The collapse of Yugoslavia briefly causes the progress of the results table. Former Yugoslavia: General Impressions - Notes of a Russian Traveler

Like all countries of the socialist camp, Yugoslavia in the late 80s was shaken by internal contradictions caused by the rethinking of socialism. In 1990, for the first time in the post-war period, free parliamentary elections were held in the republics of the SFRY on a multi-party basis. In Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, the communists were defeated. They won only in Serbia and Montenegro. But the victory of the anti-communist forces not only did not mitigate the inter-republican contradictions, but also painted them in national-separatist tones. As in the situation with the collapse of the USSR, the Yugoslavs were taken by surprise by the suddenness of the uncontrolled collapse of the federal state. If the role of the "national" catalyst in the USSR was played by the Baltic countries, then in Yugoslavia this role was taken by Slovenia and Croatia. The failure of the GKChP speech and the victory of democracy led to the bloodless formation of their state structures by the former republics during the collapse of the USSR.

The disintegration of Yugoslavia, unlike the USSR, took place according to the most sinister scenario. The democratic forces that were emerging here (primarily Serbia) failed to avert the tragedy, which led to grave consequences. As in the USSR, national minorities, feeling a decrease in pressure from the Yugoslav authorities (increasingly making various kinds of concessions), immediately asked for independence and, having been refused by Belgrade, took up arms, further events and led to the complete collapse of Yugoslavia.

I. Tito, a Croat by nationality, creating a federation of Yugoslav peoples, sought to protect it from Serbian nationalism. Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had long been the subject of disputes between Serbs and Croats, received a compromise state status, first of two, and then of three peoples - Serbs, Croats and ethnic Muslims. As part of the federal structure of Yugoslavia, the Macedonians and Montenegrins received their own nation-states. The 1974 Constitution provided for the creation of two autonomous provinces on the territory of Serbia - Kosovo and Vojvodina. Thanks to this, the issue of the status of national minorities (Albanians in Kosovo, Hungarians and over 20 ethnic groups in Vojvodina) on the territory of Serbia was settled. Although the Serbs living on the territory of Croatia did not receive autonomy, but according to the Constitution they had the status of a state-forming nation in Croatia. Tito was afraid that the state system he had created would collapse after his death, and he was not mistaken. Serb S. Milosevic, thanks to his destructive policy, the trump card of which was the game on the national feelings of the Serbs, destroyed the state created by "old Tito".

Let's not forget that the first challenge to Yugoslavia's political balance came from the Albanians in the autonomous province of Kosovo in southern Serbia. The population of the region by that time was almost 90% Albanians and 10% Serbs, Montenegrins and others. In April 1981, the majority of Albanians took part in demonstrations, rallies, demanding the status of a republic for the province. In response, Belgrade sent troops to Kosovo, declaring a state of emergency there. The situation was aggravated by the Belgrade “recolonization plan”, which guaranteed the Serbs moving to the region, work and housing. Belgrade sought to artificially increase the number of Serbs in the region in order to annul the autonomous formation. In response, the Albanians began to leave the Communist Party and perpetrate repressions against the Serbs and Montenegrins. By the autumn of 1989, demonstrations and riots in Kosovo were ruthlessly suppressed by the Serbian military authorities. By the spring of 1990, the Serbian National Assembly announced the dissolution of the government and the people's assembly of Kosovo and introduced censorship. The Kosovo issue had a distinct geopolitical dimension to Serbia, which was concerned about Tirana's plans to create a "Greater Albania", which meant the inclusion of ethnic Albanian territories such as Kosovo and parts of Macedonia and Montenegro. Serbia's actions in Kosovo gave it a very bad reputation in the eyes of the world community, but it is ironic that the same community said nothing when a similar incident took place in Croatia in August 1990. The Serbian minority in the town of Knin in the Serbian Krajina decided to hold a referendum on the question of cultural autonomy. As in Kosovo, this turned into riots, quelled by the Croatian leadership, which rejected the referendum as unconstitutional.

Thus, in Yugoslavia, by the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, all the prerequisites were created for the entry of national minorities into the struggle for their independence. Neither the Yugoslav leadership nor the world community could prevent this except by force of arms. Therefore, it is not surprising that events in Yugoslavia unfolded with such swiftness.

Slovenia was the first to take the official step of breaking off relations with Belgrade and defining its independence. The tension between the "Serbian" and "Slavic-Croatian" blocs in the ranks of the Union of Communists of Yugoslavia reached its climax in February 1990 at the XIV Congress, when the Slovenian delegation left the meeting. At that time, there were three plans for the state reorganization of the country: confederal reorganization, put forward by the Presidiums of Slovenia and Croatia; federal reorganization - of the Union Presidium; "Platform for the Future of the Yugoslav State" - Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. But the meetings of the republican leaders showed that the main goal of the multi-party elections and the referendum was not the democratic transformation of the Yugoslav community, but the legitimization of the programs for the future reorganization of the country put forward by the leaders of the republics.

Slovenian public opinion since 1990 began to look for a solution in the withdrawal of Slovenia from Yugoslavia. On July 2, 1990, the Parliament, elected on a multi-party basis, adopted the Declaration on the Sovereignty of the Republic, and on June 25, 1991, Slovenia declared its independence. Serbia already in 1991 agreed with the withdrawal of Slovenia from Yugoslavia. However, Slovenia sought to become the legal successor of a single state as a result of "disengagement", and not secession from Yugoslavia.

In the second half of 1991, this republic took decisive steps towards achieving independence, thus determining to a large extent the pace of development of the Yugoslav crisis and the nature of the behavior of other republics. First of all, Croatia, which feared that with the withdrawal of Slovenia from Yugoslavia, the balance of power in the country would be upset to its detriment. The unsuccessful end of the inter-republican negotiations, the growing mutual distrust between national leaders, as well as between the Yugoslav peoples, the arming of the population on a national basis, the creation of the first paramilitary formations - all this contributed to the creation of an explosive situation that led to armed conflicts.

