Albanian conflict. Why are Serbia and Albania on bad terms?

June 15, 1389 Serbian army led by Prince Lazar Khrebelyanovich accepted the battle with the Ottoman army Sultan Murad I on the Kosovo field. In that bloody battle the best Serbian warriors died, who, even at the cost of their lives, could not prevent the onset of the Ottoman yoke, which stretched for five centuries.

Kosovo is not the geographical, but the historical heart of Serbia, the spiritual center of Serbian Orthodoxy. Today this heart has been torn out of the chest of the Serbs.

"Great Migration": how it all began

The tragedy that the Serbian people are now experiencing was predetermined by a whole chain of historical events.

At the end of the XVII early XVIII For centuries, the Serbs, trying to throw off the chains of Ottoman rule, decided to rely on the Habsburg monarchy. The defeat in the fight against the Ottoman Empire forced the Serbs to leave their native lands under fear of mass extermination.

This process, known in history as the "Great Serb Migration", led to the fact that such historical regions as Raska, Kosovo and Metohija lost most of their historical population. In order to consolidate this situation, the authorities of the Ottoman Empire resettled Muslim Albanians in the southern regions of Serbia, acting according to the ancient principle of "divide and rule."

By the time Serbia gained independence in the 19th century, the problem of relations between Serbs and Albanians was already in full swing. Peaceful coexistence did not work out - Serbia, which gained control over the lands of Kosovo at the beginning of the 20th century, encouraged the resettlement of Serbian peasants in the region, trying to change the demographic situation in its favor. These attempts met with fierce resistance from the Albanians, who did not disdain the methods of terror against the Serbian population.

Autonomous Province of Kosovo

The external factor also played a big role. For example, during the Second World War, Italy included most of the territory of Kosovo in its protectorate under the name "Kingdom of Albania". Albanian armed groups, with the full approval of Italy, launched a campaign of terror in the region against the Serbian population, the ultimate goal of which was the complete expulsion of the Serbs. From 10 to 40 thousand Serbs became victims of the genocide during the Second World War in Kosovo, about 100 thousand became refugees. At the same time, the resettlement of Albanians to the region continued.

After the end of the war, according to the Constitution of Yugoslavia in 1946, the autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija was formed as part of the Socialist Republic of Serbia. In November 1968, it was transformed into the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo.

Yugoslavia by the 1970s had become one of the most successful European countries which, despite its socialist orientation, supported mutually beneficial relationship with the West.

But Kosovo remained a big headache for Belgrade. In the second half of the 1970s, the region received more subsidies from the center than, for example, the union republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Montenegro. The Albanian population of Kosovo continued to grow due to the influx from Albania itself, where living conditions were an order of magnitude worse. But the arriving Albanians were guided not by Belgrade, but by the leader of Albania, Enver Hoxha, and dreamed of creating a "Great Albania".

Everything rested on Tito

The powerful figure of the Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito, cementing the country as a whole, did not allow the ethnic conflict in Kosovo to flare up.

But the situation continued to deteriorate. If, according to the data of 1948, about 500 thousand Albanians lived in Kosovo against 172 thousand Serbs, then by 1981 there were more than 1.225 million Albanians, while there were 0.209 million Serbs.

Proletarian internationalism held back the ethnic conflict as best it could, but the efforts of the radicals were not in vain.

On May 4, 1980, Tito died - perhaps the only person who still enjoys the same respect among people throughout the territory. former Yugoslavia. No one could replace Tito. The outbreak in Kosovo became a matter of time.

Fadil Hoxha, one of the leaders of the Kosovo Albanians, during the Second World War was not just an ally of Tito. He headed the headquarters of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia in Kosovo and Metohija. In the post-war years, Hoxha was the head of the government of the region, was a member of the Presidium of the SFRY as a representative of the autonomous province of Kosovo, and even served as vice president of Yugoslavia. All this did not prevent him from openly discussing the need to unite the Albanians in Kosovo and Albania in one state.

In a situation where even the Albanian elite of Kosovo was pursuing a nationalist and separatist line, the radicals were ready to take up arms.

Bloody Spring 1981

On March 11, 1981, in the capital of Kosovo, Pristina, students protested spontaneously, dissatisfied with the living conditions in the hostel and the dining room.

The unsanctioned demonstration was suppressed by policemen, which, in turn, caused indignation among the citizens.

At first, as usual, the slogans were harmless - "For freedom and equality", "For a better life", "Long live Marxism-Leninism, down with revisionism." But soon calls began to sound for a union with Albania, for the expulsion of the Serbs from the region.

This was followed by pogroms of Serbian homes throughout Kosovo. On March 16, 1981, the Albanians set fire to an Orthodox monastery, which made the conflict not only national, but also religious.

It was not possible to stop the pogroms for three weeks. Thousands of Serbs fled the region in fear. A report from the special services fell on the table of the leadership of Yugoslavia: the situation is critical, the police cannot stop the unrest, a complete loss of control over Kosovo is possible.

In early April 1981, the forces of the Yugoslav people's army. Only thanks to this unrest was suppressed.

The number of victims of the confrontation in 1981 is still not exactly known. According to official figures, 5 law enforcement officers and about a dozen protesters were killed. According to some historians, the total number of deaths can be measured in tens and even hundreds.

smoldering fire

The conflict was extinguished, but not resolved. Moreover, the general Yugoslav crisis further exacerbated the problem.

In 1987 a new head of the Central Committee of the Union of Communists of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic issued slogans in defense of the rights of the Serbian population of Kosovo. In March 1989, in an effort to strengthen the central government, Milosevic achieved a sharp restriction of the rights that had been granted to the autonomy of Kosovo under Tito. This caused new unrest, which escalated into street clashes that claimed the lives of more than two dozen people.

The bloody breakup of Yugoslavia left the Kosovo problem in the background for a while. But the situation there continued to deteriorate. Among the Muslim Albanians, emissaries of radical terrorist groups began to work actively. Newly appeared militants underwent initial training and gained combat experience in neighboring republics, where the war was in full swing. Weapons came to Kosovo both from neighboring Albania, where there was never a shortage of them, and from other countries.

Yugoslav "Chechnya"

From the beginning of the 1990s, the creation of gangs began in Kosovo, which acted both against the Yugoslav security forces and against the peaceful Serbian population.

By the mid-1990s, the Yugoslav security forces were forced to de facto wage war against Albanian terrorists. It was not possible to completely defeat the terrorist underground, as this required the involvement of very serious military forces. The authorities of Yugoslavia, already under Western sanctions, did not want to aggravate the situation, knowing full well what the reaction of the world community would be.

As a result, by the beginning of 1998, an association of armed terrorist groups was formed, which was called the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). On February 28, 1998, the KLA officially announced the beginning of the armed struggle for the independence of Kosovo. The militants attacked police stations and government offices.

On March 5, 1998, the Special Anti-Terrorist Group of Yugoslavia in the town of Prekaz managed to destroy more than 30 KLA militants, including brothers Adem and Hamez Yashari founders of a terrorist group. The international community, however, accused the Yugoslav authorities of reprisals against civilians.

The Kosovo war is a vivid example of the policy of "double standards". Without noticing the terrorist attacks and crimes by the KLA, representatives of the US and EU countries blamed official Belgrade for everything. The more effective were the attacks of the Yugoslav military on the terrorist infrastructure, the more severe were the threats against the Serbs.

NATO bombs decide everything

By the beginning of 1999, it became clear that, despite the supply of weapons and the help of foreign instructors, the KLA could not successfully resist the actions of the Yugoslav security forces. Then the NATO countries presented an ultimatum to Belgrade - accusing the Serbs of carrying out ethnic cleansing, they demanded the complete withdrawal of the army from the territory of Kosovo under the threat of military intervention.

In fact, it was about the separation of Kosovo from Yugoslavia. President Slobodan Milosevic refused to take this step.

By the end of March 1999, units of the Yugoslav army drove the terrorists into the mountainous and wooded regions of the region. March 24, 1999 NATO Secretary General Javier Solana, saving the militants from defeat, ordered the commander of NATO forces in Europe, American General Wesley Clark, to launch a military operation against Yugoslavia.

For the first time since the Second World War, aerial bombs rained down on European cities.

Almost three months of bombing aimed at destroying the country's infrastructure yielded its result - on June 9, 1999, an agreement was signed on the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops from Kosovo and its transfer to the control of KFOR forces.

End of Serbian Kosovo

The end of the war was the actual end of the history of Serbian Kosovo. Together with the Yugoslav military, about 200 thousand Serbs and representatives of other ethnic minorities left the region.

The current Serbian diaspora, which makes up about 5-6 percent of the population of Kosovo, is concentrated in the northern regions of the province, directly bordering the territory of Serbia.

In Kosovo, from the moment it came under international control, there has been a systematic destruction of everything that reminds of the Serbian past of the region. The number of destroyed Orthodox churches goes to dozens, the former Serbian villages are populated by Albanians or come to complete desolation.

In 2008, the Republic of Kosovo in unilaterally declared independence. Her current President Hashim Thaci- one of the field commanders of the KLA, whom former prosecutor UN International Tribunal Carla del Ponte accused of trafficking in organs seized from living people. current Prime Minister of Kosovo Ramos Haradinaj accused by the Hague Tribunal of massacres Serbs, but was acquitted after witnesses to his crimes began to die or refuse to testify.

The process, once initiated by the punishers of the Ottoman Sultan, was successfully completed under the slogan of preserving democratic values.

TEN DAY WAR

The bloody and protracted conflict in Yugoslavia began with a small war, the victims of which were no more than 100 people. After the Second World War, it was the premiere in the Balkan theater of operations.

Parties to the conflict: Slovenia, Yugoslavia
Conflict zone: Slovenia
Casus belli: secession of Slovenia from the SFRY
Losses: Slovenian self-defense forces - 19 people, Yugoslav army - 45 people, 12 civilians (mainly drivers of international road transport flights)

The Ten Day War in the Balkans led Slovenia to independence. Then the federal Yugoslavia will hold on to its regions more tightly and give them away with much more bloodshed. Photo: red-alliance.net

In December 1990, the most economically developed republic of Yugoslavia, Slovenia, held a referendum and announced its separation from the SFRY: 86% of the Slovenian population voted for this. On June 25, 1991, the Slovenian leadership announced that it had taken control of its borders and airspace. In response, the government of the Yugoslav federation ordered the Yugoslav People's Army to restore order. Fighting with armored personnel carrier tanks continued until July 4, when peace was concluded: the Yugoslav army pledged to stop hostilities on the territory of Slovenia, and Slovenia and Croatia promised to wait three months with declarations of independence.

BOSNNIAN WAR

Then came the turn of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was inhabited by 44% Muslim Bosnians, 31% by Orthodox Serbs, and 17% by Catholic Croats. Serbian leaders did not recognize the results of the independence referendum (February 29, 1992) and proclaimed their own republic.

Parties to the conflict: Bosnians, Serbs, Croats
Conflict zone: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Casus belli: interethnic conflict, struggle for territory
Losses: 100-110 thousand people (total), 2 million 200 thousand refugees

In this most bloody of all modern Balkan wars, the parties staged ethnic cleansing. Photo: ronhaviv.com

An acute ethnic conflict broke out: the Bosnian Serbs were supported by Serbia, led by Slobodan Milosevic, and the Yugoslav People's Army. The Bosnian War lasted from March 1, 1992 to December 14, 1995. In this acute conflict, newly formed formations acted against each other: the Army of the Republika Srpska, the People's Defense of Western Bosnia, the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Croatian Defense Council. The dispute was about territories. The shelling of cities and the ethnic cleansing of the flocks are signs of this war. The Serbs had weapons inherited from the Yugoslav People's Army. When the Croats and Bosnians united against the Republika Srpska, creating the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, this advantage was lost. After the massacre in Srebrenica, NATO launched an operation against the Bosnian Serb formations and the war soon ended. The International Tribunal named 45 Serbs, 12 Croats and 5 Bosnians as war criminals. The victims of the Bosnian war - 100-110 thousand people; about 2 million 200 thousand became refugees. This war is considered the most destructive in Europe after World War II.

