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The Quiet Librarian
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Background
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, death, child death, death by suicide, sexual violence, rape, child sexual abuse, pregnancy termination, racism, and religious discrimination.
Historical Context: The Breakup of Yugoslavia, the War in Bosnia, and the Srebrenica Genocide
Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe that existed from 1918 to 1992. It came into existence following World War I and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, and it was comprised of six constituent states: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia. After World War II, Yugoslavia formally became a communist nation and adopted the new name of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia. However, its ruler, Josip Broz Tito, quickly broke ties with Joseph Stalin, and Yugoslavia did not become a Soviet satellite state like many of the communist nations in central and eastern Europe. Yugoslavia enjoyed more economic success, freedom, and engagement with the West than other Eurasian communist countries, and Tito united his people under the banner of “Brotherhood and Unity.” Yugoslavs, although a mixture of six different ethno-national backgrounds, were encouraged to view themselves as “Yugos” (South Slavs) rather than as Slovenes, Croats, Bosnians, Serbs, Montenegrins, and Macedonians.
Tito died in 1980, after which ethnic tensions began to simmer and nationalism flourished. The spirit of “Brotherhood and Unity” that had united the six different constituent states began to fade, and a power struggle ensued. Additionally, tensions began to erupt in Kosovo, a region in southern Serbia that was home to a majority Albanian population.
