, and the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia, Dragisa Cvetkovic, signed an agreement on the formation of the autonomous region of Croatia. This decision satisfied neither the Serbs nor the extremist Croats.
After the Nazis came to power in Germany (1933), the USSR called on Yugoslav communists to abandon separatism as a means of practical politics and form a popular front against the threat of fascism. In 1937, Croatian Josip Broz Tito became secretary of the Communist Party, who supported the organization of the popular front of Serbo-Croatian and Yugoslav solidarity against fascism.
The Second World War. With the outbreak of World War II, the communists tried to reorient the population towards new political goals. On March 25, 1941, Yugoslavia, under pressure from Germany, joined the Berlin Pact (an alliance of Germany, Italy and Japan). Two days later, as a result of a military coup supported by a significant part of the population, the government of D. Cvetkovic, which signed this pact, was overthrown. Peter, son of Alexander, became King of Yugoslavia. The new government promised to respect all unclassified agreements with Germany, but as a precaution declared Belgrade open city. The answer Nazi Germany was the bombing of Belgrade and the April 6, 1941 invasion of Yugoslavia. Within two weeks the country was occupied. New King and many party leaders fled the country; several party leaders compromised with the invaders, while the rest took a passive or neutral position.
Yugoslavia was dismembered: parts of the country went to Germany, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and the Italian satellite state of Albania. From the ruins of Yugoslavia, a new state of Croatia was created, led by Ante Pavelic and his Ustashas. The Ustasha carried out mass repressions against Serbs, Jews and Gypsies, created several concentration camps, including Jasenovac. The Germans deported Slovenes from Slovenia to Serbia, conscripted them into the German army, or deported them to Germany to work in military factories and labor camps. In Serbia, the Germans allowed General Milan Nedić to form a “government of national salvation”, but did not allow him to maintain a regular army or create a Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
After the defeat of the regular army Communist Party Josipa Broz Tito organized a powerful partisan movement against the German invaders. The Yugoslav government in exile officially supported the so-called armed units. Chetniks, led by Draže Mihailović, a colonel in the Royal Yugoslav Army. Mihailović resisted the communists in the struggle for power, but encouraged Serbian terror against the Croats and Bosnian Muslims. Mihailovich's anti-communism led him to a tactical agreement with the Germans and Italians, and in the fall of 1941 the Chetniks fought against the partisans. As a result, the Allies abandoned him, preferring an alliance with Tito's partisans who fought the occupiers and collaborators. In 1942, Tito formed the Anti-Fascist Assembly of People's Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ). This organization created regional anti-fascist councils and local people's liberation committees under the control of the communists in the liberated territories. In 1943, the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia (PLJA) began to receive British military assistance, and after the capitulation of Italy received Italian weapons.
Partisan resistance was especially strong in the western regions of Yugoslavia, where there were vast liberated territories in Slovenia, Croatia, Western Bosnia and Montenegro. The partisans attracted the population to their side, promising to organize Yugoslavia on a federal basis and provide all nationalities equal rights. However, in Serbia, Mihailović's Chetniks had greater influence before the arrival of the Soviet Army, and Tito's partisans began a campaign to liberate it, capturing Belgrade in October 1944.
At the beginning of 1944, there were two Yugoslav governments: the provisional government of AVNOJ in Yugoslavia itself and the royal Yugoslav government in London. In May 1944, W. Churchill forced King Peter to appoint Ivan Subasic as prime minister. In March 1945, a unified government was formed headed by Prime Minister Tito; According to the agreement, Subasic took the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs. However, he and his non-communist colleagues, finding themselves without real power, resigned and were then arrested.
In November 1945, the newly elected Constituent Assembly abolished the monarchy and proclaimed the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FPRY). Mihailović and the politicians who collaborated with the occupiers were later captured, put on trial, found guilty of treason and collaboration, executed or thrown into prison. Leaders of other political parties who opposed the communist monopoly on power were also imprisoned.
