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86-734: People's Front of Yugoslavia was an organization of antifascist and democratic masses of nations of Yugoslavia. The idea of its creation sprang up in the 1930s, especially during the May 5, 1935 parliamentary elections in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . At the Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in June 1935 held in the city of Split ( Dalmatia ) it was concluded to form

172-837: A "horrible brutality which is being practiced upon the Croatian People". The appeal was addressed to the Paris-based Ligue des droits de l'homme (Human Rights League). In their letter Einstein and Mann held the Yugoslav king Aleksandar explicitly responsible for these circumstances. Croat opposition to the new régime was strong and, in late 1932, the Croatian Peasant Party issued the Zagreb Manifesto which sought an end to Serb hegemony and dictatorship. The government reacted by imprisoning many political opponents including

258-714: A Germanophile. In the late 1930s, internal tensions continued to increase with Serbs and Croats seeking to establish ethnic federal subdivisions. Serbs wanted Vardar Banovina (later known within Yugoslavia as Vardar Macedonia), Vojvodina , Montenegro united with the Serb lands, and Croatia wanted Dalmatia and some of Vojvodina. Both sides claimed territory in present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina populated also by Bosnian Muslims . The expansion of Nazi Germany in 1938 gave new momentum to efforts to solve these problems and, in 1939, Prince Paul appointed Dragiša Cvetković as prime minister, with

344-591: A Serbo-centric policy increased. In the early 1920s, the Yugoslav government of prime minister Nikola Pašić used police pressure over voters and ethnic minorities, confiscation of opposition pamphlets and other measure to rig elections . This was ineffective against the Croatian Peasant Party (formerly the Croatian Republican Peasant Party), whose members continued to win election to the Yugoslav parliament in large numbers, but did harm

430-453: A combined Bulgarian , Austrian and German force on 6 October 1915. This saw the escalation of South Slavic nationalism and calls by Slavic nationalists for the independence and unification of the South Slavic nationalities of Austria-Hungary along with Serbia and Montenegro into a single State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs . The Dalmatian Croat politician Ante Trumbić became

516-545: A few of the Dalmatian islands were given to Italy. The city of Rijeka was declared to be the Free State of Fiume , but it was soon occupied, and in 1924 annexed , by Italy, which had also been promised the Dalmatian coast during World War I, and Yugoslavia claiming Istria , a part of the former Austrian Littoral which had been annexed to Italy, but which contained a considerable population of Croats and Slovenes. The formation of

602-542: A government led by Stojan Protić committed to the restoration of parliamentary norms and mitigating the centralization of the previous government. Their opposition to the former governments program of radical land reform also united them. As several small groups and individuals switched sides, Protić now even had a small majority. However, the Democratic Party and the Social Democrats now boycotted parliament and Protić

688-505: A group of Muslims from Macedonia and Kosovo, saved it. On 28 June 1921, the Vidovdan Constitution was passed, establishing a unitary monarchy. The pre–World War I traditional regions were abolished and 33 new administrative oblasts (provinces) ruled from the center were instituted. During this time, King Peter I died (16 August 1921), and the prince-regent succeeded to the throne as King Alexander I . Ljubomir Davidović of

774-402: A lesser scale, similar changes occurred in other republics. This development rekindled the idea that SSRNJ might be divorced from SKJ domination and reconstituted as a second political party at the national level. Pending such an event, SSRNJ was regarded throughout the 1980s as a puppet of the party elite, particularly by virtue of its exclusive control over the nomination of assembly delegates at

860-437: A new government led by the neutral figure of Milenko Vesnić. The Social Democrats did not follow the Democratic Party, their former allies, into government because they were opposed to the anti-communist measures to which the new government was committed. The controversies that had divided the parties earlier were still very much live issues. The Democratic Party continued to push its agenda of centralization and still insisted on

