title: Krist Novoselic

text: Later in 1990, Melvins' singer-guitarist Buzz Osborne encouraged Novoselic and Cobain to check out a punk band called Scream. The pair were impressed by their drummer, Dave Grohl. A few weeks later, Scream disbanded, and Grohl placed a call to Osborne for advice. Osborne gave him Novoselic's phone number, and Novoselic invited Grohl up to Seattle (from San Francisco, where Scream broke up). Grohl passed the audition and joined Nirvana. Grohl was Nirvana's fifth and final drummer. Novoselic spent the following months with Nirvana traveling to various labels as the band shopped for a deal, eventually signing with DGC Records.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: In the spring of 1991, the band entered Sound City Studios in Los Angeles to record "Nevermind." Novoselic helped write the song "Polly". Upon its release, "Nevermind" (1991) exceeded all expectations and became a worldwide commercial success." Nevermind" had launched the band as a worldwide phenomenon with their hit single "Smells Like Teen Spirit".


title: Krist Novoselic

text: At the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, Nirvana would win awards for Best New Artist in a Video and Best Alternative Video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit." At the show, Nirvana performed "Lithium". When Novoselic started playing the opening bass riff, he signaled that he could not hear his bass. Instead of continuing to play, Novoselic threw his bass guitar in the air, to perform a "Bass Toss". He failed to catch it, later stating that he misjudged the height; he further stated that he "faked like he was knocked out." Musician Brian May ran to give him medical attention; he did not suffer any injuries.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: In 1992, Novoselic and the rest of Nirvana released a compilation album named "Incesticide". Novoselic helped write lyrics for the songs "Dive", "Hairspray Queen", and "Aneurysm" on the album. This album was produced by a joint venture between DGC and Sub Pop.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: During Nirvana's 1992 Reading concert, Novoselic sang Oakland punk band 'Fang's' "The Money Will Roll Right In" with Cobain. Novoselic was an occasional vocalist and backing vocalist in Nirvana, occasionally singing "Scoff" and "Rape Me" at live shows. Novoselic stated that "I kind of discovered my voice for the first time, and the more I did it, the better it got."


title: Krist Novoselic

text: In September 1993, Nirvana's third album "In Utero", debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. However, the recording sessions mixed by Steve Albini were criticized by the band members, saying some songs "didn't sound perfect", as well as the band agreeing that Novoselic's bass lines sounded "too low". "In Utero" sold 3.5 million copies in the United States. In November of that year, Nirvana performed on MTV Unplugged with Lori Goldston playing cello, the introduction of guitarist Pat Smear, and Novoselic playing acoustic bass guitar, accordion, and acoustic rhythm guitar. This live performance was released a year later as an album, named "MTV Unplugged in New York," which earned a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: Prior to their 1994 European tour, the band scheduled session time at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle to work on demos. For most of the three-day session, Cobain was absent, so Novoselic and Grohl worked on demos of their own songs. The duo completed several songs, including "Exhausted", "Big Me", "February Stars", and "Butterflies". On the third day of the session, Cobain finally arrived. The song "You Know You're Right" was the band's final studio recording.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: Nirvana ended abruptly in April 1994 following Cobain's death. For most of the rest of that year, Novoselic retreated from the spotlight. One of a few public appearances came that September at the MTV Video Music Awards, where the video for Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box" was awarded for Best Alternative Video. Novoselic took the opportunity to pay tribute to Cobain.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: Following the end of Nirvana, Novoselic worked on completing the "With the Lights Out" box set and "From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah" album, as well as pushing for release of a 20th anniversary album for "Nevermind".


title: Krist Novoselic

text: After Cobain's death, Novoselic continued to dabble in musical endeavors. He co-formed the band Sweet 75 with Venezuelan musician Yva Las Vegass in 1995, releasing a single self-titled album in 1997. In 1996, Novoselic joined singer Johnny Cash, guitarist Kim Thayil of Soundgarden and drummer Sean Kinney of Alice in Chains to record a cover of Willie Nelson's "Time of the Preacher", for the tribute album "Twisted Willie", released in January 1996. In 1998, Novoselic directed his first movie, "L7: ", a pseudo-documentary that utilizes concert footage taped in 1997 in three American cities. In 1999, he joined Jello Biafra and Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil in the No WTO Combo.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: In 2002, Novoselic performed uncredited background vocals on Foo Fighters' song "Walking a Line", written as a tribute to Cobain, during the "One by One" album sessions. The track is included on the "One by One" bonus DVD, as well as being a bonus track to the album. He then joined former Meat Puppets front man Curt Kirkwood and former Sublime drummer Bud Gaugh to form Eyes Adrift. In Australia, there was another group called "Eyes Adrift", and rather than pay to license that name, the trio called the band and album "Bud, Curt & Krist" in this nation. Eyes Adrift released a self-titled album with twelve songs, with the Japanese version including two extras. Eyes Adrift was the first official release in Krist's career where he sang lead vocals, singing lead on "Inquiring Minds", "Dottie Dawn & Julie Jewel" and "Pasted". They also released a single named "Alaska". He also took a highly active role in the songwriting process, co-writing several songs with Kirkwood. They toured mostly around the United States. The group disbanded in 2003.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: Following the end of Eyes Adrift, Novoselic announced that he was quitting the music business, noting that he disliked the process of building up publicity for new records. However, in 2005, Novoselic had occasionally worked on music for a possible solo album, noting, "Right now, I'm just doing it for myself, and that's what it's all about."


title: Krist Novoselic

text: In November 2006, it was announced that Novoselic would join Flipper, replacing Bruno DeSmartas on bass, for a tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland. He was a full-time member of the band and had been working on their new album. On September 22, 2008, because of responsibilities at home, Novoselic announced his departure from the band. As a result, the band canceled the remainder of the tour. Rachel Thoele then replaced Novoselic.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: In 2009, Novoselic played a newspaper vendor in the movie "World's Greatest Dad" starring Robin Williams. In October 2010, Dave Grohl, former Nirvana bandmate of Novoselic, announced live on BBC radio, that Novoselic would be joining Foo Fighters as a bassist and accordionist on their next album, "Wasting Light", which was released in 2011. Novoselic also played bass on children's music artist Caspar Babypants' 2010 album "This Is Fun!", for a cover of the Nirvana song "Sliver". In 2011, he performed "On a Plain" and "Sliver" with the band at the "Nevermind" 20th anniversary celebration in Seattle.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: In 2012, Novoselic and Grohl partnered with Paul McCartney on the song "Cut Me Some Slack", which was composed specially for "Sound City", directed by Grohl. The song was first shown on December 12, 2012, at the , which brought together music stars for the victims of Hurricane Sandy in New York. The song was received well by critics. Allmusic called it a "tune with an immediate hook [and] melody". The song won the Grammy award for Best Rock Song in 2014. The partnership was referred to as ""Sirvana"" by Novoselic, referring to "Sir Paul McCartney".


