1945–1992 → Government Socialist republic Preceded by Succeeded by Founded 1943 Historical eras Cold War, World War II | Capital Belgrade 1991 9,506,174 Area 88,361 km² Date dissolved April 28, 1992 | |
1991 88,361 km (34,116 sq mi) | ||
The Socialist Republic of Serbia (Serbo-Croatian: Социјалистичка Република Србија / Socijalistička Republika Srbija) was one of the six constitutional republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It was the largest republic in terms of population and territory. Its capital, Belgrade, was also the federal capital of Yugoslavia.
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History
From 1945 to 1963, the republic was officially known as People's Republic of Serbia (Serbo-Croatian: Народна Република Србија / Narodna Republika Srbija), and from 1963 to 1990 as Socialist Republic of Serbia. The republic had two provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo.
For most of its existence in the SFRY, Serbia was loyal and generally subordinate to the federal government. This changed after the death of Josip Broz Tito in 1980, when there was a rise in Albanian as well as Serbian nationalism in Kosovo. The League of Communists was split on how to respond. A successful round of coups in the Communist party leadership of Serbia as well as Montenegro occurred from 1988 to 1989, led by Slobodan Milošević; he supported Serbian nationalists in Kosovo to end the state's autonomy.
In 1989, Milošević was elected as President of the republic. He demanded that the federal Yugoslav government act for the interests of Serbia in Kosovo by sending in the Yugoslav People's Army to take control of the province. Serbia opposed such action and demanded a "one-member, one-vote" system in the Yugoslav League of Communists, which would have given a majority of votes to Serbs. Ethnic tensions increased and the League of Communists of Yugoslavia collapsed, followed by the fall of the government of Yugoslavia by 1991.
After 1990, the state was known simply as Republic of Serbia (Republika Srbija). In 1992, when the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was formed, Serbia became one of its two constituent republics. In 2003 this state union was re-formed into Serbia and Montenegro, and in 2006 Serbia became an independent state.
Administrative divisions
Within Socialist Republic of Serbia two autonomous provinces existed: Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo. The central part of the Socialist Republic of Serbia located outside of the two autonomous provinces was generally known as "Serbia proper" ("Uža Srbija").
Geographically SR Serbia bordered Hungary to the north, Romania and Bulgaria to the east and Albania to the south-west. Within Yugoslavia it bordered SR Macedonia to the south and SR Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia to the west.
1971 census
In 1971, total population of the Socialist Republic of Serbia numbered 8,446,591 people, including:
1981 census
In 1981, total population of the Socialist Republic of Serbia numbered 9,313,677 people, including:
Politics
In the Socialist Republic, the only legal political party was the League of Communists of Serbia (SKS), which was part of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ). The party remained relatively stable and loyal to the federal party until the late 1980s, when the party became split over what action to take in Kosovo when protests and fights broke out between ethnic Albanians and Serbs.
The more traditional Communists supported President Ivan Stambolic, who advocated continued neutrality as a means to solve the dispute; while more radical and nationalist-leaning members supported Slobodan Milosevic, who advocated the protection of Kosovo's Serbs, who had claimed that their population was being pressured to leave Kosovo by Albanian separatists. Milosevic utilized public sentiment and opposition to Kosovo separatism to rally large numbers of supporters to help him overthrow the Communist leadership in Vojvodina, Kosovo and the Socialist Republic of Montenegro in what was known as the anti-bureaucratic revolution. Afterwards, the Serbian League of Communists selected Milosevic as its leader. Milosevic took a hard stand on Albanian nationalism in Kosovo and pressured the Yugoslav government to give him emergency powers to deal with Kosovo separatists. Furthermore, he reduced the autonomy of the autonomous provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina and installed politicians loyal to him to serve as their representatives.
In the congress of the Yugoslav League of Communists in 1990, Milosevic and his subordinate representatives for Vojvodina, Kosovo and the Socialist Republic of Montenegro attempted to silence opposition from the Socialist Republic of Slovenia who opposed the actions taken against Kosovo, by blocking all reforms proposed by the Slovene representatives. The tactic failed and Slovenia, along with its ally Croatia, abdicated from the Yugoslav Communist Party. This caused the Yugoslav Communist party to fall apart, and then the state of Yugoslavia itself one year later.