Communist Yugoslavia. After 1945, the communists took control of the political and economic life of Yugoslavia. The Constitution of 1946 officially recognized Yugoslavia as a federal republic, consisting of six union republics - Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro. The government nationalized a large share of private enterprises and began implementing a five-year plan (1947-1951) on the Soviet model, emphasizing the development of heavy industry. Large landholdings and agricultural enterprises owned by the Germans were confiscated; About half of this land was received by peasants, and the other half became the property of state agricultural enterprises and forestry enterprises. Non-communist political organizations were banned, the activities of the Orthodox and Catholic churches were limited, and property was confiscated. Aloysius Stepinac, the Catholic Archbishop of Zagreb, was imprisoned on charges of collaborating with the Ustasha.
It seemed that Yugoslavia was working closely with the USSR, but a conflict was brewing between the countries. Although Tito was a committed communist, he did not always follow Moscow's orders. During the war, the partisans received relatively little support from the USSR, and in post-war years, despite Stalin's promises, he did not provide sufficient economic assistance Yugoslavia. Stalin did not always like Tito's active foreign policy. Tito formalized a customs union with Albania, supported the communists in civil war in Greece and led a discussion with the Bulgarians about the possibility of creating a Balkan Federation.
On June 28, 1948, the contradictions that had been accumulating for a long time broke out after the newly created Communist Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties (Cominform, 1947-1956) in its resolution condemned Tito and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY) for revisionism, Trotskyism and other ideological errors. In the period between the breakdown of relations in 1948 and Stalin's death in 1953, trade between Yugoslavia and the Soviet bloc countries virtually ceased, Yugoslavia's borders were constantly violated, and purges were carried out in the communist states of Eastern Europe with accusations of Titoism.
After the break in relations with the USSR, Yugoslavia gained freedom to develop plans for its own path to building a socialist society. Beginning in 1950, the government began to decentralize economic planning and create workers' councils that participated in the management of industrial enterprises. In 1951, the implementation of the collectivization program Agriculture was suspended, and in 1953 it was completely discontinued.
In the 1950s foreign policy Yugoslavia underwent a number of important changes. Trade with Western countries expanded rapidly; in 1951 Yugoslavia entered into an agreement with the United States on military assistance. Relations with Greece also improved, and in 1953 Yugoslavia signed treaties of friendship and cooperation with Greece and Turkey, which were supplemented in 1954 by a 20-year defensive alliance. In 1954 the dispute with Italy over Trieste was settled.
After Stalin's death, the USSR made attempts to improve relations with Yugoslavia. In 1955, N.S. Khrushchev and other Soviet leaders visited Belgrade and signed a declaration that solemnly proclaimed “mutual respect and non-interference in internal affairs” and stated the fact that “the diversity of specific forms of building socialism is exclusively the business of peoples different countries". In 1956, Khrushchev condemned Stalinism; in the countries of the Soviet bloc, the rehabilitation of persons previously accused of Titoism began.
Meanwhile, Tito began to implement the main campaign in his foreign policy, consistently pursuing the third direction. He developed close relations with the newly emerged non-aligned countries, visiting India and Egypt in 1955. The following year, in Yugoslavia, Tito met with the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru, who declared support for the principles of peaceful coexistence between states, disarmament and an end to the course of strengthening political blocs. In 1961, the non-aligned states, which had become an organized group, held their first summit conference in Belgrade.
Within Yugoslavia, political stability was achieved with difficulty. In 1953, the Communist Party was renamed the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (UCYU) in the hope that ideological leadership in Yugoslavia would play a less authoritarian role than in the USSR under Stalin. Nevertheless, some intellectuals criticized the regime. The most famous critic was Milovan Djilas, formerly Tito's closest assistant. Djilas argued that the communists, instead of transferring power to the workers, only replaced the old ruling class"new class" of party functionaries. In 1956 he was imprisoned and in 1966 amnestied.
