Yugoslavia

views updated May 23 2018

YUGOSLAVIA

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

Federativna Republika Jugoslavijá

COUNTRY OVERVIEW

LOCATION AND SIZE.

Although the country is recognized by others, the United States does not officially recognize the federation consisting of Serbia and Montenegro as Yugoslavia; it calls the country "Serbia and Montenegro."

Located in southeastern Europe, bounded on the north by Hungary, on the northeast by Romania, on the southeast by Bulgaria, on the south by Albania and Macedonia, on the southwest by the Adriatic Sea, and on the west by Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia has an area of 102,350 square kilometers (39,518 square miles). Serbia, including the province of Kosovo, accounts for 88,412 square kilometers (34,136 square miles) while Montenegro accounts for 13,938 square kilometers (5,382 square miles), 199 kilometers (124 miles) of which is coastline. The total area is slightly smaller than Kentucky (Serbia is slightly larger than Maine, Montenegro is slightly smaller than Connecticut). The capital, Belgrade, is situated on the Danube and Sava rivers in north-central Serbia. Until the early 1990s, Yugoslavia incorporated the republics of Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The territory has yet to resolve all the territorial disputes between the former Yugoslav republics.

POPULATION.

The population was estimated to be 10,662,087 (Serbia9,981,929; Montenegro680,158) in July 2000. By 2001, the World Factbook estimated that the population had grown to 10,677,290. The numbers are not exact, however, because of the dislocations caused by the devastating Yugoslav wars and the ethnic cleansing (killing carried out on ethnic minorities by a majority group) that had raged from 1991 to 1999. In 1998, the population was estimated at 11,206,039, including a significant number of Serb refugees from Croatia and Bosnia. In 1999, a mass exodus of ethnic Albanians from the Serbian province of Kosovo into adjacent Albania and Macedonia occurred; most have since returned. The population growth rate in Serbia is positive, with a birth rate of 12.2 and a death rate of 11.08 per 1,000 population (estimated in 2000). In Montenegro, emigration caused a decline in the population, although in 2000 the estimated birth rate stood at 14.9 and the death rate at 7.9 per 1,000.

The ethnic composition before the recent wars included Serbs, 62.6 percent; Albanians, 16.5 percent; Montenegrins (close to Serbs), 5 percent; Hungarians, 3.3 percent; Muslims (or Bosniaks), 3 percent; along with Roma (Gypsies), Bulgarians, Croats, and other groups. Religions include Orthodox Christian (65 percent), Muslim (19 percent), Roman Catholic (4 percent), Protestant (1 percent), and others (11 percent). The population in Montenegro, and to some extent in Serbia, is young, with 22.05 percent below the age of 14 and 11.79 percent older than 65; in Serbia, 19.95 percent are below the age of 14 and 14.83 percent are older than 65. In 1997, 58 percent of the population lived in urban areas.

OVERVIEW OF ECONOMY

The Yugoslav economy is severely damaged due to more than 10 years of internal fighting and fighting among some republics that were formerly part of the federation. Prior to 1991, Serbia and Montenegro were 2 of 7 constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). The disintegration of the federation in 1991-1992 and the secession (withdrawal from an organization in order to gain independence) of 4 republics, including the most prosperous ones, Slovenia and Croatia, were an economic disaster for the newly formed FRY (Serbia and Montenegro).

The republics struggled for control of the area and some, especially Serbia, mounted genocidal attacks on neighboring Kosovo. The conflicts led to market disruption, and international sanctions . Corrupt economic policies led to devastation, high inflation , and the reversal of market reforms that had started in the 1980s. Industry was almost ruined, production was cut by more than 50 percent, the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in 2000 was half of the 1989 level, and unemployment was up by 50 percent. Liquidity, large trade and fiscal deficits, and politically based economic inefficiencies threaten economic stability.

Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic led much of the area's troubles. The international community enforced strict sanctions against the area to try to stop the fighting and, finally, in 1999, NATO began a bombing campaign to end the internal fighting.

The international community welcomed the ouster of Milosevic in October 2000, and radical institutional and economic reforms were expected in 2001. The European Union (EU) opened up its market to imports of Yugoslav industrial and agricultural goods, and sanctions were lifted as the West accepted that the only way to stabilize the country was to help reintegrate it with the rest of Europe. Before the new government turns to reforms, however, companies and institutions must first be made operational. The almost continuous conflicts in the area have destroyed much of the country's infrastructure .

POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, AND TAXATION

Slavic republics had been separated for much of history by larger national powers, such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 19th century. After World War II, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina were united. But the federation of these republics was far from easy. Although mostly Slavic republics, the populations in the republics were a blend of people with strong, differing cultural affinities that did not match territorial boundaries. By the 1990s, tensions between the republics led to the dissolution of Yugoslavia. The break was not clean, however, because people within the republics struggled to redraw the territorial boundaries along cultural lines. Ethnic Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, for example, wished to join with Serbia. War between many of the republics led to severe political and economic disruption in the area.

In 1992, Serbia and Montenegro adopted a new constitution that set up a parliamentary government with a bicameral (2 house) legislature. Despite the new government, President Milosevic headed a dictatorial regime from 1987 to 2000. Milosevic's regime is responsible for much of the devastation caused by years of war from 1991 to 1999.

Following the presidential elections in September 2000, a popular uprising toppled Milosevic. The new president, Vojislav Kostunica, pledged a return to democracy and the rule of law. He promised to begin much needed reforms and to seek full reintegration into Europe. Furthermore, he secured Yugoslavia's return to the United Nations (UN) and admission to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Parliamentary elections in December 2000 brought to power the Democratic Coalition of Serbia (DOS), a reformist union of 18 parties and a trade union, led by Zoran Djindjic of the Democratic party, with 64 percent of the vote. Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia that ruled along with the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party and the Yugoslav United Left garnered only 14 percent of the vote.

Recovery is expected to be long and painstaking. The DOS favors swift change, but Kostunica holds that it would jeopardize stability before a new legal framework is instituted. But the squabbles between the former Yugoslav republics are far from over. The UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), established after the 1999 war, is now the authority in what was the former Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, and Albanian separatists are wreaking havoc in south Serbia, adjacent to Kosovo. Montenegro, which boycotted federal elections, continues its push toward independence. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, Serbia and Montenegro and Croatia, and Serbia and Montenegro and Macedonia have yet to resolve respective territorial issues.

The government's role in the economy is significant, as state enterprises owned more than 80 percent of the capital, and the private sector accounted for only 37 percent of GDP in 1996. Federal and republic governments have retained many formal and informal levers of authority over the economy, export and import licenses, credit, and jobs. The Montenegrin government has been more reform-oriented, and its law establishes tax exemptions, tax relief, and other privileges for foreign business activity.

INFRASTRUCTURE, POWER, AND COMMUNICATIONS

Serbia enjoys a central location in the Balkans, but the loss of markets and economic sanctions and NATO's (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) bombardment in 1999 devastated the transportation and communications sector; billions of dollars are needed for repair and modernization.

