Administrative divisions of Yugoslavia
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Yugoslavia had various administrative divisions in different time periods.
1918–1922
From 1918 to 1922, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes continued to be subdivided into the pre–World War I divisions (districts, counties and kingdoms) of the Habsburg monarchy and the formerly independent Balkan kingdoms of the Serbia and the Montenegro.
The provinces (pokrajine) were:
- Slovenia
- Croatia and Slavonia
- Dalmatia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Banat, Bačka, Baranja
- Serbia
- Northern Serbia
- Southern Serbia
- Montenegro
1922–1929
The Vidovdan Constitution of 1921 established the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes as a unitary state and, in 1922, 33 new administrative oblasts (provinces) ruled from the center were instituted:
- Oblast of Banja Luka
- Oblast of Belgrade
- Oblast of Bihać
- Oblast of Bitola
- Oblast of Cetinje (Zeta Oblast)
- Oblast of Čačak (Raška Oblast)
- Oblast of Ćuprija
- Oblast of Dubrovnik
- Oblast of Karlovec
- Oblast of Kragujevac (Šumadija Oblast)
- Oblast of Kruševac
- Oblast of Ljubljana
- Oblast of Maribor
- Oblast of Mostar
- Oblast of Niš
- Oblast of Novi Sad (Bačka Oblast)
- Oblast of Osijek
- Oblast of Požarevac
- Oblast of Pristina (Kosovo Oblast)
- Oblast of Sarajevo
- Oblast of Smederevo (Podunavlje Oblast)
- Oblast of Split
- Oblast of Skopje
- Oblast of Šabac (Podrinje Oblast)
- Oblast of Štip
- Oblast of Travnik
- Oblast of Tuzla
- Oblast of Užice (Zlatibor Oblast?)
- Oblast of Valjevo
- Oblast of Vranje
- Oblast of Vukovar (Syrmia Oblast)
- Oblast of Zagreb
- Oblast of Zaječar (Timok Oblast)
1929–1941
From 1929, the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was renamed Kingdom of Yugoslavia and was subdivided into nine new provinces called banovinas. Their borders were intentionally drawn so that they would not correspond either to boundaries between ethnic groups, or to pre–World War I imperial borders. They were named after various geographic features, mostly rivers. Slight changes to their borders were made in 1931 with the new Yugoslav Constitution. The banovinas were as follow:
- Drava Banovina (Dravska banovina), with its capital in Ljubljana (1929–1941)
- Sava Banovina (Savska banovina), with its capital in Zagreb (1929–1939)
- Littoral Banovina (Primorska banovina), with its capital in Split (1929–1939)
- Vrbas Banovina (Vrbaska banovina), with its capital in Banja Luka (1929–1941)
- Drina Banovina (Drinska banovina), with its capital in Sarajevo (1929–1941)
- Zeta Banovina (Zetska banovina), with its capital in Cetinje (1929–1941)
- Danube Banovina (Dunavska banovina), with its capital in Novi Sad (1929–1941)
- Morava Banovina (Moravska banovina), with its capital in Niš (1929–1941)
- Vardar Banovina (Vardarska banovina), with its capital in Skopje (1929–1941)
- The City Administration of Belgrade, together with Zemun and Pančevo was also an administrative unit.
As an accommodation to Yugoslav Croats, the Banovina of Croatia (Banovina Hrvatska) was formed in 1939 from a merger of the Littoral (Maritime) and Sava Banovinas, with some additional territory from the Vrbas and Zeta Banovinas. Like Sava, its capital was Zagreb.
1941–1944
During World War II, Kingdom of Yugoslavia was occupied and partitioned by the Axis powers and was divided into 3 Axis puppet states:
- Independent State of Croatia
- Italian governorate of Montenegro (later German occupied territory of Montenegro)
- the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia (including autonomous German-ruled Banat)
Other parts of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia were occupied by German, Italian, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Albanian Axis troops.
1945–1992
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was divided into 6 republics and two autonomous provinces:
- Serbia (including autonomous provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo)
- Croatia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Macedonia
- Slovenia
- Montenegro
Federal subdivisions were further down divided into cities and srezs, second of which were constituted by several municipalities. In 1955 srez level units were abolished with only cities and municipalities remaining in place. Each Yugoslav republic was free to organize administrative and territorial divisions by its own laws enabling them to establish, merge or abolish local and regional units by their own decision.[1]
SR Serbia
In the Socialist Republic of Serbia the first post-World War II Law on the Administrative Division of Serbia was passed on September 1, 1945.[2] The following Law on People's Committees from 1946 introduced a complex system of local administration both with administrative and techno-functional units: settlement (village or small town), cities which are part of a wider srez, cities with srez status, okrugs and obasts.[2] The 1946 law did not mention municipalities and instead referred to local people's boards/units as the primary organizational structure.[2]
The first reform of the system was implemented in 1949 with the introduction of the new law with okrug's being abolished already in 1947 and oblasts in 1951.[2] 1952 General Law on People's Committees reintroduced municipalities and srezs as the primary units of administratie organization in Serbia with 2,206 municipalities, 47 city municipalities, 7 cities and 126 srez's.[2] With new legal provisions in 1955 the importance of municipalities increased while the rise in their number was stoped and decreased to 737 municipalities and 42 srez's.[2] 1963 Yugoslav Constitution defined municipalities as the basic socio-political community with rights defined by the constitution, aplicable law and local statutes.[2]
