 This 1983: Doomsday page is a Proposal.
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| Anthem | "Боже Правде / Bože Pravde" | ||||||
| Capital | Kragujevac | ||||||
| Largest city | Pristina | ||||||
| Other cities | Podgorica, Novi Sad, Niš, Subotica, Banja Luka | ||||||
| Language | Serbian, Albanian, Hungarian | ||||||
| President | Filip Vujanović | ||||||
| Prime Minister | Ivica Dačić | ||||||
| Area | 119,725 km² | ||||||
| Population | 8,546,677 | ||||||
| Independence | June 16th, 1989 | ||||||
| Currency | Serbian dinar | ||||||
Serbia, officially the Republic of Serbia, is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, covering the southern lowlands of the Carpathian basin and central part of the Balkans. Serbia borders the remnants of Hungary to the north; Transylvania and Rhodope to the east; Kingdom of Macedonia to the south; and then Croatia and Bosnia to the west.
History
Pre-Doomsday
Serbia's strategic location between two continents has subjected it to invasions by many peoples. Greeks colonized its south in the 11th century B.C., and the Romans conquered parts of Serbia from the 2nd century B.C. into the 1st century A.D. The earliest rudimentary Serb state arose in the mid 11th century. Official adoption of Christianity soon followed. During the 1200s and 1300s, Serbia states began to expand eastward, southward into Kosovo and northern Macedonia and northward. The first Serbian Kingdom was proclaimed in 1217, with the Serbian Empire later being proclaimed in 1346. Shortly thereafter, Serbia reached its territorial, political and economical peak. This was a period marked by the rise of a new threat: the Ottoman Turk Sultanate.
The Turks soon conquered Byzantium and the other states in the Balkans. While the Serbs did manage to win the Battle of Plocnik against them in 1386, they had lost the battle of Maritisa in 1371 and won the battle of Kosovo in 1389 with enough casualties that the Ottomans were able to conquer most of the region by 1496. The Austrian emperors would later spend much of the next couple of centuries fighting over the region with the Turks. Serbia gained its autonomy from the Ottoman Empire with two uprisings in 1804 and 1815, and was granted international recognition after the Russo-Turkish War in 1878, later gaining full statehood as the Kingdom of Serbia. The Balkan Wars from 1912-1913 finally terminated Turkish domination in the Balkans. The 1914 assassination of Franz Ferdinand served as a pretext for an Austrian declaration of war on Serbia, marking the beginning of World War I. The Serbian Army defended the country and won several victories, but was finally overpowered by the Central Powers. Having recuperated on Corfu the Serbian Army later returned to combat on the Thessaloniki front together with other Entente forces.
A successful Allied offensive in September 1918 liberated Serbia, and brought the surrender of their enemies. With the end of the war and the collapse of both nearby empires the king was finally able to proclaim a united Slav kingdom. However in 1928 a representative opened fire in Parliament. Taking advantage of the resulting crisis, the king assumed executive power, as well as renaming the country Yugoslavia. In the run up to World War II, a treaty was signed with Hitler - however, a popular uprising amongst the people rejected this agreement. After a brief war, Yugoslavia surrendered unconditionally to the Axis. Jews and Serbs were slaughtered on a large scale over the next few years. Active resistance continued by royalists, various national groups, and especially the communists, under Josip Tito, who would take control of the country after it was liberated in 1944-1945. Tito would become the president of the newly-socialist nation, ruling with an iron hand until his death in 1980. He had managed by that time to industrialize several areas of the country, and to keep the various nationalities in check. After his death, the various autonomous republics that he had established under the federal structure began to move apart, which the weak federal government did little to prevent.
Doomsday
While not a member of either side on Doomsday, the capital of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, was hit by a nuclear missile anyway. It is now believed that this was done by the Soviets with the same principles and reasons as their strike on Vienna. However, unlike that strike, the effects were far, far, worse. Small attacks also occurred in the north from Soviet and Hungarian forces, though they were defeated by the Yugoslavian Army fairly easily.
Refugees then began to swarm its borders from nearby countries that had been hit much harder, as well as internally displaced refugees from the strike on Belgrade. Surviving members of the federal government fled southwards, to the city of Kragujevac, where they re-established the government, under what was almost completely the control of the Serbs and their allies - even more so than had been the case previously. However, their attempts to hold the country together would fail spectacularly and result in the dissolution of the nation, and massive ethnic casualties, in the Yugoslav wars.