The climax of the political crisis came in May - June as a result of the declaration of independence of Slovenia and Croatia on June 25, 1991. Slovenia accompanied this act with the capture of border checkpoints, where the insignia of the state distinction of the republic were installed. The government of the SFRY, headed by A. Markovic, recognized this as illegal and the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) guarded the external borders of Slovenia. As a result, from June 27 to July 2, battles took place here with well-organized detachments of the republican territorial defense of Slovenia. The six-day war in Slovenia was short and inglorious for the JNA. The army did not achieve any of its goals, losing forty soldiers and officers. Not much compared to the future thousands of victims, but proof that no one will give up their independence just like that, even if it has not yet been recognized.

In Croatia, the war took on the character of a clash between the Serb population, who wanted to remain part of Yugoslavia, on the side of which the JNA soldiers were, and the Croatian armed units, who sought to prevent the separation of part of the territory of the republic.

In the elections to the Croatian Parliament in 1990, the Croatian Democratic Community won. In August - September 1990, armed clashes between local Serbs and the Croatian police and guards began here in Klinskaya Krajina. In December of the same year, the Council of Croatia adopted a new Constitution, declaring the republic "unitary and indivisible".

The allied leadership could not accept this, since Belgrade had its own plans for the future of the Serbian enclaves in Croatia, in which a large community of Serbian expatriates lived. The local Serbs responded to the new Constitution by creating the Serbian Autonomous Region in February 1991.

On June 25, 1991 Croatia declared its independence. As in the case of Slovenia, the government of the SFRY declared this decision illegal, declaring claims to part of Croatia, namely the Serbian Krajina. On this basis, fierce armed clashes took place between Serbs and Croats with the participation of JNA units. In the Croatian war, there were no longer minor skirmishes, as in Slovenia, but real battles using different kind weapons. And the losses in these battles on both sides were enormous: about 10 thousand killed, including several thousand civilians, more than 700 thousand refugees moved to neighboring countries.

At the end of 1991, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution on sending peacekeeping forces to Yugoslavia, and the EU Council of Ministers imposed sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro. In February-March 1992, on the basis of a resolution, a contingent of UN peacekeeping forces arrived in Croatia. It also included a Russian battalion. With the help of international forces, hostilities were somehow contained, but the excessive cruelty of the warring parties, especially towards the civilian population, pushed them to mutual revenge, which led to new clashes.

On the initiative of Russia, on May 4, 1995, at an urgently convened meeting of the UN Security Council, the invasion of Croatian troops into the zone of separation was condemned. At the same time, the Security Council condemned the Serbian shelling of Zagreb and other civilian concentration centers. In August 1995, after the punitive operations of the Croatian troops, about 500 thousand Krajina Serbs were forced to flee their lands, and the exact number of victims of this operation is still unknown. So Zagreb solved the problem of a national minority on its territory, while the West turned a blind eye to the actions of Croatia, limiting itself to calls for an end to the bloodshed.

The center of the Serbian-Croatian conflict was moved to the territory disputed from the very beginning - to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Here, the Serbs and Croats began to demand the division of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina or its reorganization on a confederate basis by creating ethnic cantons. The Party of Democratic Action of Muslims headed by A. Izetbegovic, which advocated a unitary civil republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, did not agree with this demand. In turn, this aroused the suspicion of the Serbian side, who believed that it was about creating an "Islamic fundamentalist republic", 40% of whose population were Muslims.

All attempts at a peaceful settlement for various reasons did not lead to the proper result. In October 1991, the Muslim and Croatian deputies of the Assembly adopted a memorandum on the sovereignty of the republic. The Serbs, on the other hand, found it unacceptable for them to remain with minority status outside of Yugoslavia, in a state dominated by the Muslim-Croatian coalition.

In January 1992, the republic appealed to the European Community to recognize its independence, the Serb deputies left the parliament, boycotted it further work and refused to participate in a referendum in which the majority of the population voted for the creation of a sovereign state. In response, the local Serbs created their Assembly, and when the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina was recognized by the EU countries, the USA, Russia, the Serbian community announced the creation of the Serbian Republic in Bosnia. The confrontation escalated into an armed conflict, with the participation of various armed formations, ranging from small armed groups to the JNA. Bosnia and Herzegovina on its territory had a huge amount of equipment, weapons and ammunition that were stored there or were left by the JNA that left the republic. All this became an excellent fuel for the outbreak of armed conflict.

In her article, former British Prime Minister M. Thatcher wrote: “Terrible things are happening in Bosnia, and it looks like it will be even worse. Sarajevo is under constant shelling. Gorazde is besieged and is about to be occupied by the Serbs. Massacres are likely to begin there... Such is the Serbian policy of "ethnic cleansing", that is, the expulsion of the non-Serb population from Bosnia...

From the very beginning, the ostensibly independent Serb military formations in Bosnia operate in close contact with the Serbian Army High Command in Belgrade, which actually supports them and supplies them with everything necessary for the war. The West should present an ultimatum to the Serbian government, demanding, in particular, to stop economic support for Bosnia, sign an agreement on the demilitarization of Bosnia, facilitate the unimpeded return of refugees to Bosnia, etc.”

An international conference held in London in August 1992 led to the fact that the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, R. Karadzic, promised to withdraw troops from the occupied territory, transfer heavy weapons to UN control, and close camps that held Muslims and Croats. S. Milosevic agreed to allow international observers into the JNA units stationed in Bosnia, pledged to recognize the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina and respect its borders. The parties fulfilled their promises, although the peacekeepers have more than once had to call on the warring parties to end the clashes and ceasefire.

Obviously, the international community should have demanded from Slovenia, Croatia and then Bosnia and Herzegovina to give certain guarantees to the national minorities living on their territory. In December 1991, when the war was going on in Croatia, the EU adopted criteria for the recognition of new states in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, in particular, “guaranteeing the rights of ethnic and national groups and minorities in accordance with the commitments made within the framework of the CSCE; respect for the inviolability of all frontiers, which cannot be altered except by peaceful means by common consent.” This criterion was not very strictly enforced when it came to Serb minorities.