1974 Yugoslav Constitution requested municipalities to join into Inter-municipal regional communities to which they entrust certain rights and duties in the common interest and with the legal option to devolute certain responsibilities from the Sebrian deferal unit to the inter-municipal regional communities level.[2] The special constitutional provisions were given to the City of Belgrade.[2] Without provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo which organized their local self-government and the City of Belgrade, Central Serbia was divided into eight inter-municipal regional communities with 98 municipalities.[2] These eight communities were Niš with 15 member municipalities, Kraljevo with 15 municipalities, Podrinjskokolubarska with 14 municipalities, South Moravia with 13 municipalities, Šumadija and Pomoravlje with 12 municipalities, Podunavlje with 11 municipalities, Titovo Užice with 10 municipalities and Zaječar with 8 municipalities.[2]
SR Croatia
In the Socialist Republic of Croatia srez level units were known as kotars.[3] Socialist epoch was a period of numerous reforms and changes in administrative organization. 1947 law divided Croatia into 81 kotar, 18 cities and 2278 local people's boards/units.[3] In 1949 the Republic was divided into 6 oblasts (Bjelovar, Osijek, Karlovac, Rijeka, Split and Zagreb) and the City of Zagreb which remained in place only until 1951.[3]
In 1952 municipalities (općinas) were reintroduced alongside kotara and cities leading to significant reform in 1955 when the republic was divided into 299 municipalities and 27 kotars (decreasing the previous number of 737 municipalities and 96 kotars).[3] Number of municipalities was further decreased in following years reaching the number of 111 municipalities in 1963.[3] Kotars were abolished in 1967 while the new republican constitution of 1974 requested municipalities to join into Communities of Municipalities with participation becoming voluntary in 1988.[3] Following the first multi party elections and before formal independence administrative division turned into prominent issue leading to the Croatian War of Independence. 1990 construction introduced counties of Croatia and formally reintroduced (in practice never implemented) kotars in the case of Autonomous Kotar of Knin and Autonomous Kotar of Glina.[3] The new counties were effectively defined and introduced only in 1992.
SR Bosnia and Herzegovina
In February of 1942 the Supreme Headquarters of the Yugoslav Partisans introduced some of the first regulations on the formation, organization and work of the national liberation committees in the free territory known as the Foča Regulations which defined the local national liberation committees as a temporary organs of the people's government elected freely and directly by the electorate.[1] The first committees were formed in Bosanska Krajina and east Bosnia with their number rising to 911 village, 131 municipal, 19 srezs and one oblast (Herzegovina) committees in 1942.[1] At its second session in Sanski Most in 1944 the State Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina regulated local national liberation committees' elections, work and defined them as the "foundation of the people's government in Federal Bosnia and Herzegovina".[1]
In the imediate period after the World War II administrative units in Bosnia and Herzegovina were towns, urban settlements, city regions, cities, srezs and okrugs.[1] In 1946 SR Bosnia and Herzegovina was divided into 7 okrugs, 1 okrug level city, 78 srezs; 9 srez level cities as well as 1293 local people's committees with decrease in their number in the period from 1947 to 1948.[1] Between 1949 and 1950 the republic was divided into 4 oblasts (Tuzla, Sarajevo, Mostar, Banja Luka), 67 srezs, 14 cities which were not part of srezs, 26 towns which were part of srezs and 880 local people's committees, while in 1951 the first category of oblasts was abolished.[1] Between 1953 and 1955 when the new law on municipalities and srezs was introduced, 880 local people's committees were transformed into 363 municipalities while the number of srezs was reduced to 15 (srezs were abolished in 1966).[1] Over the years the initial number of 363 municipalities was reduced to 134 in 1959 and 122 in 1961 to 106 in 1966.[1] The number of municipalities was slightly increased to 109 ahead of the 1984 Winter Olympics when some new Sarajevo municipalities were etablished which will remain the number untill 1992.[1]
SR Macedonia
In 1953 the Socialist Republic of Macedonia was divided into 86 municipalities and 7 srezs.[4] 1963 constitutional changes abolished official competencies of srezs and decreased the number of municipalities to 32.[4]
Successor states
After dissolution of Yugoslavia, in 1991–1992, five successor states were formed:
- Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992–2003), in 2003 transformed into state union of Serbia and Montenegro, which in 2006 was dissolved into independent states of Serbia and Montenegro, in 2008 Kosovo[a] declared its independence from Serbia.
- Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina later Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Republic of Croatia
- Republic of Slovenia
- Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, in 2019 renamed to Republic of North Macedonia in order to comply with the Prespa agreement and solve the Macedonia naming dispute, also formerly known as The Republic of Macedonia before joining the United Nations.
Notes
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Mirko, Pejanović (2014). "Društveno-istorijski razvoj lokalne samouprave u Bosni i Hercegovini U XX stoljeću". Pregled (3): 27–70.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Đurđev, Aleksandar (2007). "Lokalna samouprava u Srbiji– od 1804. godine do tranzicije –" (PDF). Zbornik radova Pravnog fakulteta u Novom Sadu (1–2). University of Novi Sad Faculty of Law: 7–20.
- ^ a b c d e f g Žuljić, Stanko (2001). "Regionalno i teritorijalno ustrojstvo Hrvatske u razdoblju između godina 1945.-2000". Ekonomski pregled. 52 (1–2): 3–28.
- ^ a b Ljubica Jančeva; Aleksandar Litovski (2017). "Makedonija i Makedonci u Jugoslaviji: uspostavljanje sopstvenog identiteta" [Macedonia and Macedonians in Yugoslavia: Establishing Their Own Identity]. In Latinka Perović; Drago Roksandić; Mitja Velikonja; Wolfgang Hoepken; Florian Bieber (eds.). Jugoslavija u istorijskoj perspektivi [Yugoslavia in Historical Perspective]. Helsinki Federation for Human Rights Serbia. pp. 149–171. ISBN 978-86-7208-207-4.