Post-Doomsday
In 1985, the end of Yugoslavia finally came. On October 6th, Slovenia declared independence from the nation, followed two days later by Croatia - and the central government, now dominated by Serbs and Montenegrins, could not tolerate this, so the declaration were opposed militarily. Fighting in Slovenia between the two sides only lasted eight days before the central government pulled its forces out, being unable to continue fighting so far into enemy territory. This was essentially a recognition of their independence, for the government refused to declare a "war" against the new Slovenian government. Slovenia would remain neutral for the rest of the war.
While the Bosnian republic had not declared independence, there was a good reason for it - the government there, within days of the Croatian declaration and the Serbian moves to counter it, had effectively lost any control it had, having been locked up by Serbian forces in Kragujevac. The area then became a warzone, between the Serbian-controlled Yugoslav Army on one side, and Croats and the Bosnian Muslims on the other. Other rebel groups, nowhere near as organized, soon appeared as well.
Government forces, largely on the eastern borders of the nation or finishing putting down rebels elsewhere, took time to get to the front, leaving the Croats some time to organize defenses, though it would not be enough. Soon, however, government forces attacked the Croat defenses in the area of Eastern Slavonia, especially around the city of Vukovar, which the Serbian forces spent months besieging while the Croats strengthened defenses elsewhere. fighting here would continue through much of 1986. Serb forces would launch another offensive, this time into Dalmatia, which at their furthest point they would almost reach the coast between the Dalmatian cities of Split and Zadar, in order to cut the Croat lines into two separate areas. They would eventually be forced backwards, however.
In the meanwhile, unbeknown to the Serbs, another small force had landed in Montenegro, with the intention of reclaiming the country for Alexander, son of the last king of Yugoslavia and the last crown prince. He had survived the events of Doomsday in Spain, and had organized a small force of survivors in order to reclaim what he thought was rightfully his. They marched northwards, gaining a small number of supporters, until they ran into a detachment of Serbian troops, who defeated them, though only thought them to be more Croat "rebels." Alexander and his little army retreated southwards into Macedonia, where they encountered elements of the South-Eastern Theater, who took them to their commander in Skopje. Disturbed by the actions being undertaken by the government, which he viewed as being horrific - especially in light of reports of ethnic cleansing that he had begun to hear - the commander of the Theater, a believer in the ideals of Tito for a ethnic-neutral Yugoslavia, joined forces with the like-minded Alexander, though his now-diminished forces were still fairly small in number. They did advance northwards somewhat, in an effort to undertake the original goals of Alexander, at first successfully due to the weakness of the Serbian troops in the region, but the government eventually caught on to what has happening and moved forces to block their advance. Portions of southern Serbia and Kosovo, as well as a small area of Montenegro, were taken in this action. It can be said that this movement greatly aided the Croat forces in expelling the Serbs from their territory.
Slowly, Serb forces were expelled from Croat and Bosnian areas by a combination of the Croatian Army and Bosnian guerrillas. While at first they had been at a major disadvantage in equipment, Switzerland and Austria had been arming the Croats and Bosnians. After two years of heavy fighting, these forces managed to finally push out the Serbian Army during 1988, forcing them back into Bosnia. By the end of the year, the forces had also managed to secure much of Herzegovina as well, though Serbian troops continued to occupy the Serbians areas of Bosnia.
Seeing that the two sides were effectively at a stalemate, the Alpine nations and Slovenia intervened, and brokered a peace treaty in early 1989, in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana. This peace, later known as the Ljubljana Accords, put an end to the fighting. By its terms, the Serbs had to withdraw from Muslim-dominated areas of Bosnia, as was Croatia. The country of Bosnia would be set up in this territory by the Alpine countries. Most of Herzegovina was ceded to Croatia, and significant areas of the region, occupied by the Serbs still, were kept by them.
With the loss of much of its territory, and, in the eyes of many, their failure, keeping the nation-state in its current form made no sense. As a result, the national assembly approved a new constitution, which centralized authority in a new government, under the name of the "Republic of Serbia." In order to satisfy the Montenegrins and the minorities, a federal structure remained, however, which divided it into five provinces with a degree of autonomy, but with power definitely centralized in the national capital at Kragujevac. The capital of the new Serbian province was also moved to Nis, in an effort to prevent that province from dominating the government quite as badly. Elections for the assembly, starting in the fall of 1989, would be held every five years, barring the defeat of the Prime Minister prior to the election date. Elections that fall would bring the Socialists to power, shunting aside the nationalists and xenophobes for the time being.
Post-Accords
After 1989 and the reformation of the government, attention had to be turned to rebuilding areas devastated by both rebels and the war. Yet, rebels still remained in some areas, and the devastated economy was soon found to be unable to support so many soldiers, and many were let go. Criminals and rebels set up shop in many areas of the country - several of these crime syndicates remain powerful even in the present. Obviously, something had to be done.