Interestingly, the West and Russia at this stage could have prevented violence in Yugoslavia by formulating clear principles for self-determination and putting forward preconditions for the recognition of new states. A legal framework would be of great importance, since it has a decisive influence on such serious issues as territorial integrity, self-determination, the right to self-determination, the rights of national minorities. Russia, of course, should have been interested in developing such principles, since it faced and still faces similar problems in the former USSR.

But it is especially striking that after the bloodshed in Croatia, the EU, followed by the US and Russia, repeated the same mistake in Bosnia, recognizing its independence without any preconditions and without regard for the position of the Bosnian Serbs. The rash recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina made war there inevitable. Although the West forced the Bosnian Croats and Muslims to coexist in one state and, together with Russia, tried to put pressure on the Bosnian Serbs, the structure of this federation is still artificial, and many do not believe that it will last long.

Makes you think and prejudice The EU specifically to the Serbs as the main culprits of the conflict. At the end of 1992 - beginning of 1993. Russia has raised several times in the UN Security Council the issue of the need to influence Croatia. The Croats initiated several armed clashes in the Serbian Krajina, disrupting a meeting on the Krajina problem organized by representatives of the UN, they tried to blow up a hydroelectric power plant in Serbian territory - the UN and other organizations did nothing to stop them.

The same tolerance characterized the attitude of the international community towards the Bosnian Muslims. In April 1994, the Bosnian Serbs were subjected to air strikes by NATO for their attacks on Gorazde, which were interpreted as a threat to the safety of UN personnel, although some of these attacks were instigated by Muslims. Encouraged by international condescension, Bosnian Muslims have resorted to the same tactics in Brcko, Tuzla and other Muslim enclaves under the protection of UN forces. They tried to provoke the Serbs by attacking their positions, because they knew that the Serbs would again be subjected to NATO air raids if they tried to retaliate.

By the end of 1995, the Russian Foreign Ministry was in an extremely difficult position. The state's policy of rapprochement with the West led to the fact that Russia supported practically all the initiatives of Western countries to resolve conflicts. The dependence of Russian policy on regular foreign exchange loans led to the rapid advancement of NATO in the role of the leading organization. And yet, Russia's attempts to resolve the conflicts were not in vain, forcing the opposing sides to the negotiating table from time to time. Carrying out political activity within the boundaries permitted by its Western partners, Russia has ceased to be a factor determining the course of events in the Balkans. Russia once voted for the establishment of peace by military means in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the use of NATO forces. Having a military training ground in the Balkans, NATO no longer represented any other way to solve any new problem, except for the armed one. This played a decisive role in resolving the Kosovo problem, the most dramatic of the Balkan conflicts.

The upheavals in the Soviet Union occurred in parallel with the most acute crisis of statehood in Yugoslavia, which, like the USSR, began to collapse. The “special path” of I.B. Tito did not rid this country of the weaknesses that were characteristic of “real socialism”. The system of government of the country gradually led to the economic and political autarchy of the republics and territories, and increased the unevenness of their development. Only the authority of the personal power of I.B. Tito and tough organizational structure communist party.

But by the beginning of the 70s, a new generation of leaders had formed in the republics and territories, who did not share the revolutionary internationalist views of I.B. Tito and were influenced by nationalist sentiments. First of all, this applied to the leaders of Croatia, whose history of joining the united Yugoslavia was extremely controversial (see vol. 1 present, ed.). The center of ethnic tension was also the autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija (since 1974 - Kosovo) as part of the Socialist Republic of Serbia, the majority of whose population after the end of World War II began to be Albanians who migrated there from Albania during the Nazi occupation. In an attempt to prevent separatism, the federal authorities made concessions to the Kosovo Albanians, as a result of which the local Serb and Montenegrin population was subjected to covert discrimination by the local Albanian authorities and gradually left Kosovo. Demographic ratios changed even more in favor of the Albanians.

After the death of IB Tito in May 1980, presidential power passed to the institution of collective leadership - the federal presidium. Subject to the principle of annual rotation, a representative of one of the republics and territories was chosen as its chairman. The economic situation in the country was difficult. After the collapse of the USSR (♦), there was a devaluation of the “special” role played by Yugoslavia in the geopolitical calculations of East and West. Reduced aid from external sources. Economic difficulties, the growth of foreign debt exacerbated the contradictions between parts of the federation.

An attempt to bring the country's economy out of the abyss was made in 1989, according to the canons of "shock therapy" dictated by the IMF, by the government headed by the Croatian Ante Markovic. He managed to bring down inflation at the cost of rising unemployment, bankruptcies and poverty. But as soon as the reform touched the sphere of privatization, its implementation ran into resistance from various political groups. First of all, the reform was dissatisfied with the economic and managerial elites of individual republics, who sought to seize the most profitable privatization objects. It was easier to do this by allying with the republican authorities against the federal ones, which is what business representatives in most of the republics of Yugoslavia focused on. This stimulated separatism. The reforms of A. Markovich, which required the unification of the economic systems that existed in the republics, provoked additional interethnic tension.

It was exacerbated by religious and historical factors - the majority of the population of Slovenia and Croatia were Catholics, Serbs, Montenegrins and Macedonians were Orthodox, in Bosnia and Herzegovina there was a significant number of Muslim Slavs who were considered a separate ethnic group on the basis of religious affiliation. The Albanians who inhabited the autonomous province of Kosovo were also Muslims.

On September 27, 1989, the parliament of the Yugoslav Republic of Slovenia adopted amendments to its constitution, proclaiming the right of the republic to secede from the SFRY. This was the first step towards the destruction of a united Yugoslavia.

In the same 1989, the Albanian majority of Kosovo came out with demands to raise the status of this region, declaring it a republic. The Serbian population of the region was frightened by these sentiments. Anti-Albanian sentiments began to grow throughout Serbia. In their wake, on January 9, 1990, at the first multi-party elections in Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, the head of the Serbian organization of communists, became president, who transformed their party into a socialist one. S. Milosevic spoke under the slogans of maintaining the territorial unity of Yugoslavia and the need to fight separatism. On September 28, 1990, the Serbian Republican Parliament decided to liquidate the autonomy of Kosovo, and troops were sent to the region.

