Yugoslav

Yugoslav refers to anything connected with the former country of Yugoslavia or to its citizens. The term has been used for people who held Yugoslav citizenship or identified with the Yugoslav state or its successor political entities, and for cultural and linguistic forms associated with the country. Over the 20th century, Yugoslavia existed in several political forms in Southeast Europe.

The first Yugoslavia was the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, formed in 1918 after World War I by uniting Serbia with the South Slavic lands of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929. After World War II, a socialist federation, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), united six republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia (now North Macedonia), Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia, with Kosovo as an autonomous province within Serbia. The SFRY dissolved in the early 1990s amid nationalist movements and conflict; Slovenia and Croatia declared independence in 1991, followed by Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and parts of Serbia and Montenegro. A rump federation, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, consisting of Serbia and Montenegro, existed from 1992 to 2003 and was renamed Serbia and Montenegro in 2003, finally dissolving in 2006 with Montenegro’s independence. The status of Kosovo remains disputed.

Culturally, Yugoslav identity encompassed diverse ethnic groups and languages, notably Serbo-Croatian, with distinct regional varieties. In sports, media, and the arts, the Yugoslav label remains in historical reference to pre-1990s productions and teams, while contemporary usage typically refers to the successor states or the broader Yugoslav heritage.