In 1997, the road network included 50,414 kilometers (31,326 miles) of roads (55 percent paved), with 380 kilometers (237 miles) of expressways, and 171 kilometers (106 miles) of semi-expressways. There were 4,031 kilometers (2,505 miles) of railroad tracks. Harbors on Montenegro's coast and at Belgrade serve as shipping centers, and plans to clear debris from the Danube left

Communications
CountryNewspapersRadiosTV Sets aCable subscribers aMobile Phones aFax Machines aPersonal Computers aInternet Hosts bInternet Users b
199619971998199819981998199819991999
Yugoslavia107297259N/A231.918.87.6580
United States2152,146847244.325678.4458.61,508.7774,100
Russia10541842078.550.440.613.062,700
Romania300319233119.229N/A10.29.01600
aData are from International Telecommunication Union, World Telecommunication Development Report 1999 and are per 1,000 people.
bData are from the Internet Software Consortium (http://www.isc.org) and are per 10,000 people.
SOURCE: World Bank. World Development Indicators 2000.

by the bombing campaign will make trade along the river active again. The national airline, JAT, operates out of international airports in Belgrade and Podgorica, but under the 1992-1995 embargo , flights to Yugoslavia were banned, and the bombing of 1999 caused damage to civilian airports.

Before 1999, the country was self-sufficient in electricity from coal and hydropower. The sector is dominated by the state-owned monopolies of Serbia and Montenegro. The bombing in 1999 destroyed or damaged 14 power stations and 2 major oil refineries.

In 1997, the purchase of a 49 percent share of the Serbian Telecommunications Company PTT by the Italian company Stet and Greece's OTE pumped nearly US$1 billion into the budget. War and sanctions delayed modernization, but this has led to fast mobile telephone growth. Access to the Internet was introduced in 1997, and there are about 100,000 registered users and 150,000 personal computers.

ECONOMIC SECTORS

The sanctions of the 1990s hurt the economic sectors of Yugoslavia, especially industry. Unable to reach export markets or to import needed materials, many companies had to cease operations. Formerly one of the chief sources of copper in Europe, Serbia's mining industry also suffered during the 1990s, and many factories in the manufacturing sector became idle. But as sanctions were lifted, the industrial sector soon started up again. By 1998, the contributions of industry to the GDP were as follows: manufacturing and mining accounted for 33.9 percent; construction, 5.6 percent; agriculture, forestry, and fishing, 19.9 percent; trade, tourism, and catering, 18.7 percent; crafts, 9.9 percent; and transport and communications, 12 percent. Agriculture was estimated to account for 20 percent of GDP, industry 50 percent, and services 30 percent by 1998. The government hoped to encourage exports in agricultural goods, food processing, textiles, furniture, pharmaceuticals, metallic ores, and to boost tourism, particularly in Montenegro, in order to earn foreign exchange.

AGRICULTURE

Chief agricultural products include corn, sugar beets, wheat, potatoes, grapes, plums, cattle, pigs, and sheep. Vojvodina, in northern Serbia, contains the most fertile land. Cooperative farms in Yugoslavia did not take root under the socialist regime, but the government of Milosevic exported wheat and corn heavily (contributing 25 percent of Serbia's hard currency ) and bartered grain for oil and gas from Iraq, Libya, Syria, and the Ukraine. This practice exploited farmers by paying them below-market prices and limiting their access to the free market. Farmers had no alternatives but to sell to state mills as most did not have storage facilities and permits to trade. Police harassed them, and if caught selling outside state outlets, they were fined US$2,000. The drought in the summer of 2000 was considered the worst in 7 decades and food shortages threatened throughout the winter of 2000-2001, with the corn harvest about 50 percent lower compared to 1999. Sunflower seeds were also down by 60-70 percent, soya by 40-50 percent, and fodder crops by 40-50 percent. International humanitarian aid pledged by the European Union and other donors following Milosevic's removal in October 2000 may compensate for the shortages.

INDUSTRY

Unlike other former socialist countries with inappropriate concentration of heavy industry, Yugoslavia inherited a diversity of industries. Before the disintegration of the federation there were thriving metallurgy, chemicals, textiles, automobile, furniture, and food-processing sectors. Industrial output plunged by 70 percent over the 1990s. Although industry wasn't literally "wiped out," it became less commercial than in communist times. During the 1980s, the communist regime set up joint ventures with foreign companies. Then, during the wars, strategic firms were re- nationalized , most other companies remained in social ownership, and less than a third were private. By the end of 2000, there were indications that much of what had already been privatized by Milosevic might be re-nationalized.

Industry is considered about 50 percent over-staffed, and most firms are bankrupt. In 1996, overdue inter-company debt was nearly US$2 billion (roughly 30 percent of the sector's contribution to GDP). The biggest loss-makers were 30 large state and socially owned companies, responsible for more than 60 percent of all losses. The complex system of workers' ownership of companies, a legacy from the socialist past, confuses shareholder issues. Although Montenegro was affected by the same problems, its active privatization policy transferred all state-owned capital to government funds to attract foreign investment.

Among the industrial enterprises that have ties with foreign investors, but were bombed in 1999, were the Zastava factory in Kragujevac, maker of the Yugo automobiles, the Sloboda domestic appliances factory at Cacak, and the 14 Oktobar factory in Krusevac, the largest heavy machinery plant in the Balkans.

Copper, zinc, and lead mining were an important contributor to industry. The Trepca complex near Mitrovica in Kosovo was the main mining area. In 2000, it was taken over by the U.N. administration in Kosovo because of environmental and health hazards, provoking protest from Belgrade, which accused the U.N. of confiscating the mine. Negative environmental impact from mining in Serbia is considerable, but no serious measures were taken by the Milosevic regime to counter it. Additionally, rivers and soils throughout Serbia, and particularly in Kosovo, were heavily polluted by oil spills from destroyed refineries and radioactive, depleted uranium shell debris from the 1999 bombing campaign. Serious concerns arose in the Balkans and Western Europe about the health of the population and the international peace-keeping troops based in the region. Sizeable international assistance could help to improve the situation, but most likely only in a long-term scenario. Sustained recovery in Yugoslav industrial performance will require, apart from ending the isolation and instituting trade preferences, considerable foreign investment and new technologies to be brought into the country.

SERVICES

FINANCE.

Yugoslavia has about 100 small commercial banks with bad loans amounting to more than US$4 billion. Under-capitalization (insufficient funds) is rampant and, according to official data, the assets of the 10 largest banks in Yugoslavia now total about US$3.5 billion, or 60 percent of all bank assets. Some experts estimate that even this modest number is overstated by approximately 25 percent, because the banking system is not sound. Around 50 percent of assets are of low quality (dubious receivables), while another 40 percent are non-performing (frozen). Confidence in banks was destroyed after the sequestration (seizure) by the state of the population's hard currency savings of US$3.4 billion for its war efforts in 1991-92 and the collapse of a series of pyramid schemes in the early 1990s. The repayment of the savings to depositors in dinars started in 2000, but most preferred to wait for future payments in hard currency. Many banks did not have hard currency and offered gold coins instead. The commercial banks put the blame on the National Bank of Yugoslavia (NBY, the central bank) for its failure to provide funds for the reimbursement.

TOURISM.

Tourism is the most promising sector in Montenegro, given the short but beautiful stretch of Adriatic coastline, adjacent to Croatian Dalmatia, with numerous resorts and picturesque small towns. The sector was well developed before the wars, but is now in shambles. Some limited foreign investment, primarily from Slovenian companies, may be expected in the short run, but it will take longer to restore the one-time attractiveness of Montenegro for Western tourists. In Serbia, the importance of the sector was lower and is now negligible.

RETAIL.

This sector was well developed and a major portion of it was privatized before the wars, but it contracted with the economic collapse of the 1990s. By 2000, some small retail stores were reopened and some experts hoped the success of small shops, such as gas stations and other

Trade (expressed in billions of US$): Yugoslavia
exportsImports
19754.0727.697
19808.97815.076
198510.70012.207
199014.30818.871
1995N/AN/A
1998N/AN/A
SOURCE: International Monetary Fund. International Financial Statistics Yearbook 1999.

retail stores, would support growth of medium and large retail companies.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

International sanctions on Yugoslavia were implemented in 1991 with weapons embargoes. As the conflict in the area escalated, more sanctions were enforced and full trade was blocked from 1992 until 1994. Embargoes against weapons sales were again imposed between 1998 and 2001.

The sanctions had a dramatic effect on trade. Trade with the United States, for example, went from US$38.7 million worth of imports and US$5.9 million worth of exports in 1992 to US$1.7 million in exports and no imports in 1993. Trade with the United States improved as the sanctions were lifted in the late 1990s. In 1996, the United States exported US$46 million to Yugoslavia and imported US$8.2 million worth of goods. Yugoslavia's total trade in 1996 reached US$1.8 billion for exports and imports rose to US$4.1 billion. The trade numbers for 1999 were US$1.5 billion for exports and US$3.3 billion for imports.

The imbalance between exports and imports reflected the weakness of the economy and the export-oriented sectors. The lack of international recognition of the FRY made receiving loans, foreign investment, and trade credit difficult and, in turn, did nothing to help develop trade relations with other countries.

MONEY

Banking remains weak as many businesses owe large sums and show little inclination to pay them back to the banks, which are now largely insolvent. Over the first half of 2000, the 28 largest banks made a loss of US$190 million at the black market exchange rate , and most are unable to observe their own national banking regulations. Small banks were more cost-efficient and less vulnerable to political and business pressure. Some small steps

Exchange rates: Yugoslavia
Yugoslav New Dinars (YD) per US$1
2000N/A
1999N/A
Dec 199810.0
Dec 19975.85
Sep 19965.02
early 19951.5
Note: Rates in table are official; black market rate: 14.5 (Dec 1998), 8.9(Dec 1997), 2 to 3 (early 1995).
SOURCE: CIA World Factbook 2001 [ONLINE].

towards reform and consolidation of the fragmented sector were taken in 1997, when 16 small banks and 4 large onesBeogradska Banka, Investbanka, Agrobanka and Beobankawere consolidated. The 20 banks together controlled about 75 percent of the market, and in 2000, the Montenegrin government passed a bill seeking stringent safeguards in the banking system. Radical restructuring of the banking sector is more likely now as Yugoslavia is restoring its membership in international financial institutions.

Capital markets are underdeveloped. The Belgrade Stock Exchange was established in 1989 and the Podgorica Stock Exchange in 1996. Given the current state of privatization, trading in securities is very limited and both exchanges operate primarily in short-term (30 days or less) commercial paper (notes) issued by large Yugoslav corporations.

In November 2000, Montenegro made the German mark legal tender. All payments between the 2 republics will be conducted in marks. The dinar was tied to the German mark in 1995 (at a fixed rate of 3.3 dinars per mark). The street exchange rate in mid-2000 was at about 3.5 dinars per mark (5.7 dinars per US$1), but analysts believe the dinar was overvalued by 30-50 percent. The black market in foreign currencies was robust, and inflation lowered the real income of salaried workers.

POVERTY AND WEALTH

Before 1991, Serbs and Montenegrins enjoyed a comparatively prosperous life, and their access to information, travel, and work abroad was easier than in most Eastern European countries. As a socialist economy, old Yugoslavia was generally more egalitarian than Western European countries. During the 1990s, as the economy collapsed, the majority of Serbs grew desperately poor. Average salaries in Serbia hit the bottom at US$40 per month in 2000. Payments to employees on state payrollshealth workers, teachers, soldiers, police, and pensioners

GDP per Capita (US$)
Country19961997199819992000
YugoslaviaN/A2,2802,3001,8002,300
United States28,60030,20031,50033,90036,200
Russia5,2004,7004,0004,2007,700
Romania5,2005,3004,0503,9005,900
Note: Data are estimates.
SOURCE: Handbook of the Nations, 17th,18th, 19th and 20theditions for 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 data; CIA World Factbook 2001 [Online] for 2000 data.

were months overdue. The 1999 bombing of major cities led to many casualties and devastation. Health, education, and welfare were also seriously jeopardized, and energy shortages plagued the people. Widespread indignation fueled the mass protests of 1996 and the popular uprising that finally toppled Milosevic in October 2000.

At the same time, many members of Milosevic's inner circle amassedthrough nepotism, corruption, and smugglinglargely illegitimate fortunes that the new government will work to recover from foreign bank accounts. The dictator's notorious playboy son, Marko, was particularly resented, and as soon as his father was out of office, many assets of his self-styled business empire were looted and burned by angry crowds.

WORKING CONDITIONS

About a quarter of Serbs are officially unemployed, but the number rises to 50 percent if people in insolvent companies are included. Over-staffing and underpayment in most remaining firms mean that few workers have real jobs. The way to provide people with sustainable livelihoods is to revive the companies with capacity to provide new jobs. These companies must end their isolation and become able to export. Labor activism was instrumental in ousting Milosevic and could hardly be underestimated as an economic factor in a country with largely socialist traditions. Unions will influence economic decisions, as workers, having taken control of their companies from Milosevic's managers, are pushing for reversal of the privatization schemes that benefited Milosevic's cronies. Revisions of these privatization deals seem more likely than elsewhere in Eastern Europe.

By late 1999, about 2 million people were employed in the state sector, about a million and a half in industry and agriculture, and the rest in education, government, and services. Slightly more than 300,000 were employed in private sector trade and services, and 560,000 were independent farmers, while up to 1 million, including most Serb refugees from Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo, engaged in subsistence agriculture and lived in deep poverty.

COUNTRY HISTORY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

600s. Slavs settle in parts of the present Serbian and Montenegrin lands, comprising portions of the ancient Roman province of Illyricum, then ruled by Byzantium, from which the Slavs accept Orthodox Christianity.

1168. King Stefan Nemanja establishes the first kingdom of Serbia.

1331-55. Under King Stefan Dusan, Serbia acquires new lands as the feudal economy develops and gives way to decentralization.