Nationalist movements under militantly patriotic slogans won in the same 1990 elections in Croatia and Slovenia. At the same time, the outcome of the elections in Croatia big influence provided financial assistance from abroad to the nationalist-minded candidate, retired general (and fellow (♦) nickname I.B. Tito) Franjo Tudjman, Ustaše emigrants who left Yugoslavia after World War II. The idea of ​​the Ustaše to restore the independence of Croatia met the understanding of F. Tuđman.

On December 23, 1990, a referendum was held in Slovenia, the participants of which spoke in favor of the independence of Slovenia. Immediately after that, a similar referendum was held in Croatia, which also decided to withdraw from Yugoslavia. In December 1990, a new constitution was adopted in Croatia, declaring it "the state of the Croatian people." Meanwhile, 30% of the population of Croatia within the administrative boundaries that it had as part of the SFRY were Serbs.

Croatian Serbs lived compactly. This was due to the fact that after the Second World War, when the administrative borders of the Yugoslav republics were being formed, lands with a predominance of the Serbian population were included in the Socialist Republic of Croatia at the insistence of I.B. Tito (who was a Croat by nationality). At the same time, the entire Muslim-populated Bosnian Adriatic coast was transferred to Croatia - which soon caused a conflict between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Fearing discrimination after the adoption of the new constitution, the Serb population of Croatia proclaimed the creation of its own state entity in the predominantly Serb territories - the Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK). It proclaimed its independence, including in its composition all historical regions and territories predominantly Serbian in terms of population - Eastern and Western Slavonia, Baranya, Western Srem and Kninska Krajina. The Republic of Serbian Krajina began to seek unification with Serbia. Assistance to the RSK actually began to be provided by the units of the Yugoslav People's Army that were on the territory of Croatia.

In April 1991, the parliament of the self-proclaimed RSK turned to Serbia with a request to accept it into its membership, but the Serbian parliament rejected this request. Serbian President S. Milosevic, of course, sympathized with the Croatian Serbs. But he was afraid to openly speak out for the unification of the Serbian Krajina with Serbia, insisting on the inviolability of all existing borders of Yugoslavia. His plan was to keep Croatia within a unified Yugoslavia, while retaining the Serbian territories that were part of Croatia.

Thanks to this prudent position, S. Milosevic managed at that moment to maintain constructive relations with the United States and other Western countries, although the latter demanded that he agree to make concessions to ethnic minorities, including the Albanian population of Kosovo.

A political crisis developed in Yugoslavia. The activities of the institute of collective leadership of Yugoslavia were paralyzed. In March 1991, a series of meetings of the leaders of the Yugoslav republics took place in order to determine the future path of development of the federation. (♦) It was not possible to develop a common vision. In May 1991, when the time came to elect the Croatian candidate Stefan Mesim to the presidium of Yugoslavia, the delegates of Serbia and Montenegro blocked the procedure. This was a violation of law and tradition, the legitimacy of the unified supreme federal power in the country was called into question. The federal presidium actually ceased to function. Since that time, the federal government in Belgrade has already expressed the interests primarily of Serbia, and the representatives of Croatia and Slovenia have ceased to participate in it.

In this environment, on May 9, 1991, the government in Belgrade decided to grant special powers to the Yugoslav People's Army to conduct operations in Croatia - formally in order to prevent the seizure of army and federal property by the Croatian authorities. This only made the situation worse. June 26, 1991 Slovenia and Croatia announced their withdrawal from the SFRY.

The federal authorities in Belgrade did not recognize these acts. The conflict between the federal and republican authorities resulted in bloody clashes involving parts of the regular army. Armed clashes between detachments of the Croatian right and formations of the Serbs of the Republic of Serbian Krajina began. A civil war broke out in Yugoslavia.

It had little effect on Slovenia, which is relatively ethnically homogeneous and separated from Serbia by the territory of Croatia. Federal troops were withdrawn from Slovenia two weeks after their entry as a result of a compromise between the Slovenian government and the federal authorities in Belgrade, mediated by the European Community, which convinced first Slovenia and then Croatia to declare a "moratorium on independence" for a period of three months.

Macedonia, which declared itself independent on September 18, 1991, also broke away from the united Yugoslavia with amazing bloodlessness.

But inside Croatia, the war began to proceed in extremely cruel forms - primarily because of the stubborn resistance to the new Croatian authorities by the Serbs in Serbian Krajina. At first, the war was characterized by the victories of the Serbian side, which, with the support of the regular Yugoslav army, captured a third of the territory of Croatia. Croatian forces had to withdraw from all territories inhabited by Serbs. In October 1991, under pressure from the international community, federal forces withdrew from Croatia, leaving control over Serbian territories to the authorities of the unrecognized RSK. The conflict remained unresolved, and separatist tendencies continued to develop.

In November 1991, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina proclaimed its independence from the united Yugoslavia. The Macedonian authorities decided to hold a referendum in March 1992 to (♦) determine whether the declaration of independence adopted by the Macedonian Parliament would come into force.

The international community tried to promote the cessation of hostilities in Yugoslavia. In 1991, the UN imposed an arms embargo on any region of Yugoslavia (Security Council resolution No. 713 of September 25, 1991) and began to provide humanitarian assistance to the population of the affected regions. To protect UN humanitarian convoys, small contingents of UN forces were introduced into the territory of Yugoslavia (resolution No. 724 of December 25, 1991).

The USSR was the second world pole that determined the course of international relations after the end of World War II, so the dissolution Soviet Union marked the end of a long period of bipolar development of the world. The Russian Federation, which became the successor state and successor of the USSR, could not perform the functions inherent in the Soviet Union as one of the pillars of bipolarity, because it did not have the necessary resources for this.

The disappearance of the USSR as one of the two defining elements of the system of international relations in the period 1945-1991. can be considered the final event of the post-war era. The bipolar structure of international relations collapsed. The Yalta-Potsdam order ceased to exist. It didn't cause global cataclysm. The stability of the international system as a whole has been preserved.