946-581: A pretext the political crisis triggered by the shooting, King Alexander abolished the Constitution, prorogued the Parliament and introduced a personal dictatorship (known as the "January 6 Dictatorship", Šestosiječanjska diktatura , Šestojanuarska diktatura ) with the aim of establishing the Yugoslav ideology and single Yugoslav nation . He changed the name of the country to "Kingdom of Yugoslavia", and changed

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1032-607: A prominent South Slavic leader during the war and led the Yugoslav Committee that lobbied the Allies to support the creation of an independent Yugoslavia . Trumbić faced initial hostility from Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pašić , who preferred an enlarged Serbia over a unified Yugoslav state. However, both Pašić and Trumbić agreed to a compromise, which was delivered at the Corfu Declaration on 20 July 1917 that advocated

1118-606: A successful public vote for independence, which it formally declared on 25 June 1991 and achieved after the brief Ten-Day War . The republic was first officially named Federal Slovenia ( Slovene : Federalna Slovenija , Serbo-Croatian : Federalna Slovenija / Федерална Словенија ) until 20 February 1946, when it was renamed the People's Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: Ljudska republika Slovenija , Serbo-Croatian: Narodna Republika Slovenija / Народна Република Словенија ). It retained this name until 9 April 1963, when its name

1204-399: A timid way tried to express the discontent that Croatian Republican Peasant Party mobilized) had been too tainted by their participation in government and was all but eliminated. The other gainers were the communists who had done especially well in the wider Macedonia region. The remainder of the seats were taken up by smaller parties that were at best skeptical of the centralizing platform of

1290-457: A violent reaction from the governing majority including death threats. On 20 June 1928, a member of the government majority, the Serb deputy Puniša Račić , shot five members of the Croatian Peasant Party, including their leader Stjepan Radić, after Radić refused to apologize for earlier offense in which he accused Račić of stealing from civilian population. Two died on the floor of the Assembly while

1376-404: A warm climate, Yugoslavia was also relatively dry. Internal communications were poor, damage from World War I had been extensive, and with few exceptions agriculture was devoid of machinery or other modern farming technologies. Manufacturing was limited to Belgrade and the other major population centers, and consisted mainly of small, comparatively primitive facilities that produced strictly for

1462-608: The Zdravljica in March 1990. On 23 December 1990, a referendum on independence was held in Slovenia, at which 94.8% of the voters (88.5% of the overall electorate) voted in favour of separation of Slovenia from Yugoslavia. On 25 June 1991, the acts about the Slovenian independence were passed by the Assembly; Slovenia was immediately recognized by likewise declared Croatia and it recognized

1548-623: The Communist-dominated parliament formally abolished the monarchy and declared Yugoslavia a republic. From that moment onward, the NFY was effectively the only legally permitted political organisation in the country. At the fourth congress of the NFY it changed its name to the Socialist Alliance of the Working People of Yugoslavia . The congress accepted the proposal of the sixth congress of

1634-599: The Kingdom of Hungary within Austria-Hungary) with the formerly independent Kingdom of Serbia . In the same year, the Kingdom of Montenegro also proclaimed its unification with Serbia, whereas the regions of Kosovo and Vardar Macedonia had become parts of Serbia prior to the unification. The state was ruled by the Serbian dynasty of Karađorđević , which previously ruled the Kingdom of Serbia under Peter I from 1903 (after

1720-495: The League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ), was to involve as many people as possible in activities on the party agenda, without the restrictions and negative connotations of direct party control. The SSRNJ also was chartered as a national arbitration forum for competing, cross-regional interests. Although party officials were forbidden to hold simultaneous office in SSRNJ, the top echelon of

1806-890: The May Coup ) onward. Peter I became the first king of Yugoslavia until his death in 1921. He was succeeded by his son Alexander I , who had been regent for his father. He was known as "Alexander the Unifier" and he renamed the kingdom "Yugoslavia" in 1929. He was assassinated in Marseille by Vlado Chernozemski , a member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), during his visit to France in 1934. The crown passed to his 11-year-old son, Peter . Alexander's cousin Paul ruled as Prince regent until 1941, when Peter II came of age. The royal family flew to London