1389. Ottomans rout a Christian army including Serbs under King Lazar at Kosovo Polje.

1459. Serbia is violently conquered by the Ottoman Empire and remains under its rule for nearly 4 centuries, while Montenegro, the one-time Serbian province of Zeta, remains virtually independent.

1815. A revolt frees most of Serbia from Ottoman domination; a Serbian national revival thrives. Serb nationalists aim at uniting all South Slavs under the Serbian state.

1912-13. In the Balkan Wars, Serbia annexes extensive territories, including the Sandjak, Kosovo, and the present-day Republic of Macedonia.

1914. Austria-Hungary starts World War I, occupying Serbia by 1915. The Serbian army and government flee.

1918. The Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1929) is proclaimed (it includes Montenegro).

1941. In World War II, Yugoslavia breaks up as Nazi Germany occupies Serbia. Serb nationalist Chetniks compete with Partisans led by Croatian communist Josip Broz Tito in resisting the Germans.

1945. Tito's communists proclaim the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. Serbia and Montenegro become constituent socialist republics. In 1946, the regions of Kosovo and Metohija and Vojvodina become autonomous provinces.

1945-80. Yugoslavia's socialist economy develops, and heavy industry is stressed, but since the late 1950s economic control is decentralized, and some private initiative is allowed.

1987. Dissatisfaction with the federation grows among constituent republics after Tito's death. Serbia, led by President Milosevic, tries to impose control over them and revokes the autonomy of Kosovo (the 90 percent ethnic Albanian province) and Vojvodina (where a sizeable ethnic Hungarian minority lives).

1991. Slovenia, Croatia, and Macedonia declare their independence, and Bosnia joins them in 1992. Serbia and Montenegro subsequently declare themselves the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which is not recognized by the international community. Its U.N. membership is suspended.

1991-95. The Milosevic regime plays an active role in the civil wars in Bosnia and Croatia and is severely criticized by the international community for military atrocities and the brutal oppression of domestic opposition and minorities.

1995. The Dayton peace accord puts an end to the war in Croatia and Bosnia.

1996. Mass demonstrations, led by the united democratic opposition against the Milosevic regime, begin.

1999. Mass expulsion of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, to counter the underground insurgent Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK), provokes an international response, including bombing and the stationing of NATO and Russian peacekeepers in Kosovo while Montenegro declares the German mark official currency.

2000. Milosevic is defeated in presidential elections and democrat Vojislav Kostunica takes over. Montenegro aspires for independence, and Albanian separatists strike in southern Serbia. Readmission to the U.N. is approved; membership in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and in the IMF is expected. The Democratic Coalition of Serbia wins parliamentary elections in December, led by reformist Zoran Djindjic.

FUTURE TRENDS

Yugoslavia's economic problems will not disappear simply because it now has a democratically elected president. The new government faces the challenge of reconstruction, and the legacy of 10 years of war, sanctions, and corrupt officials' looting will take a considerable amount of time to reverse and will not occur without a substantial inflow of foreign capital. Trade relations can be normalized quickly and co-operation with the West can be energized with the swift resolution of pending political issues.

The government's tasks will include stabilization and economic reform, imposing law and order, and helping vulnerable sectors of society. They will be trying their best to attract foreign direct investment and to unfreeze the assets of the former Yugoslavia by reaching agreement with the other successor republics. The frozen private bank accounts in the names of Milosevic and his associates in Switzerland and elsewhere may be transferred back to the country, and immediate aid of US$172 million was pledged by the EU in late 2000 for medicine, heating, and food through the winter. The Stability Pact for South-eastern Europe, a regional development plan backed by the EU and the United States, the IMF, the World Bank, and regional banks will contribute to the reconstruction and reform process. The prosperity of Serbia and Montenegro will be crucial for establishing lasting peace in the Balkans.

DEPENDENCIES

Yugoslavia has no territories or colonies.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Curtis, Glenn E. Yugoslavia: A Country Study. Library of Congress, 1992.

Economist Intelligence Unit. Country Profile: Yugoslavia. London: Economist Intelligence Unit, 2000.

Stokes, Gale. Three Eras of Political Change in Eastern Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. World Factbook 2001. <http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html>. Accessed October 2001.

U.S. Department of State. FY 2000 Country Commercial Guide: Serbia and Montenegro. <http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/business/com_guides/index.html>. Accessed December 2000.

"U.S. Trade Balance with Yugoslavia." U.S. Census Bureau. <http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c4799.html>. Accessed October 2001.

Valentin Hadjiyski

CAPITAL:

Belgrade.

MONETARY UNIT:

Yugoslav dinar. 1 New Dinar (YD) equals 100 pari (in Serbia). Montenegro made the German mark (DM equals 100 pfennige) legal currency alongside the YD in 1999.

CHIEF EXPORTS:

Manufactured goods, food (grain) and live animals, raw materials, and metals.

CHIEF IMPORTS:

Machinery and transport equipment, fuels and lubricants, manufactured goods, chemicals, food and live animals, and raw materials.

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT:

US$24.2 billion (2000 est.).

BALANCE OF TRADE:

Exports: US$1.5 billion (1999 est.). Imports: US$3.3 billion (1999 est.).

Yugoslav Literature

views updated May 11 2018

YUGOSLAV LITERATURE

The Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians, Hungarians, and other ethnic groups that constitute the population of former Yugoslavia all have their own distinct cultural traditions, and it is therefore merely for the sake of convenience that they are associated under the heading Yugoslav Literature. The earliest literary activity in the "land of the southern Slavs" (dating back to the ninth century) was the result of the educational and missionary work of Cyril of Salonika and his brother Methodius, Cyril having devised the Slavic (Cyrillic) alphabet still used, within Yugoslavia, by the Serbs and Macedonians (see *Bulgarian Literature).

Biblical and Hebraic Influences

The Bible has been translated and referred to by the southern Slavs since the beginning of their cultural history. The first translation of the Old Testament, by Cyril and Methodius, was intended for the Slavs of Macedonia and according to tradition was based on the original Hebrew. The earliest complete translation, however, was that of Primož Trubar, a Slovenian Protestant, in the late 16th century. Two versions of the Reformation period were a Croatian Lutheran Bible (1562–63) and Juri Dalmatin's Protestant Bible and Psalter (1584), which marked the beginnings of Slovenian literature. Among the translations of the 19th century, a period of national and cultural revival, were those of Matija Petar Katanić in Croatia (1813) and Djura Daničžć in Serbia (1865), both Orthodox. Two 20th-century versions are the (Orthodox) Bible of 1932–33 and Petar Vlasić's Serbo-Croatian Bible (1923–25). In Serbia, biblical tales (such as the "Book of Adam") and religious plays were written during the Middle Ages and until the period of the Turkish invasion in the mid-15th century. Biblical themes were also current in 15th-century Croatian literature. The Hebraic and Greek biblical traditions persisted in Old Slavonic literature and flourished under Byzantine influence among the southern Slavs. Biblical subjects were later popular during the Serbian literary revival in the 19th century. At the beginning of the 18th century, Gavril Stefanović Venclović of Srem translated some 20,000 pages of this old literature into vernacular Serbian.