title: Krist Novoselic

text: On April 17, 2016, Novoselic performed "Helter Skelter" with Paul McCartney in Seattle as part of the One on One tour. In November 2016, Novoselic confirmed that he was in the process of writing new music. His current band is Giants in the Trees, formed in 2017, with band members Jillian Raye, Erik Friend and Ray Prestegard. He is also in the band Filthy Friends, playing bass and accordion. He also collaborates with Lepidopterist and author Robert Michael Pyle with the musical project Butterfly Launches from Spar Pole. In late July 2017, Giants in the Trees released their first song, "Sasquatch", which features a music video Novoselic joked as "costing over 2 million U.S. dollars to produce". Giants in the Trees' first album was released in late 2017. Giants In The Trees' second album, "Volume 2", was released in 2019.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: Novoselic has been currently working with musicians such as Soundgarden's Kim Thayil, alongside Matt Cameron, with production being handled by Jack Endino, as a new band, called 3rd Secret. A self-titled album was released in April 2022, with eleven songs recorded at The Bait Shop, in Ballard, Washington, as well as Novoselic's home.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: In 1994, Grohl founded a new band, Foo Fighters. He and Novoselic decided against Novoselic joining; Grohl said it would have felt "really natural" for them to work together again, but would have been uncomfortable for the other band members and placed more pressure on Grohl.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: During the encore of the Foo Fighters' show on August 29, 1997 at Memorial Stadium as part of the Bumbershoot festival, Novoselic played bass on covers of "Purple Rain" and "Communication Breakdown". In January 2002, Novoselic performed backing vocals for a non-album Foo Fighters track titled "Walking a Line", later released on a special edition of their album "One by One".


title: Krist Novoselic

text: During the encore of Foo Fighters' secret show at Paladino's in Tarzana, California on December 22, 2010, the band, with Grohl on drums, was joined onstage by Novoselic and the band's live guitarist Pat Smear for a version of Nirvana's "Marigold", a 1992 Grohl original, which was a B-side on Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box". Novoselic also recorded bass and accordion for the song "I Should Have Known", appearing on Foo Fighters' seventh studio album "Wasting Light".


title: Krist Novoselic

text: On December 5, 2017, Novoselic joined Foo Fighters on stage at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Oregon, to play bass guitar on "Big Me", a song from the Foo Fighters' debut album "Foo Fighters". Ten months later, on October 6, 2018, Novoselic joined the band during an encore to play several Nirvana songs, with Grohl on drums, Pat Smear on guitar, and John J. McCauley and Joan Jett filling in as their lead singer.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: A lifelong independent, Krist Novoselic was interested in politics at a very young age; this included the Northern Ireland conflict between Irish Nationalists and Unionists in Northern Ireland.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: In 1992, the Washington State Legislature attempted to pass a bill called the Erotic Music Law. The law would allow courts to declare certain albums "erotic" due to their content, and would make it illegal to sell those albums to anyone under the age of 18. A lobbying group called the Washington Music Industry Coalition formed as a response to the bill. Novoselic and Nirvana actively campaigned against the bill and performed a benefit concert for the lobbying group in September 1992. Krist appeared on KOMO-TVs "Town Meeting" as part of the campaign against this bill.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: In 1995, the Erotic Music Law was reintroduced to the Washington State Legislature as the Matters Harmful to Minors bill. Noting that the music industry had serious clout in Seattle given the success of the grunge scene, Novoselic proposed creating a political action committee, which was named JAMPAC (Joint Artists and Musicians Political Action Committee). Over the next several years, JAMPAC fought a number of different issues, including the Teen Dance Ordinance, a 1985 law that strictly limited the ability of minors to attend shows. With JAMPAC, Novoselic began to turn his focus more and more towards politics.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: Novoselic remains active in politics, advocating for electoral reform (especially instant-runoff voting and proportional representation). He considered a 2004 run for Lieutenant Governor of Washington as a Democrat, challenging an incumbent of the same party, but ultimately decided against it. He also joined the board of FairVote (then the Center for Voting and Democracy) and was appointed chair in January 2008.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: Novoselic's first book, "", was published in October 2004. It covers Novoselic's musical past, including Nirvana's rise to a worldwide phenomenon in the early 1990s. It also covers his interest in politics, his support of electoral reform, and his belief in the need to return to grassroots movements and clean up politics overall.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: He supported Democratic Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, and in the primary. He has since broken with the Democratic Party, partly because "it's a top-down structure" averse to reform from its grassroots. In 2007, he made a donation to libertarian Republican Congressman Ron Paul.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: He withdrew from the campaign for county clerk of Wahkiakum County. He was running under the "Grange Party," a reference to his membership in the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, although there is no such party. His run was intended as a protest against Washington State's party system, in which a candidate can claim any party (real or fictional) as their own without consent or support from the party. Novoselic continues to support political reform, even looking at social networks such as Facebook and Twitter as major factors in shaping the political future. He explained his support for fair voting reforms on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" in 2012.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: In an interview for "Reason TV", Novoselic was asked how he described his political views, and he responded, "I'm an anarcho-capitalist, socialist, moderate... I don't know" and continued to say that while his political views couldn't be easily categorized, he finds fault in the political philosophies of both the left and right-wing. On his blog, he supported Lawrence Lessig and his political campaign.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: During the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, Novoselic publicly supported and campaigned for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: In June 2020, Novoselic made a Facebook post discussing President Donald Trump's speech in response to unrest following the murder of George Floyd. He called Trump "strong and direct" but added that he "should not be sending troops into states". Following criticism, Novoselic made his Facebook page private and deleted his Twitter account. After receiving backlash for the original post, Novoselic clarified: "As an avowed independent, I don't endorse a major party or candidate. And it feels insane to have to say this, but I don't support fascism, and I don't support an authoritarian state. I believe in a civilized society and that we all have to work toward that."


title: Krist Novoselic

text: In 2004 Novoselic wrote a book titled: "Of Grunge and Government: Let's Fix This Broken Democracy!". The book is 103 pages long and is based around two main topics. One is about his days in Nirvana and relationship with Kurt Cobain. The other is his political side, describing his development as a political activist and stating why electoral reform is needed in particular proportional representation and instant runoff voting.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: In November 2007, Novoselic started writing blogs for the Seattle Weekly website. He stopped writing for Seattle Weekly in September 2010.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: Novoselic had a brief cameo in Bobcat Goldthwait's 2009 film "World's Greatest Dad" as a newspaper vendor.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: In 2014, ahead of Nirvana's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Novoselic and Dave Grohl made guest appearances on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon".


title: Krist Novoselic

text: In 1989, Novoselic married Shelli Hyrkas, whom he had dated in high school. They divorced in 1999. In early 2004, he married American artist Darbury Ayn Stenderu. Together they have two children. They reside on a farm near Deep River, Washington, where they grow their own food. Novoselic stated, "I live out in the country now and it's quiet and it's a place where I can think a lot."


title: Krist Novoselic

text: Novoselic is an FAA-licensed pilot, earning a single-engine land rating after passing his flight test in April 2002. He went on to earn a multi-engine pilot certificate in February 2018. He has a strong interest in animals, geology, nature, and other sciences.


title: Krist Novoselic

text: As of 2022, as stated on his website, Novoselic is working towards Environmental Justice for his MSL degree.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Craig Ferguson (born 17 May 1962) is a Scottish-American comedian, actor, writer, and television host. He is best known for hosting the CBS late-night talk show "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" (2005–2014), for which he won a Peabody Award in 2009 for his interview with South African archbishop Desmond Tutu that year. He also hosted the syndicated game show "Celebrity Name Game" (2014–2017), for which he won two Daytime Emmy Awards, and "Join or Die with Craig Ferguson" (2016) on History. In 2017 he released a six-episode web show with his wife, Megan Wallace Cunningham, titled "Couple Thinkers".


title: Craig Ferguson

text: After starting his career in the UK with music, comedy, and theatre, Ferguson moved to the U.S., where he appeared in the role of Nigel Wick on the ABC sitcom "The Drew Carey Show" (1996–2004). Ferguson has written three books: "Between the Bridge and the River", a novel; "American on Purpose", a memoir; and "Riding the Elephant: A Memoir of Altercations, Humiliations, Hallucinations & Observations". He holds both British and American citizenship.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: He has written and starred in three films, directing one of them, and has appeared in several others, including several voice-over roles for animations. He provided voice work for Gobber in the "How to Train Your Dragon" film series (2010–2019), Owl in "Winnie the Pooh" (2011) and Lord Macintosh in "Brave" (2012).


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Ferguson was born in Stobhill Hospital in the Springburn district of Glasgow, to Robert and Janet Ferguson on 17 May 1962. When he was 6 months old, he and his family moved from their Springburn flat to a Development Corporation house in the nearby New Town of Cumbernauld, where he grew up "chubby and bullied". They lived there as Cumbernauld was rehousing many Glaswegians away from the poor housing conditions and damage to the city from World War II. Ferguson attended Muirfield Primary School and Cumbernauld High School. At age 16, Ferguson left high school and began an apprenticeship to be an electronics technician at a local factory of American company Burroughs Corporation.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: His first visit to the United States was in 1975, when he was 13, to visit an uncle who lived on Long Island, near New York City. When he moved to New York City in 1983, he worked in construction in Harlem. Ferguson later became a bouncer at the nightclub Save the Robots before returning to Scotland.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Ferguson's experience in entertainment began as a teenager as a drummer for Glasgow punk bands such as the Night Creatures and Exposure. Shortly afterward, he had a brief stint as a drummer for the post-punk band Ana Hausen, who released a single for Human Records in 1981. He then joined a punk band called The Bastards from Hell. The band, later renamed Dreamboys, and fronted by vocalist Peter Capaldi, performed regularly in Glasgow from 1980 to 1982. Ferguson credits Capaldi for inspiring him to try comedy. When he was 18, he worked as a session musician and performed as a drummer for Nico during a few gigs when she toured Scotland.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: After a nerve-racking first comedy appearance, he decided to create a character that he described as a "parody of all the über-patriotic native folk singers who seemed to infect every public performance in Scotland". The character was named "Bing Hitler" by Capaldi. Ferguson first performed as the character in Glasgow, and he later became a hit at the 1986 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. However, by the end of the year, Ferguson was already discussing his intention to retire Bing. At the press launch for an alternative pantomime of Sleeping Beauty (which he had co-written with Capaldi), he said "you can't write for just one character forever". A recording of his stage act as Bing Hitler was made at Glasgow's Tron Theatre and released in the 1980s; a Bing Hitler monologue ("A Lecture for Burns Night") appears on the compilation cassette "Honey at the Core."


title: Craig Ferguson

text: After enjoying success at the Edinburgh Festival, Ferguson appeared on television as 'Confidence' in "Red Dwarf", on STV's "Hogmanay Shows", and on the 1993 "One Foot in the Grave" Christmas special "One Foot in the Algarve." In 1990, a pilot of "The Craig Ferguson Show", a one-off comedy pilot for Granada Television, was broadcast. It co-starred Paul Whitehouse and Helen Atkinson-Wood. In 1991, Channel 4 asked him to host "Friday at the Dome", a 75-minute live music show. In 1992, he was given his own BBC Scotland show, "2000 Not Out".


title: Craig Ferguson

text: In 1993, he presented a six-part archaeology TV series, "The Dirt Detective", for STV. Also in 1993, he was given a six-part TV series on BBC One. "The Ferguson Theory" was a mix of stand-up and sketches recorded the day before transmission. In 2017, it was announced that he would return to UK television for the first time in 25 years in a guest role in BBC Scotland's comedy "Still Game," to be shown in 2018.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Ferguson also found success in musical theatre. Beginning in 1991, he appeared on stage as Brad Majors in the London production of "The Rocky Horror Show". In 1994, Ferguson played Father MacLean in production of "Bad Boy Johnny and the Prophets of Doom" at the Union Chapel in London. The same year, he appeared again at the Edinburgh Fringe, as Oscar Madison in "The Odd Couple".


title: Craig Ferguson

text: In 2022, Ferguson's film "Saving Grace" (2000) was announced to be adapted into a stage musical aimed for a 2023 run in West End. Ferguson will portray a "villainous banker" in the adaptation. The musical was adapted by April De Angelis from Ferguson and Mark Crowdy's screenplay with music by KT Tunstall.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Ferguson moved to Los Angeles in November 1994, after his soon-to-be agent Rick Siegel saw Ferguson during the Edinburgh Festival and suggested that he come to America. His first US role was as baker Logan McDonough on the short-lived 1995 ABC comedy "Maybe This Time", which starred Betty White and Marie Osmond.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: His breakthrough in the US came when he was cast on "The Drew Carey Show" as the title character's boss, Mr. Wick, a role he played from 1996 to 2003. He played the role with an over-the-top posh English accent "to make up for generations of English actors doing crap Scottish accents". In his comedy special "A Wee Bit o' Revolution", he specifically identified James Doohan's portrayal of Montgomery Scott on "" as the foundation of his "revenge". (At the end of one episode, though, Ferguson broke the fourth wall and began talking to the audience at home in his regular Scottish accent.) His character was memorable for his unique methods of laying employees off, almost always "firing Johnson", the most common last name of the to-be-fired workers. Even after leaving the show in 2003, he remained a recurring character on the series for the last two seasons, and was part of the two-part series finale in 2004.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: During the production of "The Drew Carey Show", Ferguson devoted his off-time as a cast member to writing, working in his trailer on set in between shooting his scenes. He wrote and starred in three films: "The Big Tease", "Saving Grace", and "I'll Be There"; he also directed the latter, for which he won the Audience Award for Best Film at the Aspen, Dallas, and Valencia film festivals. He was named Best New Director at the Napa Valley Film Festival. These were among other scripts that, "in the great tradition of the movie business, about half a dozen that I got paid a fortune for but never got made."


title: Craig Ferguson

text: His other acting credits in films include "Niagara Motel", "Lenny the Wonder Dog", "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events", "Chain of Fools", "Born Romantic", "The Ugly Truth", "Kick-Ass", and, as a voice-over actor, "How to Train Your Dragon", "How to Train Your Dragon 2", "Brave", and "Winnie the Pooh".


