Tito's Park

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 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 , the SFRY was bordered by Italy to the west, Austria and Hungary to the north, Bulgaria and Romania to the east, and Albania and Greece to the south. It 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 traces back 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 deposal 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 the SFRY pursued a policy of neutrality after the Tito–Stalin split of 1948, became one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement, and transitioned from a planned economy to market socialism. Following the death of Tito on 4 May 1980, the Yugoslav economy started to collapse, which increased unemployment and inflation. The economic crisis led to a rise in ethnic nationalism in the late 1980s and early 1990s which led to dissidence 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 and led to recognition of their independence by some European states in 1991. This led to the federation collapsing 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 the reconstituted Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but the union was not recognized internationally as the official successor state to the SFRY. The term former Yugoslavia is now commonly used retrospectively. 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.
Continue reading...
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.