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1892-442: The Vidovdan Constitution in 1921 sparked tensions between the different Yugoslav ethnic groups . Trumbić opposed the 1921 constitution and over time grew increasingly hostile towards the Yugoslav government that he saw as being centralized in the favor of Serb hegemony over Yugoslavia. Three-quarters of the Yugoslav workforce was engaged in agriculture. A few commercial farmers existed, but most were subsistence peasants. Those in

1978-810: The Communist Party of Yugoslavia to have the name changed at the fourth congress of the National Front of Yugoslavia, held in Belgrade from February 22 to February 25, 1953. Parties that were not members of the People's Front: In 1953, the People's Front was renamed the Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia (SSRNJ) and it would continue to be the largest (in terms of membership) mass organization in SFR Yugoslavia from August 1945 through 1990. The political purpose of this national organization, sponsored by

2064-546: The Croatian extreme nationalist Ustaše organisation. Because Aleksandar's eldest son, Peter II , was a minor, a regency council of three, specified in Aleksandar's will, took over the new king's royal powers and duties. The council was dominated by the 11-year-old king's first cousin once removed Prince Paul . Prince Paul decided to appoint well-known economist Milan Stojadinović as prime minister in 1935. His solution to solving

2150-601: The Croatian nationalist Ustaše, who were also angered by any settlement short of full independence for a Greater Croatia including all of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Fearing an invasion by the Axis powers , Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact on 25 March 1941, pledging cooperation with the Axis. Massive anti-Axis demonstrations followed in Belgrade . On 27 March, the regime of Prince Paul

2236-541: The Democratic Party. The results left Nikola Pašić in a very strong position as the Democrats had no choice but to ally with the Radicals if they wanted to get their concept of a centralized Yugoslavia through. Pašić was always careful to keep open the option of a deal with the Croatian opposition. The Democrats and the Radicals were not quite strong enough to get the constitution through on their own and they made an alliance with

2322-557: The Democrats began to have doubts about the wisdom of his party's commitment to centralization and opened up negotiations with the opposition. This threatened to provoke a split in his party as his action was opposed by Svetozar Pribićević. It also gave Pašić a pretext to end the coalition. At first the King gave Pašić a mandate to form a coalition with Pribićević's Democrats. However, Pašić offered Pribićević too little for there to be much chance that Pribićević would agree. A purely Radical government

2408-555: The Front of National Freedom. Also it was concluded that Fascism could be defeated by the joint efforts of proletariat, peasantry, nationally oppressed and all democratic and progressive layers of society. The basis for the Front of the People's Freedom would be the Communist Party of Yugoslavia joined by the trade unions, "left wings" of the peasant parties, youth, university students, cultural, educational, sports societies, different professional associations and national liberation movements under

2494-593: The King, and legislation could become law with the approval of one of the houses alone if also approved by the King. That same year, Croatian historian and anti-Yugoslavist intellectual Milan Šufflay was assassinated in Zagreb. As a response, Albert Einstein and Heinrich Mann sent an appeal to the International League of Human Rights in Paris condemning the murder, accusing the Yugoslav government. The letter states of

2580-671: The Kingdom of Montenegro. The creation of the state was supported by pan-Slavists and Yugoslav nationalists. For the pan-Slavic movement, all of the South Slav (Yugoslav) people had united into a single state. The creation was also supported by the Allies, who sought to break up the Austro-Hungarian Empire . The newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes participated in the Paris Peace Conference with Trumbić as

2666-600: The National Council of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs appointed 28 members to start negotiation with the representatives of the government of the Kingdom of Serbia and Montenegro on creation of a new Yugoslav state, the delegation negotiated directly with regent Alexander Karađorđević . The negotiations would end, with the delegation of the National Council of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs led by Ante Pavelić reading

