The Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia: How One Man Built—and Broke—a Nation

The story of the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia can be summarised by the rise and death of one man. A man who ruled the country for over four decades, and after his death, the country’s downfall ensued. Before we delve into the story of Yugoslavia, it is essential to understand some basic details about the country. In 1918, following the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was established. This was a monarchy, which was later renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929 by King Alexander I, the king at the time. During World War 2, Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis in 1941 and became a puppet state. After the end of World War 2, Yugoslavia became a democracy and was renamed the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In 1963, Josip Broz Tito was elected the first president of Yugoslavia.

A Nation Doomed To Fail?

Yugoslavia’s rise and fall could be credited to Josip Broz Tito. During his leadership, Yugoslavia saw the greatest rise in Economic and Social development. When he died, Yugoslavia saw the greatest demise of any nation. How can a nation seen as a threat by the USSR and the USA collapse in mere decades?

Unlike most Eastern European countries at the time, Yugoslavia defected from the Eastern Bloc. Even though Josip Broz Tito believed in communism, he also believed in independent centres of political authority. Due to the extreme ethnical diversity of Yugoslavia, Tito realised that this would eventually lead to its downfall. He managed to contain this problem by instituting a policy of “polycentrism”. Polycentrism is the idea of having multiple centres of authority and importance. This meant that each republic and autonomous region had its political power, and one party ruled over the whole country.

At the time, this party was the Yugoslav Communist Party. This policy would unify the people for as long as Tito was in power, but after his death, due to bad leadership, cracks would start to show. During Tito’s time in presidency, it was the height of the Cold War. Tito decided to create the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) so as not to have to choose between the USSR and USA. To this day, many countries still follow this movement. He also decided to hold the first conference in Belgrade in 1961. The conference was attended by 25 countries. It was also attended by many great world leaders who all had different impacts on their respective countries. One of these world leaders was Gamal Abdel Nasser, and the second conference was held in Cairo in 1964.

Due to the NAM, Yugoslavia would be seen as a threat by the USSR. This is also because it did not want a communist ideology that was independent of the Kremlin to spread to other Eastern Bloc countries. After the death of Tito, the USA would try to sabotage Yugoslavia economically by sanctioning the country. This would further lead to the Yugoslavian collapse and would also be one of the factors that resulted in the Yugoslavian civil war.

One of the major reasons Yugoslavia was able to continue rising was due to the polycentrism policy it employed. As it gave everyone, no matter their nationality or the republic they were from, a decentralised political life. This gave power to the people.

The Death Of Josip Broz Tito, The Death Of Yugoslavia

On May 4, 1980, Josip Broz Tito died at the age of 88. He ruled over Yugoslavia for about four decades. At the time of his death, Yugoslavia had a literacy rate of 85% and a GDP of 26 billion dollars, which, accounting for inflation, is about 101 billion dollars. One of the most important things he left behind is a completely new ideology called “Titoism”. Even though Tito considered himself a Marxist, certain factors and policies felt more like an extension of Marxism. Which eventually would lead to the creation of Titoism.

It is extremely important to understand how Yugoslavia was run, as that played a part in its collapse. Uniquely, Yugoslavia had nine presidents. Six would represent each of the six republics in Yugoslavia, two would represent each of its autonomous regions, and one would rule the party. Tito created this system before his death to make sure no dictator could take control of the country. Eventually, this policy would have severe effects as presidents only served one-year terms. This would have ultimately led to Yugoslavia’s economic collapse due to bad policies.

In 1984, the Reagan administration introduced a policy in a National Security Decision Directive to target Yugoslavia’s economy. It wanted to topple the Communist Nation to force Eastern Europe to participate in a market-oriented economy. This action forced Yugoslavia to take out loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and reverse many socialist policies. In 1982, the national debt reached 16.9 billion dollars. In 1988, it reached 21 billion dollars with a 217% inflation increase each year.

The Effects of Extreme Nationalism on Yugoslavia

All these factors gave way to Serbian nationalism, which was led by Milosevic. Milosevic was close friends with Ivan Stambolic, who was the Serbian president at the time. He was able to use this to his advantage and plan an ouster of Ivan Stambolic on September 24, 1987, giving him the chance to become the Serbian president. Milosevic then became president in 1987, and he declared Serbia “Communist by name, and Nationalist by Choice”.

After his presidency, he began spreading nationalistic ideologies in each republic. This would eventually create an ethnical divide that would lead to a brutal civil war between the republics. He pitted the Serbs against Slovenes , Croats , Albanians , Kosovars, and Bosnians .

All this to create a “Greater Serbia”, which resulted in the ethnic cleansing of millions of innocent Bosnians, Croats, and Kosovars. This would eventually lead to the NATO bombing of Serbia and would also result in the use of Nato peacekeepers in Yugoslavia. Millions of people were prosecuted, and the Yugoslavian infrastructure was destroyed. The civil war ended in the fall of 1995 with the official signing of the Dayton Agreement. Even though the major conflict effectively ended in 1995, there were still some minor conflicts until 2001. The civil war caused the deaths of 130,000 direct casualties. This death toll doesn’t include the thousands of other civilians who were indirectly killed in the civil war, and the long-lasting economic and political issues that are present today. To this day, many of the same countries still have extreme nationalistic tendencies. Milosevic was subsequently sent to the Hague to be tried for his actions and then sent to prison, where he died in 2006.

Yugoslavia’s Final Days

Yugoslavia started to collapse, with the first countries to leave in 1991 being Slovenia and Croatia. Then followed by Macedonia, and later on, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Yugoslavia was then renamed to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as only Serbia and Montenegro remained. In its last days, the international community refused to recognise Yugoslavia. Leading to its ultimate collapse in 2003.

The fall of Yugoslavia builds on a pattern that can be seen in the fall of many different empires. Although in this specific case, the death of the empire of Yugoslavia really comes down to one single person, whose death promptly led to its demise. At other times, the demise of empires can be the same thing that builds these empires up, which, in the case of Yugoslavia, was nationalism. A country created by a diverse group of ethnicities to accomplish a common goal, which was the creation of a unified nation. The same nationalism and common goal that built Yugoslavia played an important role in its eventual collapse. As some ethnicities started to view themselves as superior to others, which was caused by the spread of nationalism by Milosevic, and this imagined idea of “Greater Serbia”. The rise and fall of empires and nations is something we see throughout history. If each collapse were studied, we would realise that they all eventually fall due to familiar causes. If Yugoslavia had not faced all these issues after Tito’s death, would it have been possible to see a Yugoslavian country in 2025, or would other issues have led to its demise? Is the idea of a Yugoslavian country doomed to fail?

“If a man separates himself from the people, if he tends to be set on a pedestal, then he will only inspire fear or hatred…the people are those who are the motive power, they are the ones who inspire their leaders and the leader is but the organizer and the formulator of the people’s thoughts.”

Josip Broz Tito