Yugoslavia's Contested Past

T his special issue of History brings together four articles on the social and cultural history of the former Yugoslavia.All of the authors examine the region's contested past and the politics of identity and memory with particular emphasis on the impact of the communist (or what people from the region usually refer to as socialist) and nationalist experiments.As a country, Yugoslavia (i.e. a state that brought together the South Slavs) had several different forms in the last century.From 1918 to 1941 a monarchy, ruled by the Karaorevic dynasty, called itself Yugoslavia.King Aleksandar, who was assassinated by fascists in France in 1934, was thought by many to be a military hero.He led Serbia's army from the front in the First World War and was granted the right to augment his kingdom in 1918 by his wartime allies.Others, including Croatian and Macedonian nationalists, were less convinced by his positive qualities and considered him to be a tyrannical dictator who had forced peoples to live in a single state.Aleksandar's personal rule was followed by a brief Regency that was toppled by the Third Reich in 1941.Although the Karaorevic regime was repressive, it was replaced by regimes that were far more violent.During the Second World War, more than a million people from the region died, many at the hands of fellow Yugoslavs rather than the occupation forces.Rival nationalists fought for the control of the central part of the state (nowadays Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina).Many Croatians and Bosnian Muslims joined the fascists, killing hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Serbs.Many Serbs joined pro-Karaorevic uerrilla groups who killed thousands of Bosnian Muslims.After 1945, the problems that had dogged the first Yugoslavia never really went away.Despite their victory in the war, the communists led by Josip Broz Tito still faced formidable internal opposition from nationalists.From 1945 until 1990 they stayed in power with a policy of enforced multinationalism (or what they called 'brotherhood and unity') and heavy repression of opponents.In many ways, the Yugoslav communists did create a unique society with distinctive aesthetics, memorials and public culture in sport, bs_bs_banner

Citation · Library science · Media studies · Sociology · Special collections · Balkan and Eastern European Studies · Balkans: History, Politics, Society · Computer Science · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · History