Can Yugoslavia stay together?

  Real democracy might do it but there are a lot of long lasting mistrusts and hatreds, in some cases going back several centuries.  Also it was virtually always a state held together by force.  After WWI the northern states, especially Croatia were distrustful of Serb/Orthodox domination and it became increasingly autocratic during the 30's especially.  This helped in its relatively easy conquest by the Nazis as a number of groups were eager to leave.  This was followed by the founding of a fascist led Croat state that persecuted other groups, especially the Serbs under their rule.  After Tito assumed power the Serbs were kept down although not brutally persecuted and there was a level of stability but this and the lack of democracy probably played a factor in it all coming apart after his death.  Was rather surprised that Slovenia managed to leave without bloodshed but unfortunately not too much by the violence that followed, although by the level of it.

  Interesting and depressing.  Its quite true that Yugoslavia was some way in advance of the other communist countries, in large part because of Tito managing to keep it out oF Soviet control.  It was still autocratic but not as out-rightly xenophobic as the WP powers were and there was a lot of connections both to the west and also the Non-Aligned Movement.

  Possibly if Tito hadn't panicked on the student revolts in western Europe in the late 60's and had allowed more reforms then allowed more say for people as a whole it might have worked.  A Yugoslavia that held together and stayed prosperous, at least compared to the rest of eastern Europe could have been a big advantage, both for itself and the Balkan region in general rather than the disaster it became.