Bratstvo i jedinstvo (Brotherhood and Unity) | |||||||
| Anthem | "Hej, Slaveni/Хеј, Словени (Hey Slavs)" | ||||||
| Capital (and largest city) |
Belgrade | ||||||
| Language official |
Serbo-Croatian, Slovene | ||||||
| others | Macedonian, English | ||||||
| Religion | Christianity | ||||||
| Government | Multi Party Socialist Republic | ||||||
| President | Dragiša Pavlović | ||||||
| Prime Minister | Ivica Račan | ||||||
| Population | 24,000,000 | ||||||
| Established | 1943 | ||||||
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Yugoslavia) is a large state in eastern Europe and the second largest Socialist nation in the world. With the help of several unlikely allies, Yugoslavia managed to recover from WW2 relatively well and is today the 3rd most powerful military power in Europe and has the 5th highest standard of living.
History[]
World War 2[]
See Yugoslav Front for Yugoslavic involvement in WW2.
Post WW2[]
Following WW2 Marshal Tito was called to Moscow to talk about Yugoslavia's status in the post-war world. The meeting was a complete disaster for Stalin. Without the help of the USA Stalin had believed that Yugoslavia would be happy to either become part of the USSR or one of its many satellite states. However, Tito was determined that Yugoslavia would walk her own path and left the meeting aware that his relationship with Stalin was damaged beyond repair.
Without help from Stalin many felt the Yugoslavia would fall apart but Tito struck a bargain with one of the least likely allies in history, Spain. Despite Tito's support for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War Franco was more concerned with Stalin's growing power and desperately needed an ally in Eastern Europe. Yugoslavia had, at one point had an itch to annex Albania. However, this was averted although Albania effectively became a Yugoslavian puppet state.
Greek Intervention[]
In 1946 a civil war broke out in Greece when Britain was no longer financially capable of keeping the unpopular monarchy in charge. The US took over some of Britain's responsibilities but was unable to prevent a civil war from breaking out between the unpopular monarchy and the socialists who were backed by the general populace. Soon though it appeared that the socialists themselves were split, Yugoslavia supported the moderate Socialist Party of Greece while the USSR backed the radical Communist Party of Greece. Fighting became so intense between the two socialist nations that much to the dismay of Tito it looked like the Monarchists were going to win.
Surprisingly one of Tito's advisors, Ivan Gošnjak came up with a solution with this problem. The socialists formed an alliance with the Monarchists on the promise that fair and free elections overseen by the US and Switzerland would take place after the Communists had been dealt with, Although risking a possible Monarchist Greece the deal would guarantee that Yugoslavia had a friendly country to south and would not be surrounded on all sides by the USSR or its allies. After a series of negotiations with the Monarchists Yugoslav tanks stormed into Athens and restored control to the Socialist-Monarchist coalition. Following this Bulgarian army units and USSR air brigades (unofficially) arrived in east Greece to help the Greek communists but Yugoslavian & American Aircraft (On lend-lease to the Greek Monarchists) carried out bombing raids and by the end of 1948 the east of the country had been pacified. The Yugoslavs and Greek socialists allowed the elections to take place and even though they were not favorable to the US they were free and democratic. With Greece now under socialist control Tito could now deal with his most major problem, how to arm Yugoslavia against the largest country in the world.
US Co-Operation (1948-1965)[]
Although the US was unwilling to give free aid to any of the European states it was willing to sell weapons and equipment at a discount to anti USSR states in Europe. However, Yugoslavia's main allies (Spain and Turkey) were unwilling to foot the bill for Yugoslavia's new military while they had there own to rebuild. Reluctantly Tito decided to allow private enterprise within Yugoslavia as long as it promised to support the Slavic people. This worked surprisingly well, a\eager for an output in the Balkans American businesses flocked to Yugoslavia and were more than willing to agree to Tito's demand for Yugoslav funding. Yugoslavian businesses also open up across the nation including the (Soon to be famous) Soko tank and aircraft manufacturer.
With funding from private enterprise Yugoslavia was able to not only expand its army, air force and navy with US equipment and natively produced copies it was also able to create a health service, improve Yugoslavia's education service and create a welfare state.
In addition to this Yugoslavia and its allies soon founded the Anti-Soviet pact. While not trying to fight the soviets the ASP was created to ensure that the sovereignty of its members would always be protected. It was founded by Spain, Yugoslavia, Albania and Greece in 1950 although Turkey joined for a short time in 1953.