However, original works on Old Testament themes have been traced to the Renaissance era, when the Croatian poet and humanist Marko Marulić wrote the allegorical Neo-Latin epic Davidiadis libri xiv and the first Croatian epic on a religious subject, Judita (1501), which was intended to arouse national feelings against the Turkish overlord. Another writer of the 16th century, the Montenegrin poet Mavro-Nikolo Vetranović of Ragusa (Dubrovnik), wrote an outstanding verse play about Abraham, Posvetilište Abraamovo, and the apocryphal drama, Suzana ćista. After a lapse of almost three centuries, the epic tradition was revived by the Serbian writer Milovan Vidaković, who published his Istorija o prekrasnom Josifje (1805) and the apocryphal Mladi Tovija (1825). Vidaković, who also wrote the epic Putešestvije u Jerusalim (1834), was followed by several other writers: Laza Kostić, a Serbian poet; Petar Petrović Njegoš, vladika (prince-bishop) of Montenegro, the greatest Montenegrin poet; and Silvije Strahimir Kranjčerić, a Croatian poet of Sarajevo. Biblical elements are prominent in the works of all three, Njegoš having composed the epic Luča mikrokozma (1845; The Rays of the Microcosm, 1953), which betrays the influence of Dante, Milton, and Byron, and Kranjčerić having written Mojsije, a poem about the Lawgiver. This interest in biblical subjects was maintained in the 20th century. Miroslav Krleža, the outstanding contemporary writer in Croatia, published dramas on Adam and Eve and Salome, while his colleague and fellow radical, August Cesarec, wrote "Israel's Exodus and Other Legends" on the eve of World War ii. Old Testament themes have also inspired two studies of Moses (1932, 1938) by Aron Alkalaj; "King David," a drama by the Belgrade writer, artist, and stage director Raša Plaović; and Vreme čuda ("Time of Wonders," 1965), by the Serbian Borislav Pekić which was inspired by biblical legends.

There have been no Yugoslav translations of talmudic and later Jewish religious literature and these have therefore exerted no influence on the local culture. In the 16th century, however, Croatian humanism produced an outstanding scholar in Matthias Flacius Illyricus (Vlachich), a Protestant theologian and philologist who became professor of Hebrew at the University of Wittenberg in 1544. A violent controversialist and fanatical anti-Catholic, he published many scholarly works including a linguistic dictionary of the Bible, Clavis Scripturae Sacrae seu de sermone sacrarum literarum (Antwerp, 1567; Basle, 1623). The *Wandering Jew theme also appeared in Yugoslavia with the epic Ahasver (1946) by the left-wing Croatian poet and politician Vladimir Nazor. As to classics of modern Jewish literature, works by writers such as Shalom Aleichem and Sholem Asch have been translated from the Yiddish, as have other works by Jewish writers in other languages, notably Isaac Babel, Saul Bellow, Heinrich Heine, and André Schwarz-Bart, all popular among Yugoslav readers and critics.

[Ana Shomlo-Ninic]

The Image of the Jew

In the areas constituting former Yugoslavia, Jews have not, in general, provided writers with a major literary theme. There were two basic reasons for this: the Jewish population was always limited, inconspicuous, and largely cut off from gentile society; and, in the ethnic, religious, and cultural mosaic formed by this Balkan region, a crossroads and battlefield of many nations, native writers in search of the exotic or colorful had no need to seek out the Jew. Until the Holocaust Jews were central characters only in works by Jewish authors. Subsequently they also became an accepted subject for non-Jews.

In the rich folk literature which survived well into the 19th century, the Jews who appear have no individuality and, under the influence of Christian polemical writings, they are often presented as "cursed" and cruel, objects of hatred and derision. Exceptionally, one folk song contains cautious praise for the young Jewess who wishes to marry the exalted hero, Kraljević Marko. During the Renaissance period, Dalmatian poets (e.g., Marulić) adapted biblical and apocryphal subjects and New Testament material, but did not associate the Hebrews of the past with the Jews of their time. Instead, they tended to regard the people of Israel as a symbol of their own nation in its fight against the Turks and as exemplifying the general struggle of humanity. Jewish figures appeared in very few comedies, one being the anonymous Jerko Škripalo presented in Dubrovnik during the 18th century, and then from a positive point of view. Serbian and Croatian authors of the 19th-century Romantic school scarcely mentioned contemporary Jews, but when they did, they used them to describe their own situation, as in August Šenoa's Vječni Žid ("The Eternal Jew"), or else to express general ideas (as in S. Kranjčević's Mojsije, and Vladimir Vidrić's Dva levita). Before the First Zionist Congress the Slovenian ex-priest Anton Aškerc published a mordant poem ("Natanova prikazen") about an old rabbi who bewails the homelessness of his people; in answer, the patriarch Abraham assures him that, since the whole world owes money to the Jews, the world is their homeland. In Slovenia, France Pršéren wrote a poem ("Judovsko dekle") about a young Jewess who falls in love with a Christian, but abandons him because of the religious barrier.

With the advent of the realistic novel at the end of the 19th century, the Jew began to figure in the role of the shopkeeper or publican who precipitates the collapse of rural society, as in Josip Kosor's Rasap ("Disintegration," 1906), or as a moneylender; always a secondary figure, bereft of individuality, the Jew was invariably presented in an unfavorable light, often with pronounced antisemitic overtones. The Croatian Miroslav Krleža, a militant leftist author and playwright, scattered antisemitic remarks throughout his works, although he placed such comments in the mouths of degenerate, negative types. Otherwise Krleža merely produced the image of a revolutionary, cosmopolitan Jew, oblivious to patriotism or any sense of national identity. Between the world wars the figure of the Jew was mainly the concern of Jewish writers, some of whom restricted themselves to a Jewish readership (e.g., Hinko *Gottlieb). The humorist Zak *Konfino introduced the little Sephardi communities of the Serbian countryside, and Isak *Samokovlija wrote about the ordinary Sephardi Jew of Bosnia. Both writers familiarized the general public with Jewish types whom they presented in an attractive literary style. During and after World War ii, dozens of Jewish and non-Jewish authors became preoccupied with the fate of Yugoslav Jewry in verse, drama, and fiction. Since in most cases these works were inspired by actual events, the characters appearing in them acquired a seal of authenticity. The Jew now appeared not only as the innocent victim of Nazi-Fascist bestiality, but also as a courageous fighter who lays down his life to avenge his people or to free his country. This tide, which is still in full spate, carried with it many Jewish and non-Jewish authors of the older generation impelled to supply testimony about the Jewish tragedy, as well as innumerable younger writers for whom the subject served as a powerful literary incentive.

