Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Canon: Dušan Makavejev, Danilo Kiš, Slavoj Žižek, Enki Bilal |
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFR Yugoslavia or SFRY) was a country located in central and Southeastern Europe that existed from its foundation in the aftermath of World War II until its dissolution in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. Covering an area of 255,804 km² (98,766 sq mi), the SFRY was bordered by the Adriatic Sea and Italy to the west, Austria and Hungary to the north, Bulgaria and Romania to the east, and Albania and Greece to the south.
The nation was a socialist state and a federation governed by the League of Communists of Yugoslavia and made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia with Belgrade as its capital. In addition, it included two autonomous provinces within Serbia: Kosovo and Vojvodina.
The SFRY's origin is traced to 26 November 1942, when the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia was formed during World War II. On 29 November 1945, the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was proclaimed after the deposition of King Peter II, thus ending the monarchy. Until 1948, the new communist government originally sided with the Eastern bloc under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito at the beginning of the Cold War, but after the Tito–Stalin split of 1948, the SFRY pursued a policy of neutrality. It became one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement, and transitioned from a planned economy to market socialism.
The SFR Yugoslavia maintained neutrality during the Cold War as part of its foreign policy. It was a founding member of CERN, the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, OSCE, IFAD, WTO, Eutelsat, and BTWC.
Following the death of Tito on 4 May 1980, the Yugoslav economy started to collapse, which increased unemployment The economic crisis led to a rise in ethnic nationalism in the late 1980s and early 1990s; dissidence resulted among the multiple ethnicities within the constituent republics.
With the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, inter-republic talks on transformation of the federation also failed. In 1991 some European states recognized their independence. The federation collapsed along federal borders, followed by the start of the Yugoslav Wars, and the final downfall and breakup of the federation on 27 April 1992. Two of its republics, Serbia and Montenegro, remained within a reconstituted state known as the "Federal Republic of Yugoslavia", but this union was not recognized internationally as the official successor state to the SFRY. The term "former Yugoslavia" (bivša Jugoslavija/бивша Југославија) is now commonly used retrospectively.
