Random fact thread.

[MadArchitect]

One random historical/political fact per post. Feel free to jump in at any time.

Here's my fact:
After the abdication of Tito and prior to its dissolution in civil war last decade, Yugoslavia was a Communist/socialist republic made up of seven nations, each with their own president, each of whom served one year in rotation as the president of the whole Republic.

What a Byzantine political structure.

[Chris OConnor]

Wow, unusual system. What is "Tito?" Is that an acronym?

[MadArchitect]

Josip Broz Tito was the ruler of Yugoslavia from 1943, when he declared Yugoslavia a Communist Republic, until his death in 1980. He was a dictator, but much beloved by his nation. Yugoslav unity fell apart shortly after his death. That's about the time that latent nationalistic feeling began to well up. Six years later, the nations encompassed by the Republic started to turn on one another, beginning with the publication of a Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, which stoked the flame of Serbian nationalism. In the late seventies, Tito feared his own death and set up the rotating presidential system to replace him. It seemed to him the best way to maintain Yugoslav equality -- that is, the equality of the nations which made up the Yugoslav Republic -- but it had the side-effect of allowing myriad opportunities for Milosevic and Tudjman to exploit the system.

I've been reading a lot about the disintegration of Yugoslavia the last few months, and it's complex stuff, with a back history stretching to the beginning of the medieval period. It's interesting stuff, though, and I'd be glad to recommend a book or two if you're intrigued at all.