In the early 1960s, there was a partial liberalization of the regime. In 1963 alone, the government released almost 2,500 political prisoners from prison. Economic reforms that began in 1965 accelerated the pace of economic decentralization and self-government. Workers' councils were given greater freedom from state control in the management of their enterprises, and reliance on market mechanisms increased the influence of Yugoslav consumers on economic decision-making.
Yugoslavia also sought to ease tensions in Eastern Europe. In 1963, Yugoslavia and Romania made a joint call to transform the Balkans into a nuclear-free zone of peace and cooperation, and also entered into an agreement on the joint construction of a power plant and a shipping lock at the Iron Gate on the Danube. When relations between the USSR and Romania were on the verge of breaking down in 1964, Tito visited both countries to convince them of the need for compromise. Tito denounced the large-scale Warsaw Pact intervention in Czechoslovakia in August 1968. The ease with which the USSR and its allies occupied Czechoslovakia exposed Yugoslavia's own military weaknesses; as a result, a territorial defense force was created, a kind of national guard, which was supposed to conduct guerrilla warfare in the event of a Soviet invasion of Yugoslavia.
One of Tito's most serious internal problems was the tension between the various ethnic groups in Yugoslavia. Adding to their deep-rooted antagonism, as well as painful memories of World War II killings, were economic tensions between the relatively developed northwestern republics of Croatia and Slovenia and the poor republics of the south and east. To ensure the division of power between representatives of all major nationalities, Tito reorganized the leadership structure of the UCC in 1969. At the end of 1971, Croatian students staged a demonstration in support of greater political and economic autonomy for Croatia. In response, Tito carried out a purge of the Croatian party apparatus. In Serbia, he carried out a similar purge in 1972-1973.
In 1971, a collegial body (the Presidium of the SFRY) was established to ensure the representation of all major nationalities at the highest level of government. The new constitution of 1974 approved this system and simplified it. Tito retained the presidency without limiting the term of the mandate, but after his death all functions of government were to pass to a collective presidency, the members of which were to replace each other annually as head of state.
Some observers predicted the collapse of the Yugoslav state after Tito's death. Despite many reforms, Tito's Yugoslavia retained some features of Stalinism. After Tito's death (1980), Serbia increasingly tried to re-centralize the country, which was already moving in the direction of a kind of confederation provided for by the Titoist constitution of 1974.
In 1987, Serbia received an active leader in the person of Slobodan Milosevic, the new head of the Union of Communists of Serbia. Milosevic's attempts to first liquidate the autonomies of Kosovo and Vojvodina, which had been administered directly from Belgrade since 1989, and then actions against Slovenia and Croatia led to destabilization of the situation in Yugoslavia. These events accelerated the liquidation of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia and the movement towards independence in all republics, with the exception of Serbia and Montenegro. In Serbia itself, Milosevic increasingly faced opposition from national minorities, primarily Albanians and Bosnian Sandzak Muslims, as well as liberals. The opposition has also strengthened in Montenegro. In 1991, four of the six republics declared independence. In response, Milosevic took military action against Slovenia (in June 1991), Croatia (from September to December 1991), and Bosnia and Herzegovina (March 1992 - December 1995). These wars resulted in significant loss of life, massive civilian displacement and destruction, but no military victory. In Croatia, as well as in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbian irregular forces and the Yugoslav People's Army began to seize territory, kill or deport people of other nationalities, thereby beginning to implement their plan to create a Greater Serbian State.
In April 1992, Milosevic decided to create the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, consisting of Serbia and Montenegro, from the remnants of the former federation. However, in May, the UN Security Council imposed tough sanctions against Yugoslavia due to its aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina. When these sanctions came into effect, US citizen Milan Panic was appointed to the essentially decorative post of prime minister of the reduced state. This act did not lead to an improvement in the international position of Yugoslavia, and the already difficult situation in Bosnia continued to deteriorate. In September, the UN General Assembly voted to expel Yugoslavia from its membership, so Serbia and Montenegro were forced to rely only on their own strength.
