1.
Yugoslavia
–
Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe during most of the 20th century. The Serbian royal House of Karađorđević became the Yugoslav royal dynasty, Yugoslavia gained international recognition on 13 July 1922 at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris. The country was named after the South Slavic peoples and constituted their first union, following centuries in which the territories had been part of the Ottoman Empire, renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929, it was invaded by the Axis powers on 6 April 1941. In 1943, a Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was proclaimed by the Partisan resistance, in 1944, the king recognised it as the legitimate government, but in November 1945 the monarchy was abolished. Yugoslavia was renamed the Federal Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia in 1946 and it acquired the territories of Istria, Rijeka, and Zadar from Italy. Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito ruled the country as president until his death in 1980, in 1963, the country was renamed again as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The constituent six socialist republics that made up the country were the SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SR Croatia, SR Macedonia, SR Montenegro, SR Serbia, and SR Slovenia. Serbia contained two Socialist Autonomous Provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo, which after 1974 were largely equal to the members of the federation. After an economic and political crisis in the 1980s and the rise of nationalism, Yugoslavia broke up along its republics borders, at first into five countries, eventually, Serbia and Montenegro accepted the opinion of the Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession. Serbia and Montenegro themselves broke up in 2006 and became independent states, the concept of Yugoslavia, as a single state for all South Slavic peoples, emerged in the late 17th century and gained prominence through the Illyrian Movement of the 19th century. The name was created by the combination of the Slavic words jug, Yugoslavia was the result of the Corfu Declaration, as a project of the Serbian Parliament in exile and the Serbian royal Karađorđević dynasty, who became the Yugoslav royal dynasty. The country was formed in 1918 immediately after World War I as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by union of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and it was commonly referred to at the time as the Versailles state. Later, the government renamed the country leading to the first official use of Yugoslavia in 1929, on 6 January 1929 King Alexander I suspended the constitution, banned national political parties, assumed executive power and renamed the country Yugoslavia. He hoped to curb separatist tendencies and mitigate nationalist passions and he imposed a new constitution and relinquished his dictatorship in 1931. None of these three regimes favored the policy pursued by Alexander I, Alexander attempted to create a centralised Yugoslavia. He decided to abolish Yugoslavias historic regions, and new internal boundaries were drawn for provinces or banovinas, the banovinas were named after rivers. Many politicians were jailed or kept under police surveillance, the effect of Alexanders dictatorship was to further alienate the non-Serbs from the idea of unity. During his reign the flags of Yugoslav nations were banned, Alexander was succeeded by his eleven-year-old son Peter II and a regency council headed by his cousin, Prince Paul
2.
Republika Srpska
–
Republika Srpska is one of two constitutional and legal entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The administrative centre is Banja Luka, in Serbo-Croatian, Republika Srpska means Serb Republic. The second word is an adjective derived by adding the suffix -ska to srb-. The -ps- sequence rather than -bs- is a result of voicing assimilation, in a session on 14–15 October 1991, the Peoples Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina approved the Memorandum on Sovereignty, as had already been done by Slovenia and Croatia. The Union of Reform Forces soon ceased to exist but its members remained in the assembly as the Independent Members of Parliament Caucus, on 9 January 1992, the assembly proclaimed the Republic of the Serb People of Bosnia and Herzegovina, declaring it part of Yugoslavia. The republic was part of Yugoslavia and could enter into union with political bodies representing other peoples of Bosnia, the referendum had a 64% turnout and 92. 