KOSOVO WAR

The Kosovo war in April 1996 was started by Albanian separatists who wanted the independence of Kosovo and Metohija. The Kosovo Liberation Army (there is evidence of KLA ties to al-Qaeda) declared an armed struggle.

Parties to the conflict: Kosovo Albanians (Kosovo Defense Army), Yugoslav Army, NATO
Conflict zone: Kosovo, cities of Serbia
Casus belli: desire for independence of Kosovo, non-compliance by the Yugoslav authorities with NATO conditions
Losses: 1,700 civilians, thousands left homeless

Kosovo war. Serbian unit in position. Photo: krautspacemagic.tumblr.com

The non-Albanian population - Serbs, Montenegrins and Gypsies - began to leave the region en masse. In response, the Yugoslav army attacked settlements in Kosovo. During this operation, about 80 civilians were killed, including women and children. NATO countries, unsuccessfully trying to force Belgrade to stop hostilities in Kosovo and Metahija, threatened a military operation in 1998. The NATO Council gave four days, after which air strikes were to be launched, and the Yugoslav authorities relented. The truce was short-lived, and violence against the Serb and Albanian populations resumed. In early 1999, the Yugoslav army and police again began to act against the Albanians who supported the secession of Kosovo. There was an episode when the Yugoslav units attacked the village of Racak, occupied by the KLA. According to the Albanians, who were supported by Western observers, the Yugoslavs staged the execution of 45 Albanians there. The Yugoslav authorities claimed that these people died in battle. It was this event that gave NATO reason to again threaten to bomb Yugoslavia if it did not negotiate with the Kosovo leaders. The meeting of the parties, held in Paris, with the participation of Russia and NATO, yielded nothing. Russia, which traditionally considered the Balkans its sphere of attention, was undergoing a period of impotence: the United States and Great Britain presented a draft settlement.

Albanian refugees in Kosovo fleeing a war zone. Photo: dw.de

Full autonomy of Kosovo was supposed, the withdrawal of the Yugoslav forces and instead of them - the introduction of the NATO contingent. As a result, Yugoslavia agreed with the political part, but categorically opposed the decision to occupy the region with the forces of the North Atlantic bloc. NATO immediately began military operations. The UN resolution condemning this was supported only by Russia, China and Namibia. Experts note the coincidence of NATO's actions against Yugoslavia with the sex scandal around Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky; Be that as it may, on March 24, 1999, Operation Allied Force began.

US and allied aircraft have been attacking Belgrade, Pristina and other cities; cruise missiles launched from a cruiser in the Adriatic Sea, aimed at military installations. The operation ended on June 10, 1999.

Belgrade is on fire after a NATO air raid. Photo: libcom.org

As a result of the bombing, not only military and infrastructure facilities were damaged, but also residential areas. According to the Yugoslav authorities, civilian casualties exceeded 1,700; Human Rights Watch reported that about 500 people died as a result of the bombings, and that "excess deaths due to deteriorating living conditions cannot be estimated." Thousands of people were left homeless. More than 800 people are missing, according to the UN. The Republic of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008. It is only partially recognized in the world.

WAR IN TRANSNISTRIUM

At the decline of the USSR in the Moldavian SSR, nationalist slogans sound louder and louder. In the spring of 1989, on behalf of the Writers' Union of Moldova, a bill on languages ​​was published. It is assumed that parents cannot choose the language in which their children will be taught; and besides this - administrative (and in some cases, criminal) liability for the use in official communication of any language other than Moldovan. A transition to Latin writing is also being prepared.

Parties to the conflict: Moldova, unrecognized republic of Transnistria
Conflict zone: the left bank of the Dniester bordering Ukraine on the territory of the Moldavian SSR
Casus belli: Declaration of independence of Transnistria, which Moldova considers its territory
Losses: 500 killed on each side. Experts say that in reality there were many more dead

Transnistria - the territory between the Dniester and the Ukrainian border

Immediately, a movement spontaneously arises for the introduction of state bilingualism: Moldovan and Russian. The Moldovan territories, stretching in a narrow strip from the left bank of the winding Dniester to the border with Ukraine, are inhabited mainly by ethnic Russians and Ukrainians. Here, in Pridnestrovie, in its main city, Tiraspol, the United Council of Labor Collectives is being organized. This OSTK, when the Moldavian language was recognized as the state language, organized a wave of strikes. Events developed: the Supreme Council of the MSSR decided that the republic itself was illegally created as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, and the regions of Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia were the territories of Romania occupied by the USSR. The city council of Tiraspol responded by saying that if so, it means that the left bank of the Dniester is also illegally included in the Moldavian SSR, and that it does not consider itself bound by any obligations with the MSSR.

A referendum was held in Pridnestrovie, and on September 2, 1990, the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed as part of the USSR. But the leadership of the Union did not recognize the PMSSR, as well as Gagauzia, which also declared independence.

Hot spring on the banks of the Dniester. Photo: dniester.ru

On March 3, 1991, in Dubossary, unknown people shot down a car with Transnistrian police. Some accuse the Moldovan side of the provocation, others - the Pridnestrovian one. In response, Pridnestrovian guardsmen and Cossacks took Moldovan policemen hostage. On the same day, the special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moldova attacked the regiment of the 14th Army and blocked the houses in which the families of its servicemen lived. Cossacks and Pridnestrovian guards arrived to help the regiment. And so the war began. Moldavian artillery shelled the left bank, Dubossary and Bender were subjected to shelling. The Moldavian army tried ten times to break through to Dubossary. Pridnestrovians defended themselves with the help of weapons received from the 14th army in every possible way. They even had several tanks. In this regard, Moldovan President Mircea Sneegur said that his country is at war with Russia.

The Moldavian army approached Bendery, battles began for the city, then - in the city itself. The Moldovans tried to storm the fortress, which housed the rocket brigade of the 14th army. Tanks of the 14th army came to the aid of the Transnistrians, and the attackers were forced out of the city. The Moldovan side used two MiG-29s: they tried to bomb the bridge, but one aircraft was shot down by the air defense of the 14th Army.

The conflict was frozen with the introduction of Russian peacekeepers. Part of the left bank of the Dniester is controlled by Moldova, part - by the unrecognized republic of Transnistria.

WAR IN ABKHAZIA 1992-1993

Parties to the conflict: Georgia, Abkhazia
Conflict zone:territory of the Abkhaz ASSR
Casus belli:Declaration of independence by Abkhazia, protection by Georgia of the interests of its citizens living there, the desire to preserve territorial integrity
Losses:4 thousand Georgians and 4 thousand Abkhazians. 1000 Georgians are considered missing

In 1992, after the overthrow of the regime of Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Eduard Shevardnadze returned to Georgia, heading the State Council, which controlled the Georgian territory, with the exception of Adjara, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. AT Supreme Council In the Abkhaz autonomy, contradictions between the Georgian and Abkhaz representatives were growing. The Council of National Unity of Abkhazia appealed to the population to prevent the violation of the Constitution of autonomy, the usurpation of power and lawlessness. At the same time, the Armed Forces of Abkhazia returned to the Constitution of 1925, according to which Abkhazia - sovereign state within the Georgian SSR. Tbilisi canceled this decision. On August 14, 1992, Georgia sent troops into Abkhazia, citing the need to counter separatism and protect the Georgians living there. The official reason given was security. railway, along which goods went from Russia to Armenia, which was at war with Azerbaijan. The military men who entered Abkhazia had new technology inherited by Georgia after the collapse of the USSR. The armament of the Abkhaz side consisted mainly of small arms. It was high holiday season; the first clashes began, and the dead appeared on both sides.

Abkhazia. Battles near Gagra. Photo: topwar.ru

The Abkhazians received support in the North Caucasus: Adyghe and Chechen volunteers began to join their detachments; one of the Chechen units was commanded by Shamil Basayev. The Russian leadership did not interfere in the conflict - except perhaps Krasnodar region closed the border with Abkhazia to "stabilize the situation with refugees"; also organized the transfer of volunteers and Kuban Cossacks from Transnistria to Abkhazia. The Russian Committee for Emergency Situations by Sea evacuated 15,000 people from the conflict zone.

After Yeltsin assured Shevardnadze of his desire to resolve the conflict peacefully, the Georgian National Guard was ordered to halt the offensive. And in the fall of 1992, the Abkhazians launched a counteroffensive: they already had captured equipment; managed to recapture Gagra (earlier, the Georgian military commandant of this city promised, if the offensive was not stopped, to destroy all ethnic Abkhazians; when the city was taken, there were reports that Chechens and Abkhazians were playing the severed heads of Georgians in the stadium: later the international commission did not confirm this).

Burnt down as a result of the fighting in 1993, the House of the Government of Abkhazia. Photo: Wikipedia

In the autumn of 1993, Abkhazians storming Sukhumi shot down several Georgian planes landing in Sukhumi from portable anti-aircraft guns. It is believed that the artillery weapons received from Russia contributed to the capture of Sukhumi. In the captured city, 17 pro-Georgian ministers were executed.

The ceasefire agreement was concluded in the fall of 1994 with Russian mediation. There are sources reporting on the episodes of this war, in which Russian troops. CIS peacekeeping forces were brought into Abkhazia - in fact, these were units of the Russian Armed Forces stationed here earlier. Only the Kodori Gorge remained under Georgian control in Abkhazia. As a result of this war, 4 thousand Georgians were killed (another thousand were missing) and 4 thousand Abkhazians. About 250 thousand Georgians were forced to flee from the territory of Abkhazia.

Serbo-Albanian conflict

General review (beginning of feud)

It seems that all recent events have receded into the background compared to the war waged in 1999 by NATO member states against Yugoslavia.

And the whole split of Yugoslavia was always accompanied by a lot of blood.

The strife in the Balkans has always been very bloody and confusing. Probably because all the peoples of the Balkans had the same roots, with all the diversity of languages ​​and faiths.

In all media reports there is Kosovo, the cradle of Serbian statehood, Albanians. The words seem to be all understandable, but they raise questions: What is Kosovo?

Where did the Albanians come from?

Who are they - Muslim fanatics? Or separatists?

TSB gives an unbiased geographical location and a brief historical outline of Kosovo.

“Kosovo is an autonomous province, as part of the Social Republic of Serbia, which was then still part of the Federal Yugoslavia, from which neither Croatia, nor Slovenia, nor Macedonia, nor Bosnia-Herzegovina had yet broken away. Area \u003d 10.9 km squared, the capital is Prishitina. Most of the region is made up of the Kosovo and Metohija basins.

In the 15th century Kosovo became part of the Ottoman Empire. In the 16th - 18th centuries. anti-Turkish uprisings break out here, brutally suppressed by the Turks, and as a result, mass emigration of Serbs and colonization by Albanians.

In 1913 Kosovo is divided between Serbia and Montenegro, and in 1918 the kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes became part of it. In 1944 liberated from fascist occupation by the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia and the People's Liberation Army of Albania.

It is necessary to pay attention: still together. At that time, the Kamunist leaders of both countries, Josip Broz Tito and Enver Hoxha, had not yet inflamed mortal hatred for each other, as a couple of years later, when Tito opposed himself to Stalin, and Hoxha remained his adherent to the end. And in the region where the Albanians already constituted the largest group of the population, his subjects who disagreed with Khoja poured.

Tito willingly allowed them to settle: in full accordance with the Marxist phraseology, he saw the main threat "in Serbian chauvinism." A threat to a united Yugoslavia, where everyone will have one nationality - "Yugoslav", one for Serbs, Croats, Slovenes and Kosovo Albanians. The fact that Tito himself was a Croat and a Catholic (in his youth) did not play the slightest role here.

Founded in 1918 The Yugoslav state changed its name more than once until the end of the century. At first it was called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, since 1929. - Yugoslavia, since 1945. - The Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FPRY), since 1963. - Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), since 1992. - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). Yugoslavia united, although related in origin, peoples who had long followed different historical paths.

