BBC  Slideshow Introduction to Yugoslavia (BEWARE the ‘ancient hatreds’ narrative invoked:)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/map/yugoslavia/

For a bare-bones timeline see here: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/yugotimeline1.html

CIA  A Country Study: Yugoslavia site: http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/yutoc.html

For a great resource, use a browser that has an automatic translator and check out these sites (in Bosnian-Serbo-Croatian) http://www.postyu.info/ and   http://www.leksikon-yu-mitologije.net/ Check out this site as well: http://www.juga.com/

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Balkan Pre-WWI history, 1400-1800:  Foreign occupation/influence

The Ottoman Turks first crossed into the Balkans from Asia Minor in about 1350 and first defeated the Serbs in 1372. It was the crushing Turkish victory at the battle of Kosovo Polje (Kosovo field) in 1389 that opened the way for the complete subjugation of first Serbia, then Bulgaria, Albania, and most of the rest of Southeastern Europe. The Ottomans imposed a feudal system.  For more information about this period, see Fred Singleton’s chapter on South Slavs under foreign rule. See more about Serbia here: http://www.travelserbia.info/history/yugoslavia.php

Croatia creates an independent kingdom in the 10th century, but unites with the Kingdom of Hungary and struggles for autonomy from the Austro-Hungarian Empire for the next several centuries. More on Croatia here: http://www.croatianhistory.net/etf/etfss.html

Slovenia and Bosnia also had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. More on Bosnia here: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/62/index-j.html

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1918: Formation of the first Yugoslav state as an outcome of WWI. For its first eleven years of existence it was officially called Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, but the term Yugoslavia (Yugo = “south” and Slavia = “slavic” ) was also used from the beginning. in 1929 the kingdom was renamed Yugoslavia.

Three phases of the Politics of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes:

1918-1928 An attempt was made to operate a parliamentary democracy –the attempt failed.

1921 – The Yugolsav Communist Party outlawed (continues to operate illegally)

1929 – Royal dictatorship under King Alexander.  Josip Broz (Tito) arrested; Ante Pavelić arrested for anti-Serb activities. Pavelić flees to Italy and co-founds the Ustaša (Croatian Fascist Separatists who advocated a blend of Roman Catholocism, fascism, and ethnic purity (Croatian) see more on Ustaša below )

1934 – Alexander assassinated, dictatorship replaced by a Regency Council headed by the king’s cousin (Paul) presided over a mock parliamentary system, overthrown by a coup d’etat in March 1941 which places young Peter in charge.

April 1941 – Axis invasions send Yugoslav Royal government into exile.  Croatia becomes a nominally independent fascist puppet state (incorporating Bosnia), Germans occupy Serbia, Italians occupy Montenegro. Slovenia annexed to Germany and Italy. By March, the Kingdom ceased to exist, but a shadow gov’t in exile continued on in London.

Read more about the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia here http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005456

and see here for some incredible photographs http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/gallery_ph.php?ModuleId=10005456

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The Ustaša and the NDH: The Independent State of Croatia

Ante Pavelić acts as Prime Minister.

The NDH or Ind. State of Croatia was a misnomer: about half its inhabitants were not Croatian, its statehood was an illusion. It was a fascist state that declared one of its chief objectives – to purify Croatia of alien elements, especially the Serbs. The attitude to Bosnian Muslims was ambivalent. The NDH was to be a state of 2 religions: Catholicism and Islam.  The plan was to exterminate a third, to deport another third, and to convert the remaining third of Serbs in Croatia to Catholicism. This was later judged at Nuremburg to be genocide. The German security police report even complained of the Ustasha excesses –that the scale of the atrocities were driving Serbs into the arms of resistance movement, including the communist led Partisans. Some Catholic clergy members were complicit –some became Ustasha members.