7% or 99% voted for independence. On 6 March the Bosnian parliament promulgated the results of the referendum, the republics independence was recognized by the European Community on 6 April 1992 and by the United States on 7 April. On the same day the Serbs assembly in session in Banja Luka declared a severance of ties with Bosnia. The name Republika Srpska was adopted on 12 August 1992, the political controversy escalated into the Bosnian War, which would last until the autumn of 1995. The boundary lines between the entities were delineated in Annex 2 of the Agreement, between 1992 and 2008, the Constitution of Republika Srpska was amended 121 times. The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina resulted in changes in the country. Some two million people, about half the population, were displaced. In 1996 there were some 435,346 ethnic Serb refugees from the Federation in Republika Srpska, in 1991, 27% of the non-agricultural labor force was unemployed in Bosnia and this number increased due to the war. By 2009, the unemployment rate in Bosnia and Herzegovina was estimated at 29%, ethnic cleansing reduced the numbers of other groups. Serb police, soldiers, and irregulars attacked Bosniaks and Croats, though on the other side, Bosniaks and Croats did the same atrocities to the Serbian population in the region of Herzegovina and the villages surrounding Srebrenica. Some were killed on the spot, others were rounded up and killed elsewhere, the number of Croats was reduced by 135,386, and the number of Bosniaks by some 434,144. Some 136,000 of approximately 496,000 Bosniak refugees forced to flee the territory of what is now Republika Srpska have since returned home, in the early 2000s, discrimination against non-Serbs was alleged by NGOs and the Helsinki Commission. The International Crisis Group reported in 2002 that in parts of Republika Srpska a non-Serb returnee is ten times more likely to be the victim of violent crime than is a local Serb
3.
Yugoslav Air Force
–
Not to be confused with the air force of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav Royal Air Force. The Yugoslav Air Force was the air force of Yugoslavia, the official name of the branch was Air Force and Anti-Air Defence. At its height, it was one of the largest air forces in Europe, the Yugoslav Air Force was disbanded following the war in Yugoslavia 1991-1995. By early 1945, Yugoslav Partisans under Marshal Tito had liberated a large portion of Yugoslav territory from the occupying forces, on 5 January 1945 the various air units of the NOVJ were formally incorporated into a new Yugoslav Air Force. At the same time, a Yugoslav fighter group which had been under Soviet instruction at Zemun airfield became operational, thus, when peacetime came, the JRV already possessed a strong and experienced nucleus of personnel. On 12 September 1945 the Military Aviation Academy in Belgrade was established to train future pilots, the development of the JRV was further helped in late 1945 with the creation of the Aeronautical Union of Yugoslavia. This comprised six aeronautical unions - one for each constituent republic - with the joint aim of promoting sport flying, in June 1947 the first VSJ flying school at Borongaj started training pupils. The organization of the post-war JRV was based on the Soviet pattern of divisions, regiments, virtually all of the initial equipment was supplied by the Soviet Union – the aircraft captured during the war had quickly been retired. By the end of 1947, the JRV had reached a strength of some 40 squadrons of aircraft, in June 1948 Yugoslavia broke off relations with the Stalinist Soviet Union. The country was subjected to extreme political pressure from the Soviet Union and its Balkan neighbors. The possibility of an invasion was taken seriously, the serviceability of JRV aircraft fell rapidly, with some aircraft being cannibalised to provide spares for the remainder. However, the strength of the JRV was still declining, so in 1951 the Yugoslav Chief of Staff, Colonel General Koča Popović. It was agreed that a shipment of aircraft would be forthcoming. In October 1951, the first de Havilland Mosquito F. B.6 fighter-bombers were supplied, the following year,150 Republic F-47D Thunderbolt fighter-bombers were delivered from the USA under a Mutual Assistance Pact. The first jet aircraft to be operated by the JRV, four Lockheed T-33A jet trainers, serials for the Thunderjets were from 10501 to 10729. The first eight Thunderjets, all former 48 TFW aircraft, arrived at Batajnica on June 9,1953, at the same time, a number of Yugoslav pilots underwent jet flying training in Germany. These deliveries substantially improved the effectiveness of the JRV. Ten Westland Dragonfly helicopters were obtained in 1954, and in 1956, in 1959 the JRV was merged with the air defence units operated by the Army and became known as the Air Force and Air Defence
4.
Republika Srpska Air Force
–
The Republika Srpska Air Force was the air force of Republika Srpska and was used primarily during the Bosnian war. In 2005, it was integrated into the Armed Forces of Bosnia, SFOR still plays a large role in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which consists of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. Under the leadership of one president, the ministry of defense of both merged into one single ministry of defense with one chief of joint staff commanding both Air Forces. In 2004 there was again a restructuring of the armed forces, in 2006 the Air Force of Republika Srpska was disbanded. The Air Force and Air Defense was established, and took over operations from the Yugoslav Air Force, the barracks at Zalužani became home to the Command and subordinated units of the newly created Air Force and Air Defence of the Army of the Republika Srpska. The official ceremony that was intended to mark the creation of the Bosnian Serb Air Force, on the night of 27 to 28 June 1991, following an attack by Slovenian forces,67 aircraft were flown out of Cerklje to Zadar-Zemunik air base in Croatia. Among others, the Yugoslav Peoples Army completely withdrew the 474th vazduhoplovna baza from Slovenia, during the withdrawal every movable object, including the runway lighting and ILS systems, were dismantled and removed. On 12 August 1991, the 474th Air Base was re-established in Banja Luka, finally, on 11 August 1991, the majority of the aircraft from the 82nd Aviation Brigade were once again relocated, but this time to their final destination, the Mahovljani airfield near Banja Luka. On 26 July 1992, just two months after the structure of the Bosnian Serb Air Force was established, the flying units were once again reorganized. The 111th Helicopter Regiment was disbanded, and a new unit designated 92nd Mixed Aviation Brigade was formed to control both fixed-wing and helicopter squadrons. Later, during the year, the 711th Anti-armour Helicopter Squadron. However, it is important to note that 18 percent of all the sorties conducted between 27 May 1992 and December 1995 were medical evacuation flights, a total of 3.179 sorties. Over the war years, the Republika Srpska Air Force has lost 18 aircraft, five J-22 Oraos, six J- 21Jastrebs, five Gazelles and two Mi-8s as a result of enemy fire or accidents. In March 1996 the entire Republika Srpska Army was reorganized and the Bosnian Serb air arm was renamed Aviation, the 27th and 28th Fighter-bomber Aviation Squadrons were merged to create the new unit that became known as 1st Fighter-Bomber Aviation Squadron. The 92nd Light Multi role Aircraft Squadron was disbanded and its aircraft were returned to their respective owners, however, the V i PVO VRS retained two UTVA-75 aircraft in order to secure regular training flights to its Air Force pilots. According to the Florence Agreement on Sub-Regional Arms Control, signed in June 1996, the entire branch has been downgraded to a regiment that consistent from two squadrons, and rocket-artillery air defense, air reconnaissance and logistics battalions. The personnel and some equipment have continued their service in new OSBiH, jet aircraft are put in storage because of the lack of spare parts and the high costs to operate them. Because of that, some jet pilots have be re-trained to helicopter pilots, Mixed Helicopter Squadron has become Helicopter Battalion, equipped with six overhauled Gazelle utility helicopters, while two Mi-8Ts will soon return from the overhaul
5.
Syrmian Front
–
The Syrmian Front was an Axis line of defense during World War II. It was established as part of the Eastern Front in late October 1944 in Syrmia and east Slavonia, with help from their Soviet allies, the Partisans, joined by Bulgarian and Italian forces, fought a difficult winter campaign and finally broke through the front on 12 April 1945. After the Syrmian front was broken, occupied Yugoslavia was liberated, after the September advance through Romania and Bulgaria in October 1944, The Red Army, together with Yugoslav forces, took Belgrade in the Belgrade Offensive. The Red Army decided to exploit this delay and continued to advance with the 3rd Ukrainian Front from Belgrade to south-west Hungary, the aim of the advance was to separate and protect their main attack in Hungary from attacks on the flank by Army Group E from the south. For this reason, it was of significance for the Germans to defend the zone around Slavonski Brod. To prevent Army Group E from being cut off, the German South-East command prepared seven successive fortified defense lines between the Danube and Sava river from Ruma to Vinkovci, the Syrmian Front campaign consisted of Yugoslavian attempts to break through these lines of defense. The Syrmian Front saw some of the most difficult fighting in Yugoslavia in World War II and it lasted for almost six months. Although mostly stationary, the front moved several times, generally westward, the fighting started east of Ruma and stabilized in January 1945 west of Šid after the town changed hands due to Axis counterattacks. In late March and early April 1945, Yugoslav Army units mounted an offensive on all fronts. The third phase was a period from 26 January to 12 April 1945. In this period both sides only performed limited reconnaissance activities, the fourth phase began when Yugoslav forces broke through the German defense lines on 12 April, with heavy German losses and fierce battles and Army Group E retreating. Ljubivoje Pajović, Dušan Uzelac, Milovan Dželebdžić, Sremski Front 1944–1945, BIGZ, Belgrade 1979 Pavlowitch, S. K. Hitlers New Disorder, the Second World War in Yugoslavia
6.
Yugoslav Wars
–
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of ethnically-based wars and insurgencies fought from 1991 to 2001 inside the territory of the former Yugoslavia. The wars are considered to be a series of separate but related military conflicts which occurred in. The wars ended through peace accords, involving full international recognition of new states, as a result, the JNA began to lose Slovenes, Croats, Kosovar Albanians, Bosniaks, and ethnic Macedonians, and effectively became a Serb army. According to the 1994 United Nations report, the Serb side did not aim to restore Yugoslavia, other irredentist movements have also been brought into connection with the wars, such as Greater Albania and Greater Croatia. Often described as Europes deadliest since World War II, the conflicts have become infamous for the war crimes involved, including cleansing, crimes against humanity. These were the first European conflicts since World War II to be formally judged genocidal in character, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was established by the UN to prosecute these crimes. According to the International Center for Transitional Justice, the Yugoslav Wars resulted in the deaths of 140,000 people, the Humanitarian Law Center estimates that in the conflicts in former Yugoslav republics at least 130,000 people lost their lives. The war have alternatively been called, Wars in the Balkans Wars/conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, third Balkan War, a term suggested by British journalist Misha Glenny in the title of his book, alluding to the two previous Balkan Wars fought 1912–13. In fact, this term has been applied by some historians to World War I. Yugoslavia Civil War/Yugoslav Civil War/Yugoslavian Civil War/Civil War in Yugoslavia, the nation of Yugoslavia was created in the aftermath of World War I, and was composed mostly of South Slavic Christians, but the nation also had a substantial Muslim minority. In the 1980s, relations among the six republics of the SFRY deteriorated, Slovenia and Croatia desired greater autonomy within the Yugoslav confederation, while Serbia sought to strengthen federal authority. As it became clearer that there was no solution agreeable to all parties, although tensions in Yugoslavia had been mounting since the early 1980s, it was 1990 that proved decisive. In the midst of hardship, Yugoslavia was facing rising nationalism among its various ethnic groups. By the early 1990s, there was no authority at the federal level. The Federal Presidency consisted of the representatives of the six republics, the communist leadership was divided along national lines. The representatives of Vojvodina, Kosovo and Montenegro were replaced with loyalists of the President of Serbia, Serbia secured four out of eight federal presidency votes and was able to heavily influence decision-making at the federal level, since all the other Yugoslav republics only had one vote. While Slovenia and Croatia wanted to allow a multi-party system, Serbia, led by Milošević, demanded a more centralized federation. This prompted the Croatian and Slovene delegations to walk out and thus the break-up of the party, the first of these conflicts, known as the Ten-Day War, was initiated by the JNA on 26 June 1991 after the secession of Slovenia from the federation on 25 June 1991
7.