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2752-476: The Provisional Representation and the government. Because the Democratic Party led by Ljubomir Davidović pushed a highly centralized agenda a number of Croatian delegates moved into opposition. However, the radicals themselves were not happy that they had only three ministers to the Democratic Party's 11 and, on 16 August 1919, Protić handed in his resignation. Davidović then formed a coalition with

2838-546: The Radicals' main Serbian rivals, the Democrats. Stjepan Radić , the head of the Croatian Peasant Party, was imprisoned many times for political reasons. He was released in 1925 and returned to parliament. In the spring of 1928, Radić and Svetozar Pribićević waged a bitter parliamentary battle against the ratification of the Nettuno Convention with Italy. In this they mobilised nationalist opposition in Serbia but provoked

2924-420: The SSRNJ conference established departments to formulate policy recommendations in areas such as economics, education, and sociopolitical relations. Coordinating committees were also active in interregional consultation on policy and mass political action. In SR Slovenia , the Socialist Alliance became an umbrella organization for a number of nonparty organizations with political interests, beginning in 1988. On

3010-430: The Social Democrats. This government had a majority, but the quorum of the Provisional Representation was half plus one vote. The opposition then began to boycott the parliament. As the government could never guarantee that all of its supporters would turn up, it became impossible to hold a quorate meeting of the parliament. Davidović soon resigned, but as no one else could form a government he again became prime minister. As

3096-612: The Yugoslav Muslim Organization (JMO). The Muslim party sought and got concessions over the preservation of Bosnia in its borders and how the land reform would affect Muslim landowners in Bosnia. The Croatian Republican Peasant Party refused to swear allegiance to the King on the grounds that this presumed that Yugoslavia would be a monarchy, something that it contended only the Constituent Assembly could decide. The party

3182-499: The Yugoslav people as a whole. The Radicals had done no better in that region but this presented them far less of a problem because they had campaigned openly as a Serbian party. The most dramatic gains had been made by the two anti-system parties. The Croatian Republican Peasant Party's leadership had been released from prison only as the election campaign began to get underway. According to Gligorijević, this had helped them more than active campaigning. The Croatian community (that had in

3268-530: The address in front of regent Alexander, who represented his father, King Peter I of Serbia , by which acceptance the kingdom was established. The name of the new Yugoslav state was Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes ( Serbo-Croatian : Kraljevina Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca / Краљевина Срба, Хрвата и Словенаца ; Slovene : Kraljevina Srbov, Hrvatov in Slovencev ) or its abbreviated form Kingdom of SCS ( Kraljevina SHS / Краљевина СХС ). The new kingdom

3354-419: The auspices of civic parties. The main platform was: The Communist Party of Yugoslavia comprehended the People's Front (NF) as a political platform for the approaching of masses with its ideas and as a method of alliance with other opposition parties like civic, republican and democratic bourgeois parties. The Communist Party of Yugoslavia was banned from political life of the country but remained seized with

3440-572: The beginning of a movement for women's suffrage appeared with the creation of the new state. The Social Democrats and the Slovenian People's Party supported women's suffrage but the Radicals opposed it. The Democratic Party was open to the idea but not committed enough to make an issue of it so the proposal fell. Proportional Representation was accepted in principle but the system chosen ( d'Hondt with very small constituencies) favored large parties and parties with strong regional support. The election

3526-545: The borders at Postojna and Idrija were effectively undermined by the regent Alexander who preferred "good relations " with Italy. The Yugoslav kingdom bordered Italy and Austria to the northwest at the Rapallo border, Hungary and Romania to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece and Albania to the south, and the Adriatic Sea to the west. Almost immediately, it ran into disputes with most of its neighbours. Slovenia

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3612-513: The borders of the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Nevertheless, with the Treaty of Rapallo a population of half a million South Slavs, mostly Slovenes, were subjected to forced Italianization until the fall of Fascism in Italy . At the time when Benito Mussolini was willing to modify the Rapallo borders in order to annex the independent state of Rijeka to Italy , Pašić's attempts to correct