The inhabitants of Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia speak the same language and, by land, constitute one people. But even in the Middle Ages, three independent kingdoms were formed - Serbia, Croatia and a little later Bosnia. Christianity came here from Orthodox Byzantium. Croatia from the 17th century was part of Catholic Hungary and also became Catholic. Bosnia and Serbia in the 14th - 15th centuries. conquered by the Turks. After that, many residents of Bosnia converted to Islam, while the Serbs remained faithful to Orthodoxy. Of all the Serbian regions, only coastal Montenegro was independent of the Turks. Over time, Montenegrins began to realize themselves as a special people. Only in 1918. when creating the Yugoslav kingdom, Serbia and Montenegro united.

Serbian lands became the core of Yugoslavia. The capital of Serbia - Belgrade - was the capital of the whole country. Croatia has always enjoyed autonomy, but has always aspired to independence. As part of the FPRY, it received the status of a republic. Only then did Bosnia and Montenegro gain some independence in the same capacity.

In addition to the ancient Serbo-Croatian lands, the Yugoslav state also included Slovenia in the north and Macedonia in the south. Catholic Slovenia since the 9th century. was part of first Germany, then Austria and gravitated and Western Europe. The Macedonian Slavs professed Orthodoxy, although by origin and culture they were closer not to the Serbs, but to other co-religionists - the Bulgarians. The struggle against the "Serbian state" in Macedonia did not stop even under the Kamunists.

The largest non-Slavic peoples of Yugoslavia were the Hungarians and Albanians. There are many Hungarians in Vojvodina in northern Serbia. In 1945 Vojvodina was granted autonomy. The same rights were given to Kosovo and Metohija in the south of Serbia, where Albanians compactly lived, descendants of the tribes that lived in the Balkans even under the ancient Romans, but long time deprived of their own strong state. During the period of Turkish rule, they adopted the religion of the conquerors - Islam. After the Turkish conquest, Albania subsequently gained independence and a king, then fell into the Italian occupation, then became an ultra-communist state under the leadership of E. Hoxha. Being the most backward state in Europe, after the reign of Hoxha, it also became the poorest.

Therefore, in comparison with it, even not particularly rich Kosovo seemed like a paradise, and new Albanians rushed there.

Religion in Albania was abolished under socialism, and Albanians have never been religious. But all - both Muslims and Christians of both rites retained pagan beliefs.

This is how historical events broke down: many Albanians live outside of Albania. In Greece, for example, all Orthodox Albanians are counted as Greeks, Muslim Albanians were expelled from there after the Second World War, in Macedonia they are almost a quarter of the population and their relations with Orthodox Slavs are very tense.

In 1913 Albania achieved independence from Turkey. However, many Albanian settlements ended up on the territory of other states - Serbia, Montenegro, Greece. In the Yugoslav Federation, Albanians inhabited Kosovo.

Religious and ethnic conflicts played a major role in the collapse of the Yugoslav Federation. In 1991 Slovenia and Croatia left its composition, then, after a bloody war, Bosnia. In 1992 Macedonian independence was proclaimed. In 2001 Following the rejection of the Kosovo Territory, Montenegro also took a course towards leaving the Federation. The attempt to create a unified Yugoslav state failed.

Yugoslavia is a country that did not survive the 10th century. It was formed in 1918. and disbanded in 19991. Why did the South Slavic peoples related to each other fail to maintain unity? Often the answer to this question is seen in religious differences. Indeed, the Serbs and Macedonians who inhabited Yugoslavia profess Orthodoxy, the Croats and Slovenes - Catholicism, the Bosnians - Islam. For many centuries, these peoples were deprived of independence and were part of multinational empires - the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman. After the First World War, both empires collapsed, and the Yugoslav lands united into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, from 1929. called Yugoslavia. Since then, national conflicts have been constantly taking place here.

After the Second World War, the leaders of the United States and England intended to return power in Yugoslavia to King Peter 2, who was in London - but by that time the kamunist government had already been established in the country, headed by Tito, who, together with the Prime Minister of the Emigrant Government, Šubašić, signed an agreement on holding elections and on the creation of a unified government. It was formed in March 1945.

In January 1946 A new constitution was adopted, according to which the government nationalized a large number of large enterprises, banks, lands were confiscated, almost all industry, all large private enterprises, banks, possessions of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church passed into the hands of the state.

In the first post-war years, the USSR remained the main ally of Yugoslavia.

But by 1948 relations deteriorated sharply, because Tito asked the USSR not to interfere in the internal affairs of the country. In response, Stalin condemned the "anti-democratic position" of the Yugoslav leadership. Relations were interrupted, and economic assistance to the FPRY ceased.

The break with the USSR had a heavy impact on the Yugoslav economy. Re-introduced cards.

After Stalin's death, relations with the USSR resumed again, but when Tito condemned the invasion of the armies of five social countries into Czechoslovakia, calling the policy Soviet Union"Red imperialism", relations broke off again. But by that time, the successes in Yugoslavia spoke for themselves: for 20 post-war years industrial production tripled, and per capita income increased 2.5 times. But by the beginning of the sixties, the development of Yugoslav industry had declined, and discontent began in the country. The lagging republics: the province of Kosovo and Metohija, Bosnia, Macedonia demanded changes in the country. The more developed ones - Croatia and Slovenia - did not want to share their profits with the poor republics.

Discontent began to brew in Yugoslavia, internal split. Nationalism began to emerge.

In 1971, armed clashes began between Croats and Serbs, as the Croats demanded the expansion of their rights, up to secession from the Federation.

In 1987 an ethnic conflict broke out in the autonomous province of Kosovo. Nationalists revived in other parts of Yugoslavia as well.

The central authorities did not have the strength to resist the collapse of the country. Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia were now in favor of unity.

In July 1991 Croatia and Slovenia declared independence. The Yugoslav army immediately entered the territory of these republics and tried to keep them in the composition by force. united state. All this led to a long-term war, which not only destroyed Yugoslavia, but also destroyed the socialist economy that President Tito was building.

Crisis in Yugoslavia.

The historical development of the peoples of Yugoslavia proceeded in different ways: some lived for centuries under the yoke of Turkey, others were part of the Habsburg state; some fought for liberation with weapons in their hands, others waited for the power of the conquerors to fall by itself. But after the creation of a single independent state in 1918. contradictions arose between the peoples that entered it. The establishment of the communist regime by the end of 1940 did not resolve these contradictions. An example of them is the long-term conflict between Albanians and Serbs over the historical region of Kosovo and Metohija.

In the Yugoslav and Albanian historical science, there are still disputes about the origin of the Albanians and their ancestral lands. Director of the Historical Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences S. Terzic noted that the disputed regions of Kosovo and Metohija never belonged to any Albanian state, but from the 17th century. were part of the medieval country of the Serbs. In Albania, on the contrary, they believe that Kosovo has always belonged to the Albanians.

In the years Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro won the First Balkan War against Turkey. The territories of the countries of the winners expanded. Thanks to the diplomatic efforts of Great Britain, France and Russia, an independent Albania was proclaimed (1912), but without Kosovo and Metohija, although the Albanian population prevailed there. The Serbian government did not agree to any concessions regarding these areas, considering them the “holy land” of their people, and Kosovo and Metohija went to Serbia. The mass return of the Serbs to these ancient lands began.

In 1939 most of Kosovo and Metohija ended up in the “Great Albania” created by Mussolini, from where “non-Albanians” were stubbornly evicted at that time. In June 1942, M. Kraya, Prime Minister of the “Great Albania” government, openly declared: “... efforts must be made to drive all Serbs-old-timers out of Kosovo ... Exile in the end

camp in Albania. And the Serbs-immigrants must be killed. "According to the American intelligence service since April 1941. to August 1942 Albanians destroyed about 10 thousand Serbs, and the number of Serbian refugees during the years of occupation reached 100 thousand people. However, after the end of the Second World War, Kosovo and Metohija again became part of Yugoslavia, but already as an autonomous region.

Kosovo Albanian demands.

The Kosovo Albanians, however, were not happy with their fate in the new Yugoslavia. In any case, Enver Hoxha, chairman of the Council of Ministers of Albania, told the leadership of the USSR so. In 1949 he wrote to the Central Committee of the CPSU (b): "... democratic and national law the Albanian national minority of Kosovo and Metohija are not respected at all. No connection with Albania! “The granting of autonomy to Kosovo, the opening of Albanian schools there, Hoxha regarded as demagogy, since their ideal [of the Kosovo Albanians] – uniting with Albania – remained insignificant.

Yugoslav legislation gradually expanded the rights of the autonomous regions. According to the 1963 constitution national minorities began to be called nationalities, autonomous regions - territories. According to the 1974 constitution Autonomous regions received the authority to independently resolve all issues relating to their internal life. They had a dual status: firstly, they were an integral part of Serbia, and secondly, they had in fact the same rights within the SFRY as the republic itself. However, the autonomous province could not secede from Serbia. That is why in Kosovo there were constant calls to grant the province the status of a republic. Since the Albanians were the fourth largest in the Federation, they considered their demands justified.

Beginning of the Albanian-Serbian conflict.

In 1956 the Serbian security service uncovered several illegal groups abandoned by the Albanian secret services in Kosovo in order to create underground organizations. In the late fifties and early sixties, the Revolutionary Movement for the unification of Albanians, headed by Adem Demanci, was active in Kosovo. The charter of the movement stated: "The main and ultimate goal ... is the liberation of the Skiptar territories annexed by Yugoslavia and their unification with the mother of Albania."

Albanian separatists staged provocations: desecrated churches and monuments, intimidated the Orthodox population. In 1968 in the province there were mass demonstrations of nationalist Albanian youth, which were suppressed by the police.

In 1973 District Court of Prishitina sentenced to imprisonment H. Hayzeraya, who called himself the “Minister of Defense” of the “Republic of Kosovo”, which has not yet been created, and 13 other people who recruited people into the detachments of the “Kosovo Army”. The recruits received military training in Northern Albania.

March 1981 started in Kosovo mass riots. The demonstrators carried banners "Kosovo - the Republic", "We are Albanians, not Yugoslavs", "Kosov - Kosovars". One of the participants in those events wrote: “... the demonstrations were to some extent a reaction to the tendencies towards the strengthening of Serbian nationalism and the destructive policy towards the Albanians announced by Belgrade. We tried to defend ourselves by creating the Republic of Kosovo, because we believed that this was the only guarantee that we would be independent, like Macedonia or Montenegro.” The separatists enjoyed the active support of Albania. Television and radio broadcasts from the neighboring country were received almost throughout Kosovo. Local nationalists threatened the Serbs and Montenegrins with physical extermination, set fire to their houses, forcibly occupied the land in order to force the Slavs to leave the region. Already by 1981. out of 635 settlements only 216 were Serbian. For 10 years, Albanian terror reigned in Kosovo. By 1991 Serbian population there remained less than 10%. In terms of economic indicators per capita, the autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija was significantly inferior to other regions: for example, the amount of social product produced in the province in 1980 was 72% less than the national average. Unemployment was 30% higher than the average Yugoslav: more than 800 thousand Kosovars could not find work. The reason for this disproportion was the high natural population growth. In this regard, Kosovo ranked first in Yugoslavia. All the funds and resources that the country sent to the autonomy were “eaten away”. It is not surprising that what is happening caused, on the one hand, the complaints of the other republics of Yugoslavia, and on the other hand, the dissatisfaction of the Albanians themselves, who believed that they did not receive enough funds intended for the development of the region.

According to experts, the “albanization” and the growth of militant formations in Kosovo were largely facilitated by the education system. Hundreds of teachers and professors from Tirana came here, and local teachers trained in Albania. Future Ambassador USA in Yugoslavia Lawrence Eagleberger in 1974 noticed that the Yugoslavs are constantly wasting their energy on fighting anti-communist emigration, not realizing that the grave of Yugoslavia is being dug in Prishitina. “You opened for them [Kosovo Albanians] one of the largest universities in Yugoslavia…” Eagleberger said, “train… political scientists, sociologists, philosophers than you create for yourself great army future dissatisfied, who will not want them, nor be able to do anything serious, who will take to the streets tomorrow and demand their state and their republic.

