the end of an era
Upon his death in 1980, Tito left Yugoslavia the most liberal and prosperous country in Eastern Europe. However, he also left a fragmented country full of repressed ethnic tensions, whose government was weak without the cornerstone of his leadership.
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"We all cried, but we did not know we were also burying Yugoslavia." |
Miners gather to honor Tito after receiving word of his death (1980, YouTube)
The Yugoslav Wars
"Serb invaders looted and burned Bosnian Muslim villages in a systematic campaign of ruthless ethnic cleansing. Bosnian homes were ransacked and families were separated. The women and children were sent to overcrowded detention centers where there was little food or sanitation and the guards—often former neighbors of the inmates—were brutal. The Bosnian men faced an even grimmer fate. Thousands were severely beaten, sent to concentration camps, or executed."
-"Yugoslavia Breaks Apart: 1991-1995" from Global Events (2014)