Yugoslavia: From Unification to Dissolution

I. V. Churkina's et al Na putyakh k Yugoslavii: za i protiv ([On the Road to Yugoslavia: For and Against] Moscow, 1997) is reviewed. The book is a collection of essays by Russian & Yugoslav historians who utilize a rich inventory of new archival sources, made available in the aftermath of the dissolution of communist Yugoslavia, in tracing the country's history from eighteenth- & nineteenth-century Panslavic & South Slavic movements until the formation of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes in 1918: its name was changed to Yugoslavia only in 1929. The movement for unification was led by Serbian Panslavists, & it was a major cause of WWI. The individual contributions are outlined & commented on from the perspective of today's ethnic conflict in the Balkans. The question whether a historical analysis of nineteenth-century Panslavic ideas & developments can shed light on the hostilities between the South Slavic peoples at the end of the twentieth century is addressed. The book's principal theme of two opposing tendencies in the region's politics -- unifying all southern Slavs in a single nation vs the creation of independent South Slavic states -- is examined. The hegemonist desires of Serbia within the Yugoslav union are noted, & the roots of the ethnic tensions & conflicts in pre- & post-WWII Yugoslavia are traced to differences between Serbs, Croats, Slavs, & other members of the state already at the period preceding its formation. The book is praised for a comprehensive approach, accuracy of description of historical facts, a high level of methodological objectivity, & analysis of facts rather than speculations. The invaluableness of a comparative-historical approach to the analysis of the different models of national self-determination promoted by Serbs & Croats is recognized. The collection fills a bibliographic vacuum in literature devoted to the history of Balkan, Austrian, & Hungarian Panslavists in the period leading to the creation of Yugoslavia. Z. Dubiel