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Ferguson has been touring the United States and Canada with a comedy show since the late 2000s, including a performance at Carnegie Hall on 23 October 2010 and a performance at Radio City Music Hall on 6 October 2012. He has performed two stand-up television specials on Comedy Central, both released on DVD: "A Wee Bit o' Revolution" in 2009 and "Does This Need to Be Said?" in 2011. His third comedy special, "I'm Here to Help", was released on Netflix in 2013, garnering positive reviews of 4 out of 5 stars on Netflix and peaking at number 6 on Billboard top comedy albums. It also received a 2014 Grammy Award nomination for Best Comedy Album.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Ferguson was awarded the Peter Ustinov Comedy Award by the Banff World Media Festival on 11 June 2013.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: In December 2004, it was announced that Ferguson would succeed Craig Kilborn on CBS's "The Late Late Show". His first show as the regular host aired on 3 January 2005. The show was unique in that it had no "human" sidekicks such as Ed McMahon on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" or Conan O'Brien's Andy Richter. He had a remotely operated robot skeleton named Geoff Peterson and two silent performers in a pantomime horse costume that were added in 2010. His monologues were conducted within a few feet of the camera versus the long distance Johnny Carson kept from the camera and audience.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: "The Late Late Show" averaged 2.0 million viewers in its 2007 season, compared with 2.5 million for "Late Night with Conan O'Brien". In April 2008, "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" beat "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" for weekly ratings (1.88 million to 1.77 million) for the first time since the two shows went head-to-head with their respective hosts.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: In March 2009, Craig Ferguson topped Jimmy Fallon in the ratings with Ferguson getting a 1.8 rating/6 share and Fallon receiving a 1.6 rating/6 share. By 2014, Ferguson's ratings had faltered, trailing those of "Late Night with Seth Meyers" with an average of 1.35 million viewers versus 2.02 million.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: On 28 April 2014, Ferguson announced he would leave "The Late Late Show" at the end of 2014, with the final episode airing on 19 December. His contract was set to expire in June 2014, but a six-month extension was agreed on to provide a more graceful exit and give CBS more time to find a replacement host. He reportedly received as part of his contract because he was not selected as the replacement for David Letterman's "Late Show". Ferguson made the decision prior to Letterman's announcement but agreed to delay making his own decision public until the reaction to Letterman's decision had died down. CBS Entertainment Chair Nina Tassler said, following the announcement, that in his decade as host Ferguson had "infused the broadcast with tremendous energy, unique comedy, insightful interviews and some of the most heartfelt monologues seen on television." CBS continued the franchise with James Corden as the new host.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Craig Ferguson has made guest appearances on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", "Late Show with David Letterman", "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", "Rachael Ray", "Countdown with Keith Olbermann", "The Howard Stern Show", "The Daily Show", "The View", "Loveline", "Real Time with Bill Maher", "The Soup", "The Talk", "The Price Is Right", "Kevin Pollak's Chat Show", "The Dennis Miller Show" and "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert". He also co-hosted "Live with Regis & Kelly" with Kelly Ripa and was guest host on the April Fools' Day episode of "The Price Is Right" in 2014.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: In 2009, Ferguson made a cameo live-action appearance in the episode "We Love You, Conrad" on "Family Guy". Ferguson hosted the 32nd annual People's Choice Awards on 10 January 2006. "TV Guide" magazine printed a "Cheers" (Cheers and Jeers section) for appearing on his own show that same evening. From 2007 to 2010, Ferguson hosted the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular on 4 July, broadcast nationally by CBS. Ferguson was the featured entertainer at 26 April 2008 White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, DC.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Ferguson co-presented the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama with Brooke Shields in 2008. He has done voice work in cartoons, including being the voice of Barry's evil alter-ego in the "With Friends Like Steve's" episode of "American Dad!"; in "Freakazoid!" as Roddy MacStew, Freakazoid's mentor; and on "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command" as the robot vampire NOS-4-A2. He was the voice of Susan the boil on "Futurama", which was a parody of Scottish singer Susan Boyle. He makes stand-up appearances in Las Vegas and New York City. He headlined in the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal and in October 2008 Ferguson taped his stand up show in Boston for a Comedy Central special entitled "A Wee Bit o' Revolution", which aired on 22 March 2009.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: British television comedy drama "Doc Martin" was based on a character from Ferguson's film "Saving Grace" – with Ferguson getting writing credits for 12 episodes. On 6 November 2009, Ferguson appeared as himself in a "SpongeBob SquarePants" special titled "SpongeBob's Truth or Square". He hosted Discovery Channel's 23rd season of Shark Week in 2010. Ferguson briefly appeared in Toby Keith's "Red Solo Cup" music video released on 10 October 2011.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: In September 2013, Ferguson guest-starred on the season finale of "Hot in Cleveland" as a priest/tabloid journalist who turns out to be the father of Joy's (Jane Leeves) son. The show reunited him with former co-star and frequent "Late Late Show" guest Betty White. Ferguson reprised the role for several episodes when the show returned in March 2014.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: In October 2013, it was announced that Ferguson would host the syndicated game show "Celebrity Name Game", produced by Coquette Productions, beginning in late 2014. Ferguson's involvement in the project dates back to 2011, when it was originally pitched and piloted as a CBS primetime series. , the series had an initial order of 180 episodes. The syndicated series began airing on 22 September 2014. Ferguson won Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Game Show Host for "Celebrity Name Game" in 2015 and 2016. On 2 December 2016, it was announced that the series would end after three seasons.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Ferguson signed in 2015 to play Prentiss Porter in "The King of 7B", a comedy pilot for ABC. However, the show was not picked up.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: On 18 February 2016, Ferguson began to host a historical talk show on History titled "Join or Die with Craig Ferguson". The title is a reference to a Benjamin Franklin political cartoon published in the "Pennsylvania Gazette" on 9 May 1754, which Ferguson had tattooed on his forearm after becoming an American citizen. Ferguson and a three-guest panel of comedians and historians conduct a humorous discussion of a different topic on each episode, such as the most doomed presidential campaign, greatest Founding Father and greatest invention, with viewers invited to share their opinions via Twitter.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Since January 2021, Ferguson has hosted the American game show "The Hustler", which airs on ABC. The show follows five contestants who collaborate to build up a cash prize by answering a series of trivia questions presented by Ferguson, while one of the contestants is secretly designated as the Hustler beforehand and given the answers to all the questions.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: By the end of the game, two of the honest contestants have been eliminated; the other two must correctly choose the Hustler in order to stop the Hustler from winning the entire prize. The series premiered on January 4, 2021, before moving to its regular timeslot on January 7, 2021, airing on Thursdays at 10 p.m. In April 2022, it was reported that the series was cancelled, having aired 19 episodes across two seasons.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: On 27 February 2017, Ferguson launched "The Craig Ferguson Show", a two-hour talk radio show on the Comedy Greats channel and Faction Talk on SiriusXM Satellite Radio. His last new show aired 11 May 2018.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Ferguson's novel "Between the Bridge and the River" was published on 10 April 2006. He appeared at the Los Angeles Festival of Books, as well as other author literary events. "This book could scare them", he said. "The sex, the violence, the dream sequences and the iconoclasm. I think a lot of people are uncomfortable with that. I understand that. It was very uncomfortable to write some of it." The novel is dedicated to his elder son, Milo, and to his grandfather, Adam. He revealed in an interview that he is writing a sequel to the book, to be titled "The Sphynx of the Mississippi". He also stated in a 2006 interview with David Letterman that he intends the book to be the first in a trilogy. As of February 2019, Ferguson has produced no further novels, although he has published non-fiction.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Ferguson signed a deal with HarperCollins to publish his memoirs. The book, entitled "American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot", focuses on "how and why [he] became an American" and covers his years as a punk rocker, dancer, bouncer and construction worker as well as the rise of his career in Hollywood as an actor and comic. It went on sale 22 September 2009 in the United States. On 1 December 2010 the audiobook version was nominated for a Best Spoken Word Album Grammy.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: In July 2009, Jackie Collins was a guest on "The Late Late Show" to promote her new book "Married Lovers". Collins said a character in her book, Don Verona, was based on Ferguson because she was such a fan of him and his show.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Ferguson wrote a short story for "In Sunlight or in Shadow" (2017, Pegasus Crime), an anthology edited by Lawrence Block and featuring works inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper (1882-1967). Block is a favorite writer of Ferguson's and appeared multiple times on "The Late Late Show".


