The Mourning of Eden: On Yugoslavia's Past Life

If someone asks, where is the most beautiful in Europe? I want to say that it must exist on the Adriatic coast of Yugoslavia, which was once praised by eco-environmentalists as the Garden of Eden at the time of human creation.

This treasure land, known as the shore of a thousand islands, has little rain all the year round, but a lot of fog evaporates from the ground, nourishing this fertile soil. The warm winter is like spring, which makes the dense Mediterranean vegetation lush all year round, while the bright sunshine makes the streams and seawater flowing down from the mountains crystal clear. It used to be the rarest fairyland on earth in Europe, without any pollution. This beautiful scene has won the favor of naturalists all over the world. In southern Yugoslavia, there are more than a dozen world-famous natural nude swimming pools. Naturalists all over the world are naked and live a life of returning to nature. It is really a veritable "Garden of Eden".

From the 6th century AD, ethnic Yugoslavs went south, crossed the Carpathian Mountains and continued westward, and moved to this place that originally belonged to the Greek and Macedonian Empire. They crossed the Alps in search of the Garden of Eden, and were later ruled by the Italian Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire of Turkey, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the German fascists, all of which had a far-reaching impact on their nation and culture. Today, most people still believe in the Orthodox Church, and many people believe in Catholicism and Islam.

? Yugoslavia is a quarter bigger than Guangdong, with a population of only 24 million. Two thirds of the whole territory is mountains and plateaus. Only on the northern border with Hungary, that is, the valley between sava river and Danube, there is a long and narrow plain, which is the main agricultural area of Yugoslavia, mainly distributed in Serbia, and was once one of the top ten corn producing areas in the world. Apart from exporting some wheat, Yugoslavia can be self-sufficient, so even after years of war, there is no shortage of food.

After the Slavs moved south to the Balkans, they took advantage of the depression of the Eurasian Empire in the ninth century to establish more than a dozen small kingdoms in this remote area according to various regional and ethnic customs, which was also the largest small country in Europe at that time. Since the15th century, an empire connecting Europe and Asia has risen again, that is, the Ottoman Empire in Turkey. Almost all the small countries in the Balkans have been included, and only Slovenia and Croatia are still under the jurisdiction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Powerful Turks have ruled here for nearly 500 years and spread Islam here, especially in Bosnia where Turks live in concentrated communities. /kloc-in the 0 th and 9 th centuries, the Russian empire also made up its mind to want the Balkans. When the Russian-Turkish war broke out, Turkey could not compete with Russia, and all small countries obeyed Russia. Serbia was also encouraged by Russia to get rid of Turkey and strive for independence first.

19 14, the Austrian crown prince was shot dead by a Serbian youth in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, and the first world war broke out because various empires competed for the interests of the Balkans. Since then, the Balkans have been dubbed the "European powder magazine". After the First World War, Serbia and Montenegro merged to form a powerful kingdom, and then the Austro-Hungarian Empire recovered Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia, and established the Seychelles-Russian United Kingdom headed by the Serbian King. 1929 changed its name to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which means the country of Slavs in the south.

After the outbreak of World War II, Hitler's talons extended to Balkan countries. Tito, a * * * producer, led guerrillas to fight the Nazis behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia. 1945 After the national liberation, Tito began to take the socialist route of workers' autonomy and established the Yugoslav socialist federation consisting of six republics and two autonomous provinces, with the capital in Belgrade, Serbia today.

With the well-known division, the former Yugoslavia ceased to exist, and now Serbia has lost its beautiful coastline and become an out-and-out landlocked country. Analysis of the reasons for Yugoslavia's division may be nothing more than the following two points:

From its formation process, we can see that Yugoslavia has an extremely complicated historical background. Although most people are descendants of Slavs, there is no unified language. Serbian, which accounts for one third of the population, area and economic aggregate, has not been popularized for a long time, although it has been officially designated as the national language. On the contrary, various ethnic dialects are popular, separating the younger generation.

Similarly, in terms of religious beliefs, all ethnic groups also have deep prejudice. Yugoslav producers are atheists, but most local people still believe in Orthodox Church for half a century. On the contrary, Catholicism and Islam, which a few people believe in, are suppressed and excluded, which makes these small countries regarded as pagans increasingly dissatisfied. In addition, a large number of Serbs are constantly moving to different places, which leads to increasing conflicts of interest between them.

Yugoslavia's economic and political reform lags far behind the requirements of that era, especially the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, and the independence of neighboring small countries. In addition, Iraq, once a trading partner, was embargoed by the United Nations, which made Yugoslavia's exports stagnate or even regress, the Yugoslav currency depreciated again and again, and the inflation figure was huge. At that time, the Yugoslav factions fought for power and profit, and did not put forward a perfect and effective economic solution. Coupled with the fact that all parts of Yugoslavia are accustomed to the loose autonomous system, the unity and cohesion of weak countries are almost exhausted.

With the successive deaths of the founding fathers of small countries under the rule of Yugoslavia, such as Tito of Croatia and Kader of Slovenia, a once-European "ideal country" also fell apart and became a historical legend.