Yugoslavism

The blue-white-red flag is a symbol of Yugoslavia and the Pan-Slavic movement, adopted at the congress in Prague in 1848 .

The flag of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which became a popular symbol among the Yugoslavists after its collapse.

Monument to the Unknown Soldier at Mount Avala, near Belgrade. It is dedicated to the Yugoslavs who fell during the Balkan Wars and the First World War.

Yugoslavism is a pan - national , pan-Slavic , irredentist concept, a continuation of the idea of Illyrism which affects not one of the South Slavic peoples, but all at the same time. Some supporters of this idea in the Balkans even consider themselves to be one united people - the Yugoslavs . Yugoslavists historically advocated the unification of all the territories inhabited by the South Slavic peoples who now live in the following states: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia and Macedonia.

Yugoslavism was a powerful political force during the First World War , which began with the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand Gavrila by the Principle and continued with the invasion of Austria-Hungary by Serbia, which sought to rally the South Slavic peoples against Austro-Hungarian domination and imperialism, setting one of its foreign policy tasks to create independent Yugoslavia, which was created in 1918.

Attempts have been made to include Bulgaria in Yugoslavia. The Bulgarian coup d'etat of 1934 brought to power a force that declared its intention to immediately conclude an alliance with France and look for the possibility of Bulgaria joining a single Yugoslavia, but this goal was not achieved.

Yugoslavists claim that confessional differences and contradictions between the Yugoslav peoples are the result of foreign imperialism, which has repeatedly occurred in the history of the Balkans. To avoid unnecessary disputes and curses, Yugoslavists usually avoid any religious connotation.

Yugoslavism has always had two main internal structural units, which usually caused a split in the movement. One of the factions strives for a centralized state and the assimilation of all nationalities into a single Yugoslav nationality. Another faction is a supporter of a decentralized and multicultural federation, which would preserve the existing differences of peoples, but would promote their unity, at the same time this faction opposes the idea of ​​centralization and assimilation. One of the fears is the establishment of Serbian hegemony, which would lead not so much to unity as to absorption by the Serbs of other peoples.