Socialist Republic of Serbia - History

History

From 1945 to 1963, the republic was officially known as People's Republic of Serbia (Narodna Republika Srbija), and from 1963 to 1990 as Socialist Republic of Serbia (Socijalistička Republika Srbija). The republic was controversially internally divided in 1974 to include two autonomous provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo which had the same rights and privileges as constituent republics of Yugoslavia.

For most of its existence in the SFRY, Serbia was loyal and generally subordinate to the federal government. This changed after the death of Josip Broz Tito in 1980 and the rise of Albanian as well as Serbian nationalism in Kosovo, which resulted in a split in the League of Communists on how to respond. A successful round of coups in the Communist party leadership of Serbia as well as Montenegro occurred from 1988 to 1989, led by Slobodan Milošević who supported Serbian nationalists in Kosovo in removing Kosovo's autonomy.

In 1989, Milošević became President of the republic and demanded that the federal Yugoslav government act for the interests of Serbia in Kosovo by sending in the Yugoslav Peoples Army to take control of the province. Opposition to such action and the demands by Serbia for a "one-member, one-vote" system in the Yugoslav League of Communists, which would have given a majority of votes to Serbs, precipitated ethnic tensions and the collapse of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia and of Yugoslavia itself by 1991.

After 1990, the state was known simply as Republic of Serbia (Republika Srbija) which was a constituent republic in the rump Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, then as Serbia and Montenegro until 2006 when Serbia became an independent state.

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