Tendencies towards unification and rapprochement of the former socialist and capitalist countries began to develop in international relations, and the international system as a whole began to develop the features of a “global society”. This process was fraught with new acute problems and contradictions.

Sources and literature

Gorbachev M.S. Reflections on the past and the future. M.: Terra, 1998.

Bush G., Scowcroft B. A World Transformed. N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.

Shultz S.R. Turmoil and Triumph. My Years as Secretary of State. N.Y.: Charles Scribners Sons, 1993.

Gorbachev-Yeltsin: 1500 days of political confrontation. M., 1992.

Sogrin V. Political history of modern Russia. 1985-1994. From Gorbachev to Yeltsin. M., 1994.

Garthoff R.L. The Great Transition. American-Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold War. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1994.

Gates R.M. Through the Shadows. The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War. N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, 1996.

SECTION IV. GLOBALIZATION

The self-destruction of the Soviet Union completely changed the nature of international interaction. The watershed between the two opposing blocs disappeared. The subsystem of international relations, the basis of which was the "socialist camp", ceased to exist. The peculiarity of this grandiose transformation was its predominantly peaceful character. The collapse of the USSR was accompanied by conflicts, but none of them resulted in major war capable of threatening the common peace in Europe or Asia. Global stability has been preserved, although the national security interests of many countries (USSR, SFRY, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Tajikistan, etc.) have suffered crushing or very significant damage. Universal peace and overcoming the half-century split of the international system were secured at the price of the destruction of multinational states.

The tragedies of state collapse turned into an encouraging trend towards the restoration of the political unity of the world. In the early 1990s, this trend was perceived in the former socialist countries through the prism of naive expectations of a better life, the liberation of the individual and the growth of well-being. The bitterness of the loss of statehood was coupled with hopes of gaining freedom through democratization. Public conscience in many parts of the former "socialist world" sought to turn its attention from thinking about losses to looking for new opportunities that an end to confrontation would give countries and people. The democratization of a large group of former socialist countries became the most important feature of international relations for almost a decade.

But their other characteristic was the fall in the manageability of the international system, which resulted in a crisis of world-system regulation in the first half of the 1990s. The old mechanisms of international governance relied on "confrontation by rules" between the USSR and the USA and the observance by their allies of "bloc discipline" - rules of conduct based on the principle of "equalizing with the elder" within the framework of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The cessation of confrontation and the disintegration of the WTO undermined the effectiveness of such a system.

The UN-based regulation, which had previously been ineffective, in the new conditions coped with the tasks of ensuring peace even less successfully. The UN, as it took shape, was geared primarily to prevent war between the great powers, the Soviet Union (♦) and the United States. This was its, so to speak, prohibitive "mandate", with which the UN in the second half of the 20th century. did an excellent job.

But the constructive “mandate” of the UN, in fact, was not implemented in practice. Its rare efforts to engage in peacemaking either ended in failure or were of secondary importance in relation to the results that the great powers could achieve through direct dialogue with each other. It was necessary to re-formulate the tasks facing the UN, making it, if possible, not a formal, but a real basis for international regulation. This required a reform of the UN. Then one could count on the harmonization of international relations and their ordering, taking into account the interests of all countries of the world.

But strong powers, for various reasons, were distrustful of the UN. The United States felt like the winning side after the end of the confrontation. Strengthening the UN could limit the freedom of action of the United States in the international arena and therefore was not beneficial to them. The United States was wary of UN reform. The Russian Federation, which became the legal successor and successor of the USSR, was also afraid of the UN reform. Russia did not have the potential of the USSR. The privileged status in the UN Security Council that she inherited from him made it possible to compensate for the weaknesses of the position in which she found herself after the destruction of the Soviet Union. UN reform, which, according to most of the proposed projects, was supposed to expand the permanent membership of the Security Council and limit the practice of using the veto right, could further devalue Moscow's "voice" in international affairs.

There was an unspoken consensus between Russia and the United States on the issue of slowing down the reform of the UN. International regulation after 1991 "spontaneously" continued to be carried out on the basis of existing mechanisms. Since they were built and balanced among themselves in such a way as not to prevent the two superpowers from using the advantages of their national potentials, in the new conditions a more significant role in international governance was automatically guaranteed to the stronger side. This was the organizational prerequisite for strengthening the US role in international politics.

Chapter 12. DECAY OF A BIPOLAR STRUCTURE

The city was divided into three parts: the Muslims dug in in the center, under the mosques, the Croats - on the outskirts, closer to their church, the Serbs broke through from the river. Dead bodies lay everywhere. It was impossible to pass without stepping on someone's hand or foot; blood flooded the entire pavement in a stream. Women, children, old people were killed in a row simply because some were baptized, while others were praying to Allah. Not a single whole building remained - they either burned or collapsed. The old bridge was blown up, it fell into the water.

"We bathed in blood"

Taxi driver Aziz leads me through Mostar - a city in Bosnia, on its streets in 1992-1995. former citizens of the former Yugoslavia fought for every quarter. Some of the houses have been restored (the “Gift of the European Union” signs have been screwed on), but those that are away from the tourist trails still bear traces of bullets and shrapnel on the walls. The bridge was also restored, and now it is like new. Aziz points to the window where he shot at his Croat neighbor.

But I didn't get in. He is more skilled, and he has a good machine gun. He wounded me in the shoulder.

Why did you even shoot him? Were the relationships bad?

Why? Great guy, drank vodka together. It's just, you know, we used to be Yugoslavs, and then somehow abruptly began to divide the country. And yesterday's neighbor is an enemy. Believe me, I myself do not understand why we suddenly grabbed knives to cut each other.