In 1993, internal political strife in Yugoslavia led to the resignation of moderate politicians - Prime Minister Panic and President Dobrica Cosic, as well as the arrest and beating of Vuk Draskovic, the leader of the opposition to Milosevic. In May 1993, a meeting of representatives of Yugoslavia, the so-called. Republic of Serbian Krajina (in Croatia) and Republika Srpska (in Bosnia) confirmed the purpose of creating single state- Greater Serbia, in which all Serbs will have to live. At the beginning of 1995, Yugoslavia did not receive permission to join the UN; economic sanctions against it were continued.
In 1995, Slobodan Milosevic stopped political and military support first Croatian and then Bosnian Serbs. In May 1995, the Croatian army completely expelled the Bosnian Serbs from Western Slavonia, and in August 1995 the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina collapsed. The transition of the Serbian enclave to Croatia led to an outflow of Serb refugees to the FRY.
After NATO bombed Bosnian Serb military positions in August and September 1995, an international conference was convened in Dayton (Ohio, USA) to sign a ceasefire agreement in Bosnia and Herzegovina. After the Dayton Accords were signed in December 1995, Yugoslavia continued to harbor war criminals and encouraged the Bosnian Serbs to seek reunification.
In 1996, a number of opposition parties formed a broad coalition called Unity. In the winter of 1996-1997, these parties organized in Belgrade and other major cities Yugoslavia, massive public demonstrations against the Milosevic regime. In the elections in the fall of 1996, the government refused to recognize the victory of the opposition. Internal fragmentation prevented the latter from strengthening itself in the fight against the ruling Socialist Party Serbia (SPS). Milosevic withdrew from the game or joined opposition parties, incl. Serbian Radical Party (SRP) of Vojislav Seselj.
In the fall of 1997, the tension in the internal political situation in the FRY as a whole and primarily in Serbia manifested itself during the long campaign for the election of the Serbian president. At the end of December, on the fourth attempt, 55-year-old SPS representative Milan Milutinovic, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the FRY, defeated the leaders of the SWP and the Serbian Renewal Movement (SDO). In the Assembly of Serbia, the coalition controlled by him received 110 of 250 mandates (SRP - 82, and SDO - 45). In March 1998, a government was formed in Serbia national unity"composed of representatives of the Union of Right Forces, the Yugoslav Left (YuL) movement and the SWP. Mirko Marjanovic (SPS), who served as prime minister in the previous cabinet, became the Chairman of the Government of Serbia.
In May 1998, the government of the FRY R. Kontic was dismissed and a new one was elected, headed by the ex-president of Montenegro (January 1993 - January 1998) M. Bulatovich, the leader of the Socialist People's Party of Montenegro (SNPCH), which separated from Democratic Party Socialists of Montenegro (DSMS). In Bulatovich’s government program, the priority tasks were to preserve the unity of the FRY and continue efforts to create a rule of law state. He spoke out for the reintegration of Yugoslavia into the international community on terms of equality, protection of national and state sovereignty. The third priority of the government’s policy was the continuation of reforms, the creation market economy in order to improve the living standards of the population.
In the spring of 1998, a new president was elected in Albania - the socialist Fatos Nano, who replaced Sali Berisha, a supporter of the idea of a "Greater Albania". In this regard, the prospect of solving the Kosovo problem has become more realistic. However, bloody clashes between the so-called. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and government forces continued until the fall, and only in early September Milosevic spoke in favor of granting self-government to the region (by this time the KLA armed forces had been pushed back to the Albanian border). Another crisis erupted in connection with the discovery of the murder of 45 Albanians in the village of Racak, attributed to the Serbs. The threat of NATO air strikes looms over Belgrade. By the fall of 1998, the number of refugees from Kosovo exceeded 200 thousand people.
The celebration of the 80th anniversary of the founding of Yugoslavia, which took place on December 1, 1998 (in the absence of representatives of the Montenegrin government), was intended to demonstrate the continuity of the country’s course towards the unification of the South Slavs, carried out during the period of the “first Yugoslavia” - the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes - and the “second, or partisan Yugoslavia " - SFRY. However, for a long time, Yugoslavia was alienated from the European Community, and since October 1998 the country actually lived under the threat of bombing.
To resolve the conflict, leading politicians largest countries The West and Russia, within the framework of the Contact Group, initiated the negotiation process in Rambouillet (France) on February 7-23, 1999, which was characterized by greater involvement of Western European countries and their desire to play as significant a role in the Balkans as the United States; the tightening of Russia’s position due to its exclusion from decision-making; weak involvement of the immediate environment - the countries of Central Europe. At the negotiations in Rambouillet, intermediate results were achieved, while the United States had to soften its consistently anti-Serbian position and differentiate its attitude towards various groups in Kosovo. The negotiations that resumed on March 15-18, 1999 did not cancel the threat of bombing of the country, where interethnic clashes continued. Demands to send NATO troops into Yugoslavia, whose leadership announced the breakdown of negotiations due to Belgrade’s fault, sounded increasingly louder, causing opposition from Russia.
On March 20, members of the OSCE mission left Kosovo, on March 21, NATO announced an ultimatum to Milosevic, and starting on March 24, the first missile and bomb attacks began on the territory of Yugoslavia. On March 26, the UN Security Council did not support Russia’s initiative to condemn NATO aggression; Since the end of March, the bombing of Yugoslavia intensified, while the KLA intensified military operations in Kosovo. On March 30, a Russian delegation led by Prime Minister E.M. Primakov visited Belgrade, and on April 4, US President B. Clinton approved the initiative to send helicopters to Albania to support ground operations. On April 13, a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister I.S. Ivanov and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright took place in Oslo, and on April 14, V.S. Chernomyrdin was appointed special representative of the Russian President for Yugoslavia to conduct negotiations.
By this time, the number of civilian victims of the bombings (both Serbs and Kosovars) had increased sharply. The number of refugees from Kosovo has increased sharply, and the contours of an environmental catastrophe affecting countries neighboring Yugoslavia have emerged. On April 23, Chernomyrdin took a trip to Belgrade, after which the negotiation process was continued, and the number of its participants expanded. In May, the bombing of Yugoslavia did not stop, while at the same time the activities of the KLA intensified.
The decisive week in the search for a way out of the crisis situation occurred on May 24-30 and was associated with increased diplomatic activity of the EU and its member countries, on the one hand, and Russia, on the other. At the same time, the initiative of a number of NATO member countries (Greece, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and to a lesser extent Germany) to temporarily stop the bombing did not receive support, and Chernomyrdin’s mission was severely criticized by opposition parties within the Russian State Duma.
At the beginning of June, a meeting between the President of Finland M. Ahtisaari, S. Milosevic and V. S. Chernomyrdin took place in Belgrade. Despite reserved attitude To the negotiations on the part of the United States, they were successful, and an agreement was outlined between NATO forces in Macedonia and Yugoslav army units on the deployment of peacekeeping forces in Kosovo. June 10th general secretary NATO J. Solana ordered the commander-in-chief of the NATO armed forces to stop the bombing, which lasted 78. NATO countries spent approx. 10 billion dollars (75% of these funds came from the USA), caused approx. 10 thousand bomb attacks, undermining the country's military potential, destroying its transport network, oil refineries, etc. At least 5 thousand military and civilians, including Albanians, were killed. The number of refugees from Kosovo reached almost 1,500 thousand people (including 445 thousand in Macedonia, 70 thousand in Montenegro, 250 thousand in Albania, and about 75 thousand people in other European countries). The damage from the bombings is, according to various estimates, from 100 to 130 billion dollars.
Collier's Encyclopedia. - Open Society. 2000 .
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