The image of the Jew acquires a classic dimension in the works of the Serbian Nobel Prize winner Ivo Andrić, especially in the two novels which he wrote in German-occupied Belgrade. Within the general racial and cultural panorama of Travnička hronika ("The Chronicle of Travnik," 1945) he described the *Athias family's way of life and tribulations, typical of the Sephardi refugees in Western Bosnia at the beginning of the 19th century. These exiles from the West are thrown into the Orient, which corrupts and degenerates them without destroying their self-respect. In Na Drini ćuprija ("The Bridge over the Drina," 1945) Andrić affectionately described a beautiful and energetic Ashkenazi Jewess of Tarnow who runs a tavern in an East Bosnian townlet at the close of the 19th century. There the clash of the old and the new provides an anvil for her own achievements and failures. In his short stories, Pripovetke (3 vols., 1924–36; The Pasha's Concubine and Other Tales, 1969), Andrić described other Jewish figures in a realistic but sympathetic manner. Always deeply involved in their surroundings, they nevertheless keep their distance, either of their own free will or from compulsion.

[Cvi Rotem]

The Jewish Contribution

Although there have been Jewish communities in Macedonia and Dalmatia for 2,000 years or more, the earliest record of Jewish literary activity in the territory of former Yugoslavia dates only from the mid-16th century. The Neo-Latin poet Didacus *Pyrrhus, a Portuguese refugee known also as Flavius Eborensis, Pyrrhus Lusitanus, and Diego Pires (originally Isaiah Cohen), settled in Dubrovnik (Ragusa), where he continued to write verse. After 1492 many Spanish exiles fled to Bosnia (then part of the Ottoman Empire) and settled in Sarajevo, where they were made welcome. However, their new cultural milieu, by contrast with Western Europe, was so low that they virtually ceased to foster scientific and scholarly pursuits. The first Bosnian Sephardi of literary note was the 17th–18th-century Sarajevo kabbalist Nehemiah Hiyya *Ḥayon. With the appointment of David Samuel b. Jacob *Pardo as rabbi of Sara-jevo (1765), Jewish studies were revived, flourishing under his son, Isaac Pardo, and under Meir Danon, Eliezar Jichac Papo, and Eliezer Shem-Tov Papo (all 19th century), of whom the last two published works in Ladino as well as Hebrew.

In 1526 Jews were banned from Croatia for more than two centuries; their resettlement dates from the 18th century. Among the newcomers were many intellectuals, notably Siegfried (Vítezslav) *Kapper, an eminent Czech poet who at one time lived in Karlovac and promoted international interest in Croatian and Serbian poetry. From the beginning of the 20th century, Jewish newspapers and magazines such as Ž idovska smotra, Gideon (later titled Ha-Noar), Ha-Aviv (for youngsters), and Ommanut began regular publication. There were two important publishers: Lavoslav Hartman (1813–1881), who issued the first Croatian translations and editions of world classics, and Geca Kon (1873–1941) of Belgrade, who headed the largest Yugoslav publishing house in the period between the world wars. In Belgrade, as in Sarajevo, the first Jewish writers were rabbinic scholars, and secular literature, reflecting the prevalent Sephardi culture, was mainly written in Ladino until World War i. In the late 1830s, during the reign of Prince Miloš, who was sympathetic to the Jews, Hebrew printing began to develop in Serbia; Hajim Davićo was the pioneer Jewish writer in the Serbian language in the late 19th century. During the 1880s many new Jewish literary associations, newspapers, and periodicals in Ladino, Yiddish, German, Hungarian, and Serbo-Croatian were established, including Jevrejski Glasnik, Zajednica, El amigo del pueblo, Pasatiempo (Belgrade), and Alborada (Sarajevo). Jovan Mandil (1873–1915), a lawyer and journalist of Šabac, Serbia, was the correspondent of the Belgrade dailies Pravda and Beogradske novine, as well as the founder and chief editor of Bitoljske novine. The founder of Sarajevo's first Ladino newspaper, La Alborada (1900–01), a scientific and literary weekly, was Abraham Kapon (1853–1930), an author and editor whose works included two dramas, El Augustiador (1914) and Shivat Sion (1921), a volume of Poesias (1922), and translations. Many of his unpublished manuscripts were lost during World War ii.

Later Trends

Early in the 20th century numerous Jewish writers and translators introduced Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian readers to the classics of world literature. Prominent among them were Benko Davičo (brother of Hajim Davičo), who translated Heine; Lav Grin (Ilko Gorenčevi), the art critic; Paulina Loebl Albala; David Pijade, who published original fiction and a translation of Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Grey; Bukić Pijade; and Haim Alkalaj.

An entire tradition of *Ladino romances, proverbs, and folklore had been transmitted orally from the late 15th century onward, and, during the 1930s, some Sephardi writers in Yugoslavia tried to revive this culture and to set it down in writing. In this regard the work of Laura Papo Bohoreta, a poet, playwright, and novelist, was especially significant. She published Ojes mios, La pasiensia vale muche, Tiempos pasados, and Avia de ser, and also wrote a study of the Sephardi woman which was translated into Spanish (1931). Bohoreta died in the Holocaust. Active in the same field was the Hispanicist Kalmi Baruh (1896–1945), born in Sarajevo, whose research in Spain during the late 1920s was later recalled by his friend and compatriot, Ivo Andrić (in: Jevrejski almanah (1959/60), 213–5). Baruh devoted much of his time and energy to the study of the Ladino language and the Ladino "romances" of Bosnia (Jevrejsko-španski idiomi); and his many essays and studies relating to Ladino culture and Spanish writers were partly republished in Eseji i članci o španskoj književnosti ("Essays and Articles on Spanish Literature," 1952). Baruh died shortly after his liberation from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Jewish Themes

In Serbo-Croatian literature proper, Jews achieved prominence only after World War i. So far as specifically Jewish themes and interests are concerned, the two most important Yugoslav authors were Isak Samokovlija, who wrote only of Sephardi life in Bosnia, and the Zionist poet and author Hinko Gottlieb, who wrote fiction on World War ii themes and died in Israel. Other Jewish writers active in the period between the world wars included the poet and editor Samuel *Romano, who translated modern Hebrew verse and prose works, and Stanislav Vinaver. Among the promising young authors who died in the Holocaust were two cousins from Novi Sad: Vitomir Jovanović (pen name of Viktor Rozencvajg), who issued a verse collection, Naš život ("Our Life"); and Nenad Mirov (pen name of Alfred Rozencvajg), whose collected poems appeared in Dve duše ("Two Souls"), Kroz jadilovce klance ("Through the Gorges of Pain"), and Tri prema jedan za poeziju ("Three to One for Poetry").