Two societies.

At the end of the 1980s, the situation in the province sharply worsened when the party leaders of Kosovo were removed from their posts. Among them was Azem Vlasi, popular among Albanians. Protest demonstrations took place in Prishitina and other cities, and in February 1989. miners went on strike, opposed to the expulsion of Vlasya from the Central Committee of the Union of Communists of Yugoslavia. The events in the region caused a huge resonance in the country. In Slovenia, the population supported the miners, while in Serbia they condemned, demanding that the government take urgent measures to stabilize the situation. March 3, 1989 The Presidium of the SFRY introduced a curfew in Kosovo.

In April 1987, speaking on the Kosovo field, party functionary Slobodan Milosevic for the first time spoke about the unfair treatment of Serbia in Yugoslavia and promised protection to the Serbian people. This performance was perceived as a Serbian national program. In 1988 he organized so-called meetings of truth throughout the country. Encouraged by the opportunity to speak about their national feelings and problems, people chanted the name of Milosevic and carried his portraits. In the late 1980s, Milosevic became the de facto "untouchable political ruler of Serbia."

In the republican leadership, the point of view prevailed, according to which the constitution of 1974. weakened Serbia, depriving it of the right to create its own state. At the same time, a campaign was launched to limit the rights of autonomous regions.

Adopted by the Serbian Assembly (Parliament) in March 1989 amendments to the constitution, depriving the autonomous number of political rights, were met with hostility by the Kosovo Albanians. In response to the change in the status of Kosovo, demonstrations and clashes with the police began here, which from that moment became massive. In January 1990 about 40,000 Albanians have already taken part in the demonstrations. July 2, 1990 Albanian delegates to the provincial assembly adopted a constitutional declaration declaring Kosovo a republic. Then the republican assembly dissolved the regional assembly, substantiating its decision with numerous violations public order in autonomy.

Delegates of the dissolved assembly 7 September 1990 adopted the constitution of the “Republic of Kosovo” in complete secrecy. A campaign of civil disobedience unfolded in the region, a mass indefinite strike began. Albanian teachers did not accept the new school curriculum and demanded the introduction of children's education in Albanian programs in their native language.

While the public service was dismissed big number school and university teachers, Albanians by nationality, worked in an underground Albanian university. The illegal education system covered 400,000 children and 15,000 students. As a result, the whole region was divided into 2 parallel societies - Albanian and Serbian. Each had its own economy, management system, education, culture.

Fight for secession.

In 1990, after more than four decades of communist autocracy, a multi-party system began to take shape in the SFRY. Albanian political organizations also emerged: the Democratic League of Kosovo (DLK), the Democratic Action Party, the Democratic Muslim Reform Party. The LDK became the largest political organization in the region, and the authority of its leader, the dissident writer Ibragim Rugov, was indisputable. Rugova called on his supporters to peacefully resist the “Serbian occupation”, fearing the consequences of serious clashes.

In September 1991 Kosovo Albanians held a referendum on the independence of the region and unanimously voted for the creation of an independent state. May 24, 1992 the presidential and parliamentary elections were held here. The Serbian leadership declared the elections illegal, but did not interfere in the election campaign. The Serbs did not participate in it. 95% of Albanians gave their votes to Ibrahim Rugova as president of the "Republic of Kosovo" and 78% to his party (DNA).

Rugova did a lot to draw the attention of Western ruling circles to the problem of Kosovo. He appealed to them with a request for reflection in autonomy peacekeeping forces UN and NATO troops. The Albanian-populated areas of Macedonia and Montenegro have also never been excluded from the plans of the Kosovo Albanians.

Rugova at first believed that Kosovo would be an independent republic “open to Serbia and Albania”, Albanians in Montenegro would receive autonomy, and in Macedonia they would achieve “status of a state-forming people” within the republic. However, since the fall of 1994 Rugova increasingly began to talk about the unification of Kosovo with Albania.

In the spring of 1996 tension in the region increased again. The murder of an Albanian youth by a Serb provoked retaliatory actions from Albanian militants: attacks on policemen, executions of cafe visitors, etc. The authorities carried out mass arrests. The international community accused the Serbian leadership of human rights violations, physical violence and even torture of those arrested.

The Albanians lost faith in the effectiveness of peace negotiations with the Serbian authorities, and now they pinned all their hopes on the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which acted with terrorist methods. The goal of her political and military leadership was to create and expand a territory free from Serbian rule. The task was to achieve recognition of their struggle as a national liberation struggle and, with the support of international organizations, to secede from Yugoslavia. After that, it was planned to unite those territories of Kosovo, Montenegro and Macedonia, where the majority of the population was ethnic Albanians.

At the beginning of 1998 KLA militants provoked several armed clashes with the Serbian police, prepared explosions in the Macedonian cities of Gostivar, Kumanovo and Prilen, during which civilians were killed. In addition to the Serbs, loyal Albanians who did not want to fight also suffered. Catholic Albanians left Metochian villages in fear in order to avoid forced mobilization into terrorist groups.

From negotiations to bombardment.

Since 1997 joined the solution of the Kosovo problem international community. November 1997 the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of France and Germany took the initiative to give the region a special "interim" status, designed for a transitional period. According to this initiative, it was proposed to create, with the help of international organizations, "optimal conditions for a peaceful political exit of Kosovo from the jurisdiction of Serbia."

NATO also applied for participation in the settlement of the conflict in Kosovo, in August 1997. warning Yugoslav intervention in the conflict with the aim of "preventing further bloodshed". Even then, air strikes against Serbian troops were considered as the most likely scenario for a military action in Kosovo. Tough to apply the most severe measures to Belgrade, up to economic sanctions with military intervention.

In September 1998 The UN Security Council adopted Resolution No. 000, obliging the leadership of the Yugoslav Federation to cease fire and begin peace negotiations with the Kosovo Albanians. However, the Albanian side for a long time refused to negotiate with Belgrade, which the West insisted on. In early October 1998 the situation escalated: hostilities began again in Kosovo, and NATO threatened that, without UN sanctions, it would launch air strikes on Yugoslavia if Serbian police forces and troops continued operations in the province.

Under the influence of these circumstances, October 13, 1998. Milosevic signed an agreement with US Representative Richard Holbrooke. It was supposed to withdraw Serbian forces from the region and deploy 2,000 observers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) there. Despite serious concessions made by the Serbian side, UN Security Council Resolution No. 000 stated that Yugoslavia is “a continuing threat to peace and security in the region”.

The peace conference, which was supposed to discuss the Kosovo problem, began on February 6, 1999. in Rambouillet (France). However, the delegations of the parties were offered for consideration only a part of the “Interim Treaty on Peace and Self-Government in Kosovo and Metohija”. The entire text of the agreement was made public only on the day the negotiations ended. It turned out that the Serbian delegation saw about 70% of the document for the first time. The Yugoslav side stated that the negotiations should be continued, clearly defining the elements of the province's autonomy and confirming the territorial integrity of both Serbia and Yugoslavia as a whole. The delegation of Kosovars stressed that they would sign the agreement if in 3 years the Albanian population of Kosovo would be allowed to hold a referendum on independence. The US representatives did not agree to extend the discussion of the document, stating that the proposed text should be signed on the first day of the second round of negotiations. In fact, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia received an ultimatum: if its delegation signs a peace agreement, NATO troops will enter the territory of the region, if they don’t sign, bombs will fall on Serbia.

The second round of negotiations began in Paris on March 15, 1999. Serbia demanded guarantees of its integrity. The Kosovars refused to give them. The negotiations stalled. The Albanian delegation was allowed to sign the treaty unilaterally. The United States and NATO began to prepare for the punishment of "the culprit of the breakdown in negotiations." On March 24, NATO launched the first missile and bomb strikes on Yugoslavia.

NATO's punitive action lasted several weeks and its consequences were terrible. In the first 14 days alone, 430 aircraft carried out over 1000 bombings, released 800 cruise missiles and dropped about 3000 thousand explosives. The bombings hit not only military facilities. suffered National parks and reserves, the Petrovaradin fortress, medieval monasteries and shrines. Bombs fell on cities, destroying refugee centers, hospitals, water pipes, bridges, schools, private houses, businesses, telephone exchanges, highways, warehouses, etc. Avalanches of refugees from Kosovo remembered the roads leading to Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Montenegro …

In 2000, the Serbs were still forced to allow NATO troops to take control of Kosovo. However, peace in the autonomy was never established. Albanian militants, despite the presence of NATO peacekeepers, expelled the Slavic and Gypsy population from the region with impunity. By 2001 the conflict crossed the borders of Kosovo - the Albanians began hostilities in Macedonia. In the 2001 elections Rugova's supporters won in Kosovo, seeking international recognition independence of the region.

Our days: the continuation of the Kosovo massacre ...

Five years ago, NATO forces drove the Yugoslav army out of Kosovo. There is no doubt that after the Kosovo Serbs, NATO peacekeepers will also leave the region. And a failed mission could turn into a disaster that goes far beyond Kosovo.

After the start of the operation by NATO troops, Kosovo Serbs turned out to be strangers in their country, they were expelled by tens of thousands from their own cities and villages, they were killed. Every week, Serbian houses and churches burned in the region. And only after the terrible pogrom perpetrated by the Albanian militants did the NATO command finally realize that bloody events had begun again.

But the entire 20,000-strong peacekeeping army was powerless before the Albanian cutthroats.

The reason for the brutal pogrom was the death of Albanian teenagers who, under unclear circumstances, drowned in the Ibar River. It is alarming that the events turned out to be, as if specially timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the “liberation of the Albanians from the Serbian yoke”, someone skillfully inflated the conflict that had been smoldering all these years. In a few days, three dozen Orthodox churches and, according to various sources, up to 400 Serbian households were burned. Several dozen Serbs were killed, and hundreds and thousands, no longer hoping for the protection of peacekeepers, fled overnight.

New pogroms can be expected at any time and in any part of Kosovo where there are still Serbs. Will the international contingent be able to prevent them? Why was it necessary to start a war at all, to sacrifice soldiers and civilians? Everything ended where it started - ethical cleansing. And the unsuccessful "peacekeeping invasion" turned out to be interference under a plausible pretext in the internal affairs of another state.

At present, the Kosovo Serbs are in a hopeless, horrendous state. They did not wait for military protection from NATO peacekeepers. Many of the Serbs are on the verge of a mental and physical breakdown. In the current situation, with NATO deafness, they would have been left to the mercy of fate, if not for Russia, which provides them with humanitarian assistance.

I. Ivanov, speaking on television, said that with the existing order and unrest in the newly erupted conflict, Russian peacekeepers would not be sent to Kosovo. Humanitarian assistance will continue. At this time, R.F. will build tent camps, deliver medicines, provisions, and things. So far, no one knows how all this can end and whether it will end ...

Two political portraits of Yugoslav leaders:

Josip Broz Tito.

President Tito ruled Yugoslavia for 35 years. He was obsessed with the idea of ​​interethnic unity. Tito is his partisan nickname.

In World War I, he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army. He fought at the front, but in March 1915 he was captured by the Russians, having received a severe wound. He was treated in a hospital for a long time, then he was transferred to a prisoner of war camp in the Urals, where the Bolshevik workers introduced young man with Marxist doctrine.

After February Revolution 1917, Josip arrived in Petrograd, but he was arrested and deported to Omsk. There he joined the Red Guard, hid from the whites and almost died of starvation.

In 1920 Josip returned to his homeland, entered the leadership of the Croatian communists, but the communist party was banned, and he went underground. In August 1928 he was arrested and spent 6 years in prison.

Tito, after returning to his country, they elect general secretary CPY. After the capture of Yugoslavia by the Germans, he fled from Belgrade to the mountains, creates a partisan detachment there, then a people's liberation army is formed, Tito became its commander.

In 1943 he received the rank of Marshal at the session of the Anti-Fascist Council of Yugoslavia and was appointed head of the Provisional Government.

In 1945, he took the post of head of government and began the construction of "socialism with Yugoslav specifics." All political opponents were removed by that time.