Nuclear Weaponry[]
| “ | We must have nuclear weapons, without them we are defenseless. Without them we cannot defend ourselves from the USSR | ” |
Following the entrance of Turkey into the Anti-Soviet pact Tito called for all nuclear scientists within the member nations to attend a conference in Yugoslavia. The scientists were told that there was no way in which the Anti-Soviet pact could survive without nuclear weapons while the USSR had them. Therefore the ASP (Anti-Soviet Pact) had two options, they could either create their own nuclear weapons or they could sabotage the USSR's nuclear stockpile. Tito wanted to do both of those options, however, and so he tasked the ASP's scientists to create nuclear weapons while at the same time he ordered spies to sabotage the USSR's own weapons.
The US provided the ASP with Uranium to create its weaponry but made it clear to Tito that they would not help them create an A-Bomb. That wasn't going to stop Tito, however, and soon Yugoslavia and the ASP were working on an A-Bomb. They finally conducted there first A-Bomb test in 1958 and there first H-Bomb test followed in 1970. In the aftermath of this the ASP formed a joint strategic bomber force based on ex German Heinkel He 177's (Based in Spain) and Junkers Ju 88's (Based in Yugoslavia, Greece, Albania and for a time Turkey). Soon though these ex German bombers were realized to be too slow and they were replaced by the Spanish built S-27 strategic bombers and smaller warheads that could be fitted in missiles or smaller bombs and could then be stored on Yugoslavia J-22's.
Recently the ASP's nuclear weapon delivery system has undergone another update and the weapons are now delivered by Yugoslavian J-24 tubojet bombers or Spanish ICBM's/SLBM's.
Normalization with the USSR (1965-1980)[]
Following Stalin's death Yugoslavia's relationship with the USSR slowly improved and trade opened up between the two nations for the first time in 20 years. Most noticeable was the purchase of T-72 tanks which the Yugoslav army had been asking for since there creation. Yugoslavian grain and food was transferred to the USSR in exchange for equipment but Tito still made his position clear, Yugoslavia would remain totally independent. However, this situation ended with Tito's death as the USSR considered the dangerous nationalism that emerged from the ruins to risky to trade with.
Move towards democracy & Increasing Nationalism (1980-1987)[]
Tito's death marked a grim day for Yugoslavia, in the Split soccer stadium, where Serb and Croat teams playing against each other in a match, both stopped upon hearing of Tito's passing and tearfully sung the hymn "Comrade Tito We Swear to You, from Your Path We Will not Depart". However, Tito's successor would improve on his suggestions and brought some democracy to Yugoslavia. Veselin Đuranović (His successor) allowed Yugoslav citizens to vote for the leader of their Socialist Republic and for their President although only socialist parties and candidates were allowed.
However, Veselin Đuranović wasn't able to suppress nationalism in the same way as Tito and Bosnia became increasingly independent as its leaders felt that Đuranović wasn't radical enough. Eventually the republic of Bosnia declared independence and Bosnian units in the YLP (Yugoslav Peoples Army) left the main army and joined Bosnia. However. Yugoslavia wasn't going to allow a republic to secede without a fight and invaded.
1st and 2nd Bosnian Wars & Ethnic Cleansings (1987-1999)[]
The First Bosnian war itself was relatively short lived, Yugoslav forces quickly invaded the north and south and assimilated the Serbian and Croatian Bosnians back into there associate republics (Serbia and Croatia). However, they allowed the Bosnians to form there own Bosnian state. Within the new Bosnian state however, a massive program of ethnic cleansing was started by a radical Bosnians who was determined to make the new Bosnia a totally Muslim nation. This angered the Yugoslav government and the USSR decided to fund the Bosnians because they were still angry at Tito successors. When this ethnic cleansing ended most of the Bosnian Serbs and Croats were dead and the Bosnians were in complete control of nation.
The Second Bosnian war was a complete and utter disaster for Yugoslavia as it marked the first military Defeat for the nation (And the first failure of the ASP). It restored Bosnia to its size at independence and marked the end of Yugoslavia's domination of the Balklans. It began on Jule the 6th 1997 when Bosnia (Backed by the USSR) declared war on Yugoslavia and USSR tanks stormed through the border posts. However, Yugoslavia wasn't going to give up easily, the Yugoslavs were originally pushed into Serbia and Croatia but Yugoslavian tank columns made up of M-90 tanks and the few M-96's, supported by Yugoslavian J-22 and J-20 attack aircraft launched a counter attack quickly though and forced Bosnians forces back to there border and these borders were secured by the treaty of Kosovo in which the USSR and Yugoslavia agreed on a peace treaty as long as the Bosnians agreed to hand over war criminals to Yugoslavia. Bosnia has, however. provoked Yugoslavia many times, and to eliminate the threat to their people, they have bought many arms and the Yugoslav Army has prepared a plan to retake the radical country and bring it back.