In 1992, a new act of legislation, the Military Reform Act, was passed by the Assembly. This legislation reformed the military from one branch into three, lowered the pay-scale slightly, thinned out a truly massive number of unneeded officers, and introduced conscription, which would be for eighteen months, with a possibility of staying in the military afterwards if they so chose. Each branch was also given a monopoly over a certain industry related to their equipment so that they could help pay for their own upkeep. While the monopoly is no longer in force, these companies owned by the service branches remain intact today.
Envoys from King Alexander in Macedonia arrived in Kragujevac during the fall of 1991. Being in no shape to argue with the envoys, Serbia grudgingly accepted the loss of territory. This did not sit well with a large portion of the population.
The Macedonian Civil War
In the fall of 1994, the second election of the republic was held. It was a bad loss for the Socialists and their ethnic allies, who lost control of the assembly to the nationalists, still riding anger from the acceptance of the Macedonian conquests in 1991.
In the Kingdom of Macedonia, Serbian nationalists in the northeast had long been trouble for the government. With the 1994 election of the nationalists to power in the republic, these Macedonian dissidents soon received outside support for their activities and extreme, Pro-Serbia, views. With Serbian backing, these racist dissidents and their "Unity Party" almost won the 1995 Macedonian elections, but narrowly lost to the Conservatives. Support for the party dropped dramatically in the aftermath of the election.
However, their support quickly rebounded. By the fall of 1996, Milan Milutinović, the Unity Party leader, was being listen to by large crowds again, and claimed that he had been cheated out of winning the election. Worse still, some of the people began to actually believed him - and the government dismissed him entirely.
Government
With the end of the Yugoslav War in 1989, as brokered by the Alpine Federation, a new Constitution was passed by the government using an increase in Serbian nationalism, reforming the nation into the Republic of Serbia, a much more democratic and capitalist nation, though one with much more Serbian nationalism being present.
In a concession to the Montenegrins, Hungarians, and Albanians, a federal structure had to be maintained, however. As such, the republic is divided into five separate provinces, which are themselves divided into smaller units referred to as okrugs. These provinces are:
Provinces of Serbia
| Province | Capital | Number of Okrugs | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kosovo | Pristina | 4 | Albanian majority and the largest city |
| Montenegro | Podgorica | 5 | Montenegrin majority |
| Serbia | Nis | 18 | Also contains a substantial Romanian minority |
| Srpska Bosna | Banja Luka | 8 | Serbian majority with small amounts of Bosnians and Croats. |
| Vojvodina | Novi Sad | 7 | Serbian majority with a large Hungarian minority |
Each province, and indeed, the nation itself, have a unicameral legislature. The legislature, known as the National Assembly, is headed by a Prime Minister, who leads the party, or coalition of parties, who hold a majority of seats. Currently the Prime Minister is Ivica Dačić of the Serbian Socialist Party, who governs in a coalition with the Montenegrin and Albanian parties in the chamber. The opposition is composed mostly of the extreme nationalists, who demand war against several other nations over what they consider to be "Serbian territory." Woe be the day that they manage this.
The President is chosen from a pool of six candidates, who are chosen by each of the five provincial governments, as well as the outgoing president. There is a limitation however - the candidates cannot in any way be from the province that nominates them, or the home province of the President. These candidates are then voted on by the assembly, and after several elimination votes, the winner of the last round, or the first to get a two-thirds majority, is elected the president. In practice, the provinces and the outgoing president do nominate one candidate from each province, however. Currently, the president is Filip Vujanović of Montenegro, elected in the Assembly as part of a deal struck with the Montenegrin parties to establish the governing coalition.
Military
The Armed Forces of Serbia are divided into three branches:
- Serbian Land Forces
- Serbian Air Defense Forces
- Serbian Naval Forces
The Serbian Armed Forces were originally a large portion of the armed forces of Former Yugoslavia during and soon after the Yugoslav War. However, after the war the Serbian government and economy could only support a small army, far the opposite of what was needed to settle the country's problems, mainly remaining Bosnian rebels
Serbian soldiers armed with AK-47 variants
in Serbia and other rebels inside its borders, leaving much of the nation-state a haven for criminals.
However, in 1992 the Military Reform Act was passed by the Assembly which reformed the Serbian Armed Forces into an army, navy, and air force, all of which where supplied with troops by conscription.
In early 1993 the arms factories across the country, in a minimal state of production since the end of the wars, resumed a more full level of production, and new weapons resumed coming out of the factories. Soon, military design boards were developing ways to improve the current weapons and design new ones, at which they were mildly successful.
International Relations
The Serbians have established relations with their neighbors in Bosnia, Croatia, and Macedonia. They also have ambassadors to the Alpine Confederation and the Greeks.