Remaining a staunch communist, he paid much attention to self-government, allowed elements of capitalism in the economy, and maintained friendly relations with the West. At the same time, any encroachments on the leadership role were stopped. communist party and your power. Gradually, a personality cult of Tito arose in Yugoslavia: tuners swore by his name, composed songs about him, erected sculptural images. Almost all palaces eventually turned into his residences.

He was not indifferent to fashionable clothes, good cuisine, expensive wines. He danced with pleasure, adored jokes, was a witty and attentive conversationalist. I read a lot, acquired knowledge in a variety of disciplines. Even in old age, he retained his elegance and attractiveness.

On May 4, 1980, he died in a hospital in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana. The Yugoslavs took Tito's death as a national tragedy.

Slobodan Milosevic.

My personal attitude to this issue.

My point of view.

So it has always been and is, that the people always pay for the miscalculations, mistakes of the government, which is now happening in Yugoslavia.

Broz Tito was for interethnic unity. He was obsessed with this idea all his life. Under him, the collapse of Yugoslavia was avoided.

Ibrahim Rugova in 1991 called on his supporters to peacefully rebuff the "Serbian occupation", fearing serious military clashes, but already in 1994. began to adhere to the policy of uniting Kosovo with Albania, that is, the same regime of split and enmity between the two peoples.

Slobodan Milosevic took an irreparable, disastrous step: in 1989. he autonomously cancels Albanian-dominated Kosovo, takes the side of the Serbs and publicly promises them to quickly "end Kosovo", that is, to annex it to the Serbs. With this, he ensured the beginning of a bloody war.

Especially for the peoples of this long-suffering, disintegrated country, the entry of foreign armies into their territory was dramatic, since they did not give any help, except for intensified strife.

United States under the pretext of "punishing those responsible for the disruption of peace negotiations", i.e. Yugoslavia, March 24, 1999. inflicted the first missile and bomb strikes on it. This caramel action lasted several weeks - for the people it was all grief and horror.

Russia also played a role in these bloody events: in 1999. also introduced its peacekeeping troops, but as the defenders of the Serbs, the Americans - as the defenders of the Albanians. In all this terrible confusion, people died, cities and villages burned, thousands of refugees left their lands. But Russia, too, was forced to withdraw its troops, without providing any assistance, by its presence, intensifying hostility between nations and towards itself.

This time I. Ivanov refused to send peacekeeping troops to Kosovo. May be, Russian government finally understood - how many Russian soldiers will die in other people's wars?

This was especially practiced by our last monarch, Nicholas 2, sending thousands of Russian soldiers to certain death, who did not even understand for whom and why they were fighting. For the personal prestige of the state?

This bloody list was replenished with the Afghan war, the Chechen war, peacekeeping actions in Yugoslavia. The Afghan and Chechen wars are all the same wrong steps of our governments, built on the bloody losses of Russian soldiers.

Quite recently, there was an incident - the recognition by a part of the states of the independence of Kosovo, bypassing the UN, despite the protests of Serbia and a number of states. The conflict was not resolved on this, but on the contrary, it flares up with new force. So far, there are no mechanisms for its resolution.

The war in Kosovo ended two and a half years ago. However, this event has still not lost its significance, and not only as the latest example of imperialist aggression. The history of this conflict confirms the theory of state capitalism, and the war brings to mind once again proletarian internationalism. In addition, it has become a litmus test that has revealed the essence of many left-wing parties in Ukraine.

In order to understand where nationalism developed in Yugoslavia, it is necessary to clearly understand what its social order. As in the Soviet Union, there was no socialism in Yugoslavia, its social system is capitalism, the variant of it, where the state plays the role of an aggregate capitalist. True, unlike in our country, state capitalism almost never existed among the Yugoslavs in its pure form. From the first half of the 1950s, strata appeared among the ruling class that did not belong to the state bourgeoisie.

The reason that brought to life nationalism was the policy of decentralization, which was carried out in the first half of the 50s during the introduction of the self-government system. It was assumed that by transferring the functions of the federation to the republics, the republics to the regions (sections), and the sections to the districts (communities), with the simultaneous development of public self-government, the withering away of the state would be achieved, which would be replaced by the direct democracy of the self-organized proletariat. The plans were good, but they failed to materialize. The state has shown enviable vitality and successfully resisted: it does not die out under capitalism. On the other hand, the policy of decentralization under the conditions of state capitalism led to the redistribution of state property. Part of the all-union state property was preserved, and most of it was transferred to the republics and autonomous regions. The transfer of enterprises to the subjugation of the republics and lower administrative units began in the spring of 1950 and was not formalized by a single legislative act.

Already in the mid-1950s, republican and regional groupings of the state bourgeoisie took shape, which led the struggle for surplus value, both with the all-Union state capital and among themselves. At the same time, they successfully used socialist phraseology in the struggle. Already in the late 1960s, it became an external cover for the ideology of nationalism. And this is not surprising. It is under the banner of nationalism that the bourgeoisie unites to fight the bourgeoisie of other nationalities. In Yugoslavia, every group of the state bourgeoisie had a distinct ethnic identity, with the possible exception of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the province of Vojvodina. In Croatia, the state bourgeoisie is mainly Croatian by nationality, in Serbia - Serbian, in Macedonia - Macedonian, etc. Therefore, exceptionally favorable conditions have developed in Yugoslavia for the development of nationalism and the aggravation of interethnic relations.

Building socialism in words, the bourgeoisie of the national republics fought for every penny. There are many examples, but let's focus on one of the earliest.

Even before centralization, some of the funds were taken from the developed republics and distributed to the needs of the development of such backward territories as Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo. When decentralization began and the republican and local state bourgeoisie appeared, a “natural” question arose before it: why donate money to create an industry in Kosovo or ensure the old age of Macedonian pensioners. Proceeding from these considerations, in December 1956, the deputy Vlado Meihen proposed to decentralize the union fund for advanced training of personnel in favor of the communities and sections, and gave an example of the "injustice" of the existing order. The Maribor section, located in Slovenia and probably having one of the highest qualification levels of workers and employees in Yugoslavia, contributed 388 million dinars to the union fund, and received 53 for the corresponding purposes.

Until 1965, union state property in Yugoslavia prevailed. Through the general investment fund and other funds, the federation carried out more than 60% of capital investments. But in the course of the inner-party struggle of supporters and opponents of the decentralization of the federation in 1961-1964. the republican bourgeoisie managed to win an important victory. In 1964-66. the so-called socio-economic reform took place, a whole series of laws and regulations enshrining a new alignment of forces. Suffice it to say that in the spring of 1964 the Union Assembly abolished the General Investment Fund. As a result, the participation of the federation in capital investments fell to 2-3%. In 1974, the state bourgeoisie secured its national fiefdoms, having achieved the adoption of a new constitution that minimized the functions of the federation. In parallel, there was a disintegration of the internal market and the isolation of the republican economies: in 1970, the trade turnover within the republics covered 59.6% of the general Yugoslav, and in 1976 already 65.7%, i.e. two-thirds of the goods did not leave the borders of their republics. But the republican bourgeoisie still had grounds for dissatisfaction: it was required to protect “its” surplus value from attempts by other republics and the federal center. Only in the early 1990s did the bourgeoisie breathe a sigh of relief. With the collapse of Yugoslavia, she took control of all surplus value in her republics, and along the way to her goal, she bestowed war, devastation and grief on the people of Yugoslavia.

It cannot be said that the all-Union bourgeoisie, represented by the party leadership, remained indifferent to the spread of nationalism and attempts under such a flag to deprive them of their property. In 1971-1972, some leaders of the republican party organizations of Serbia and Croatia, who clearly showed nationalist views, were removed. But what can be done against objective reality? Like the Black Sea, where a fetid ocean of hydrogen sulfide rests under a thin hundred-meter layer of water, in Yugoslavia of the 70s and 80s a thin layer of communist phraseology hid the abyss of nationalism, and as in the Dead Sea, whose hydrogen sulfide once came to the surface, destroying clean water, and there the nationalist ideology sooner or later had to get rid of the communist verbal husk. This happened in the second half of the 80s. At the same time, the Union of Communists freed itself from the remnants of communist views, and when in 1990-91 it broke up into independent republican organizations, this “liberation” was formalized. The independent republican parties changed their names and programs, taking Western European social democracy as a model.

This process proceeded differently in different republics. Where the repainted heirs of Tito were unable to lead the nationalist movement, they were pushed aside from power (for example, in Croatia), but where they turned out to be the vanguard of the nationalists, they managed to retain power (for example, in Serbia). The success of the Serbian "communists" is inextricably linked with the name of Slobodan Milosevic. Here it is not superfluous to make a digression and report on milestones in the working biography of the current Yugoslav president. The leader of the Serbian nationalists was born in Pozharevac in 1941. Milosevic's parents are school teachers. In 1964, Milosevic graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade and soon made a meteoric career. In 1966, he became an adviser to the chairman of the Belgrade Assembly (Belgrade City Council) on economic issues and the head of the information service of the assembly, and since 1969, Milosevic has been the deputy general director of the Technogas association. In 1973-78. he was CEO this association. In 1978-1983 he headed the United Bank of Belgrade. In those days, the banker was perhaps the richest man in "socialist" Yugoslavia. So Milosevic, even in his status, is a representative of the Yugoslav bourgeoisie. He worked at the bank until 1984, when the party called him. He responded to the call so actively that in 1986 he became chairman of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Union of Communists of Serbia.

Slobodan Milosevic's finest hour came in 1987, when the situation in the province of Kosovo escalated once again. In September 1987, Milosevic arrived in Pristina and announced to the local Serbs: "No one else will dare to touch you." From now on, Milosevic openly adopted the great-power slogans of the Serbian bourgeoisie. On September 23, 1987, at an open plenum of the Central Committee of the Union of Communists of Serbia, he defeated the opponents of the new course, and in the winter of 1987/88, in the conditions of national-patriotic hype, he cleared the party leadership of those who disagreed. Columnist Alexa Djilas commented: “It was an act of political cannibalism. The opponent, a Serbian nationalist, was devoured, and his spirit soaked the eater. Milosevic infused new vitality into the party, forcing it to embrace nationalism.” Now Milosevic had to fulfill his promise to the Kosovo Serbs.

Kosovo is the most backward region of Yugoslavia. Until the Second World War, there was no industry at all, and the largest city of Pristina was more like a large village. Despite the post-war industrialization, Kosovo continued to be the most backward region of the country. Labor productivity, wages and the standard of living of the population were the lowest in Yugoslavia. The region also had the lowest specific gravity urban population and, as a result, the lowest share of the proletariat. For example, in 1957 the rural population of Yugoslavia was 60.9%, in Kosovo - 86%. A typical figure in Kosovo was the individual peasant, who, together with members of his family, cultivated an allotment, the average size of which in 1960 was 4.2 hectares, and has been decreasing over time. Often, one member of the family of such a peasant regularly traveled to work in a nearby city or abroad. The majority of the population of Kosovo were private owners who earned their living by their own labor, i.e. petty bourgeoisie.

The petty bourgeoisie is extremely susceptible to nationalism due to its class nature. Under the conditions of Yugoslavia, this susceptibility was intensified by the darkness and downtroddenness of the peasants. They retained traditional prejudices. For example, there is still a belief among Serbian peasants that Albanians and Bosniak Muslims are Turks. The persistence of cultural darkness is facilitated by the persistence of illiteracy. Even in the 1980s, 9.5% of the population of Yugoslavia could not read and write. These are predominantly peasants. In 1971 throughout Yugoslavia there were 15.1% of illiterates, and among Albanians 34.9% were illiterate. The Yugoslav rule is that the more backward the region, the stronger the peasant is connected with his private allotment, the stronger prejudices sit in him. All these features social structure the edges of Kosovo have created exceptionally favorable conditions for the rooting of nationalism. In addition, all the economic turmoil in Yugoslavia manifested itself most strongly in Kosovo. If on average across the country in 1972 there were 75 unemployed for every 1,000 employed in the "public" sector, then in Kosovo - 216! This situation fueled the discontent of the local population, and the bourgeoisie managed to direct it in the right direction. It was there in 1969 that the first mass demonstrations of nationalists in Yugoslavia took place. The speeches were pacified, but the allied authorities made concessions: they gave the region their own flag and expanded autonomy.