3698-420: The commune level, suggesting solutions to national and local social issues to assembly delegates, and overseeing elections and public policy implementation. Both individuals and interest groups held membership. The structure of SSRNJ was very similar to that of the party, including a hierarchy that extended from national to commune level. SSRNJ organizations in the republics and provinces were simplified versions of

3784-632: The commune level. One of the Presidents of the Federal Conference was Veljko Milatović . Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes , but the term " Yugoslavia " ( lit.   ' Land of the South Slavs ' )

3870-452: The country's representative. Since the Allies had lured the Italians into the war with a promise of substantial territorial gains in exchange , which cut off a quarter of Slovene ethnic territory from the remaining three-quarters of Slovenes living in the Kingdom of SCS, Trumbić successfully vouched for the inclusion of most Slavs living in the former Austria-Hungary to be included within

3956-468: The country's three universities in Belgrade , Ljubljana , and Zagreb . Immediately after 1 December proclamation, negotiations between the National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and the Serbian government resulted in agreement over the new government which was to be headed by Nikola Pašić . However, when this agreement was submitted to the approval of the regent, Alexander Karađorđević, it

4042-479: The court. Pribićević later went into exile, whereas over the course of the 1930s Maček would become the leader of the entire opposition bloc. Immediately after the dictatorship was proclaimed, Croatian deputy Ante Pavelić left for exile from the country. The following years Pavelić worked to establish a revolutionary organization, the Ustaše , allied with the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) against

4128-645: The creation of a united state of Serbs , Croats, and Slovenes to be led by the Serbian House of Karađorđević . In 1916, the Yugoslav Committee started negotiations with the Serbian Government in exile , on which they decided on the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, declaring the joint Corfu Declaration in 1917, the meetings were held at the Municipal Theatre of Corfu . In November 1918,

4214-402: The domestic market. The commercial potential of Yugoslavia's Adriatic ports went to waste because the nation lacked the capital or technical knowledge to operate a shipping industry. On the other hand, the mining industry was well developed due to the nation's abundance of mineral resources, but since it was primarily owned and operated by foreigners, most production was exported. Yugoslavia was

4300-527: The economic problems left over from the Great Depression was to make trade deals and get closer to Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany . The JRZ had majority support from Slovenes, Bosniaks, and Serbs. The only part missing was the support from Croats. This is why Milan Stojadinović called the JRZ regime a "Three-Legged Chair", Stojadinović wrote in his memoirs: "I called our party the three-legged chair, on which it

4386-413: The election of the Constituent Assembly, a Provisional Representation served as a parliament which was formed by delegates from the various elected bodies that had existed before the creation of the state. A realignment of parties combining several members of the Serbian opposition with political parties from the former Austria-Hungary led to the creation of a new party, The Democratic Party, that dominated

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4472-425: The goal of reaching an agreement with the Croatian opposition. Accordingly, on 26 August 1939, Vladko Maček became vice premier of Yugoslavia and an autonomous Banovina of Croatia was established with its own parliament. These changes satisfied neither Serbs, who were concerned with the status of the Serb minority in the new Banovina of Croatia and who wanted more of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Serbian territory, nor

4558-415: The government and of minister Svetozar Pribićević in particular. One of the few laws successfully passed by the Provisional Representation was the electoral law for the constituent assembly. During the negotiations that preceded the foundation of the new state, it had been agreed that voting would be secret and based on universal suffrage. It had not occurred to them that universal might include women until

4644-539: The internal divisions from the 33 oblasts to nine new banovinas on 3 October. This decision was made following a proposal by the British ambassador to better decentralize the country, modeled on Czechoslovakia . A Court for the Protection of the State was soon established to act as the new regime's tool for putting down any dissent. Opposition politicians Vladko Maček and Svetozar Pribićević were arrested under charges by

4730-556: The latter was dominated by established party members. The importance of SSRNJ to the party leadership increased as the party's direct control over social and state institutions decreased. It was useful in mobilizing otherwise apathetic citizens during the Croatian crisis of 1971 and the Kosovo crisis of 1987. The Constitution stipulated a wide variety of social and political functions for SSRNJ, including nomination of candidates for delegate at

