Yugoslavs : Ask Biography

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Yugoslavs (Serbo-Croatian: Jugoslaveni, Jugosloveni; Cyrillic script: Југословени; Slovene: Jugoslovani; Macedonian: Југословени) is a national designation used by a minority of South Slavs across the countries of the former Yugoslavia and in the diaspora.

In socialist Yugoslavia, 1943 � 1991, the official designation for those who declare themselves Yugoslav was with quotation marks, "Yugoslavs" (introduced in census 1971). Quotation marks distinguished the ethnicity from statehood (legal statuses such as citizenship), which was written without quotation marks.

Shortly before the dissolution of Yugoslavia, many of those who declared themselves Yugoslavs reverted to or adopted traditional nationalities such as Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Muslims by nationality, Slovenes—and those that were played down, including Janjevci, Bunjevci, and Šokci. Some also decided to turn to supra-national regional identifications, especially in multi-ethnic historical regions like Istria, Vojvodina, or Bosnia. The Yugoslav designation however continues to be used by some.