Abstrakt
The contribution provides an illustrative overview of the remarkably complex phenomena of Yugoslav identity and Yugoslavism in an implicit comparison to Czechoslovakism. At first sight, the two stories, of Yugoslavism and Czechoslovakism can appear to be quite similar.
The authors set the record straight and spotlight the essential differences between these phenomena. Their narrative is interwoven with the many particular dissimilarities between and specificities of Yugoslavism and Yugoslav identity versus Czechoslovakism and Czechoslovak identity.
They begin with the most essential fact: unlike the duality of the Czech-Slovak relationship, Yugoslavia was fundamentally polycentric. This implied coexistence of various, often mutually exclusive "Yugoslavisms," conceptions of Yugoslav or South Slavic identity, forms of resistance and criticism, and their degrees of impact in each national society.
This gave way to a very specific, significantly more complicated and as a rule far bloodier political power struggle than in Czechoslovakia.