Apart from the versatile author and humorist Žak Konfino, some of whose works deal with Sephardi life in Serbia, most contemporary Jewish writers in Yugoslavia (among whom several have achieved considerable importance) are remote from Jewish tradition and show little interest in either Sephardi or Ashkenazi themes. Outstanding among these was the Communist poet and novelist Oscar *Davičo, whose anti-Zionist and anti-Israel bias was shared by the eminent art historian and essayist Oto Bihalji *Merin. The latter's brother, Pavle Bihalji, a leading publisher, fell victim to the Nazis in 1941. Two authors whose literary career began well before World War ii were the poet and playwright Miroslav Feldman and the novelist and literary scholar Ervin *Šinko. The older generation of modern writers was also represented by the Zagreb poet and translator Ina *Jun-Broda, who settled in Vienna and published Serbo-Croatian works in German translation; Julija Najman, who translated from the French and wrote fiction on Jewish themes; and Jožef *Debrecenji, a native of Budapest, who wrote in Hungarian as well as Serbo-Croatian. One of the most translated Yugoslav writers was Erih Koš (1913– ), who published novels and short stories, and satires such as čudnovata povest o kitu velikom takođe zvanom veliki Mak (1960; The Strange Story of the Great Whale, also known as Big Mac, 1962). Other works by Koš include the novel Il tifo (1958), an allegory on the tragic aspects of war. Among the leftist social writers who were first active between the world wars were Šinko, Bihalji Merin, and the psychiatrist Hugo Klajn (1894–1981), who taught at the Belgrade Academy of Dramatic Arts and wrote Šekspir i čovječanstvo ("Shakespeare and Mankind," 1964).

In the course of the German occupation of Yugoslavia during World War ii, the vast majority of the Jews perished and the traumatic effect of this disaster had profound literary repercussions. Personal experiences as a survivor of Auschwitz dominate the works of Djordje *Lebović, who dealt with the concentration camp theme in dramas such as Nebeski odred ("Commando Heaven," 1959), Do viđenja druže Gale ("Goodbye, Comrade Gal," 1961), and Haleluja (1965). Other authors who tackled the same subject included Frida Filipović (1913– ), who published fiction and translations from the French; the poet, novelist, and children's writer Ivan Ivanji; the novelist Danilo Nahmijas; Julija Najman; and Jožef Debrecenji, whose novel Hideg krematórium: Auschwitz regénye ("The Cold Crematorium," 1950) first appeared in Hungarian (in Yugoslavia) and was later translated into other languages. Two other works about the Holocaust period by postwar writers were the novels Testament by Stevan Kvazimodo, and Pod žutom trakom ("Under the Yellow Badge") by Andrija Deak. Two authors of the younger generation who displayed a nostalgic interest in the Jewish tradition were Filip David and Danilo Kiš (1935–1989), whose novels include Psalm 44 and Bašta, pepeo ("Garden, Ashes," 1965).

After 1945 and throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Jewish writers continued to play an important part in Yugoslavia's cultural life as editors and contributors of leading newspapers and periodicals, theater managers, and writers for radio, television, and the motion picture industry. Many of them gained the highest literary awards. Jevrejski almanah, the annual publication of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Yugoslavia, promotes the work of aspiring young writers and also contains essays and other contributions by eminent Jewish and non-Jewish authors.

[Ana Shomlo-Ninic]

bibliography:

N. Strunjaš, in: Gesher, 15:1 (1969), 74–84 (= Jevrejski almanah, 1965–67). add. bibliography: P. Palavestra, Jevrejski pisci u srpskoj knjizevnosti (1988); D. Katan Ben-Zion, Presence and DisappearanceJews and Judaism in Former Yugoslavia in the Mirror of Literatures (Heb., 2002).

Yugoslavia (Ex-)

views updated May 11 2018

YUGOSLAVIA (EX-)

Three menStjepan Betlheim, Hugo Klajn, and Nichola Sugarborn at the end of the nineteenth century are at the root of psychoanalysis in Yugoslavia. Having completed their medical studies and specialized in neuropsychiatry in Germany and Austria, their return to what was then the kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes marked the beginning of the spread of psychoanalytic ideas in this region. They had to contend with the resistance of the psychiatric milieu and the polite interest of the intellectuals, except in Belgrade where they met with great success in artistic circles.

Because they were Jews, these pioneers naturally found themselves in the Resistance during World War II. The victory over fascism and Nazism conferred an authority on them that translated into the creation of psychoanalytically informed treatment centers.

Psychoanalytic thinking spread very rapidly in Sarajevo under the impetus of Dr. Aleksandar Markovic, and in Ljubljana where a psychologist, Leopold Bregant, and a psychiatrist, Milan Kobal, played an important role.

A new generation of Slovene psychoanalysts was being trained in the neighboring Italian city of Trieste. But it was mainly in Croatia and Serbia that the development was decisive. The war (1991-1995) put an end, for the moment, to scientific exchanges between Serb and Croatian analysts. However, both of these groups managed under difficult conditions to maintain vital contact with Western analysts, particularly in France and Italy.

Croatia

The history of psychoanalysis in Croatia is linked to the name of Stjepan Betlheim (1898-1970). He studied medicine in Graz and Vienna. After a first analysis with Paul Schilder, he completed his training with Sándor Radó, whom Abraham Arden Brill invited in 1932 to organize an institute of psychoanalysis in New York. Karen Horney in Berlin and Helene Deutsch in Vienna supervised Betlheim's first analyses. An "associate member" of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society in 1928, he returned to Zagreb that same year. Until World War II he divided his time between a neuropsychiatric department and psychoanalysis in private practice. In 1948 his good reputation enabled him to introduce psychoanalysis in the medical faculty, and in 1953 to create a center for psychotherapeutic treatment in the framework of the neuropsychiatric clinic, thus offering the resources of psychoanalysis and its psychotherapeutic applications for individuals and groups. In 1952 he was elected a "direct member" of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA). In 1963 he published The Neuroses and Their Treatment, while simultaneously campaigning for the creation of an Association of Yugoslav Psychotherapists. The first steps in this direction were taken in 1964 at the Congress of Neuropsychiatrists at Ohrid, and the project bore fruit in Split in 1968.

In the period after World War II Stjepan Betlheim personally psychoanalyzed his first students: Duska Blazevic, Eugenie Cividini-Stranic, and Edouard Klain. At the same time he created the Mokrice seminar, which, from 1966 until 1991, was a meeting place for therapists from the different Republics constituting the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia. Professor Maja Beck-Dvorzak organized the psychoanalytic treatment of children and adolescents, followed by Professor S. Nikolic, who introduced the technique of the psychoanalytic psychodrama after a stay in Paris in Serge Lebovici's department, while undergoing personal analysis with Jean Gillibert (1976-1979). In Zagreb Duska Blazevic and Edouard Klain created a psychoanalytically oriented review, Psychoterapja. It is the responsibility of the remaining members of this group to establish regular relations with the IPA, the only body authorized to recognize its training courses.

Serbia

Two men contributed initially to opening Belgrade up to psychoanalysis. The first, Hugo Klajn (1894-1981), physician and psychiatrist, did his personal analysis in 1922 with Paul Schilder in Vienna. On his return to Belgrade his public lectures and translation of a considerable part of Freud's work met with an immediate success. He devoted himself mainly to theatre. As director of the Yugoslav dramatic theatre and Studio 122, his directing enriched the cultural domain. In 1955 he published War Neuroses in Yugoslavs.