... Now Aziz drinks vodka again in the evenings - with the same neighbor who once successfully put a bullet into him. Both try not to remember the past. It should be noted that people in the former Yugoslavia generally do not like to talk about the war. Not a single person could clearly explain to me the reason why he went to kill neighbors, friends, acquaintances that always lived next to him side by side. Muslims against Serbs and Croats. Croats against Serbs and Muslims. Serbs against everyone. “We bathed in blood and couldn’t stop,” a Croat tells me. Stanko Milanovic. “It was a mass madness - we were devouring human flesh like zombies.” During the fighting in ex-Yugoslavia, 250 thousand people (out of a population of 20 million) died, 4 million fled abroad. The ex-capital of Belgrade (along with dozens of other cities) was bombed by NATO aircraft, and Yugoslavia broke up into ten states: six "official" and four unrecognized. A handful of weak dwarf countries is all that remains of a powerful power that fought against Hitler, not afraid to quarrel with Stalin and possessing a 600,000th army. Its greatness has turned to dust: some republics survive on beach tourism, others are begging and asking for money from the West, and NATO troops are comfortably located on the territory of Bosnia, Serbia and Macedonia.

"Russian? Get out from here!"

We all ran somewhere, - recalls Maria Kralic, the hostess of a cafe in the Bosnian city of Trebinje. - I lived in Croatian Dubrovnik, our house was set on fire. My husband and I jumped out the window - he was in shorts, I was in a dressing gown. They wanted to kill us just because we are Serbs. Now we are hiding here and it is clear that we will never return home again.

In Trebinje itself, the old center with Ottoman mosques is empty - the Serbs expelled Muslim residents from the city. Dubrovnik, where Maria escaped from, is now a luxurious seaside resort, hotel prices are higher than in Moscow. On the outskirts, far from tourists, empty Serbian churches lurk - smoked with fire, with broken windows, painted with graffiti. It is worth pointing the camera - well-wishers appear: “Russian? It was you who supported the Serbs. Get out of here while you're still alive!" It's still not bad - in Kosovo Orthodox churches just explode. In the capital of Bosnia, Sarajevo, when in 1995 the city was divided into two parts, Serbian and Muslim, the Serbs went to their “own” side, taking even the coffins of their fathers and grandfathers from the cemeteries so that their bones would not be desecrated by the Gentiles. The war ended, and the neighbors, who suddenly became enemies, reconciled with difficulty, but did not forgive each other for the massacre. Hell, where the flame went out, still remains hell ... even if it's cool there now.

Can you tell me how to get to Bill Clinton Boulevard?

Yes, it's in the very center ... see that idol over there? Monument former lover Monica Lewinsky in Pristina is hard to miss. The Albanian separatists in Kosovo are extremely grateful to the US President for the decision to bomb Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999. Two million Serbs fled to the north of the republic and huddle there in shabby houses. Walking down the street, we are talking with a Montenegrin driver in a whisper: for speaking Serbian in Kosovo they can get killed - just like that, for no reason. The hostess of the hotel in Pec examines my passport with a double-headed eagle (the same one is on the coat of arms of Serbia) and quietly says: “Be you the devil himself, I need guests. Settle in, just don’t say anywhere that you are Russian.”

... Perhaps the only thing that unites the inhabitants of a country torn to shreds now is a passionate love for its founder Marshal Josip Broz Tito. “We will never live as cool as we lived under Tito,” the Albanian sighs Hassan, driving me to the checkpoint of the Serbian border guards. “You never dreamed of such a thing in the Soviet Union,” the Bosnian echoes him. Jasko. “It was a real paradise: shops are bursting with food, you can travel to Germany and France without a visa, there is almost no crime.” “We were respected in Europe, and now they consider us to be poor relatives,” the Croatian spits Stephen. - Tito was great person". According to polls, if the leader of Yugoslavia, who died in 1980, wished to become the head of state now, 65 (!) Percent of the population would vote for him. But the dead are forbidden to run for president - and the country itself is already dead ...

"The scenario for the disintegration of Yugoslavia was also prepared for the USSR, and now it is being planned for Russia."

Much more difficult than in other Eastern European countries, the transformations took place in Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY).

This country after the conflict between I.V. Stalin and Josip Broz Tito was not part of the Soviet system of alliances, maintained close trade and economic relations with the states of the West. Reforms of the 1950s-1960s consisted in the introduction of self-management in production, the development of elements of a market economy. At the same time, a monopoly on power was maintained by one party - Union of Communists of Yugoslavia.

Yugoslavia consisted of six republics: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro. The borders of the republics did not always coincide with the settlement of the main ethnic groups in the country: Croats, Slovenes, Serbs, Montenegrins and Macedonians. A significant part of the population were the so-called Muslims- the descendants of the Slavs who converted to Islam during the time of Turkish domination. In the past, the peoples of Yugoslavia were part of different states and for a long time developed separately from each other. Relations between them were not always successful, often aggravated due to religious differences. The political regime that existed in Yugoslavia, when power belonged to the Communist Party, headed by such a strong-willed leader as I.B. Tito, for the time being, provided the federation with international peace. However, the deep socio-economic crisis that engulfed all socialist countries in the late 1980s contributed to the emergence of ethnic and religious contradictions. Yugoslavia faced the threat of disintegration.

Serbia and Montenegro advocated the preservation of the unity of the republic and its original model of socialism. It didn't suit Croatia and Slovenia who sought to strengthen ties with Western European countries. Expressed dissatisfaction with the federation Bosnia and Herzegovina where the influence of Islam was strong, as well as Macedonia.

The crisis and dissatisfaction with the federation was actively supported by the United States and Western European countries, which did not need a strong and united Yugoslavia.

Interethnic relations have become aggravated in other multinational Eastern European countries. But if separation Czechoslovakia in 1992 into two states - Czech Republic and Slovakia- passed peacefully, the territory of Yugoslavia became the scene of armed conflicts. V 1991 Yugoslavia collapsed, the attempt of the federal authorities to preserve its integrity by force of arms was not successful.

Supporters close relations Serbia and Montenegro created a new federal state - Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia became independent states.

But the crisis did not end there, as the Serb minority remaining in the territory of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina began the struggle for autonomy. This fight turned into armed conflict, which killed about 100 thousand people. In 1992 - 1995 he was at the center of international attention. Then the problem of the position of Muslim Albanians, who made up 90% of the population, came to the fore. Kosovo. The Serbian government's cancellation of the region's autonomy aroused their discontent. The protests turned into an armed struggle, the participants of which were no longer limited to the demand for the restoration of autonomy.

