Yugoslavia

A country invented twice and destroyed twice, holding together peoples who spoke largely the same language and remembered entirely different histories. The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was proclaimed in 1918 from Serbia, Montenegro and the South Slav lands of the collapsed Habsburg empire, and renamed Yugoslavia in 1929 when the king suspended the constitution to stop it tearing itself apart over Serbian centralisation. Germany invaded in April 1941 and partitioned it, and the war that followed was a civil war as much as an occupation - the Ustasha state in Croatia murdered Serbs, Jews and Roma on a scale that shocked even German observers, while Chetniks and Partisans fought each other as well as the occupiers. Tito's Partisans won, and the federation he rebuilt was genuinely his achievement: six republics, a rotating presidency, workers' self-management, and a break with Stalin in 1948 that made Yugoslavia the leading non-aligned state. It also depended on him. After his death in 1980 the collective presidency deadlocked, debt and inflation mounted, and republican leaders found nationalism the only currency left. Slovenia and Croatia declared independence in June 1991. The wars that followed ran to 1999 and killed around a hundred and forty thousand people. Serbia and Montenegro kept the name until 2003. Belgrade was the capital throughout. The federation's six republics were Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Macedonia, with two autonomous provinces inside Serbia. Its passport was accepted in both Cold War blocs. The 1984 Winter Olympics were held in Sarajevo, eight years before the siege. Yugo cars were exported to the United States.

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