Nikola Sugar (1897-1945) was the second of these founding fathers. He was analyzed in Berlin between 1922 and 1925 by Felix Boehm, then in Vienna between 1925 and 1927 by Paul Schilder. An associate member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society from 1925 to 1933, he was a full member from 1935 to 1938. When he returned to the city of Subotica (Vojvodina), he also became a member of Budapest Psychoanalytic Society. In 1938 he founded the first psychoanalytic association in Belgrade. Without having any formal character, it comprised nine members: six physicians, psychiatrists, and neurologists, and three philosophy professors. Meetings were held in the Belgrade Arts Faculty and were soon forbidden under the regency of Prince Paul, who was close to Italy, Bulgaria, and Nazi Germany. Sugar was deported and died.

Two of Sugar's patients, Vladislav Klajn (1909-1984) and especially Vojin Matic (born 1911) were prolific in developing psychoanalytic activities. The IPA awarded an honorary diploma to Professor Vojin Matic at the San Francisco Congress in 1995. Vojin Matic was an assistant at the university neuropsychiatric clinic until 1952, before becoming a professor at the Arts Faculty until his retirement. In 1953 he founded the Medico-Psychopedagogical Center, the first of its kind in Yugoslavia. Ten years later the center was closed but continued to be active in the form of the Institute for Mental Health. In relation with the European Federation of Psychoanalysis, the Belgrade group organized the Seminar for Eastern Countries in 1990. The subject was "Transference and Counter-Transference." Protocols for psychoanalytic treatment were presented by S. Borovejki (Zagreb), V. Brzev (Belgrade), M. Cicek (Zagreb), I. Ivanovic and G. Marinkow (Belgrade). This seminar brought together more than eighty participants from Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, lCzechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia) and Western Europe (Germany, Spain, France, Great Britain, and Italy). Professors Nevenka Tadic, Ksenija Kondic-Belos, and Tamara Stajner-Popovic concentrated particularly on the development of psychoanalytic treatment for children and adolescents. The San Francisco Congress elected Stajner-Popovic and four of her colleagues direct members of the IPA. This election was the fruit of efforts by Hanna Groen-Prakken (of Holland) and John Kafka (of the United States) within the IPA. It opened the way for the constitution of a study group, then the formation of a provisional society, which could lead this group to recognition as a constituent society of the IPA.

Michel Vincent

Bibliography

Diatkine, Gilbert, Gibeault, Alain, Gibeault, Monique, and Vincent, Michel. (1993). La psychanalyse en Europe orientale. In La Psychanalyse et l'Europe de 1993, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Nikolic, S. (1987). La psychiatrie en Yougoslavie. Psychiatrie française, 6, 41-51.

Yugoslavian Civil War

views updated May 29 2018

Yugoslavian Civil War

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The civil wars in Yugoslavia after 1991 involved the most severe violence in Europe since the Greek civil war (19461949), generating almost 70,000 battle-deaths and displacing many refugees. Many claimed that the cold war had contained nationalism in Europe, and that its end would unleash a wave of sectarian conflict. Paradoxically, this failed to materialize in most socialist states except for Yugoslavia, where the Soviet Union had only minimal direct influence, previously considered a relatively successful case of multi-ethnic political integration.

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was torn apart by demands for autonomy from the relatively more prosperous republics of Slovenia and Croatia and the increasing assertiveness of Serbia under Slobodan Milošević (19412006). Slovenias declaration of independence in June 1991 led to a minor violent confrontation with the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) but was quickly settled. Whereas independence was relatively uncontroversial for the ethnically homogenous Slovenia with undisputed borders, Croatia was much more contentious due to its large Serb population. The increasingly Serb-dominated JNA seized control over much of Croatia, and violent conflict escalated with the siege of Vukovar in August-November 1991. A January 1992 United Nations (UN) peace plan brought combat to an end but perpetuated Serb control over much of Croatia. Later that year violence erupted between Croats, Serbs, and the Muslim dominated central government in Bosnia, leading to a protracted war with many atrocities. An International Criminal Tribunal (ICT) was set up in 1993 to investigate allegations of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. Although fighting in Bosnia formally was carried out by autonomous militias, the Milošević and Franjo Tuđman governments of Serbia and Croatia are believed to have provided extensive support, and the ICT has brought charges against official representatives of both.

The inability of the UN to contain the conflict in Bosnia led NATO and the United States to take a more active role in 1994. The United States brokered a settlement agreement between the Bosnian Croats and the central government and provided military assistance to Croatia. In a military offensive in mid-1995, Croatia reconquered most of the Serb-held areas, and NATO bombardment forced the Serbs to sign the Dayton peace agreement in late 1995. The growing inability of Milošević to control events outside Serbia proper in turn promoted violence among the Albanian majority in the formerly autonomous Kosovo province. The main Albanian opposition leader Ibrahim Rugova (19442006) had advocated a strategy of nonviolent resistance, which had succeeded in keeping Kosovo quiet but brought few Serb concessions and did not prevent extensive repression.

Following an influx of arms during the chaos in Albania in 1997, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) turned to violent confrontation. Although the KLA was militarily much weaker than the JNA and the immediate Serb response was increased repression, the escalating violence, with a large outflow of refugees and allegations of atrocities, prompted NATO to start bombing Serbia in March 1999. Faced with prospects of a ground invasion, Milošević agreed to NATO demands in June, and a UN protectorate was established in Kosovo. Although Milošević had survived previous mass demonstrations calling for his resignation in 1991 and 1996, he was finally forced to leave in October 2000 after attempts to dispute an opposition electoral victory, and Serbia has not engaged in conflict with its neighbors since his ouster. The perceived success of the KLA inspired an Albanian armed uprising in Macedonia in 2001, but outside involvement prevented the conflict from escalating.

SEE ALSO Civil Wars; Croats; Genocide; Milosevic, Slobodan; Muslims; North Atlantic Treaty Organization; Serbs; Tito (Josip Broz); United Nations; War Crimes; Warsaw Pact; World War I

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bass, Gary J. 2000. Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Bertsch, Gary K. 1971. Nation-Building in Yugoslavia: A Study of Political Integration and Attitudinal Consensus. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Kaplan, Robert D. 1993. Balkan Ghosts: A Journey through History. New York: St. Martins.

Ramet, Sabrina P. 2002. Balkan Babel: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia from the Death of Tito to the Fall of Milošević. 4th ed. Boulder, CO: Westview.

Woodward, Susan L. 1995. Balkan Tragedy: Chaos and Dissolution after the Cold War. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.

Kristian Skrede Gleditsch

Yugoslav

views updated Jun 08 2018

Yu·go·slav / ˈyoōgōˌsläv; ˌyoōgōˈsläv; -gə-/ • n. a native or national of Yugoslavia or its former constituent republics, or a person of Yugoslav descent.• adj. of or relating to Yugoslavia, its former constituent republics, or its people.

Yugoslavia

views updated May 29 2018

Yugoslavia See Serbia and Montenegro

Political map

Physical map

Websites

http://www.yuembusa.org