In 1999, the United States and its allies, without the sanction of the UN Security Council, launched military operations against the FRY. This led to an aggravation of relations between the United States and Russia, which condemned NATO aggression against a sovereign state.

The result of the war unleashed by the United States against Serbia was the death of about 2 thousand civilians. From the use of bombs with uranium filling, about 500 thousand people received radiation injuries. 2.5 million people lost necessary conditions for life (housing, drinking water etc.). The economy of the FRY suffered losses of more than 100 billion dollars, which set it back 5-7 years.

In Serbia, after mass demonstrations in support of the democratic opposition candidate for the presidency Vojislav Kostunica the regime fell Slobodan Milosevic. On April 1, 2001, Milosevic was arrested, and on June 28 of the same year, at the initiative of the Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic secretly transferred The Hague International War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia which angered the President Kostunitsy. Milosevic did not recognize the legitimacy of the Hague Tribunal and refused lawyers, saying that he would defend himself.

V February 2002. Milosevic delivered a long defense speech in The Hague, in which he refuted several dozen points of the accusation (and also recorded the inconsistency of this trial with a number of international legal norms - that is, in fact, its illegality from the point of view of international law). In addition, in his speech, Milosevic gave a detailed analysis of the background, origins and course of the NATO war against Yugoslavia. Presented evidence (including photo and video materials) of a number of NATO war crimes: the use of prohibited weapons such as cluster bombs and depleted uranium munitions, the deliberate destruction of non-military targets, numerous civilian attacks.

In his speech, Milosevic also pointed out that the bombings carried out by the alliance did not and could not have military significance: for example, as a result of all missile and bomb attacks on the territory of Kosovo, only 7 tanks of the Serbian army were destroyed. Milosevic specifically noted (citing specific, proven examples) that ethnic Albanians were the victims in a significant part of the rocket and bomb attacks on the civilian population, and by this he tried to prove the thesis that massive NATO attacks against Albanian peasants were not unintentional, but were a deliberate move designed to provoke their mass exodus from Kosovo to neighboring states. The presence of masses of Albanian refugees could, in the eyes of the world community, confirm the accusation of the Serbs in the genocide of the Albanians - the main thesis put forward by the NATO leadership as the basis for the "operation". The same goal, according to Milosevic, was served by the reprisals of Albanian militants over those Albanians who did not want to leave Kosovo (from which, in particular, Milosevic concluded that the actions of the Albanian armed forces, on the one hand, and the leadership of the NATO operation, on the other. ) As one of the proofs of this thesis, Milosevic pointed to leaflets in the Albanian language, which contained calls for the Albanian population to flee Kosovo (these leaflets were scattered from NATO planes).

The text of Milosevic's defense speech - regardless of how one relates to this political figure, gives a broad look at the dramatic events that took place in Serbia and other former Yugoslav republics in the 90s of the twentieth century. The trial in the case of Slobodan Milosevic was not completed, as he died in prison in The Hague from a myocardial infarction March 11, 2006.

June 3, 2011 appeared before the Hague Tribunal, the former chief of staff of the Army of the Republika Srpska (1992-1995), General Ratko Mladic. His capture was the main condition for Serbia's entry into the European Union. Earlier, Mladic himself said about the Hague Tribunal that this court was created only to shift all the blame on the Serbs. He even promised that he himself would come to The Hague immediately after “those generals who fought in Vietnam and bombed Yugoslavia arrive there voluntarily.”

Contradictions between Serbia and Montenegro escalated. According to the results of a referendum held by the Montenegrin authorities in 2006, it became an independent state. Yugoslavia ceased to exist.

In 2008, the Serbian province of Kosovo, occupied by NATO troops, unilaterally declared independence. Contrary to the position of the UN, the United States and a number of its allies recognized the self-proclaimed state of the Kosovo Albanians. Thus, a most dangerous precedent was set, violating the international ban on changing borders in Europe after the Second World War. Separatists in many countries considered themselves entitled to count on international support contrary to the UN Charter.

At the end of the XX century. three states collapsed: the USSR, the SFRY and Czechoslovakia. The peoples of these countries failed to fully enjoy the fruits of the victory over fascism. They became part of a single "socialist community", deeply integrated their economy, and took a worthy place in international affairs. Having acted as pioneers of a grandiose social experiment, they tried to implement the ideals of socialism in state practice. Failing and disappointed in them, they almost simultaneously turned onto another road.

The independent state of the South Slavic peoples was formed in Europe in 1918. Since 1929, it became known as Yugoslavia, in 1945, after the country was liberated from fascist occupation, it was proclaimed the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, and in 1963 it received the name of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). It included the union republics of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro.

In addition, two autonomous regions were identified as part of Serbia - Vojvodina (with a significant Hungarian population) and Kosovo and Metohija (with a predominance of the Albanian population).

Despite the kinship of all the South Slavic peoples, significant religious and ethnolinguistic differences remained between them. So, Serbs, Montenegrins and Macedonians profess the Orthodox religion, Croats and Slovenes - Catholic, and Albanians and Muslim Slavs - Islam.

Serbs, Croats, Montenegrins and Muslim Slavs speak Serbo-Croatian, Slovenes speak Slovene, and Macedonians speak Macedonian. Two scripts were used in the SFRY - based on Cyrillic (Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia) and Latin (Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina). It is important to emphasize that these ethnolinguistic features were supplemented by very significant differences of a socio-economic nature, primarily between the more developed Croatia and Slovenia and the less developed other parts of the SFRY, which also exacerbated many social contradictions. For example, Orthodox and Catholics believed that one of the main reasons high level unemployment in the country is the highest population growth in its Muslim areas.

For the time being, the authorities of the SFRY managed to prevent extreme manifestations of nationalism and separatism. However, in 1991-1992. ethnic intolerance, aggravated by the fact that many borders between the union republics were initially drawn without due consideration for the national and ethnic composition of the population, acquired a very large scale, and many political parties began to act under frankly nationalist slogans.