title: Craig Ferguson

text: On 10 October 2018, Ferguson announced his third book via Twitter, "Riding the Elephant: A Memoir of Altercations, Humiliations, Hallucinations, and Observations" which released 7 May 2019.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Ferguson is a fan of Scottish football team Partick Thistle F.C. as well as the television show "Doctor Who". He holds an FAA private pilot certificate, issued in 2009. He has five tattoos which include the Join, or Die political cartoon on his right forearm; a Ferguson family crest with the Latin motto "Dulcius ex asperis" ("Sweeter out of [or from] difficulty") on his upper right arm in honour of his father; and a Celtic cross with the Ingram clan motto "Magnanimus esto" ("Be great of mind") on his upper left arm in honour of his mother. He has often said that his "Join, or Die" tattoo is intended to signal his American patriotism. Ferguson returned to live in Scotland in 2019.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Ferguson is a vegan (having stated in 2016 that he had been vegan for almost three years). He is a recovering alcoholic and has been sober since 1992.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: As mentioned in episode 7 of his television show Join or Die, Ferguson also plays the harp (although not well and was kicked out of the band as a result).


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Ferguson has stated that his comedy influences include Monty Python, Marx Brothers, The Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy and David Letterman.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Ferguson eulogised his father Robert on an episode of "The Late Late Show" in January 2006. Following the death of his mother Janet (3 August 1933 – 1 December 2008), he spoke of her on-air, ending the programme by playing her favourite song: "Rivers of Babylon" by Boney M.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Ferguson has two sisters (one older and one younger) and one older brother. His younger sister, Lynn Ferguson Tweddle, is also a comedian, presenter and actress, who voiced Mac in the 2000 stop-motion animation film "Chicken Run". She was a writer on "The Late Late Show" until July 2011.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Ferguson was in a relationship with the actress Helen Atkinson-Wood for 5 years. He has married three times and divorced twice. His first marriage was to Anne Hogarth from 1983 to 1986, during which time they lived in New York. His second marriage was to Sascha Corwin (founder and proprietor of Los Angeles' SpySchool), with whom he has one child, born in 2001. He and Corwin shared custody of their child, and lived near each other in the Hollywood Hills. Ferguson married art dealer Megan Wallace-Cunningham in a private ceremony on her family's farm in Chester, Vermont in 2008. They have a son together, Liam, who was born in 2011.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: During 2007, Ferguson, who at the time held only British citizenship, used "The Late Late Show" as a forum for seeking honorary citizenship from every state in the US. He received honorary citizenship from Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wyoming, and was "commissioned" as an admiral in the tongue-in-cheek Nebraska Navy. Governors Jon Corzine (New Jersey), John Hoeven (North Dakota), Mark Sanford (South Carolina), Mike Rounds (South Dakota), Rick Perry (Texas), Sarah Palin (Alaska) and Jim Gibbons (Nevada) sent letters to him that made him an honorary citizen of their respective states. He received similar honours from various towns and cities, including Ozark, Arkansas; Hazard, Kentucky; and Greensburg, Pennsylvania.


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Ferguson became an American citizen on 1 February 2008 and broadcast the taking of his citizenship test as well as his swearing in on "The Late Late Show".


title: Craig Ferguson

text: Ferguson moved back to his native Scotland in 2019, and has been trying to sell his Los Angeles home.


title: Robert Evans

text: Robert Evans (born Robert J. Shapera; June 29, 1930October 26, 2019) was an American film producer, studio executive, and actor, best known for his work on "Rosemary's Baby" (1968), "Love Story" (1970), "The Godfather" (1972), and "Chinatown" (1974).


title: Robert Evans

text: Evans began his career in a successful business venture with his brother, selling women's apparel. In 1956, while on a business trip, he was by chance spotted by actress Norma Shearer, who thought he would be right to play the role of her late husband Irving Thalberg in "Man of a Thousand Faces" (1957). Thus he began a brief film acting career. In 1962, Evans went into film producing instead, using his accumulated wealth from the clothing business, and began a meteoric rise in the industry. He was made head of Paramount Pictures in 1967. While there, he improved the ailing Paramount's fortunes through a string of commercially and critically acclaimed films. In 1974, he stepped down to produce films on his own.


title: Robert Evans

text: In 1980, Evans's career, and life, took a downturn after pleading guilty to cocaine trafficking, and over the next 12 years, produced only two films, both financial flops: "The Cotton Club" (1984) and the "Chinatown" sequel "The Two Jakes" (1990). In 1993, he produced films on a more regular basis, with a mixed track record that included both flops (such as "Jade" in 1995) and hits (such as "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" in 2003, his final film credit).


title: Robert Evans

text: Evans was born in New York City, New York, the son of Florence (née Krasne), a housewife who came from a wealthy family, and Archie Shapera, a dentist in Harlem. He described both of his parents as "second-generation Jews". He grew up on New York City's Upper West Side during the 1930s, where he was better off than most people living during the Great Depression. In his early years, he did promotional work for Evan-Picone, a fashion company founded by his brother Charles. After high school, he did a variety of voice work on radio. With a clear, deep voice as a teenager and a knack for foreign accents, by his estimation he performed in more than 300 radio shows before he turned 18. This included a leading role on "The Aldrich Family" situation comedy.


title: Robert Evans

text: He was spotted by actress Norma Shearer next to the pool at The Beverly Hills Hotel on November 6, 1956. She successfully touted him for the role of her late husband Irving Thalberg in "Man of a Thousand Faces". The same year, Evans also caught the eye of Darryl F. Zanuck, who cast him as Pedro Romero in the 1957 film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises", against the wishes of co-star Ava Gardner and Hemingway himself. In 1959, he appeared in Twentieth Century Fox's production of "The Best of Everything" with Hope Lange, Diane Baker and Joan Crawford.


title: Robert Evans

text: Dissatisfied with his own acting talent, he was determined to become a producer. He got his start by purchasing the rights to a 1966 novel titled "The Detective" which Evans made into a movie starring Frank Sinatra, Lee Remick, Jack Klugman, Robert Duvall and Jacqueline Bisset, in 1968. Peter Bart, a writer for "The New York Times", wrote an article about Evans's aggressive production style. This got Evans noticed by Charles Bluhdorn, who was head of the Gulf+Western conglomerate, and hired Evans as production vice-president in 1966 as part of a shakeup at Paramount Pictures (which included Bart, whom Evans would recruit as a Paramount executive).