In the 1970s, Albanian nationalists began to persecute Kosovo Serbs and create unbearable living conditions for them. They spoiled property, interfered with trading in the market, infringed upon employment, Serbs could be beaten, raped. The Serbs became embittered. In March 1981 there was another explosion of Albanian nationalism. In Pristina, riots began that engulfed the entire region. 9 people died and more than 200 were injured. The nationalists now demanded that the region be given the status of a republic, since the republic had the right to secede from Yugoslavia. A state of emergency was declared in Kosovo, but it was not possible to curb the nationalist movement. The state of emergency was either canceled or reintroduced, and Kosovo continued to seethe.

They tried to somehow negotiate with the Albanians, but Milosevic came. Having strengthened his positions in the state apparatus, he took up Kosovo. Serbian nationalists went on the offensive and won. Additional units of the federal militia were sent to the region, and, taking advantage of the unrest that arose in March 1989, when more than 20 people died, the Serbian authorities introduced a state of emergency and in 1990 liquidated Kosovo's autonomy. On July 5, 1990, the regional assembly was dissolved, and in October of the same year a new constitution of Serbia was adopted, according to which the Serbian autonomous regions lost almost all rights, retaining mainly cultural autonomy. Albanians became an oppressed nation. In conclusion, it remains only to quote the words spoken by Slobodan Milosevic in an interview with the American television network CBS: "We have never had problems with any national minority in Serbia, including Albanians."

The victory of the Serbian nationalists was fragile. Having “pacified” the Albanians by force, they did not destroy the causes of the conflict, but, having destroyed the possibilities for a legal struggle for the independence of the region, they pushed the Albanian nationalists to armed struggle. Albanian nationalists, both moderate and extreme, became active. The Kosovo Liberation Army arose, and a guerrilla war began, and in 1999 external forces, represented by NATO, intervened in it.

Left-wing parties existing in Ukraine reacted differently to the NATO war against Yugoslavia. Of course, they did not analyze the origins of this tragedy, but they took a certain position. Here are two typical examples. First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Petr Simonenko said that NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia split Europe along religious lines: all Orthodox countries supported Serbia, Catholics supported NATO. In fact, P. N. Simonenko, although he calls himself a communist, comprehended the Balkan war as a conflict of civilizations and was ahead of the rest, adopting the now fashionable Huntington theory of conflicts of civilizations, and Simonenko knows this: “American Professor S. Huntington invented a whole theory about the irreconcilable hostility of Catholic and Orthodox societies ... ”(“ Kommunist ”, 1999, July No. 26). Simonenko actually abandoned the use of Marxism, which requires the identification of a class basis in any conflicts, and ignored the obvious facts: Orthodox Romania and Bulgaria took the side of NATO, providing NATO aircraft with their airspace, with the indifference of their population, and Catholic Italians protested against using their land by aggressors. But the Orthodox state of Ukraine condemned the aggression rather for the sake of decency. At the same time, the protests of the Ukrainian public against NATO were weak and quite comparable in scope to the anti-war protests in Britain. The dividing line in relation to this war does not pass through religion. For the sake of rejecting Marxism, Simonenko goes to a blatant lie.

The second approach is vividly represented in the Stalinist Workers' and Peasants' Pravda, which declared that Serbia must be defended because it is tantamount to defending socialism. How to call such a position? You don't realize right away. This is not social chauvinism, because social chauvinists come out in defense of their bourgeoisie, but here support is offered to the bourgeoisie, which Soviet republics has no relation. This is bourgeois internationalism: exploiters of all countries, unite. But not every bourgeoisie is invited to unite, but only those wearing red camouflage. Is the ruling party of the Serbian bourgeoisie called socialist? All for her protection. The heir to the throne of the living god Kim Il Sung continues to talk about socialism in Korea? So he is our friend, etc.

The Kosovo conflict is one of the final acts in the disintegration of Yugoslavia. This is the final stage in the struggle of the bourgeoisie of the national republics for independence, for the opportunity to exploit their workers without sharing with outsiders, be it a neighboring republic or an all-union government. Therefore, the responsibility for the Kosovo tragedy lies entirely with the Albanian-Kosovo and Serbian bourgeoisie. And it is pointless to ask who is wrong: Serbs or Albanians? The bourgeoisie is wrong. The tragedy of Kosovo is very deep. It is not even that Albanians and Serbs are slaughtering each other for interests that are alien to them, but that they cannot realize this. The conflict has gone so far interethnic relations have become so aggravated that interests alien to them have become their interests and are not perceived otherwise. The Albanian bourgeoisie wants to secede from Serbia by force of arms, while the Serbian bourgeoisie wants to keep Kosovo by force of arms. Why do the working people of Yugoslavia need this? What did they forget? After all, does anyone want the death of their relatives just like that, not for the sake of vital interests? But the trouble is that the hatred of the bourgeoisie has become the hatred of the working people. If you don't kill a Serb, he will kill you; if you don't kill an Albanian, he will deal with you; and this is the most effective means of maintaining the nationalist frenzy.

Nationalism will not be overcome in the near future. Firstly, the communist movement in the Yugoslav republics is in the same paralytic state as in our country, therefore the spread of the ideas of internationalism meets with an obstacle in the form of the absence of their carriers, and secondly, the extraordinary strength of the factor supporting nationalism is added to the weakness of the communists. Mutual grievances Serbs and Albanians will not soon forget. But despite this, only proletarian internationalism can change the situation on the Balkan Peninsula. Serbs and Albanians will be able to reconcile only if they realize that they have a common enemy - the bourgeoisie, and join the fight against it, regardless of their nationality. The loss of Serbian control over the province of Kosovo will contribute to the early enlightenment of the Albanians, who are left alone with their bourgeoisie, and the Serbs, who have lost their privileged status in the country, have the opportunity to get rid of the great-power sentiments that always arise among privileged ethnic groups. If anyone can stop them, it is the Albanian nationalists who are now oppressing the Kosovo Serbs. Unfortunately, only the future will be able to answer when the peoples of Yugoslavia will pass the road to proletarian internationalism.

Tymoshchuk Denis

The Serbian-Albanian conflict is only a conflict of 2 sides? Why did Kosovo become a bone of contention? Why did Yugoslavia collapse? What mistakes did Milosevic make?

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Serbo-Albanian conflict

General review (beginning of feud)

It seems that all recent events have receded into the background compared to the war waged in 1999 by NATO member states against Yugoslavia.

And the whole split of Yugoslavia was always accompanied by a lot of blood.

The strife in the Balkans has always been very bloody and confusing. Probably because all the peoples of the Balkans had the same roots, with all the diversity of languages ​​and faiths.

In all media reports there is Kosovo, the cradle of Serbian statehood, Albanians. The words seem to be all understandable, but they raise questions: What is Kosovo?

Where did the Albanians come from?

Who are they - Muslim fanatics? Or separatists?

TSB gives an unbiased geographical location and a brief historical outline of Kosovo.

“Kosovo is an autonomous province, as part of the Social Republic of Serbia, which was then still part of the Federal Yugoslavia, from which neither Croatia, nor Slovenia, nor Macedonia, nor Bosnia-Herzegovina had yet broken away. Area \u003d 10.9 km squared, the capital is Prishitina. Most of the region is made up of the Kosovo and Metohija basins.

In the 15th century Kosovo became part of the Ottoman Empire. In the 16th - 18th centuries. anti-Turkish uprisings break out here, brutally suppressed by the Turks, and as a result, mass emigration of Serbs and colonization by Albanians.

In 1913 Kosovo is divided between Serbia and Montenegro, and in 1918 the kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes became part of it. In 1944 liberated from fascist occupation by the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia and the People's Liberation Army of Albania.

It is necessary to pay attention: still together. At that time, the Kamunist leaders of both countries, Josip Broz Tito and Enver Hoxha, had not yet inflamed mortal hatred for each other, as a couple of years later, when Tito opposed himself to Stalin, and Hoxha remained his adherent to the end. And in the region where the Albanians already constituted the largest group of the population, his subjects who disagreed with Khoja poured.

Tito willingly allowed them to settle: in full accordance with the Marxist phraseology, he saw the main threat "in Serbian chauvinism." A threat to a united Yugoslavia, where everyone will have one nationality - "Yugoslav", one for Serbs, Croats, Slovenes and Kosovo Albanians. The fact that Tito himself was a Croat and a Catholic (in his youth) did not play the slightest role here.

Founded in 1918 The Yugoslav state changed its name more than once until the end of the century. At first it was called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, since 1929. - Yugoslavia, since 1945. - The Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FPRY), since 1963. - Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), since 1992. - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). Yugoslavia united, although related in origin, peoples who had long followed different historical paths.

The inhabitants of Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia speak the same language and, by land, constitute one people. But even in the Middle Ages, three independent kingdoms were formed - Serbia, Croatia and a little later Bosnia. Christianity came here from Orthodox Byzantium. Croatia from the 17th century was part of Catholic Hungary and also became Catholic. Bosnia and Serbia in the 14th - 15th centuries. conquered by the Turks. After that, many residents of Bosnia converted to Islam, while the Serbs remained faithful to Orthodoxy. Of all the Serbian regions, only coastal Montenegro was independent of the Turks. Over time, Montenegrins began to realize themselves as a special people. Only in 1918. when creating the Yugoslav kingdom, Serbia and Montenegro united.

Serbian lands became the core of Yugoslavia. The capital of Serbia - Belgrade - was the capital of the whole country. Croatia has always enjoyed autonomy, but has always aspired to independence. As part of the FPRY, it received the status of a republic. Only then did Bosnia and Montenegro gain some independence in the same capacity.

In addition to the ancient Serbo-Croatian lands, the Yugoslav state also included Slovenia in the north and Macedonia in the south. Catholic Slovenia since the 9th century. was part of first Germany, then Austria and gravitated to Western Europe. The Macedonian Slavs professed Orthodoxy, although by origin and culture they were closer not to the Serbs, but to other co-religionists - the Bulgarians. The struggle against the "Serbian state" in Macedonia did not stop even under the Kamunists.

The largest non-Slavic peoples of Yugoslavia were the Hungarians and Albanians. There are many Hungarians in Vojvodina in northern Serbia. In 1945 Vojvodina was granted autonomy. The same rights were given to Kosovo and Metohija in the south of Serbia, where Albanians compactly lived, descendants of the tribes that lived in the Balkans under the ancient Romans, but for a long time deprived of their own strong state. During the period of Turkish rule, they adopted the religion of the conquerors - Islam. After the Turkish conquest, Albania subsequently gained independence and a king, then fell into the Italian occupation, then became an ultra-communist state under the leadership of E. Hoxha. Being the most backward state in Europe, after the reign of Hoxha, it also became the poorest.

Therefore, in comparison with it, even not particularly rich Kosovo seemed like a paradise, and new Albanians rushed there.

Religion in Albania was abolished under socialism, and Albanians have never been religious. But all - both Muslims and Christians of both rites retained pagan beliefs.

This is how historical events broke down: many Albanians live outside of Albania. In Greece, for example, all Orthodox Albanians are counted as Greeks, Muslim Albanians were expelled from there after the Second World War, in Macedonia they are almost a quarter of the population and their relations with Orthodox Slavs are very tense.

In 1913 Albania achieved independence from Turkey. However, many Albanian settlements ended up on the territory of other states - Serbia, Montenegro, Greece. In the Yugoslav Federation, Albanians inhabited Kosovo.

Religious and ethnic conflicts played a major role in the collapse of the Yugoslav Federation. In 1991 Slovenia and Croatia left its composition, then, after a bloody war, Bosnia. In 1992 Macedonian independence was proclaimed. In 2001 Following the rejection of the Kosovo Territory, Montenegro also took a course towards leaving the Federation. The attempt to create a unified Yugoslav state failed.

