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Yugoslavia: The History of the Eastern European Nation from Its Founding to Its Breakup
- Narrated by: Colin Fluxman
- Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins
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Summary
Yugoslavia was arguably one of the most unusual geopolitical creations of the 20th century. The Yugoslav state had never existed in any historical sense, and the ties that bound together its constituent peoples were tenuous at best. Although nominally all “Slavs,” the country was an amalgamation of languages, alphabets, cultures, religions, and traditions, which ensured its short existence was littered with splits, conflicts, and shocking violence. In a sense, it’s somewhat surprising that it lasted as long as it did.
In the wake of World War I, as the political boundaries of Europe and the Middle East were redrawn, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, initially known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, came into existence with a monarch as its head of state. Confirmed at the 1919 Versailles Conference, the “first” Yugoslavia was a particularly fragile enterprise, and there was almost constant tension between the majority Serbs and the other Yugoslav nationalities, especially the Croats. As a result, the Kingdom was a land of political assassinations, underground terrorist organizations, and ethnic animosities. In 1929, King Alexander I suspended democracy and ruled as a dictator until he himself was assassinated in 1934.
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was particularly vulnerable to the forces that engulfed the rest of Europe at the end of the 1930s, including fascism and communism. When the Axis forces attacked in 1941, the country quickly capitulated and was dismembered by the Nazis and their allies. A separate Croatian state was formed, led by Ante Paveli, who committed some of the worst crimes and human rights abuses of the war. The Balkan region was virtually emptied of its Jewish population, victims of the Nazi Holocaust.
During his reign, Tito managed to quash the intense national feelings of the diverse groups making up the Yugoslavian population, and he did so through several methods. He managed to successfully play the two superpower rivals, the United States and Soviet Union, off against each other during the Cold War, and in doing so, he maintained a considerable amount of independence from both, even as he additionally received foreign aid to keep his regime afloat. All the while he remained defiant, once penning a legendary letter to Joseph Stalin warning the Soviet dictator, “To Joseph Stalin: Stop sending people to kill me! We've already captured five of them, one of them with a bomb and another with a rifle... If you don't stop sending killers, I'll send a very fast working one to Moscow and I certainly won't have to send another.”
Internal issues plagued the country in its final years and Tito had tinkered with Yugoslavia’s constitution on several occasions. His final attempt, in 1974, saw the partial separation of Kosovo - crucial in the Serb national story - from the rest of Serbia.
What listeners say about Yugoslavia: The History of the Eastern European Nation from Its Founding to Its Breakup
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- Hashi
- 08-08-19
Now I know history of Yugoslavia
For many years i really wanted to know what caused the breakup of Yugoslavia and after listening to this amazing audio book.
I'v got the answer.
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- Lukas33
- 29-12-20
Another Serbian Hitpiece
Basically, this is merely UN and EU propaganda. This is driven home in the last chapter where the reader is informed that an Albanian majority of 90% of the population were being "oppressed" despite the same information declaring that Albania was attempting to expand into Kosovo and Macedonia whilst supplying the KLA (basically a Muslim terrorist orgajisation) with weapons, bombs and logistics.
All throughout the 20th century the EU, or previous iterations of it, have been after the Serbs. And largely now in 2020 it seems the Serb government are completely indoctrinated into the bankers millennium.
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