What would Yugoslavia be like now if it had not collapsed?
It would most definitely lose the "S" from SFRY. It would be like Belgium, on a larger scale, organized in highly federal, somewhat dysfunctional way. It would apply for membership in EU in 1991 and 2 years later it would start negotiations together with Austria, Finland and Sweden. After becoming EU member with it's 23 million inhabitants it would become it's 6th largest member (Poland would be 5th). Slovenia and Croatia would probably team up with regions such as Scotland, Bavaria and Catalonia to fight for European influence and money.Yugoslav slogan of "brotherhood and unity" would change to EU slogan of "unity in diversity".It would spare today's societies of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia thousands of dead and migrated. US would not send troops to fight on European soil for the first time since WWII. EU would not look impotent and divided in the face of killing at its doorstep. In short, it would be a much "better place" in the world than it is now.
Why did Russia go down after the Soviet Union collapsed?
I don't know what you mean exactly by going down, so I will assume that you refer to economic and social conditions. As already pointed out in other answers, it was not just Russia- all the constituent republics were affected. Some more, some less, but all were in some crisis or recession. Why? The reasons are pretty obvious.Economy. The network of various companies- suppliers and clients was interconnected across all of the Soviet Union. As it started to crumble, it became obvious that the legal environment, the laws would change somehow, but how exactly? That was a question that nobody knew the answer for. What do you do when your future is uncertain? You await, avoiding any long term plans and commitments. As the result, the level of economic cooperation radically decreased, and the economy suffered. It wasn't the only reason why the economy went down, but I think it was the major one.Crime. The newly formed states were weak and inexperienced. For one, they didn't know how to collect taxes - tax avoidance was high. The state revenue was accordingly low. As the result, the police were poorly equipped (maybe they had inherited cars, but could not buy fuel), poorly paid and poorly managed. Which resulted in corruption and weak law enforcement. The law also became outdated in many respects. Swindlers of all kinds flourished, including pyramid schemes.Social needs. The low level of tax collection meant also less money for healthcare, education and other social needs.
Which FOUR Countries did George Soros collapse their Economies and Currencies of?
... Those are untrue conspiracy theories popularized by anti-Semites Beck and Limbaugh. What is it about Soros exactly that leads right-wing commentators -- including their long-time leader, Rush Limbaugh -- to falsely brand this American citizen a "foreigner"? It's notable that Rush never complains about the foreign money in American politics of Rupert Murdoch, an Australian who became a US citizen in 1985 only in order to buy American television stations and move the media to the right. Why has one of Sarah Palin’s top aides been on Soros’ payroll for years? Does this mean Palin is actually a Soros plant? http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_r... "Puppet master": Beck's attacks on Soros are steeped in anti-Semitic stereotypes http://mediamatters.org/research/2010110... Beck slammed by Anti-Defamation League http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national... ##
What is the communist history of Croatia?
Croatia was a socialist republic within the federal socialist state of Yugoslavia from the end of WW2 to the fall of communism in Europe in 1991.Yugoslavia’s dictator , Tito, was born in Croatia to Croatian and Slovene parents. During the interwar period there was some communist clamoring but it was put down and Tito fled to the Soviet Union until the outbreak of WW2. Tito returned to Croatia and organized Partisan brigades to fight the occupying Germans and Italians in Croatia as well as the local pro-Axis Croatian regime and some extreme Serbian militants loyal to the Serbian king now exiled to England. Tito and his cadre were successful in WW2 and Tito gained dictatorial power over Croatia and neighboring countries virtually unopposed. Croatians were instrumental in the communist victory yet not all Croatians were communists and some Croatian communists eventually defected as they fell out of favor with Tito such as Andrija Hebrang and Franjo Tudjman.Croatia did relatively okay during communist Yugoslavia but at a price. The price was suppression of religion , language, reprisals after WW2, and preferential treatment of non-Croats over Croats in Croatia’s government. All nationalism was brutally suppressed via a brutal secret service the communists employed and dilapidated prisons for counter revolutionaries. Communist Yugoslavia forced Croatia , along with Slovenia, to subsidize poorer republics since Croatia and Slovenia were the most economically developed in the country which angered Croats and Slovenes. Many Croats emigrated to the West to restart their lives in relative freedom unable to achieve their ambitions back home for their families under communism.Some Croats look back fondly upon the days of communist Yugoslavia (mostly those in mixed marriages and those with government pensions from the old state) but the majority would prefer to look forward and not back and put those days behind.
Will Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia have another war in the future?
Wars happen when the attacker has something to gain from the war, and he believes that he can win it with acceptable cost. Neither of these countries has anything to win from a war. All three countries have dwindling populations that decrease very fast due to emigration and low fertility rates, and none of them could really be able to use any new territory they captured, should they be succesful. In reality territories they did capture from the enemy in the last war still remain as deserted as they were when they were captured (for example most of the former Serbian Krajina in Croatia). And even larger tracts of land are becoming deserted due to emigration and low birthrate. Nobody would gain anything from a war. And also, their populations remember the last war well, and are not likely to fall in that trap again.But on the other hand, what we have in action is an interplay of nationalist politicians in each the three countries aimed at supporting each other. When their popularity starts dropping or when they want to increase their popularity, they start exchanging harsh words, insulting their counterparts in the other country, who then respond in a similar manner. Then each of them starts interpreting actions of the other as threatening and proclaiming that he will be the one to defend his country from a foreign threat (represented by his counterpart from the other country). In that way they try to rally supporters behind them without really addressing any real problems in the country. But this is all just a play, not real threats.As an illustrations of this you could look up the media exchanges between the current Croatian president and the head of the Serbian radical party during the election campaing in Croatia, and how it influenced their ratings.
Why did Yugoslavia break apart?
You have gotten several complex answers. I could argue with several of their simplistic points, but that would not take us anywhere. We could extract several critical reasons why Yugoslavia broke apart. First is the breaking apart of Soviet Union and the re-unification of Germany. Germany stood behind Croatia, smuggling weapons into it and declaring Croatia's independence months before Croatia declared it. Croatia needed that war. It needed it to implement its brutal "final solution" against the Croat Serbs who were around 12.2% (22% before WW2...) and are 4% today. Its historical goal is to remain as a vassal country to Germany... Of course, Germany stood behind Slovenia as well. Their political pressure in EU against the existence of Yugoslavia was tremendous. The next phase was the entering of USA into the scene, kicking away EU-Germany as the problem-solver of the Yugoslav civil war. USA was pushed by its lobbies into it, going after several political and geostrategic interests into the game. The war could have stopped with Bosnia, but the Bosnian Muslim leader was told by USA that he is being backed up to wage that war ahead... The Bosnian Muslim leader also had the entire Islamic community wanting to create a Muslim country in Europe... USA destroyed the Serbs in Croatia, Bosnia and ended ripping sovereign territory of Serbia - Kosovo after allying with the independence seeking Albanians..., stabbing its flag with Camp Bondsteel. There are historical reasons why Yugoslavia fell apart, but it could have survived if there had been political will. We were as developed as Spain was, and we were just a couple of years far from EU... Flush away all those complicated explanations about the Yugoslav assembly, Yugoslav army being owned by Serbs, etc.... Perhaps the critical historical reason of the disintegration of Yugoslavia was that there was no historical catharses when it was formed after WW2. There were many unsolved accounts which were suppressed by the communists who came to power... and today there are even more unsolved accounts... Besides, also because there weren't many Chinese in it ;)