Socialist Republic of Serbia
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1944–1992 | |||||||||||||||||
Head of state | | ||||||||||||||||
• 1944–1953 (first) | Siniša Stanković | ||||||||||||||||
• 1989–1990 (last) | Slobodan Milošević | ||||||||||||||||
Head of government | |||||||||||||||||
• 1945–1948 (first) | Blagoje Nešković | ||||||||||||||||
• 1989–1990 (last) | Stanko Radmilović | ||||||||||||||||
Legislature | Federal Republic of Yugoslavia declared | 27 April 1992 | |||||||||||||||
HDI (1991) | 0.719 high | ||||||||||||||||
ISO 3166 code | RS | ||||||||||||||||
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Today part of | Serbia Kosovo |
The Socialist Republic of Serbia (
History
World War II
After the collapse of the
At the beginning of the occupation, there were two resistance movements: Chetniks and Partisans. They had conflicting ideological and political programs, with Chetniks abandoning initial joint resistance efforts alongside Partisans by the end of the Uprising in Serbia, switching instead to extensive collaboration with Axis forces. Partisans advocated transformation of Yugoslavia into a federation, with Serbia becoming one of its federal units. In the autumn of 1941, first provisional institutions were established by partisans in some liberated territories, headed by the Main National Liberation Committee for Serbia. It was seated in Užice, and thus the movement became known as the Republic of Užice. However, the German offensive crushed this proto-state in December of the same year. After that, main partisan forces moved to Bosnia.[6]
People's Republic of Serbia
Serbia was liberated in the autumn of 1944, by partisan forces and the
The process was formalised in April 1945, when the provisional
In November 1946, elections for the
By that time, internal political life in Serbia was fully dominated by the
Socialist Republic of Serbia
In 1963, a new Yugoslav Constitution was adopted, renaming the federal state into the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and its federal units into socialist republics, thus introducing the name: Socialist Republic of Serbia (Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic: Социјалистичка Република Србија).[15][16]
In 1966, one of the most prominent Serbs in the Communist party and also vice-president of Yugoslavia (1963–1966) and founder of Yugoslav intelligence agency OZNA, Aleksandar Ranković was removed from positions due to allegations of spying on SFRY President Josip Broz Tito.[17][18]
After the Croatian Spring in 1971, almost whole party leadership of Serbia was removed from office, under the charge of being "liberal". Latinka Perović and Marko Nikezić were marked as leaders of this liberal movement inside League of Communists of Serbia.
In 1974, new constitution was adopted, increasing the powers of provinces, and making them de facto republics. For the first time the institution of president was formed, as
After the new constitution was adopted, Dragoslav Marković, then President of Serbia ordered a secret study on this issue. In January 1975, the Presidency of the Socialist Republic of Serbia requested a revision of constitutional solutions with explanation that the constitution divided the republic into three parts, thus preventing Serbia from exercising its "historic right to a nation state in the Yugoslav federation".[9] Furthermore, the study Marković requested was completed in 1977 and was named The Blue Book. Although there were differing opinions in the state leadership on the position of the provinces – for example, Edvard Kardelj supported the demands of Serbian leaders – the result of the arbitration was the conclusion that the position of the provinces within Serbia should not be changed. The Federal leadership, led by Tito, believed that the constitutional solution from 1974 could satisfy all the claims of the Socialist Republic of Serbia, but also respect the specifics and special interests of the autonomous provinces. Although the conflict was (temporarily) pacified in this way, the issue remained unresolved.
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 Albanian, as well as Serbian nationalism in Kosovo arose. In 1981, major protests erupted in Kosovo demanding the status of republic. The League of Communists was split on how to respond. At the same time, an economic crisis in Yugoslavia started. The leaders of the country were unable to carry out any reforms due to the political instability.
President of League of Communists of Serbia Slobodan Milošević visited Kosovo in April 1987 and promised rapid action in order to protect peace and the Serbs of Kosovo. Ethnic tensions in Kosovo heated up when a Kosovo Albanian soldier opened fire on his fellow soldiers in Paraćin, in an event known as the Paraćin massacre. Then President of Serbia Ivan Stambolić wanted to make compromise, rather than fast solution. He found himself in a clash with Milošević. This conflict culminated with 8th Session and replacement of Stambolić with Petar Gračanin as President of Serbia.
Constitutional reform
In 1988, new amendments to the Yugoslav Constitution were adopted, initiating a process of democratization. During 1988 and 1989, a successful
In 1989, Slobodan Milošević was elected as President of the State Presidency of Serbia. He demanded that the federal Yugoslav government act for the interests of Serbia in Kosovo by sending in the Yugoslav People's Army to suppress separatism in the province. At the same time, several reforms of federal electoral system were proposed, with Serbia supporting a "one-citizen, one-vote" system, which would have given a majority of votes to Serbs. By that time, ethnic tensions in Yugoslavia increased, and the ruling League of Communists of Yugoslavia collapsed, followed by the crisis of federal institutions. After these events, in 1989 Assembly of Socialist Republic of Serbia voted for constitution amendments that revoked high autonomy for provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo.
After Slovenian authorities forbid a group of Serbs supporting his politics to gather in Ljubljana, Milosević started a trade war with Socialist Republic of Slovenia in late 1989. This Serbian–Slovenian conflict culminated in January 1990 on 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia when Slovenians left the meeting followed by Croatian delegates.[19]
After 1990, the state was known simply as
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
Demographics
1971 census
In 1971, total population of the Socialist Republic of Serbia numbered 8,446,590 people, including:
- Serbs = 6,142,070 (72.7%)
- Albanians = 984,761 (11.66%)
- Hungarians = 430,314 (5.10%)
- Croats = 184,913 (2.19%)
- ethnic Muslims= 154,330 (1.83%)
- ethnic Yugoslavs = 123,824 (1.47%)
- Slovaks= 76,733 (0.82%)
- Romanians (self-declared) = 57,419 (0.62%)
- Bulgarians = 53,800 (0.58%)
- Romani = 49,894 (0.54%)
- Macedonians= 42,675 (0.46%)
- Rusyns = 20,608 (0.22%)
- Turks = 18,220 (0.20%)
- Slovenes = 15,957 (0.17%)
- "Vlachs" (Romanians) = 14,724 (0.16%)
1981 census
In 1981, total population of the Socialist Republic of Serbia numbered 9,313,677 people, including:
- Serbs = 6,331,527 (67.96%)
- Albanians = 1,303,032 (13.99%)
- Yugoslavs = 441,941 (4.75%)
- Hungarians = 390,468 (4.19%)
- Muslims = 215,166 (2.31%)
- Croats = 149,368 (1.60%)
- Romani = 110,956 (1.19%)
- Macedonians = 48,986 (0.53%)
- Slovenes = 12,006 (0.13%)
Politics
History of Serbia | |
---|---|
1071–1217 | |
Kingdom of Serbia | 1217–1346 |
King Dragutin's realm | 1282–1325 |
1346–1371 | |
Lordship of Prilep | 1371–1395 |
Prince Lazar's Serbia | 1371–1402 |
Vuk's Land | 1371–1412 |
Despotate of Serbia | 1402–1537 |