Why is yugoslavia outside the iron curtain

The aim was to act against Soviet expansion in the Balkans. In all the geopolitical maps , Yugoslavia although communist-run, was see the map drawn outside of the Iron Curtain area. The term Iron Curtain remained as defining a border between Soviet Union Eastern Europe and the western world that sustained itself until the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin wall in The border was heavily guarded by the Soviets to prevent foreign influence that would disrupt their communist rule and to disable its residents from escaping Soviet territory.

The Iron Curtain was very often identified with Berlin Wall, but it is not exactly true. The Berlin Wall was built Overall, the polarisation that later turned to Cold War started discussions among other countries about the peaceful coexistence between the two forces.

The discussions led to the setting up of the Non-alignment movement. The idea was realised in , when Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlah Nehru and Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Naser met with Tito on the Brijuni islands to talk about the very foundations of the movement, the conclusion of which was the signing of Brijuni Declaration. Five years later, in , the first conference of the Non-alignment movement was held in Belgrade with Tito having a lead role.

As this third bloc became more powerful, both Eastern and Western blocs started to acknowledge it, which lead to Tito having meetings with various statesmen across the world. The difference between Yugoslavia and the countries behind Iron Curtain were, among other things, their travel rights. During the Cold War period, from the establishment of the European Economic Community later expanded into the European Union in until the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early s, Yugoslavia was the only socialist state which developed close relations with the organisation, but never became a full member.

At the same time, Yugoslavia joined many organisations established by the western countries. If Yugoslavia was the core of the Balkans, and its disintegration the most dramatic episode on European soil in the entire restructuring of the former Eastern bloc, then it is necessary once again to reflect on and analyse the variables that affected that process.

Straightaway, one can hypothesise that no single factor triggered the crisis, as no such explanation has been convincingly put forward in the 20 years that have passed since. In short, at the risk of oversimplifying, several factors must be taken into account. A simple glance at maps of the Balkans from to today reveals constant border changes, a high rate of conflict due to friction between territories and different groups and strong competition between powers far and near.

Between the Congress of Vienna and the early 20 th century, the border between the major empires the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires and, on the outer edges, the Russian empire gradually shifted east, to the detriment of Turkish power.

The two world wars saw and caused the continuation of this phenomenon, displacing more people, giving rise to further border changes and accumulated tensions, and sparking the emergence, disappearance and re-emergence of additional grievances. Whilst this affected Balkan countries such as Romania, Greece, Bulgaria or Albania to a certain extent, it had a powerful impact on what is known today as the former Yugoslavia. The year saw the emergence of a new version of the Yugoslavia that had made its international debut at the end of World War I.

There was also solid popular support for its government and form of state. Its role as mediator between East and West and its leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement were rendered irrelevant.

As a result, it was no longer able to attract political and economic support from the West. Economic hardship was one of the factors though not the only one responsible for the constitutional crisis, which was used by ethnic nationalists and, in particular, radical Serbian nationalism from on to undermine what was, even by Western standards, a relatively stable and feasible project.

However, this is a restrictive and merely partial view. Promoting self-management rather than state Soviet socialism, Yugoslav leaders saw perestroika and glasnost not as a loss, but rather a victory for their own brand of socialism.

The reforms undertaken in Eastern Europe were not viewed as a threat and Yugoslav leaders did not feel in any way imperilled by the changes. As leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, Yugoslavia had a sufficiently independent foreign policy and considerable influence in the United Nations and several other international forums.

As noted earlier, the end of the bipolar system took away from this position of high international visibility. At the geopolitical level, it is worth comparing the case of Yugoslavia to the breakup of the Soviet Union in order to see whether the reasons for the Yugoslav collapse were the same or whether there were other specific factors.

Despite certain key similarities between the two cases, such as the end of communism, there was little overlap.

This notwithstanding, the fall of the Iron Curtain as a whole did have an undeniable impact on Yugoslavia. The first step, then, is to identify the cause. A brief analysis shows several causes, rather than just one. Consequently, multiple causes must be identified, as none taken alone could have resulted in such fatal consequences the war between and In short, what triggered the collapse of Yugoslavia was the accumulation of several variables or causes that are usually taken separately.

This could be expressed thusly:. In other words, the sum total of multiple causes a minimum of one and a maximum of n of varying degrees of importance led to the Yugoslav collapse.

To perform this analysis, it is necessary first to define the variables n. The most important ones were as follows:. One problem with this approach is that the causes, or the respective weights thereof, varied in each republic. The equation would thus ideally need to be modified to take into account the specific importance of each cause in each individual republic. The causes would then need to be studied as a whole to understand the collapse of Yugoslavia.

The incorrect assertion that equates Yugoslavia with the Soviet Union has popped up from time to time in Western media, mostly in its right-wing sphere. When intentional, it's constituent of a modern-day Red Scare discourse which degrades the reputation of political actors from the region. However, that language finds no bearing in North Macedonia itself. Besides its fallaciousness, equating Yugoslavia to the Soviet Union or its bloc is seen by many former Yugoslavs as a negative stereotype.

Almost three decades after the breakup of the federation in , the independence from the Soviet Union is still a marker of pride for many citizens of the post-Yugoslav countries. When challenged, people from the region will often go into passionate discussions to defend the uniqueness of the Yugoslav socialist experience, with its openness to the West, freedom to travel and work abroad, and a relatively high standard of living.

The debate goes well beyond quarrels over coffee or beer. Passions flare up the highest when ex-Yugoslavs are put in the same basket as other Central and Eastern Europeans by political figures. Yugoslavia was not behind the iron curtain. Similar online outbursts transpired when, in July , the American journalist Joy Reid, who is considered left-leaning, mistakenly confused the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia while discussing the national origins of the wives of US President Donald Trump.

Even though she tweeted a correction soon after, the fallout has lasted for years. Yugoslavia was never a part of the Soviet Union, and during the Tito years very heavily opposed Soviet influence. In May , a Business Insider article about a conspiracy theory that Melania Trump is a Russian spy misrepresented Slovenia's history, again drawing angry reactions:.

Slovenia was a part of Yugoslavia until that country broke apart. Never a part of the Soviet Union or Russia. Where was the editor for this story? I trust the reporter has been fired for incompetence. Another example occurred in sports journalism: in October , an article on the history of Croatian-American soccer by the website Protagonist Soccer was quickly corrected after a reader alerted the publication that Croatia was never part of the Soviet Union:. Thank you for this piece on Croatian soccer.

Please make one correction. I would like to RT your article, but don't want the focus to be on this point. Many thanks. Global Voices stands out as one of the earliest and strongest examples of how media committed to building community and defending human rights can positively influence how people experience events happening beyond their own communities and national borders.

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