4816-462: The laws resulting in independence. In September 1989, numerous constitutional amendments were passed by the Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia, which introduced parliamentary democracy to the country. The same year Action North both united the opposition and democratized communist establishment in Slovenia as the first defense action against Milošević 's supporters' attacks, leading to Slovenian independence. The word 'Socialist'

4902-543: The lead of its neighbors in allowing itself to become a dependent of Nazi Germany . Although Yugoslavia had enacted a compulsory public education policy, it was inaccessible to many peasants in the countryside. Official literacy figures for the population stood at 50%, but it varied widely throughout the country. Less than 10% of Slovenes were illiterate, whereas over 80% of Macedonians and Bosnians could not read or write. Approximately 10% of initial elementary school students went on to attend higher forms of education, at one of

4988-402: The legitimate government. This was established on 2 November following the signing of the Treaty of Vis by Ivan Šubašić (on behalf of the Kingdom) and Josip Broz Tito (on behalf of the Yugoslav Partisans ). Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by the Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip and the outbreak of World War I , Serbia was invaded and occupied by

5074-465: The life of Radić hung in the balance. The opposition now completely withdrew from parliament, declaring that they would not return to a parliament in which several of their representatives had been killed, and insisting on new elections. On 1 August, at a meeting in Zagreb, they renounced 1 December Declaration of 1920. They demanded that the negotiations for unification should begin from scratch. On 8 August Stjepan Radić died. On 6 January 1929, using as

5160-410: The market for them to collapse as global demand contracted heavily and the situation for export-oriented farmers further deteriorated when nations everywhere started to erect trade barriers. Italy was a major trading partner of Yugoslavia in the initial years after World War I, but ties fell off after Benito Mussolini came to power in 1922. In the grim economic situation of the 1930s, Yugoslavia followed

5246-405: The matter of creating a singular People's Front up to the beginning of World War II . At the conference in Stolice (Serbia) it was concluded that the antifascist movement should be transformed to a United People's Liberation Front of Yugoslavia . Each of the future republics and autonomous provinces had its own People's Liberation Front. The first congress of the People's Front of Yugoslavia

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5332-425: The national structure. By 1959, the SSRNJ counted over 6.3 million individual members and 111 collective organizations under its umbrella. The national organization was run by a conference of delegates chosen by the regional SSRNJ leadership. The conference presidium included members from the party, the armed forces, trade unions, Socialist Youth League, and other national organizations. Like the SKJ Central Committee,

5418-457: The need for radical land reform. A disagreement over electoral law finally led the Democratic Party to vote against the government in Parliament and the government was defeated. Though this meeting had not been quorate, Vesnić used this as a pretext to resign. His resignation had the intended effect: the Radical Party agreed to accept the need for centralization, and the Democratic Party agreed to drop its insistence on land reform. Vesnić again headed

5504-491: The new Croatian Peasant Party leader Vladko Maček. Despite these measures, opposition to the dictatorship continued, with Croats calling for a solution to what was called the "Croatian question". On 9 October 1934, the king was assassinated in Marseille , France, by Bulgarian Veličko Kerin (also known by his revolutionary pseudonym Vlado Chernozemski ), an activist of IMRO, in a conspiracy with Yugoslav exiles and radical members of banned political parties in cooperation with

5590-414: The new government. The Croatian Community and the Slovenian People's Party were however not happy with the Radicals' acceptance of centralization. Neither was Stojan Protić, and he withdrew from the government on this issue. In September 1920 a peasant revolt broke out in Croatia, the immediate cause of which was the branding of the peasants' cattle. The Croatian community blamed the centralizing policies of

5676-444: The opposition continued their boycott, the government decided it had no alternative but to rule by decree. This was denounced by the opposition who began to style themselves as the Parliamentary Community. Davidović realized that the situation was untenable and asked the King to hold immediate elections for the Constituent Assembly. When the King refused, he felt he had no alternative but to resign. The Parliamentary Community now formed

