PERSPECTIVES ON THE SLOVEN IAN REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

I would like to explore with you the Socialist Republic of Slovenia, the northernmost province of Yugoslavia. In developing a perspective on Slovenia, I will emphasize the cultural and economic distinctiveness of the region in order to distinguish this nation from the rest of the Yugoslav state. Yugoslavia is a relatively new country in Europe, being established in 1918 following the World War I disintegration of the extensive Habsburg and Ottoman Empires. At first the young state called itself the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in recognition of the separate identities of its three major ethnic groups. Stressing the unity of the country, the name was changed to Yugoslavia, which means "south Slavs," in 1929. The capital of the state remained at Belgrade, which is in Serbia. Until 1941, the country was governed as a constitutional monarchy with a Serbian royalty. The other nations, such as the Bosnians, Croatians, Macedonians, Montenegrins and Siovenians, were not equal partners in this arrangement. Ethnic differences were seldom regarded in governmental decision-making.