Yugoslavia is a country that did not survive the 10th century. It was formed in 1918. and disbanded in 19991. Why did the South Slavic peoples related to each other fail to maintain unity? Often the answer to this question is seen in religious differences. Indeed, the Serbs and Macedonians who inhabited Yugoslavia profess Orthodoxy, the Croats and Slovenes - Catholicism, the Bosnians - Islam. For many centuries, these peoples were deprived of independence and were part of multinational empires - the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman. After the First World War, both empires collapsed, and the Yugoslav lands united into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, from 1929. called Yugoslavia. Since then, national conflicts have been constantly taking place here.

After the Second World War, the leaders of the United States and England intended to return power in Yugoslavia to King Peter 2, who was in London - but by that time the kamunist government had already been established in the country, headed by Tito, who, together with the Prime Minister of the Emigrant Government, Šubašić, signed an agreement on holding elections and on the creation of a unified government. It was formed in March 1945.

In January 1946 a new constitution was adopted, according to which the government nationalized a large number of large enterprises, banks, lands were confiscated, almost all industry, all large private enterprises, banks, possessions of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church passed into the hands of the state.

In the first post-war years, the USSR remained the main ally of Yugoslavia.

But by 1948 relations deteriorated sharply, tk. Tito asked the USSR not to interfere in the internal affairs of the country. In response, Stalin condemned the "anti-democratic position" of the Yugoslav leadership. Relations were interrupted, and economic assistance to the FPRY ceased.

The break with the USSR had a heavy impact on the Yugoslav economy. Re-introduced cards.

After Stalin's death, relations with the USSR resumed again, but when Tito condemned the invasion of the armies of five social countries into Czechoslovakia, calling the policy of the Soviet Union "red imperialism", relations broke off again. But by that time, the successes in Yugoslavia spoke for themselves: in the 20 post-war years, industrial production increased 3 times, and per capita income increased 2.5 times. But by the beginning of the sixties, the development of Yugoslav industry had declined, and discontent began in the country. The lagging republics: the province of Kosovo and Metohija, Bosnia, Macedonia demanded changes in the country. The more developed ones - Croatia and Slovenia - did not want to share their profits with the poor republics.

In Yugoslavia, discontent began to brew, an internal split. Nationalism began to emerge.

In 1971, armed clashes began between Croats and Serbs, because. Croats demanded the expansion of their rights, up to secession from the Federation.

In 1987 an ethnic conflict broke out in the autonomous province of Kosovo. Nationalists revived in other parts of Yugoslavia as well.

The central authorities did not have the strength to resist the collapse of the country. Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia were now in favor of unity.

In July 1991 Croatia and Slovenia declared independence. The Yugoslav army immediately entered the territory of these republics and tried to keep them by force as part of a single state. All this led to a long-term war, which not only destroyed Yugoslavia, but also destroyed the socialist economy that President Tito was building.

Crisis in Yugoslavia.

The historical development of the peoples of Yugoslavia proceeded in different ways: some lived for centuries under the yoke of Turkey, others were part of the Habsburg state; some fought for liberation with weapons in their hands, others waited for the power of the conquerors to fall by itself. But after the creation of a single independent state in 1918. contradictions arose between the peoples that entered it. The establishment of the communist regime by the end of 1940 did not resolve these contradictions. An example of them is the long-term conflict between Albanians and Serbs over the historical region of Kosovo and Metohija.

In the Yugoslav and Albanian historical science, there are still disputes about the origin of the Albanians and their ancestral lands. Director of the Historical Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences S. Terzic noted that the disputed regions of Kosovo and Metohija never belonged to any Albanian state, and since the 17th century. were part of the medieval country of the Serbs. In Albania, on the contrary, they believe that Kosovo has always belonged to the Albanians.

In 1912-1913. Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro won the First Balkan War against Turkey. The territories of the countries of the winners expanded. Thanks to the diplomatic efforts of Great Britain, France and Russia, an independent Albania was proclaimed (1912), but without Kosovo and Metohija, although the Albanian population prevailed there. The Serbian government did not agree to any concessions regarding these areas, considering them the “holy land” of their people, and Kosovo and Metohija went to Serbia. The mass return of the Serbs to these ancient lands began.

In 1939 most of Kosovo and Metohija ended up in the “Great Albania” created by Mussolini, from where “non-Albanians” were stubbornly evicted at that time. In June 1942, M. Kraya, Prime Minister of the government of “Great Albania”, openly declared: “... efforts must be made to drive all Serbs-old-timers out of Kosovo ... Send to the end

camp in Albania. And the Serbs-immigrants must be killed. "According to the American intelligence service since April 1941. to August 1942 Albanians destroyed about 10 thousand Serbs, and the number of Serbian refugees during the years of occupation reached 100 thousand people. However, after the end of the Second World War, Kosovo and Metohija again became part of Yugoslavia, but already as an autonomous region.

Kosovo Albanian demands.

The Kosovo Albanians, however, were not happy with their fate in the new Yugoslavia. In any case, Enver Hoxha, chairman of the Council of Ministers of Albania, told the leadership of the USSR so. In 1949 he wrote to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks: “... the democratic and national rights of the Albanian national minority of Kosovo and Metohija are not respected at all. No connection with Albania! “The granting of autonomy to Kosovo, the opening of Albanian schools there, Hoxha regarded as demagogy, since their ideal [of the Kosovo Albanians] – uniting with Albania – remained insignificant.

Yugoslav legislation gradually expanded the rights of the autonomous regions. According to the 1963 constitution national minorities began to be called nationalities, autonomous regions - territories. According to the 1974 constitution Autonomous regions received the authority to independently resolve all issues relating to their internal life. They had a dual status: firstly, they were an integral part of Serbia, and secondly, they had in fact the same rights within the SFRY as the republic itself. However, the autonomous province could not secede from Serbia. That is why in Kosovo there were constant calls to grant the province the status of a republic. Since the Albanians were the fourth largest in the Federation, they considered their demands justified.

Beginning of the Albanian-Serbian conflict.

In 1956 the Serbian security service uncovered several illegal groups abandoned by the Albanian secret services in Kosovo in order to create underground organizations. In the late fifties and early sixties, the Revolutionary Movement for the unification of Albanians, headed by Adem Demanci, was active in Kosovo. The charter of the movement stated: "The main and ultimate goal ... is the liberation of the Skiptar territories annexed by Yugoslavia and their unification with the mother of Albania."

Albanian separatists staged provocations: desecrated churches and monuments, intimidated the Orthodox population. In 1968 in the province there were mass demonstrations of nationalist Albanian youth, which were suppressed by the police.

In 1973 The district court of Prishitina sentenced H. Hayzerai, who called himself the “Minister of Defense” of the “Republic of Kosovo”, not yet established, to prison, and 13 other people who recruited people into the detachments of the “Kosovo Army”. The recruits received military training in Northern Albania.

March 1981 riots broke out in Kosovo. The demonstrators carried banners "Kosovo - the Republic", "We are Albanians, not Yugoslavs", "Kosov - Kosovars". One of the participants in those events wrote: “... the demonstrations were to some extent a reaction to the tendencies towards the strengthening of Serbian nationalism and the destructive policy towards the Albanians announced by Belgrade. We tried to defend ourselves by creating the Republic of Kosovo, because. believed that this was the only guarantee that we would be independent, like Macedonia or Montenegro.” The separatists enjoyed the active support of Albania. Television and radio broadcasts from the neighboring country were received almost throughout Kosovo. Local nationalists threatened the Serbs and Montenegrins with physical extermination, set fire to their houses, forcibly occupied the land in order to force the Slavs to leave the region. Already by 1981. out of 635 settlements, only 216 were Serbian. For 10 years, Albanian terror reigned in Kosovo. By 1991 Serbian population there remained less than 10%. In terms of economic indicators per capita, the autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija was significantly inferior to other regions: for example, the amount of social product produced in the province in 1980 was 72% less than the national average. Unemployment was 30% higher than the average Yugoslav: more than 800 thousand Kosovars could not find work. The reason for this disproportion was the high natural population growth. In this regard, Kosovo ranked first in Yugoslavia. All the funds and resources that the country sent to the autonomy were “eaten away”. It is not surprising that what is happening caused, on the one hand, the complaints of the other republics of Yugoslavia, and on the other hand, the dissatisfaction of the Albanians themselves, who believed that they did not receive enough funds intended for the development of the region.

According to experts, the “albanization” and the growth of militant formations in Kosovo were largely facilitated by the education system. Hundreds of teachers and professors from Tirana came here, and local teachers trained in Albania. Future US Ambassador to Yugoslavia Lawrence Eagleberger in 1974. noticed that the Yugoslavs are constantly wasting their energy on fighting anti-communist emigration, not realizing that the grave of Yugoslavia is being dug in Prishitina. “You opened to them [Kosovo Albanians] one of the largest universities in Yugoslavia…” Eagleberger said, “train… political scientists, sociologists, philosophers, than you create for yourself a great army of future discontented people who will not want them, nor be able to do anything serious.” who will take to the streets tomorrow and demand their state and their republic.”

Two societies.

At the end of the 1980s, the situation in the province sharply worsened when the party leaders of Kosovo were removed from their posts. Among them was Azem Vlasi, popular among Albanians. Protest demonstrations took place in Prishitina and other cities, and in February 1989. miners went on strike, opposed to the expulsion of Vlasya from the Central Committee of the Union of Communists of Yugoslavia. The events in the region caused a huge resonance in the country. In Slovenia, the population supported the miners, while in Serbia they condemned, demanding that the government take urgent measures to stabilize the situation. March 3, 1989 The Presidium of the SFRY introduced a curfew in Kosovo.

In April 1987, speaking on the Kosovo field, party functionary Slobodan Milosevic for the first time spoke about the unfair treatment of Serbia in Yugoslavia and promised protection to the Serbian people. This performance was perceived as a Serbian national program. In 1988 he organized so-called meetings of truth throughout the country. Encouraged by the opportunity to speak about their national feelings and problems, people chanted the name of Milosevic and carried his portraits. In the late 1980s, Milosevic became the de facto "untouchable political ruler of Serbia."

In the republican leadership, the point of view prevailed, according to which the constitution of 1974. weakened Serbia, depriving her of the right to create her own state. At the same time, a campaign was launched to limit the rights of autonomous regions.

Adopted by the Serbian Assembly (Parliament) in March 1989 amendments to the constitution, depriving the autonomous number of political rights, were met with hostility by the Kosovo Albanians. In response to the change in the status of Kosovo, demonstrations and clashes with the police began here, which from that moment became massive. In January 1990 about 40,000 Albanians have already taken part in the demonstrations. July 2, 1990 Albanian delegates to the provincial assembly adopted a constitutional declaration declaring Kosovo a republic. Then the republican assembly dissolved the regional assembly, substantiating its decision with numerous violations of public order in the autonomy.

Delegates of the dissolved assembly 7 September 1990 adopted the constitution of the “Republic of Kosovo” in complete secrecy. A campaign of civil disobedience unfolded in the region, a mass indefinite strike began. Albanian teachers did not accept the new school curriculum and demanded that children be taught in Albanian programs in their native language.

While a large number of school and university teachers, ethnic Albanians, were dismissed from the civil service, an underground Albanian university was operating. The illegal education system covered 400,000 children and 15,000 students. As a result, the whole region was divided into 2 parallel societies - Albanian and Serbian. Each had its own economy, management system, education, culture.

Fight for secession.

In 1990, after more than four decades of communist autocracy, a multi-party system began to take shape in the SFRY. Albanian political organizations also emerged: the Democratic League of Kosovo (DLK), the Democratic Action Party, and the Democratic Muslim Reform Party. The LDK became the largest political organization in the region, and the authority of its leader, the dissident writer Ibragim Rugov, was indisputable. Rugova called on his supporters to peacefully resist the “Serbian occupation”, fearing the consequences of serious clashes.

In September 1991 Kosovo Albanians held a referendum on the independence of the region and unanimously voted for the creation of an independent state. May 24, 1992 the presidential and parliamentary elections were held here. The Serbian leadership declared the elections illegal, but did not interfere in the election campaign. The Serbs did not participate in it. 95% of Albanians gave their votes to Ibrahim Rugova as president of the "Republic of Kosovo" and 78% to his party (DNA).