Rebuilding and the age of Technology (1999-2010)[]
The massive damage to Yugoslavia caused by the war would have a lasting affect of Yugoslavia. To fix the problem of nationalism all of the constituent national parties were merged into three parties, The Communist Party of Yugoslavia, The Socialist Party of Yugoslavia and The Labour Party of Yugoslavia. The Socialist Party gained the presidency (A Croatian) but the Labour Party gained the prime minister.
Yugoslavia now began a program of creating independent equipment to replace the copied Soviet and US equipment that was mainly in service. With a new generation of intelligent Serbs and Croats Yugoslavia grew to new technological heights which allowed it to maintain its position as Europe's third most powerful military power and soon regained its position as the main power in the Balklans.
2006 Nuclear Crisis[]
The 2006 Crisis marked the first major conflict between the USSR and Yugoslavia in over forty years. The USSR sent several scientists to Bosnia to discus the creation of Bosnian nukes, which the Yugoslavians were strongly opposed to. The USSR further heightened the tensions between them though when it helped the Bosnians set up launch sites for tactical nukes and missiles. However, it had not yet supplied the Bosnians with the nukes themselves and the YPIA (Yugoslav People's Intelligence Agency) had worked out that the warheads were due to be delivered on the 3rd of August 2006. As the USSR An-124 carrying the warheads entered Yugoslavian air space three squadrons of J-30 were scrambled to intercept it and it was forced down to the ground. The weapons were confiscated but what infuriated Yugoslavia was that the Soviet pilots refused to hand over the weapons and shot a Yugoslavian police officer. In response to this, the pilots were executed and the USSR sent a warning to Yugoslavia. If it refused to co-operate with the USSR they would be attacked.
The Yugoslavian President had his own response to this, however, and he sent a blunt message to the USSR, Two J-24's armed with nukes were sent to Moscow. Putin was willing to back down, however. and he ordered missiles to be prepared for launch. However, after intense conversation with the Spanish and Greek heads of state the Yugoslavian president backed down and ordered the bombers to be withdrawn. Europe heaved a sigh of relief as the bombers were withdrawn and the chance of nuclear war was averted.
Government[]
Yugoslavia has a unique system of government. It has a multi-party system but All of its political parties are required to be socialist. However, the three socialist parties vary from radical socialism (The Communist Party) to free market socialism (The Labour Party) and there is a wide variety of choice for Yugoslavia's citizens. The constituent republics originally had their own parties but they were disbanded in light of rising nationalism. However, the republics do have some control over their own population and are generaly happy with the Yugoslav government. Yugoslavia is split into the following socialist republics;
- Kosovo
- Croatia
- Slovenia
- Serbia
- Montenegro
- Macedonia
- Vojvodina
Military[]
The Yugoslav Peoples Armed Forces is the second largest in Europe and is far more technologically powerful than its nearest rivals (The USSR's European Army and the small but skilled Bulgarian army). The Yugoslavian army is based around armored and mechanized units with a small infantry corps made up of conscripts. Traditionally the Yugoslav army is tasked with preventing territorial infringements into Yugoslavia and fighting against Soviet influence alongside Spanish and Greek troops. Yugoslavia also maintains a compulsory training in guerrilla warfare for all of its subjects, in the case of invasion.
The Yugoslav air force is Yugoslavia's pride and joy and has the largest percentage of indigenous equipment of all of Yugoslavia's armed forces. It is mainly tasked with preventing the USSR and other powers from flying over Yugoslavia but unlike the army it often also intervenes military against enemy forces and insurgents.
The Yugoslavian navy is the smallest of the three Yugoslavian armed forces branches. It is mostly made up of Yugoslav copies of US and USSR ships although recently Yugoslavia has produced a few ships of its own.
Economy[]
Yugoslavia has a unique economic set up. Lots of the economy is controlled by the government as nationalized Rail, Health and Post services exist. However, Yugoslavia also allows private enterprise and many industrial factories and shops are owned by private companies that are obliged to provide services to the Yugoslavian people. Noticeable Yugoslavian companies include the SOKO tank and aircraft plant.
Religion[]
Yugoslavia is predominantly Christian although Muslims make up 5% of the population and Jews 4%. Tensions between Muslims and Christians in Bosnia was one of the many causes for the ethnic clensings in Bosnia and the Yugoslavia's government has tried to calm ethnic tensions by making all religions equal.