An individual’s blog page about Pavelic, which, not an academic source, has some interesting anecdotes : Ante Pavelić, Hitler’s Friend in Croatia http://christinebednarz.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/ante-pavelic-hitlers-friend-in-croatia/

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Two Main Factions of Resistance to Axis Occupations –

Partisans (Yugoslav Communist Party activists- Josip Broz, later known as Tito, among them)

and

Chetniks (of which there were royalist, communist, and anti-communist factions –for a detailed synopsis of the history of the term Chetnik, which has many definitions, see Fred Singleton pages 187-190. Heavily pro-Serbian Chetniks were led by Draža Mihajlović) http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/grenada/543/pics.html

1942 – ANVOJ, the political body of the resistance movement established. Anti-Fascist Council for the People’s Liberation of Yugoslavia – intended to be the plitical rallying point for all the resistance forces. Although under communist leadership, some effort made to includ prominent non-communists among delegates. At the second session of ANVOJ, a National Commitee was elected to act as a temporary governemnt, with Tito as prime minister and minister of war.

1943 At the Tehran conference Winston Churchill, President Roosevelt, and Stalin agreed to support the Partisans as the only effective Yugoslav resistance movement. (During the winter of 1943-44 there was a realignment of attitudes in British Foreign Policy –interested more in effective outcomes of the war than the future form of the government of Yugoslavia, the British abandon their previous support of Draza Mihailovic, and then their hopes for reconciliation between the royalists, King Peter and the Partisans, in favor of backing the Partisans. For details see Fred Singleton, pages 196-201)

For more on resistance, also see “The Resistance Movement” under the section: Yugoslavia in World War II (1941-45) here: http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/yutoc.html

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Communist Takeover

By 1944 it was becoming increasingly obvious that the Germans were losing the war and that the future government of Yugoslavia would be dominated by the communists.

June 1944 – Tito-Šubašić Agreement / Treaty of Vis / Viški sporazum – British (and other Western) leaders facilitate an agreement between the Communist-led Partisans (de-facto leaders of Yugoslavia) and the royalist Yugoslav Government in Exile. Ivan Šubašić, a non-communist Croatian representative (he had been appointed Prime Minister on June 1) of the Yugoslav Government in Exile, agrees to the formation of a joint government composesd of members nominated by Tito’s National Liberation committee and representatives of the government in exile. The question of the monarchy (what would happen to King Peter?) would be decided after the war.

Winter 1944-1945 – Subasic, the king, Tito, and the British government involved in complicated political maneuvers that result in the formation of a three-man regency coucil, to which the kind handed over his authority.  The regency appointed a government : Tito – prime minister and Subasic – foreign minister.  This government was dominated by AVNOJ members and other Partisan supporters.

7 March 1945- Belgrade The Democratic Federal Yugoslavia (Demokratska Federativna Jugoslavija) formally sworn in. Comprised of Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Macedonia.  Kosovo and Vojvodina given autonomous status.

November 1945: The government held elections to choose a Constituent Assembly. New election laws barred alleged wartime collaborators from voting and all candidates had to be nominated by the communist-controlled People’s Front. Subasic and other non-communist ministers resigned in protest, while the government in exile, royalists, democrats, radicals, Croatian Peasants, and other parties boycotted the election. 12 percent of eligible voters turned out.  The pro-Communist People’s Front took 90 percent of the vote. See Communist Takeover section under Postwar Yugoslavia here: http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/yutoc.html

November 29, 1945 The newly elected Constituent Assembly dissolved the monarchy and established the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia (FNRJ) (which changed its name to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1963)  (SFRY).. Two months later, it adopted a constitution consciously modelled on Stalin’s 1936 USSR constitution that provided for a federation of six republics under a strong central government. Each republic was given equal status. The largest unit, Sebria, contained three elements: Serbia, autonomous province of Vojvodina, and autonomous regioun of Kosovo. The justification for this division was partly that it would dispel fears of a revival of the spectre of Serbian hegemonism which had cast a shadow over pre-war Yugoslavia. (also ethnic reasons: Vojvodina:  large Hungarian minority, Kosovo: Albanian-speaking majority)

The constitution guaranteed many basic rights, and outlined a socialist basis for the economy.

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Tito’s Yugoslavia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Federal_Republic_of_Yugoslavia

The newly formed government needed to establish authority in war-torn Yugoslavia in order to begin reconstruction. Yugoslavia enjoyed full recognition by the international community, as well as a considerable amount of economic aid.