Serbo-Croatian language
–
It is a pluricentric language with four mutually intelligible standard varieties. South Slavic dialects historically formed a continuum, the turbulent history of the area, particularly due to expansion of the Ottoman Empire, resulted in a patchwork of dialectal and religious differences. Due to population migrations, Shtokavian became the most widespread in the western Balkans, Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs differ in religion and were historically often part of different cultural circles, although a large part of the nations have lived side by side under foreign overlords. Serbo-Croatian was standardized in the mid-19th-century Vienna Literary Agreement by Croatian and Serbian writers and philologists, from the very beginning, there were slightly different literary Serbian and Croatian standards, although both were based on the same Shtokavian subdialect, Eastern Herzegovinian. In the 20th century, Serbo-Croatian served as the language of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The breakup of Yugoslavia affected language attitudes, so that social conceptions of the language separated on ethnic, since the breakup of Yugoslavia, Bosnian has likewise been established as an official standard in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and there is an ongoing movement to codify a separate Montenegrin standard. Serbo-Croatian thus generally goes by the ethnic names Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, like other South Slavic languages, Serbo-Croatian has a simple phonology, with the common five-vowel system and twenty-five consonants. Its grammar evolved from Common Slavic, with inflection, preserving seven grammatical cases in nouns, pronouns. Verbs exhibit imperfective or perfective aspect, with a complex tense system. Serbo-Croatian is a language with flexible word order, subject–verb–object being the default. It can be written in Serbian Cyrillic or Gajs Latin alphabet, whose thirty letters mutually map one-to-one, throughout the history of the South Slavs, the vernacular, literary, and written languages of the various regions and ethnicities developed and diverged independently. Prior to the 19th century, they were collectively called Illyric, Slavic, at that time, Serb and Croat lands were still part of the Ottoman and Austrian Empires. Officially, the language was called variously Serbo-Croat, Croato-Serbian, Serbian and Croatian, Croatian and Serbian, Serbian or Croatian, Croatian or Serbian, today, use of the term Serbo-Croatian is controversial due to the prejudice that nation and language must match. Old Church Slavonic was adopted as the language of the liturgy and this language was gradually adapted to non-liturgical purposes and became known as the Croatian version of Old Slavonic. The two variants of the language, liturgical and non-liturgical, continued to be a part of the Glagolitic service as late as the middle of the 19th century, the earliest known Croatian Church Slavonic Glagolitic manuscripts are the Glagolita Clozianus and the Vienna Folia from the 11th century. Serbo-Croatian competed with the established literary languages of Latin and Old Slavonic in the west and Persian. Old Slavonic developed into the Serbo-Croatian variant of Church Slavonic between the 12th and 16th centuries, the Baška tablet from the late 11th century was written in Glagolitic. It is a stone tablet found in the small Church of St. Lucy
8.
Novi Sad
–
Novi Sad is the second largest city of Serbia, the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina and the administrative center of the South Bačka District. According to the 2011 census, the city has a population of 250,439, the population of the administrative area of the city stands at 341,625 people. Novi Sad was founded in 1694, when Serb merchants formed a colony across the Danube from the Petrovaradin fortress, a Habsburg strategic military post. In the 18th and 19th centuries, it became an important trading and manufacturing centre, as well as a centre of Serbian culture of that period, the city was heavily devastated in the 1848 Revolution, but it was subsequently restored. Today, along with the city of Belgrade, Novi Sad is the industrial and financial center of the Serbian economy, also. The name Novi Sad means New Plant in Serbian and its Latin name, stemming from establishment of city rights, is Neoplanta. The official names of Novi Sad used by the administration are. Historically, it was also called Neusatz in German, in its wider meaning, the name Grad Novi Sad refers to the City of Novi Sad, which is one of the city-level administrative units of Serbia. Novi Sad could also refer strictly to the part of the City of Novi Sad, as well as only to the historical core on the left Danube bank. Human dwelling