5762-435: The same year, prior to the country being invaded by the Axis powers . In April 1941, the country was occupied and partitioned by the Axis powers . A royal government-in-exile , recognized by the United Kingdom and, later, by all the Allies , was established in London . In 1944, after pressure from the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill , the King recognized the government of Democratic Federal Yugoslavia as

5848-460: The south were especially poor, living in a hilly, infertile region. No large estates existed except in the north, and all of those were owned by foreigners. Indeed, one of the first actions undertaken by the new Yugoslav state in 1919 was to break up the estates and dispose of foreign, and in particular Hungarian landowners. Nearly 40% of the rural population was surplus (i.e., excess people not needed to maintain current production levels), and despite

5934-400: The state. In 1931, Alexander decreed a new Constitution which made executive power the gift of the King. Elections were to be by universal male suffrage. The provision for a secret ballot was dropped, and pressure on public employees to vote for the governing party was to be a feature of all elections held under Alexander's constitution. Further, half the upper house was directly appointed by

6020-614: The third least industrialized nation in Eastern Europe after Bulgaria and Albania . Yugoslavia was typical of Eastern European nations in that it borrowed large sums of money from the West during the 1920s. When the Great Depression began in 1929, the Western lenders called in their debts, which could not be paid back. Some of the money was lost to graft, although most was used by farmers to improve production and export potential. Agricultural exports, however, were always an unstable prospect as their export earnings were heavily reliant on volatile world market prices. The Great Depression caused

6106-470: Was changed again, this time to Socialist Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: Socialistična republika Slovenija , Serbo-Croatian: Socijalistička Republika Slovenija / Социјалистичка Република Словенија ). On 8 March 1990, the Socialist Republic of Slovenia removed the prefix "Socialist" from its name, becoming the Republic of Slovenia , though remaining a constituent state of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia until 25 June 1991, when it enacted

6192-566: Was difficult to determine, since it had been an integral part of Austria for 400 years. The Vojvodina region was disputed with Hungary, Macedonia with Bulgaria, Rijeka with Italy. A plebiscite was also held in the Province of Carinthia , which opted to remain in Austria. Austrians had formed a majority in this region although numbers reflected that some Slovenes did vote for Carinthia to become part of Austria. The Dalmatian port city of Zadar and

6278-611: Was elected President of the Republic. The democratically elected parliament nominated the Christian Democratic leader Lojze Peterle as Prime Minister, which effectively ended the 45-year-long rule of the Communist Party. During this period, Slovenia retained its old flag and coat of arms, and most of the previous symbols as it awaited the creation of new symbols that would eventually come after independence. The old national anthem, Naprej zastava slave , had already been replaced by

6364-473: Was formed with a mandate to hold elections. The Radicals made gains at the expense of the Democrats but elsewhere there were gains by Radić's Peasant's Party. Serb politicians around Radic regarded Serbia as the standard bearer of Yugoslav unity, as the state of Piedmont had been for Italy, or Prussia for the German Empire ; a kind of " Greater Serbia ". Over the following years, Croatian resistance against

6450-635: Was held in Belgrade from August 5 to August 7, 1945. The Programme and the Statute of the National Front of Yugoslavia were passed. Edvard Kardelj gave the main guidelines for the NFY in his seminary which described the NFY as "the sole of the Nation, its reflection, its heroic uprising, its greatest majority – that it is – the Nation itself". The NFY was the only organisation to contest the first postwar election, in 1945 ; opposition parties pulled out after claiming to have experienced severe intimidation. On 29 November,

6536-402: Was held on 28 November 1920. When the votes were counted the Democratic Party had won the most seats, more than the Radicals – but only just. For a party that had been so dominant in the Provisional Representation, that amounted to a defeat. Further it had done rather badly in all former Austria-Hungarian areas. That undercut the party's belief that its centralization policy represented the will of

