Alternative history: Yugoslavia

[Tee Kay]

Those Slovaks near Novi Sad look a little bit lost.

 

[JohannaK]

Hmm... Albanians are muslims? huh. I thought Bosniaks were the only ones there.

 

[Kyriakos]

Albanians are catholic (north), muslim (center) and orthodox (south). Kosovo albanians are almost entirely muslim though.

Edit: I was looking for a map of religious groups in Albania for 15 minutes, and did not find anything apart from a single bad-crafted national-sponsored one which had no percentages at all.

I found this map, from orthodoxwiki, which is of Europe, and shows the situation in Albania too:

 

[Tee Kay]

Hmm... Albanians are muslims? huh. I thought Bosniaks were the only ones there.

Albania has a Muslim majority, with a minority of Orthodox on the border with Greece and Catholics on the border of Montenegro. That being said, Albanians in general weren't very religious even in Ottoman times, and four decades of Hoxhaism means that Albania is currently one of the least religious country in the world, even though it is a full member of the Organisation of Islamic Conference.

It's a bit like saying Spain is a Catholic country.

 

[JohannaK]

Oh, now I see it clear.

 

[NedimNapoleon]

Any country from the Eastern block in Europe isn't religious.

 

[Kyriakos]

Albania was not technically part of the eastern (soviet) block. It was mostly associated with communist China. And for other reasons it lagged behind any other euro communist country.

 

[NedimNapoleon]

Albania was a member of the Warsaw pact up until 1961 (Sino-Soviet split) and formally withdrew in 1968. Hoxha was insane. You wouldn't build a bunker for every 4 citizens....but on Hoxha you would, Hoxhaism not even once.

 

[Traitorfish]

Don't forget the bit where he had his name carved into the side of a mountain.

 

[Tahuti]

Any country from the Eastern block in Europe isn't religious.

Poles and Lithuanians are generally deeply devout Catholics. More so than the French or Italians. Religion is quite strong in Armenia, Hungary, Russia and Romania as well.

The most irreligious Eastern European countries would be Albania, Estonia, Czechia, former East-Germany and Azerbaijan. Especially the latter should be held as a shining example on how wrong Anti-Islam populists are on Islam.

 

[Lord Baal]

I should probably clarify that Albania was religious at several points during this time period, and that the original map didn't clarify exactly what time it was from.

 

[Tee Kay]

The most irreligious Eastern European countries would be Albania, Estonia, Czechia, former East-Germany and Azerbaijan. Especially the latter should be held as a shining example on how wrong Anti-Islam populists are on Islam.

They are also Shi'as to boot.

 

[Tahuti]

They are also Shi'as to boot.

Yeah, but most Azerbaijanis are Shi'a Muslims like most Englishmen are COE: Despite formally "belonging" to a religion, its quite common for both to be implicit atheists for example. Turkey is often held as an example how a secular Muslim country with "Western" religious norms would be like, but Azerbaijan (along with Albania and Bosnia) is a much better example.

 

[Kyriakos]

Hoxha was insane. You wouldn't build a bunker for every 4 citizens....but on Hoxha you would, Hoxhaism not even once.

From wiki:

Hoxha's legacy also included a complex of 750,000 one-man concrete bunkers across a country of 3 million inhabitants, to act as look-outs and gun emplacements along with chemical weapons.[59] The bunkers were built strong and mobile, with the intention that they could be easily placed by a crane or a helicopter in a previously dug hole. The types of bunkers vary from machine gun pillboxes, beach bunkers, to naval underground facilities, and even Air Force Mountain and underground bunkers.

 

[innonimatu]

The theory was that while the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes would be Serb-dominated at first, time would change that and a truly equal union would emerge. If anything, the opposite occurred, with Serbia clamping down on any dissent and treating the other member-states as subject populations.

By the 1930s, when a new government in Yugoslavia attempted to end this counterproductive policy, violent independence movements had already sprung up, with Italy providing shelter and training to the Croatian groups who were willing to fight for independence. These groups came to adopt Italian fascism, and grew into the ustase.

It's amazing how much the serbians shoot their own foot in their relations with other nations. It's like they are the south germans of Europe or something.

 

[Lord Baal]

It's amazing how much the serbians shoot their own foot in their relations with other nations. It's like they are the south germans of Europe or something.

What's truly incredible is that the Croatian independence movement voluntarily disbanded upon the creation of Yugoslavia, only to have its heads arrested - against the orders of the king, mind you - for sedition anyway. As if anything done before Croatia was part of Yugoslavia could be seditious.

 

[Kyriakos]

By the way, i can only recommend this great Serbian comedy, called Rane (Wounds), which is about the Yugoslav war. An excellent and very funny movie


Link to video.

Unfortunately i was not able to find that Comrade Tito song from this film...

Many Serbian movies are well-done, Time of the Gypsies is easily my favorite...

 

[NedimNapoleon]

Yeah thats a great movie. Pinky and Schwab....lol

English subs

Link to video.

 

[Kyriakos]

The scene with the (Serbian) grandma that imagines the Ustase running around is probably the funniest

 

[Domen]

Sorry, double post...