Serbia and Montenegro

Serbia and Montenegro was a country in Southeast Europe, created from the two remaining republics of Yugoslavia after its breakup in 1991. The republics of Serbia and Montenegro together established a federation in 1992 as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (abbreviated FRY, sometimes and as FR Yugoslavia; Serbian: Savezna Republika Jugoslavija (abbreviated SRJ, sometimes and as SR Jugoslavija), Serbian Cyrillic: Савезна Република Југославија (abbreviated СРЈ, sometimes and as СР Југославија)). In 2003, it was reconstituted as a state union officially known as the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, transitioning to two independent nations by 2006.

The FRY aspired to be a sole legal successor to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but those claims were opposed by other former republics. The United Nations also denied its request to automatically continue the membership of the former state. Eventually, after the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević from power as president of the federation in 2000, the country rescinded those aspirations and accepted the opinion of the Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession. It re-applied for UN membership on 27 October and was admitted on 1 November 2000. From 1992 to 2000, some countries, including the United States, referred to the FRY as "Serbia and Montenegro".

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFR Yugoslavia or SFRY) was the Yugoslav state that existed from its foundation in the aftermath of World War II until its dissolution in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia. In addition, it included two autonomous provinces within Serbia: Kosovo and Vojvodina.

After initially siding with the Eastern bloc under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito at the beginning of the Cold War, Yugoslavia pursued a policy of neutrality after the Tito–Stalin split of 1948, and it became one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement. After the death of Tito in 1980, rising ethnic nationalism in the late 1980s led to dissidence among the multiple ethnicities within the constituent republics, followed by collapse of inter-republic talks on transformation of the country and recognition of their independence by some European states in 1991. This led to the country collapsing along the federal units, followed by the final downfall and breakup of the country in 1992, and the start of the Yugoslav Wars.

Federal republic

A federal republic is a federation of states with a democratic form of government. Usage of the term republic is inconsistent; however, at its core, the literal meaning of the word republic when used to reference a form of government means: "a state where sovereignty rests with the people or their representatives, rather than with a monarch or emperor; a country with no monarchy".

In a federal republic, there is a division of powers between the federal government and the government of the individual subdivisions. While each federal republic manages this division of powers differently, common matters relating to security and defense, and monetary policy are usually handled at the federal level, while matters such as infrastructure maintenance and education policy are usually handled at the regional or local level. However, views differ on what issues should be a federal competence, and subdivisions usually have sovereignty in some matters where the federal government does not have jurisdiction. A federal republic is thus best defined in contrast to a unitary republic, whereby the central government has complete sovereignty over all aspects of political life. As in the United States, most federal republics codify the division of powers between orders of government in a written constitutional document.

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene: Jugoslavija, Југославија) was a country in Southeast Europe during most of the 20th century. It came into existence after World War I in 1918 under the name of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by the merger of the provisional State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (itself formed from territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire) with the formerly independent Kingdom of Serbia. The Serbian royal House of Karađorđević became the Yugoslav royal dynasty. Yugoslavia gained international recognition on 13 July 1922 at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris. The country was named after the South Slavic peoples and constituted their first union, following centuries in which the territories had been part of the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary.

Renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929, it was invaded by the Axis powers on 6 April 1941. In 1943, a Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was proclaimed by the Partisan resistance. In 1944, the king recognised it as the legitimate government, but in November 1945 the monarchy was abolished. Yugoslavia was renamed the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia in 1946, when a communist government was established. It acquired the territories of Istria, Rijeka, and Zadar from Italy. Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito ruled the country as president until his death in 1980. In 1963, the country was renamed again as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY).

Hey, Slavs

Hey, Slavs is an anthem dedicated to the Slavic peoples. Its lyrics were first written in 1834 under the title Hey, Slovaks (Hej, Slováci) by Samuel Tomášik and it has since served as the anthem of the Pan-Slavic movement, the Sokol physical education and political movement, the SFR Yugoslavia and as the transitional anthem of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. The song is also considered to be the second, unofficial anthem of the Slovaks. Its melody is based on Mazurek Dąbrowskiego, which has also been the anthem of Poland since 1926, though the Yugoslav variation is much slower and more accentuated.

In Serbo-Croatian, which used both the Latin and the Cyrillic alphabets, the title Hej, Slaveni was presented:

In Macedonian the song is Ej, Sloveni (Еј, Словени), and in Slovene Hej, Slovani. The original title in Slovak is Hej, Slováci.

Hey, Slovaks

The song was written by the Slovak Lutheran pastor, poet and historian Samuel Tomášik while he was visiting Prague in 1834. He was appalled that German was more commonly heard in the streets of Prague than Czech. He wrote in his diary: