Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the communist federation that existed in the Balkans from 1945 to 1992, ruled by the League of Communists under Josip Broz Tito until his death in 1980. It emerged from the wartime Partisan movement and the Allied recognition of Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, and it united six constituent republics (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia) with two autonomous provinces inside Serbia, with Belgrade as its capital. Known until 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, it broke with Stalin in 1948 and followed an independent, non-aligned course with a system of workers' self-management. It covered about 255,804 square kilometres and dissolved in 1992 as the Yugoslav Wars began.