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Yugoslavia The Yugoslav Nations
In 1990 national identity remained a vital characteristic in
Yugoslavia, and distrust across ethnic boundaries persisted.
Second only to the government bureaucracy, nationalism and
ethnically based discrimination provided the universal
explanation for all evils befalling the Yugoslav peoples. Kosovan
Albanians complained that Macedonians purposely built their
province's roads badly; Serbs complained that the Slovenes
exploited their economy and that they were the victims of
plotting Croats, Slovenes, and "Islamic-fundamentalist" ethnic
Albanians; Croats and Slovenes feared Serbian domination and
complained of the lack of discipline of their fellow Yugoslavs to
the south.
The deepest and oldest national rivalry in Yugoslavia was the
one between the Serbs and Croats, who despite their shared
language possessed different social and value systems and
political cultures. Two sayings illustrated these animosities and
the essential difference in the inherited political styles of
both peoples. The first says: "The very way of life of a Serb and
Croat is a deliberate provocation by each to the other." The
second, a self-complimentary Serbian stereotype, holds that in a
conflict with authority "the Serb reaches for the sword and the
Croat for his pen." The Serbian stereotype refers to the
tradition of the hajduk, the idealized mountain renegade
who responded violently to the oppressive anarchy of the Ottoman
Empire during its last two centuries; the Croatian stereotype
reflects the cultural influence of responding through the legal
system to the Habsburgs' highly bureaucratized infringements on
national and individual freedoms in Croatia.
Data as of December 1990
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