I'm also from a Yugoslav country. This is a very wide question, but to summarize; I will defend Yugoslavia to the death when talking about it with liberals, but endlessly critique it when talking about it with socialists who think it was perfect or look at it through a Yugo nostalgic lense.
this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2026
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the more liberal takes I've seen on Yugoslavia in my own country. Apart from growing liberalism, I've noticed the distain for the USSR that many people who lived during socialism (I assume due to the entry of more western opinions due to the soviet-yugoslav split)
That sucks to hear. I met a Croatian guy in Puerto Rico, and while he didn’t express that he was a socialist, he did say that he thought Yugoslavia was better. He was in his late 30s or 40s. I’m guessing that finding a Croatian in the west, one who praises Yugoslavia is like finding a unicorn.
Bumping this as another resident of a former Yugoslavia state.
Yeah once the Soviet Union fell, Yugoslavia’s days were numbered. It was a not an autarkic state, basically built its success on dangling potential realignment towards the soviets to get more loans.
Nationalism was a cascading issue stemming from not having a sustainable system.
Something that left an impression on me recently with that bademp video was that Serbia never actually attacked Bosnia, it was a splinter group in Bosnia of Serbs who created an indie state called 'The republic of serbs' who then went on to attack Bosnia - granted they did get all of there funding from Serbia proper, and Serbia isnt absolved of guilt of being associated with it, but its important to understand the ROS wasnt taking orders from Serbia on military actions but acting autonomously.
I will also say that the Serbian government where literally debating on how to cover up the fact they where trying to commit a genocide, I dont think any serious ML will disavow Bosnia given the facts of the matter in an honest reading of it - but it is clear what the root cause of everything was in my opinion, and that is nationalism, its clear from learning about Tito that he was sincere and correct in his beliefs of a united Yugoslav, and his rise to power and the changes he implemented did benefit Yugoslavia greatly, it is just sad that nationalism dismantled it, but it was a given while being isolated in Western Europe as a more soviet aligned state.
The root cause of it is not nationalism. It's economic troubles and loss of allies. Yugoslavia had an insane amount of debt, and they had too much liberalization of the market. Playing the middle ground between the two global powers was not a good strategy in the long run. They also actually had a cult of personality (not saying it's necessarily a bad thing in our case, it had its use), and of course it all crashed after the personality was not there anymore, unlike the USSR (referring to Lenin/Stalin), Cuba (Castro), etc. Nationalism just came out and offered it self as the main "solution". Now I'm getting into whataboutism but I really highly doubt anything like this would have happened if Yugoslavia did not completely economically collapse in the late 80s, as there would not be that level of dissatisfaction and the need for an alternative solution would also not come out, as painfully as this at least. Basically Yugoslavia probably needed a cultural revolution, but Tito was not that guy lol
The nicest dude I know is Serbian and he's a very outspoken about how Yugoslavia is sorely missed. But he's... Serbian. I'll never be able to make he and other Bosnian dude make amends. I don't know whether this is accomplishable within a few centuries.
... why do you think that? That's literally any group X and group Y in the Balkans. Yes, that was an issue in Yugoslavia, but that's because it wasn't being dealt with properly, especially under socialist development. That can and will be fixed in future projects.
Ah, I wasn't singling out either Serbians or Bosnians. But there was a genocide, we can't forget that. That and other aggressions in the Balkans between other groups take time to heal. Now, let's take it further: what will take for US and NATO populations deserve trust under socialism/communism? Do you think that can be done without reparations? That the victims don't want retribution? Even the late Marx was elevating the importance of the National Question.