on the territory of present-day Novi Sad has been traced as far back as the Stone Age, several settlements and necropoleis were unearthed during the construction of a new boulevard in Avijaticarsko Naselje, and were dated to 5000 BC. A settlement was located on the bank of the river Danube in the territory of present-day Petrovaradin. In antiquity, the region was inhabited by Illyrian, Thracian and Celtic tribes, celts were present in the area since the 4th century BC and founded the first fortress on the right bank of the Danube. Later, in the 1st century BC, the region was conquered by the Romans, during Roman rule, a larger fortress was built in the 1st century with the name Cusum and was included in the Roman province of Pannonia. In the 5th century, Cusum was devastated by the invasion of the Huns, by the end of the 5th century, Byzantines had reconstructed the town and called it by the names Petrikon or Petrikov after St. Peter. Slavic tribes such as the Severians, Obotrites and Serbs, with its subgroup tribes Braničevci and Timočani, the Serbs absorbed the aforementioned Slavs as well as the Paleo-Balkanic peoples in the region. In the Middle Ages, the area was controlled by the Ostrogoths, Gepids, Avars, Franks, Great Moravia, Bulgaria, again by Byzantines. It was included into the medieval Kingdom of Hungary between the 11th and 12th centuries, in the same year, several other settlements were mentioned to exist in the territory of modern urban area of Novi Sad. Some other settlements existed in the area of Novi Sad, Mortályos, Csenei, Keménd
9.
Soviet Air Forces
–
The Soviet Air Forces was the official designation of one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces, the Air Forces were formed from components of the Imperial Russian Air Service in 1917, and faced their greatest test during World War II. The groups were involved in the Korean War, and dissolved along with the Soviet Union itself in 1991–92. Former Soviet Air Forces assets were divided into several air forces of former Soviet republics. March of the Pilots was its anthem, the All-Russia Collegium for Direction of the Air Forces of the Old Army was formed on 20 December 1917. This was a Bolshevik aerial headquarters initially led by Konstantin Akashev and it became the Directorate of the USSR Air Forces on 28 March 1924, and then the Directorate of the Workers-Peasants Red Army Air Forces on 1 January 1925. Gradually its influence on aircraft design became greater, from its earliest days, the force mimicked ground forces organization especially in the 1930s, by which time it was made up of air armies, aviation corps, aviation divisions, and aviation regiments. At first, the I-16 proved superior to any Luftwaffe fighters, however, the Soviets refused to supply the plane in adequate numbers, and their aerial victories were soon squandered because of their limited use. Later, Bf-109s delivered to Francos Spanish Nationalist air forces secured air superiority for the Nationalists, on 19 November 1939, VVS headquarters was again titled the Main Directorate of the Red Army Air Forces under the WPRA HQ. Between 1933 and 1938, the Soviet government planned and funded missions to break numerous world aviation records, not only did aviation records and achievements become demonstrations of the USSRs technological progress, they also served as legitimization of the socialist system. With each new success, Soviet press trumpeted victories for socialism, furthermore, Soviet media idolized record-breaking pilots, exalting them not only as role models for Soviet society, but also as symbols of progress towards the socialist-utopian future. The early 1930s saw a shift in focus away from collectivist propaganda. In the case of aviation, the government began glorifying people who utilized aviation technology instead of glorifying the technology itself. Pilots such as Valery Chkalov, Georgy Baydukov, Alexander Belyakov, in May 1937, Stalin charged pilots Chkalov, Baydukov, and Belyakov with the mission to navigate the first transpolar flight in history. On 20 June 1937, the aviators landed their ANT-25 in Vancouver, a month later, Stalin ordered the departure of a second crew to push the boundaries of modern aviation technology even further. The public reaction to the flights was euphoric. The media called the pilots Bolshevik knights of culture and progress, Soviet citizens celebrated Aviation Day on 18 August with as much zeal as they celebrated the October Revolution anniversary. Literature including poems, short stories, and novels emerged celebrating the feats of the aviator-celebrities, feature films like Victory, Tales of Heroic Aviators, and Valery Chkalov reinforced the positive hero imagery, celebrating the aviators individuality within the context of a socialist government
