Yugo Slavia
16-10-2006, 02:55
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The shine of the victory over NATO must finally have worn through, in places, after more than six years of enabling Yugoslavia to glide easily. For, though unity had been given a massive grant of new life, economic reconstruction was hard to achieve in a world full of bitter capitalists, and hardship fostered unrest.
* * * * *
Larionko Aidarov, Marshal Lav -the Lion- had been in the premiership for twenty-six years, ever since the passing of Josip Broz, Marshal Tito, in 1980. His arrival, as a political refugee from the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, came just soon enough to enable his rise to a position from which he could challenge for the leadership, and ultimately take it against the efforts of opponents with distinctly nationalist bias about them.
The west had tried desperately to break-up Yugoslavia by propaganda, pressure from the IMF and WB, supporting terrorism, and eventually out-right bombing and invasion, but Tito had fought all nationalist influence. After Jospi Broz, attempts to paint the Serbs as dominant had failed in the face of Aidarov's massive counter-propaganda, which pointed-out that Tito had created the two Socialist Autonomous Provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo in what previously had been only Serbia, and that Croats and Slovenes outnumbered Serbs in JNA command positions. Even that neither he nor Tito were Serbs by birth or parentage.
Had it not been for the Byelorussian Lion a Serb nationalist may well have replaced Tito and sought to restore Serb dominance. It didn't happen, Titoism survived with Aidarov, and the long-awaited union with Bulgaria was brought to pass as Sofia's Soviet backer ran off the rails of progress. Only a shame was it that Hoxha's Albania never for a moment entertained the pan-Balkan ideal, and that after his passing Yugoslavia was too much distracted by western meddling to save Albanian socialism.
* * * * *
Albanians now were causing real trouble. Hoxha was gone, sure enough, and he was not replaced by a Titoist but a lot of self-serving capitalists and mafioso thugs! Confident of western support, a minority of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia, Kosovo, and Montenegro were agitating for independence and the formation of a Greater Albania -Shqipëria e Madhe- putting the pains back into Yugoslavia's spine.
"Remember Marshal Tito, thanks be to him for the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo!"
So read a typical poster on a Pristina street. It was printed in reaction to agitation amongst a minority element of the Albanian population for Kosovan independence. Kosovo independent of Yugoslavia? Absurd! Kosovo is a Yugoslavian construct! That was the official line.
Unfortunately, this idea being widely spread, the Federal Militia and the Militia Troops were increasingly prone to harsh reaction when Albanians were suspected of secessionist activity. Riots across southwestern Yugoslavia had resulted in several hundred arrests, dozens of injuries, and, according to Belgrade, two civilian deaths. One Albanian nationalist group claimed as many as seventeen fatalities in the last month, and looked to the internet as a means of spreading its views.
The shine of the victory over NATO must finally have worn through, in places, after more than six years of enabling Yugoslavia to glide easily. For, though unity had been given a massive grant of new life, economic reconstruction was hard to achieve in a world full of bitter capitalists, and hardship fostered unrest.
* * * * *
Larionko Aidarov, Marshal Lav -the Lion- had been in the premiership for twenty-six years, ever since the passing of Josip Broz, Marshal Tito, in 1980. His arrival, as a political refugee from the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, came just soon enough to enable his rise to a position from which he could challenge for the leadership, and ultimately take it against the efforts of opponents with distinctly nationalist bias about them.
The west had tried desperately to break-up Yugoslavia by propaganda, pressure from the IMF and WB, supporting terrorism, and eventually out-right bombing and invasion, but Tito had fought all nationalist influence. After Jospi Broz, attempts to paint the Serbs as dominant had failed in the face of Aidarov's massive counter-propaganda, which pointed-out that Tito had created the two Socialist Autonomous Provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo in what previously had been only Serbia, and that Croats and Slovenes outnumbered Serbs in JNA command positions. Even that neither he nor Tito were Serbs by birth or parentage.
Had it not been for the Byelorussian Lion a Serb nationalist may well have replaced Tito and sought to restore Serb dominance. It didn't happen, Titoism survived with Aidarov, and the long-awaited union with Bulgaria was brought to pass as Sofia's Soviet backer ran off the rails of progress. Only a shame was it that Hoxha's Albania never for a moment entertained the pan-Balkan ideal, and that after his passing Yugoslavia was too much distracted by western meddling to save Albanian socialism.
* * * * *
Albanians now were causing real trouble. Hoxha was gone, sure enough, and he was not replaced by a Titoist but a lot of self-serving capitalists and mafioso thugs! Confident of western support, a minority of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia, Kosovo, and Montenegro were agitating for independence and the formation of a Greater Albania -Shqipëria e Madhe- putting the pains back into Yugoslavia's spine.
"Remember Marshal Tito, thanks be to him for the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo!"
So read a typical poster on a Pristina street. It was printed in reaction to agitation amongst a minority element of the Albanian population for Kosovan independence. Kosovo independent of Yugoslavia? Absurd! Kosovo is a Yugoslavian construct! That was the official line.
Unfortunately, this idea being widely spread, the Federal Militia and the Militia Troops were increasingly prone to harsh reaction when Albanians were suspected of secessionist activity. Riots across southwestern Yugoslavia had resulted in several hundred arrests, dozens of injuries, and, according to Belgrade, two civilian deaths. One Albanian nationalist group claimed as many as seventeen fatalities in the last month, and looked to the internet as a means of spreading its views.