title: Robert Evans

text: When Evans took over as head of production for Paramount, the floundering studio was the ninth largest. Despite his inexperience, Evans was able to turn the studio around. He made Paramount the most successful studio in Hollywood and transformed it into a very profitable enterprise for Gulf+Western. During his tenure at Paramount, the studio turned out films such as "Barefoot in the Park", "The Odd Couple", "Romeo and Juliet", "Rosemary's Baby", "The Italian Job", "True Grit", "Love Story", "Harold and Maude", "The Godfather", "The Godfather Part II", "Serpico", "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever", "Save the Tiger", "The Conversation", "Chinatown", "The Great Gatsby", and many others.


title: Robert Evans

text: Dissatisfied with his financial compensation and desiring to produce films under his own banner, Evans struck a deal with Paramount in 1972 that enabled him to stay on as executive vice president of worldwide production while also working as an independent producer on five films. Other producers at Paramount felt this gave Evans an unfair advantage. After the huge critical and commercial success of the Evans-produced "Chinatown", he stepped down as production chief, which enabled him to produce films on his own. From 1976 to 1980, working as an independent producer, he continued his streak of successful films with "Marathon Man", "Black Sunday", "Popeye" and "Urban Cowboy". After 1980, his film output became both more infrequent and less critically acclaimed. He produced only two films over the next twelve years: "The Cotton Club" and "The Two Jakes". From 1993 to 2003 he produced the films "Sliver", "Jade", "The Phantom", "The Saint", and "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days".


title: Robert Evans

text: Evans produced and provided the voice for his eponymous character in the 2003 animated series "Kid Notorious". In 2004 Evans hosted a Sirius Satellite Radio show, "In Bed with Robert Evans". In 2009, Evans was in talks to produce a film about auto executive John DeLorean, as well as an HBO miniseries titled "The Devil and Sidney Korshak". Neither project came to fruition.


title: Robert Evans

text: Paramount in July 2019 did not renew its contract with Robert Evans Productions, which had been in place since 1974 after Evans stepped down from running the studio. Evans had a staff of three and had been working from his Woodland estate in Beverly Hills because of poor health.


title: Robert Evans

text: In the early 1980s, Evans was introduced to theatrical impresario Roy Radin, a producer of traveling musical and comedy revues, by cocaine dealer Karen Greenberger (aka Lanie Jacobs). Radin was trying to break into the film industry with a movie about the legendary New York nightclub, the Cotton Club. The deal arranged on the film "The Cotton Club" mandated that Evans and Radin establish a production company in which each would own 45% of the film with the remaining 10% split between two other parties. Radin offered Greenberger (aka Jacobs) a $50,000 finder's fee for her efforts, which she found unsatisfactory.


title: Robert Evans

text: As "The Cotton Club" film financing was being arranged, the 33-year-old Radin was murdered in 1983. Contract killer William Mentzer was among four people sentenced for shooting Radin multiple times in the head and using dynamite to make identification by authorities more challenging. At the trial, Karen Greenberger was convicted of second-degree murder and kidnapping. Her involvement was said to be over a fear of being cut out of a producer's role and potential profits from the "Cotton Club". As a result, the murder court case of Radin was dubbed the "Cotton Club" murder trial.


title: Robert Evans

text: Under the advice of his attorney Robert Shapiro, Evans refused to testify during a May 1989 preliminary hearing, invoking the Fifth Amendment to avoid incriminating himself. Police reports that had been submitted to obtain search warrants indicated at least two witnesses said Evans was involved in the Radin murder.


title: Robert Evans

text: Greenberger testified during her 1991 trial that Evans was not involved in the murder. She also claimed during her trial that she had been Evans's lover.


title: Robert Evans

text: Evans was convicted of cocaine trafficking in 1980. He entered a guilty plea to a misdemeanor in federal court after being arrested for engineering a large cocaine buy with his brother Charles. As part of his plea bargain, he filmed an anti-drug TV commercial. The alleged drug dealing, which Evans continued to deny (the misdemeanor was later wiped from his record), came out of his own involvement with the drug. He told the "Philadelphia Inquirer" in a 1994 interview, "Bob 'Cocaine' Evans is how I'll be known to my grave". He argues that he never should have been convicted of federal selling and distribution charges, as he was only a user.


title: Robert Evans

text: Evans married seven times. He first married Sharon Hugueny in 1961, staying with her until 1962. Subsequently, he married Camilla Sparv (1964–1967), Ali MacGraw (1969–1973), Phyllis George (1977–1978), Catherine Oxenberg (1998), Leslie Ann Woodward (2002–2004), and Victoria White (2005–2006). Evans's marriage to Oxenberg was annulled after nine days. He married his seventh wife, Victoria White O'Gara (widow of Lord White), while in Mexico, in August 2005 shortly after his 75th birthday. She filed for divorce on June 16, 2006, citing irreconcilable differences.


title: Robert Evans

text: Evans's brother Charles Evans (1926–2007) was a businessman involved in clothing, real estate, promoting fire detectors and was also an occasional film producer ("Tootsie", 1982, "Monkey Shines", 1988 and "Showgirls", 1995). His nephew Charles Evans, Jr. is a documentary producer. His sister, Alice Shure, who was associate producer on "Without a Trace" (1983), has produced other films, and founded documentary film production companies. His nephew, Michael Shure, is Senior National Correspondent for i24NEWS.


title: Robert Evans

text: On May 6, 1998, during a dinner party in honor of director Wes Craven, Evans suffered a stroke while giving a toast, and was rushed to nearby Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Evans flatlined in the ambulance, but was resuscitated. Suffering a series of three strokes in quick succession, he was left paralyzed on his right side and completely unable to speak. During his hospital stay, he was encouraged by media mogul and friend Sumner Redstone, who stayed at his bedside, to work on his speech and recovery. A few days after Evans's stroke, Frank Sinatra died from a heart attack in one of the adjoining rooms at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Witnessing his body being taken away, Evans said it was an event that furthered his desire to recover.