Rugova did a lot to draw the attention of Western ruling circles to the problem of Kosovo. He asked them to reflect on the autonomy of the UN peacekeeping forces and NATO troops. The Albanian-populated areas of Macedonia and Montenegro have also never been excluded from the plans of the Kosovo Albanians.

Rugova at first believed that Kosovo would be an independent republic “open to Serbia and Albania”, Albanians in Montenegro would receive autonomy, and in Macedonia they would achieve “status of a state-forming people” within the republic. However, since the fall of 1994 Rugova increasingly began to talk about the unification of Kosovo with Albania.

In the spring of 1996 tension in the region increased again. The murder of an Albanian youth by a Serb provoked retaliatory actions from Albanian militants: attacks on policemen, executions of cafe visitors, etc. The authorities carried out mass arrests. The international community accused the Serbian leadership of human rights violations, physical violence and even torture of those arrested.

The Albanians lost faith in the effectiveness of peace negotiations with the Serbian authorities, and now they pinned all their hopes on the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which acted with terrorist methods. The goal of her political and military leadership was to create and expand a territory free from Serbian rule. The task was to achieve recognition of their struggle as a national liberation struggle and, with the support of international organizations, to secede from Yugoslavia. After that, it was planned to unite those territories of Kosovo, Montenegro and Macedonia, where the majority of the population was ethnic Albanians.

At the beginning of 1998 KLA militants provoked several armed clashes with the Serbian police, prepared explosions in the Macedonian cities of Gostivar, Kumanovo and Prilen, during which civilians were killed. In addition to the Serbs, loyal Albanians who did not want to fight also suffered. Catholic Albanians left Metochian villages in fear in order to avoid forced mobilization into terrorist groups.

From negotiations to bombardment.

Since 1997 the international community joined in solving the Kosovo problem. November 1997 the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of France and Germany took the initiative to give the region a special "interim" status, designed for a transitional period. According to this initiative, it was proposed to create, with the help of international organizations, "optimal conditions for a peaceful political exit of Kosovo from the jurisdiction of Serbia."

NATO also applied for participation in the settlement of the conflict in Kosovo, in August 1997. warning Yugoslav intervention in the conflict with the aim of "preventing further bloodshed". Even then, air strikes against Serbian troops were considered as the most likely scenario for a military action in Kosovo. Tough to apply the most severe measures to Belgrade, up to economic sanctions with military intervention.

In September 1998 The UN Security Council adopted Resolution No. 1199, obliging the leadership of the Yugoslav Federation to cease fire and begin peace negotiations with the Kosovo Albanians. However, the Albanian side for a long time refused to negotiate with Belgrade, which the West insisted on. In early October 1998 the situation escalated: hostilities began again in Kosovo, and NATO threatened that, without UN sanctions, it would launch air strikes on Yugoslavia if Serbian police forces and troops continued operations in the province.

Under the influence of these circumstances, October 13, 1998. Milosevic signed an agreement with US Representative Richard Holbrooke. It was supposed to withdraw Serbian forces from the region and deploy 2,000 observers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) there. Despite serious concessions made by the Serbian side, UN Security Council Resolution No. 1203 stated that Yugoslavia is "a continuing threat to peace and security in the region."

The peace conference, which was supposed to discuss the Kosovo problem, began on February 6, 1999. in Rambouillet (France). However, the delegations of the parties were offered for consideration only a part of the “Interim Treaty on Peace and Self-Government in Kosovo and Metohija”. The entire text of the agreement was made public only on the day the negotiations ended. It turned out that the Serbian delegation saw about 70% of the document for the first time. The Yugoslav side stated that the negotiations should be continued, clearly defining the elements of the province's autonomy and confirming the territorial integrity of both Serbia and Yugoslavia as a whole. The delegation of Kosovars stressed that they would sign the agreement if in 3 years the Albanian population of Kosovo would be allowed to hold a referendum on independence. The US representatives did not agree to extend the discussion of the document, stating that the proposed text should be signed on the first day of the second round of negotiations. In fact, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia received an ultimatum: if its delegation signs a peace agreement, NATO troops will enter the territory of the region, if they don’t sign, bombs will fall on Serbia.

The second round of negotiations began in Paris on March 15, 1999. Serbia demanded guarantees of its integrity. The Kosovars refused to give them. The negotiations stalled. The Albanian delegation was allowed to sign the treaty unilaterally. The United States and NATO began to prepare for the punishment of "the culprit of the breakdown in negotiations." On March 24, NATO launched the first missile and bomb strikes on Yugoslavia.

NATO's punitive action lasted several weeks and its consequences were terrible. In the first 14 days alone, 430 aircraft carried out over 1,000 bombings, fired 800 cruise missiles, and dropped about 3,000 thousand explosives. The bombings hit not only military facilities. National parks and reserves, the Petrovaradin fortress, medieval monasteries and shrines suffered. Bombs fell on cities, destroying refugee centers, hospitals, water pipes, bridges, schools, private houses, businesses, telephone exchanges, highways, warehouses, and so on. Avalanches of refugees from Kosovo remembered the roads leading to Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Montenegro...

In 2000, the Serbs were still forced to allow NATO troops to take control of Kosovo. However, peace in the autonomy was never established. Albanian militants, despite the presence of NATO peacekeepers, expelled the Slavic and Gypsy population from the region with impunity. By 2001 the conflict crossed the borders of Kosovo - the Albanians began hostilities in Macedonia. In the 2001 elections in Kosovo, the supporters of Rugova won, seeking international recognition of the independence of the region.

Our days: the continuation of the Kosovo massacre ...

Five years ago, NATO forces drove the Yugoslav army out of Kosovo. There is no doubt that after the Kosovo Serbs, NATO peacekeepers will also leave the region. And a failed mission could turn into a disaster that goes far beyond Kosovo.

After the start of the operation by NATO troops, Kosovo Serbs turned out to be strangers in their country, they were expelled by tens of thousands from their own cities and villages, they were killed. Every week, Serbian houses and churches burned in the region. And only after the terrible pogrom perpetrated by the Albanian militants did the NATO command finally realize that bloody events had begun again.

But the entire 20,000-strong peacekeeping army was powerless before the Albanian cutthroats.

The reason for the brutal pogrom was the death of Albanian teenagers who, under unclear circumstances, drowned in the Ibar River. It is alarming that the events turned out to be, as if specially timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the “liberation of the Albanians from the Serbian yoke”, someone skillfully inflated the conflict that had been smoldering all these years. In a few days, three dozen Orthodox churches and, according to various sources, up to 400 Serbian households were burned. Several dozen Serbs were killed, and hundreds and thousands, no longer hoping for the protection of peacekeepers, fled overnight.

New pogroms can be expected at any time and in any part of Kosovo where there are still Serbs. Will the international contingent be able to prevent them? Why was it necessary to start a war at all, to sacrifice soldiers and civilians? Everything ended where it started - ethical cleansing. And the unsuccessful "peacekeeping invasion" turned out to be interference under a plausible pretext in the internal affairs of another state.

At present, the Kosovo Serbs are in a hopeless, horrendous state. They did not wait for military protection from NATO peacekeepers. Many of the Serbs are on the verge of a mental and physical breakdown. In the current situation, with NATO deafness, they would have been left to the mercy of fate, if not for Russia, which provides them with humanitarian assistance.

I. Ivanov, speaking on television, said that with the existing order and unrest in the newly erupted conflict, Russian peacekeepers would not be sent to Kosovo. Humanitarian assistance will continue. At this time, R.F. will build tent camps, deliver medicines, provisions, things. So far, no one knows how all this can end and whether it will end ...

Two political portraits of Yugoslav leaders:

Josip Broz Tito.

President Tito ruled Yugoslavia for 35 years. He was obsessed with the idea of ​​interethnic unity. Tito is his partisan nickname.

In World War I, he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army. He fought at the front, but in March 1915 he was captured by the Russians, having received a severe wound. He was treated in a hospital for a long time, then he was transferred to a prisoner of war camp in the Urals, where Bolshevik workers introduced the young man to Marxist teachings.

After the February Revolution of 1917, Josip came to Petrograd, but he was arrested and sent to Omsk. There he joined the Red Guard, hid from the whites and almost died of starvation.

In 1920 Josip returned to his homeland, entered the leadership of the Croatian communists, but the communist party was banned, and he went underground. In August 1928 he was arrested and spent 6 years in prison.

Tito, after returning to his country, was elected General Secretary of the CPY. After the capture of Yugoslavia by the Germans, he fled from Belgrade to the mountains, creates a partisan detachment there, then a people's liberation army is formed, Tito became its commander.

In 1943 he received the rank of Marshal at the session of the Anti-Fascist Council of Yugoslavia and was appointed head of the Provisional Government.

In 1945, he took the post of head of government and began the construction of "socialism with Yugoslav specifics." All political opponents were removed by that time.

Remaining a staunch communist, he paid much attention to self-government, allowed elements of capitalism in the economy, and maintained friendly relations with the West. At the same time, any encroachments on the leadership role of the Communist Party and their own power were suppressed. Gradually, a personality cult of Tito arose in Yugoslavia: tuners swore by his name, composed songs about him, erected sculptural images. Almost all palaces eventually turned into his residences.

He was not indifferent to fashionable clothes, good cuisine, expensive wines. He danced with pleasure, adored jokes, was a witty and attentive conversationalist. I read a lot, acquired knowledge in a variety of disciplines. Even in old age, he retained his elegance and attractiveness.

On May 4, 1980, he died in a hospital in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana. The Yugoslavs took Tito's death as a national tragedy.

Slobodan Milosevic.

My personal attitude to this issue.

My point of view.

So it has always been and is, that the people always pay for the miscalculations, mistakes of the government, which is now happening in Yugoslavia.

Broz Tito was for interethnic unity. He was obsessed with this idea all his life. Under him, the collapse of Yugoslavia was avoided.

Ibrahim Rugova in 1991 called on his supporters to peacefully rebuff the "Serbian occupation", fearing serious military clashes, but already in 1994. began to adhere to the policy of uniting Kosovo with Albania, i.е. the same regime of split and enmity between the two peoples.

Slobodan Milosevic took an irreparable, disastrous step: in 1989. he autonomously cancels the Albanian-dominated Kosovo, takes the side of the Serbs and publicly promises them to quickly "end Kosovo", i.e. to join it with the Serbs. With this, he ensured the beginning of a bloody war.

Especially for the peoples of this long-suffering, disintegrated country, the entry of foreign armies into their territory was dramatic. help, except for intensifying strife, they did not give any help with their presence.

The United States, under the pretext of "punishing the perpetrators of the disruption of peace talks", i.e. Yugoslavia, March 24, 1999 inflicted the first missile and bomb strikes on it. This caramel action lasted several weeks - for the people it was all grief and horror.

Russia also played a role in these bloody events: in 1999. also introduced its peacekeeping troops, but as the defenders of the Serbs, the Americans - as the defenders of the Albanians. In all this terrible confusion, people died, cities and villages burned, thousands of refugees left their lands. But Russia, too, was forced to withdraw its troops, without providing any assistance, by its presence, intensifying hostility between nations and towards itself.

This time Ivanov refused to send peacekeeping troops to Kosovo. Maybe the Russian government has finally understood - how many Russian soldiers will die in foreign wars?

This was especially practiced by our last monarch, Nicholas 2, sending thousands of Russian soldiers to certain death, who did not even understand for whom and why they were fighting. For the personal prestige of the state?

This bloody list was replenished with the Afghan war, the Chechen war, peacekeeping actions in Yugoslavia. The Afghan and Chechen wars are all the same wrong steps of our governments, built on the bloody losses of Russian soldiers.

Quite recently, there was an incident - the recognition by a part of the states of the independence of Kosovo, bypassing the UN, despite the protests of Serbia and a number of states. The conflict was not resolved on this, but on the contrary, it flares up with renewed vigor. So far, there are no mechanisms for its resolution.