6622-485: Was its colloquial name due to its origins. The official name of the state was changed to "Kingdom of Yugoslavia" by King Alexander I on 3 October 1929. The preliminary kingdom was formed in 1918 by the merger of the provisional State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (itself formed from territories of the former Austria-Hungary , encompassing today's Bosnia and Herzegovina and most of today's Croatia and Slovenia ) and Banat, Bačka and Baranja (that had been part of

6708-401: Was made up of the formerly independent kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro ( Montenegro having been absorbed into Serbia the previous month ), and of a substantial amount of territory that was formerly part of Austria-Hungary, the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. The main states which formed the new Kingdom were the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs; Vojvodina ; and the Kingdom of Serbia with

6794-771: Was not in any real position to help. Regardless of this, on 6 April 1941, the Axis powers launched the invasion of Yugoslavia and quickly conquered it. The royal family, including Prince Paul, escaped abroad and were kept under house arrest in British Kenya . SR Slovenia People's Republic of Slovenia (1946–1963) Ljudska republika Slovenija Socialist Republic of Slovenia (1963–1990) Socialistična republika Slovenija The Socialist Republic of Slovenia ( Slovene : Socialistična republika Slovenija , Serbo-Croatian : Socijalistička Republika Slovenija / Социјалистичка Република Словенија ), commonly referred to as Socialist Slovenia or simply Slovenia ,

6880-500: Was one of the six federal republics forming Yugoslavia and the nation state of the Slovenes . It existed under various names from its creation on 29 November 1945 until 25 June 1991. In early 1990, the government dismantled the single-party system of government – installed by the League of Communists – and adopted a multi-party democracy. Republic of Slovenia dropped the 'Socialist' label shortly after and in late 1990 cast

6966-472: Was overthrown by a military coup d'état with British support. The 17-year-old Peter II was declared to be of age and placed in power. General Dušan Simović became his Prime Minister. Yugoslavia withdrew its support for the Axis de facto without formally renouncing the Tripartite Pact. Although the new rulers opposed Nazi Germany , they also feared that if Germany attacked Yugoslavia, the United Kingdom

7052-725: Was possible to sit when necessary, although a chair with four legs is far more stable" - the fourth leg being the Croats, whose support was mostly behind the HSS. Prince Paul did not like this at first, but let him continue as long as it fixed the economy. Paul was concerned with rising tensions in Europe, especially with the Anschluss and the Munich Agreement Therefore, Paul ousted Milan Stojadinović replacing him with Dragiša Cvetković for being

7138-419: Was rejected, producing the new state's first governmental crisis. Many regarded this rejection as a violation of parliamentary principles, but the matter was resolved when the regent suggested replacing Pašić with Stojan Protić , a leading member of Pašić's Radical Party. The National Council and the Serbian government agreed and the new government came into existence on 20 December 1918. In this period before

7224-449: Was removed from the name of the then state on 7 March 1990. The socialist infrastructure was largely dissolved. The first open democratic election was held on 8 April 1990. The parliamentary elections were won by the opposition, known as the DEMOS coalition led by the dissident Jože Pučnik . At the same time, Milan Kučan , the former chairman of the League of Communists of Slovenia (ZKS),

7310-557: Was unable to muster a quorum. Hence the Parliamentary Community, now in government, was forced to rule by decree. For the Parliamentary Community to thus violate the basic principle around which they had formed put them in an extremely difficult position. In April 1920, widespread worker unrest and a railway strike broke out. According to Gligorijević, this put pressure on the two main parties to settle their differences. After successful negotiations, Protić resigned to make way for

7396-458: Was unable to take its seats. Most of the opposition though initially taking their seats declared boycotts as time went so that there were few votes against. However, the constitution decided against 1918 agreement between the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and the Kingdom of Serbia , which stated that a 66% majority that 50% plus one vote would be needed to pass, irrespective of how many voted against. Only last minute concessions to Džemijet ,

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