title: Robert Evans

text: Evans eventually regained his ability to talk and returned to producing. From 2013, he relied on a cane for shorter walks and had limited mobility.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia split apart, but the unresolved issues caused bitter inter-ethnic Yugoslav wars. The wars primarily affected Bosnia and Herzegovina, neighbouring parts of Croatia and, some years later, Kosovo.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: After the Allied victory in World War II, Yugoslavia was set up as a federation of six republics, with borders drawn along ethnic and historical lines: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. In addition, two autonomous provinces were established within Serbia: Vojvodina and Kosovo. Each of the republics had its own branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia party and a ruling elite, and any tensions were solved on the federal level. The Yugoslav model of state organisation, as well as a "middle way" between planned and liberal economy, had been a relative success, and the country experienced a period of strong economic growth and relative political stability up to the 1980s, under Josip Broz Tito. After his death in 1980, the weakened system of federal government was left unable to cope with rising economic and political challenges.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In the 1980s, Albanians of Kosovo started to demand that their autonomous province be granted the status of a constituent republic, starting with the 1981 protests. Ethnic tensions between Albanians and Kosovo Serbs remained high over the whole decade, which resulted in the growth of Serb opposition to the high autonomy of provinces and ineffective system of consensus at the federal level across Yugoslavia, which were seen as an obstacle for Serb interests. In 1987, Slobodan Milošević came to power in Serbia, and through a series of populist moves acquired "de facto" control over Kosovo, Vojvodina, and Montenegro, garnering a high level of support among Serbs for his centralist policies. Milošević was met with opposition by party leaders of the western constituent republics of Slovenia and Croatia, who also advocated greater democratisation of the country in line with the Revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe. The League of Communists of Yugoslavia dissolved in January 1990 along federal lines. Republican communist organisations became the separate socialist parties.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: During 1990, the socialists (former communists) lost power to ethnic separatist parties in the first multi-party elections held across the country, except in Serbia and Montenegro, where Milošević and his allies won. Nationalist rhetoric on all sides became increasingly heated. Between June 1991 and April 1992, four constituent republics declared independence (only Serbia and Montenegro remained federated). Germany took the initiative and recognized the independence of Croatia and Slovenia. But the status of ethnic Serbs outside Serbia and Montenegro, and that of ethnic Croats outside Croatia, remained unsolved. After a string of inter-ethnic incidents, the Yugoslav Wars ensued, first in Croatia and then, most severely, in multi-ethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina. The wars left economic and political damage in the region that is still felt there decades later.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Yugoslavia occupied a significant portion of the Balkan Peninsula, including a strip of land on the east coast of the Adriatic Sea, stretching southward from the Bay of Trieste in Central Europe to the mouth of Bojana as well as Lake Prespa inland, and eastward as far as the Iron Gates on the Danube and Midžor in the Balkan Mountains, thus including a large part of Southeast Europe, a region with a history of ethnic conflict.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The important elements that fostered the discord involved contemporary and historical factors, including the formation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the first breakup and subsequent inter-ethnic and political wars and genocide during World War II, ideas of Greater Albania, Greater Croatia and Greater Serbia and conflicting views about Pan-Slavism, and the unilateral recognition by a newly reunited Germany of the breakaway republics.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Before World War II, major tensions arose from the first, monarchist Yugoslavia's multi-ethnic make-up and relative political and demographic domination of the Serbs. Fundamental to the tensions were the different concepts of the new state. The Croats and Slovenes envisaged a federal model where they would enjoy greater autonomy than they had as a separate crown land under Austria-Hungary. Under Austria-Hungary, both Slovenes and Croats enjoyed autonomy with free hands only in education, law, religion, and 45% of taxes. The Serbs tended to view the territories as a just reward for their support of the allies in World War I and the new state as an extension of the Kingdom of Serbia.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Tensions between the Croats and Serbs often erupted into open conflict, with the Serb-dominated security structure exercising oppression during elections and the assassination in the National Assembly of Croat political leaders, including Stjepan Radić, who opposed the Serbian monarch's absolutism. The assassination and human rights abuses were subject of concern for the Human Rights League and precipitated voices of protest from intellectuals, including Albert Einstein. It was in this environment of oppression that the radical insurgent group (later fascist dictatorship) the Ustaše were formed.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: During World War II, the country's tensions were exploited by the occupying Axis forces which established a Croat puppet state spanning much of present-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Axis powers installed the Ustaše as the leaders of the Independent State of Croatia.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The Ustaše resolved that the Serbian minority were a fifth column of Serbian expansionism, and pursued a policy of persecution against the Serbs. The policy dictated that one-third of the Serbian minority were to be killed, one-third expelled, and one-third converted to Catholicism and assimilated as Croats. Conversely, the Chetniks pursued their own campaign of persecution against non-Serbs in parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Sandžak per the Moljević plan ("On Our State and Its Borders") and the orders issues by Draža Mihailović which included "[t]he cleansing of all nation understandings and fighting".


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Both Croats and Muslims were recruited as soldiers by the "SS" (primarily in the 13th "Waffen" Mountain Division). At the same time, former royalist, General Milan Nedić, was installed by the Axis as head of the puppet government and local Serbs were recruited into the Gestapo and the Serbian Volunteer Corps, which was linked to the German Waffen-SS. Both quislings were confronted and eventually defeated by the communist-led, anti-fascist Partisan movement composed of members of all ethnic groups in the area, leading to the formation of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The official Yugoslav post-war estimate of victims in Yugoslavia during World War II was 1,704,000. Subsequent data gathering in the 1980s by historians Vladimir Žerjavić and Bogoljub Kočović showed that the actual number of dead was about 1 million. Of that number, 330,000 to 390,000 ethnic Serbs perished from all causes in Croatia and Bosnia. These same historians also established the deaths of 192,000 to 207,000 ethnic Croats and 86,000 to 103,000 Muslims from all affiliations and causes throughout Yugoslavia.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Prior to its collapse, Yugoslavia was a regional industrial power and an economic success. From 1960 to 1980, annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth averaged 6.1 percent, medical care was free, literacy was 91 percent, and life expectancy was 72 years. Prior to 1991, Yugoslavia's armed forces were amongst the best-equipped in Europe.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Yugoslavia was a unique state, straddling both the East and West. Moreover, its president, Josip Broz Tito, was one of the fundamental founders of the "third world" or "group of 77" which acted as an alternative to the superpowers. More importantly, Yugoslavia acted as a buffer state between the West and the Soviet Union and also prevented the Soviets from getting a toehold on the Mediterranean Sea.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The central government's control began to be loosened due to increasing nationalist grievances and the Communist's Party's wish to support "national self determination". This resulted in Kosovo being turned into an autonomous region of Serbia, legislated by the 1974 constitution. This constitution broke down powers between the capital and the autonomous regions in Vojvodina (an area of Yugoslavia with a large number of ethnic minorities) and Kosovo (with a large ethnic-Albanian population).


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Despite the federal structure of the new Yugoslavia, there was still tension between the federalists, primarily Croats and Slovenes who argued for greater autonomy, and unitarists, primarily Serbs. The struggle would occur in cycles of protests for greater individual and national rights (such as the Croatian Spring) and subsequent repression. The 1974 constitution was an attempt to short-circuit this pattern by entrenching the federal model and formalising national rights.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The loosened control basically turned Yugoslavia into a "de facto" confederacy, which also placed pressure on the legitimacy of the regime within the federation. Since the late 1970s a widening gap of economic resources between the developed and underdeveloped regions of Yugoslavia severely deteriorated the federation's unity. The most developed republics, Croatia and Slovenia, rejected attempts to limit their autonomy as provided in the 1974 Constitution. Public opinion in Slovenia in 1987 saw better economic opportunity in independence from Yugoslavia than within it. There were also places that saw no economic benefit from being in Yugoslavia; for example, the autonomous province of Kosovo was poorly developed, and per capita GDP fell from 47 percent of the Yugoslav average in the immediate post-war period to 27 percent by the 1980s. It highlighted the vast differences in the quality of life in the different republics.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Economic growth was curbed due to Western trade barriers combined with the 1973 oil crisis. Yugoslavia subsequently fell into heavy IMF debt due to the large number of International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans taken out by the regime. As a condition of receiving loans, the IMF demanded the "market liberalisation" of Yugoslavia. By 1981, Yugoslavia had incurred $19.9 billion in foreign debt. Another concern was the unemployment rate, at 1 million by 1980. This problem was compounded by the general "unproductiveness of the South", which not only added to Yugoslavia's economic woes, but also irritated Slovenia and Croatia further.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The SFR Yugoslavia was a conglomeration of eight federated entities, roughly divided along ethnic lines, including six republics—


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: With the 1974 Constitution, the office of President of Yugoslavia was replaced with the Yugoslav Presidency, an eight-member collective head-of-state composed of representatives from six republics and, controversially, two autonomous provinces of the Socialist Republic of Serbia, SAP Kosovo and SAP Vojvodina.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Since the SFR Yugoslav federation was formed in 1945, the constituent Socialist Republic of Serbia (SR Serbia) included the two autonomous provinces of SAP Kosovo and SAP Vojvodina. With the 1974 constitution, the influence of the central government of SR Serbia over the provinces was greatly reduced, which gave them long-sought autonomy. The government of SR Serbia was restricted in making and carrying out decisions that would apply to the provinces. The provinces had a vote in the Yugoslav Presidency, which was not always cast in favor of SR Serbia. In Serbia, there was great resentment towards these developments, which the nationalist elements of the public saw as the "division of Serbia".