The consolidation of the regime required the elimination of opposition (or perceived opposition), among them: some members of the Catholic Clergy in Croatia (suspected of collaborating with fascists ), members of the Ustaša (Croatian fascist movement), the Mihailovic-led Chetniks,and Volksdeutsche ethnic Germans mainly from Vojvodina. Many members of these groups fled to other countries. But the hard core of the Chetniks were hunted down and captured.

April 1945: Albanian armed revolt protesting Kosovo’s incorporation into Yugoslavia suppressed by Partisans

March 1946: Mihailovic and hard core of Chetniks captured, followed by a show trial and execution of Mihailovic and seven others. Thousands of Chetnik supporters imprisoned.

September 1946: trial of Ustasa members and sympathizers began in Zagreb. Among accused was Catholic Archbishop Stepinac.

The autonomous nature of the Yugoslav resistance movement gave the Yugoslavs a self-confidence and pride which resisted Soviet attempts to bring them into conformity with the other People’s Democracies. Outwardly the Yugoslavs between 1945 and 1948 appeared to be loyal allies of the Soviet Union. But differences of approach broke in 1948.

The trial of Stepinac marked the beginning of a period of strained relations between the Catholic Church and the state, especially in Croatia. For more on this, see Singleton’s section on The Catholic Church and the Communists, page 214-216.

By the end of 1946, the worst of teh wartime damage had been repaired. Factories and mines were reopened and production was rising. The economic foundations of socialism were modelled on Stalin’s Soviet Union.

1947 – Boris Kidric introduces the first Five Year Plan, which had several shortcomings, among them two false assumptions 1) that a country the size of Yugoslavia could industrialize using methods appropriate to the Soviet Union with limited resources 2) that a centralized planning system could be operated in a country which lacked the trained administration to carry it out.  It did achieve some objectives, however: 1) foundations of heavy industry were laid, 2) rapid industrial growth of 1950s followed despite droughts in 1950 and 52 which led to a state of near-famine. (Singleton, 218-219)

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THE TITO-STALIN BREAK – Yugoslavia’s independence appears threatening to Stalin, and on June 28, 1948, Yugoslavia is formally expelled from Cominform.

The Tito-Stalin Break is essential background knowledge for our film screening, When Father was Away on Business. To learn more about this period, see “Yugoslavia: Helpful Links for Our Assignments”

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See here for a really interesting (if a bit sensationalized) article on Tito and his private island, now turned into a national park, that you can visit!!

Inside Tito’s luxury playground: Playboy President/Gandhi’s elephants/Bond lair

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8189530.stm

http://www.brijuni.hr/en/Home.aspx?PageID=100

It was on this island, Brijuni, that Tito held many meetings for the Non-Aligned movement, which he  helped establish  in 1955: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Aligned_Movement

Fresh News about Tito here! : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8636034.stm

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For the post-Tito story of Yugoslavia and its breakup, see my lecture notes on our LEARN@UW site under “content” –Part 1 Yugo describes the period on this site, and Part 2 Yugo describes what happened afterwards.

There are some prominent names, terms and events from this period:

Franjo Tudjman, t http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/294990.stm

Slobodan Milosevic, http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/m/slobodan_milosevic/index.html

Srebrenica: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/675945.stm

Radovan Karadzic: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7521347.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8542297.stm

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Information from this site is LIBERALLY taken from the following recommended readings. Google Books provides substantial previews for many of them:

Fred Singleton: A Short History of the Yugoslav Peoples



http://books.google.com/books?id=qTLSZ3ucaZMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=short+history+yugoslav&cd=2#v=onepage&q&f=false

Dennison Rusinow The Yugoslav Experiment

http://books.google.com/books?id=kChoC2FaS7EC&printsec=frontcover&dq=yugoslav+experiment&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

E. Garrison Walters: The Other Europe Eastern Europe to 1945

http://books.google.com/books?id=64VpSBd7xUcC&pg=PP1&dq=the+other+europe&cd=2#v=onepage&q&f=false