As a result, it was during these years that the SFRY collapsed: in 1991, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia stood out from it, and in 1992 a new Yugoslav federation was formed - the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), which included Serbia and Montenegro (Fig. 10). This fleeting disintegration of the SFRY proceeded in various forms- both relatively peaceful (Slovenia, Macedonia) and extremely violent (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina).

The secession of Slovenia was of the most peaceful character, during which, although it was not possible to avoid a small armed conflict, it turned out to be only an episode in this rather calm “divorce” process. And in the future, no serious political, and even more so military-political complications did not arise here.

The separation of Macedonia from the SFRY was accompanied not by a military, but by a diplomatic conflict. After the declaration of independence of this state, neighboring Greece refused to recognize it. The point here is that until 1912 Macedonia was part of Ottoman Empire, and after the liberation from Turkish rule, its territory was divided between Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Albania.

Consequently, independent Macedonia, separated from the SFRY, covered only one of the four parts of this historical region, and Greece was afraid that the new state would lay claim to its Greek part as well. Therefore, in the end, Macedonia was admitted to the UN with the wording "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia".

Much larger military-political complications were accompanied by the separation from the former SFRY of Croatia, in the population of which in the early 1990s. the share of Serbs exceeded 12%, and some of its regions have long been considered primordially Serbian.

First of all, this refers to the so-called Military Extreme - the border region, created back in the 16th-18th centuries. Austria and preserved in the XIX century. after the formation of Austria-Hungary along the border with the Ottoman Empire.

It was here that many Orthodox Serbs settled, who fled from the persecution of the Turks. Based on their numerical superiority, even during the existence of the SFRY, these Serbs announced the creation of their autonomous region of Krajina within the Federal Republic of Croatia, and after Croatia left the SFRY at the end of 1991, they proclaimed the formation of an independent Republic of Serbian Krajina with a center in Knin , announcing its separation from Croatia.

However, this self-proclaimed republic was not recognized by the UN, which sent a peacekeeping contingent to Croatia to prevent the military development of the conflict.

And in 1995, Croatia, choosing the moment when the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was economically greatly weakened by a severe embargo from Western countries, sent its troops to Krajina, and a few days later the Republic of Croatian Serbs ceased to exist. In 1998, Croatia also returned to itself the territory of Eastern Slavonia, captured by the Serbs back in 1991 as a result of a bloody military operation. This development of events gave reason to the Serbian radicals to accuse the then President of the FRY Slobodan Milosevic of "betraying Krayna."

The arena of even more irreconcilable military-political and ethno-religious confrontation was the former Soviet republic of the SFRY of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was distinguished by the most multinational composition of the population, which for many centuries served as the root cause of various kinds of ethnic conflicts.

According to the 1991 census, Serbs made up 31% of its inhabitants, Muslims 44, Croats 17%, and the rest were other ethnic groups. After the declaration of independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it turned out that Serbs make up the majority in its northern and eastern regions, Muslims in the central regions, and Croats in the western regions.

The reluctance of Serbs and Croats to end up in a Muslim state, and Muslims in a Christian one from the very beginning of the independent existence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, led to a confrontation between them, which in the spring of 1992 escalated into a civil war.

At its first stage, the Bosnian Serbs won, who, relying on the forces of the Yugoslav army stationed in the republic, captured almost 3/4 of its entire territory, starting "ethnic cleansing" in Muslim areas and actually turning Muslim cities into enclaves, surrounded on all sides by Serbian troops.

The most striking example of this kind is the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo, the siege of which by the Serbs lasted more than three years and cost the lives of tens of thousands of its inhabitants. As a result of the national-religious delimitation on the territory with a predominance of the Serbian population, the Bosnian Republika Srpska was proclaimed. Croats and Muslims at first also formed their own republics, but in 1994, on the basis of an anti-Serb union, they created a single Bosnian Muslim-Croat federation.

At the same time, during the war, a turning point occurred not in favor of the Serbs, which can be explained by several reasons.

First, against the government of the FRY, accused of interfering in the affairs of a neighboring state and armed support for the struggle of the Bosnian Serbs, the UN Security Council imposed severe international sanctions.

Secondly, the leader of the unrecognized Bosnian Republic of Srpska, Radovan Karadzic, was accused of organizing "ethnic cleansing" and declared a war criminal.

Thirdly, the Western allies and many Muslim states began to arm the army of the Bosnian Muslims, the combat capability of which, as a result, increased markedly.

Finally, fourthly, American, British and French aircraft began to bomb the positions of the Bosnian Serbs.

The Bosnian war ended in the late autumn of 1995. Under the peace agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina formally retained the status of an independent state with a single president, parliament, central government and other authorities.

But in fact it was divided into two parts. One of them was formed by the Muslim-Croatian Federation with a territory of 26 thousand km2, a population of 2.3 million people and a capital in Sarajevo, which has its own president, parliament and government. On the other side, the Republika Srpska was formed with a territory of 25,000 km2, a population of more than 1 million people, and the capital in Banja Luka.

The configuration of the territory of the Republika Srpska is very bizarre: following the settlement of the Bosnian Serbs, it borders, as it were, the more compact territory of the Muslim-Croat federation on the northern and eastern sides. The Republika Srpska also has its own president, its own parliament and government.

Both the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Republika Srpska are self-proclaimed states, since neither is recognized by the UN. Many of the old contradictions remain between them, especially in view of the insufficiently clearly defined border line.

So new armed conflicts are avoided here mainly due to the fact that at the end of 1995, NATO troops were sent to Bosnia and Herzegovina under the flag of peacekeeping, and then the UN peacekeeping contingent; his mandate has already been extended several times. The international peacekeeping forces also include Russian troops.

However, all this is only a visible stabilization of the situation, which has not resolved the main controversial issues. For example, peacekeeping forces have failed to ensure the return of refugees to their places of origin. But this is perhaps the main task of democratizing life in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

According to the UN, the number of refugees in the entire territory of the former SFRY amounted to 2.3 million people, with the vast majority of them in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Fig. 1). And only about 400 thousand of them returned, including a little more than 200 thousand to Bosnia and Herzegovina. a few percent.

south slavic nationalist politics ethnic