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The 1974 constitution not only exacerbated Serbian fears of a "weak Serbia, for a strong Yugoslavia" but also hit at the heart of Serbian national sentiment. A majority of Serbs saw –


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: and still see – Kosovo as the "cradle of the nation", and would not accept the possibility of losing it to the majority Albanian population.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In an effort to ensure his legacy, Tito's 1974 constitution established a system of year-long presidencies, on a rotation basis out of the eight leaders of the republics and autonomous provinces. Tito's death would show that such short terms were highly ineffective. Essentially it left a power vacuum which was left open for most of the 1980s. In their book "Free to Choose" (1980), Milton Friedman and his wife Rose Friedman foretold: "Once the aged Marshal Tito dies, Yugoslavia will experience political instability that may produce a reaction toward greater authoritarianism or, far less likely, a collapse of existing collectivist arrangements". (Tito died soon after the book was published.)


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: On 4 May 1980, Tito's death was announced through state broadcasts across Yugoslavia. His death removed what many international political observers saw as Yugoslavia's main unifying force, and subsequently ethnic tension started to grow in Yugoslavia. The crisis that emerged in Yugoslavia was connected with the weakening of the Communist states in Eastern Europe towards the end of the Cold War, leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In Yugoslavia, the national communist party, officially called the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, had lost its ideological base.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In 1986, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) contributed significantly to the rise of nationalist sentiments, as it drafted the controversial SANU Memorandum protesting against the weakening of the Serbian central government.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The problems in the Serbian Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo between ethnic Serbs and Albanians grew exponentially. This, coupled with economic problems in Kosovo and Serbia as a whole, led to even greater Serbian resentment of the 1974 Constitution. Kosovo Albanians started to demand that Kosovo be granted the status of a constituent republic beginning in the early 1980s, particularly with the 1981 protests in Kosovo. This was seen by the Serbian public as a devastating blow to Serb pride because of the historic links that Serbians held with Kosovo. It was viewed that that secession would be devastating to Kosovar Serbs. This eventually led to the repression of the Albanian majority in Kosovo.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Meanwhile, the more prosperous republics of SR Slovenia and SR Croatia wanted to move towards decentralization and democracy.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The historian Basil Davidson contends that the "recourse to 'ethnicity' as an explanation [of the conflict] is pseudo-scientific nonsense..." Even the degree of linguistic and religious differences "have been less substantial than instant commentators routinely tell us". Between the two major communities, the Serbs and the Croats, Davidson argues, "the term 'ethnic cleansing' can have no sense at all". Davidson agrees with Susan Woodward, an expert on Balkan affairs, who found the "motivating causes of the disintegration in economic circumstance and its ferocious pressures".


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: As President, Tito's policy was to push for rapid economic growth, and growth was indeed high in the 1970s. However, the over-expansion of the economy caused inflation and pushed Yugoslavia into economic recession.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: A major problem for Yugoslavia was the heavy debt incurred in the 1970s, which proved to be difficult to repay in the 1980s. Yugoslavia's debt load, initially estimated at a sum equal to $6 billion U.S. dollars, instead turned out to be equivalent to $21 billion U.S. dollars, which was a colossal sum for a poor country. In 1984, the Reagan administration issued a classified document, National Security Decision Directive 133, expressing concern that Yugoslavia's debt load might cause the country to align with the Soviet bloc. The 1980s were a time of economic austerity as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) imposed stringent conditions on Yugoslavia, which caused much resentment toward the Communist elites who had so mismanaged the economy by recklessly borrowing money abroad. The policies of austerity also led to uncovering much corruption on the part of the elites, most notably with the "Agrokomerc affair" of 1987, when the Agrokomerc enterprise of Bosnia turned out to be the centre of a vast nexus of corruption running all across Yugoslavia, and that the managers of Agrokomerc had issued promissory notes equivalent to almost US$1 billion without collateral, forcing the state to assume responsibility for their debts when Agrokomerc finally collapsed. The rampant corruption in Yugoslavia, of which the "Agrokomerc affair" was merely the most dramatic example, did much to discredit the Communist system, as it was revealed that the elites were living luxurious lifestyles, well beyond the means of ordinary people, with money stolen from the public purse during a time of austerity. The problems imposed by heavy indebtedness and corruption had by the mid-1980s increasingly started to corrode the legitimacy of the Communist system, as ordinary people started to lose faith in the competence and honesty of the elites.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: A wave of major strikes developed in 1987–88 as workers demanded higher wages to compensate for inflation, as the IMF mandated the end of various subsidies, and they were accompanied by denunciations of the entire system as corrupt. Finally, the politics of austerity brought to the fore tensions between the well off "have" republics like Slovenia and Croatia versus the poorer "have not" republics like Serbia. Both Croatia and Slovenia felt that they were paying too much money into the federal budget to support the "have not" republics, while Serbia wanted Croatia and Slovenia to pay more money into the federal budget to support them at a time of austerity. Increasingly, demands were voiced in Serbia for more centralisation in order to force Croatia and Slovenia to pay more into the federal budget, demands that were completely rejected in the "have" republics.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The relaxation of tensions with the Soviet Union after Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the top position in 1985, meant that western nations were no longer willing to be generous with restructuring Yugoslavia's debts, as the example of a communist country outside of the Eastern Bloc was no longer needed by the West as a way of destabilising the Soviet bloc. The external status quo, which the Communist Party had depended upon to remain viable, was thus beginning to disappear. Furthermore, the failure of communism all over Central and Eastern Europe once again brought to the surface Yugoslavia's inner contradictions, economic inefficiencies (such as chronic lack of productivity, fuelled by the country's leaderships' decision to enforce a policy of full employment), and ethno-religious tensions. Yugoslavia's non-aligned status resulted in access to loans from both superpower blocs. This contact with the United States and the West opened up Yugoslavia's markets sooner than the rest of Central and Eastern Europe. The 1980s were a decade of Western economic ministrations.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: A decade of frugality resulted in growing frustration and resentment against both the Serbian "ruling class", and the minorities who were seen to benefit from government legislation. Real earnings in Yugoslavia fell by 25% from 1979 to 1985. By 1988, emigrant remittances to Yugoslavia totalled over $4.5 billion (USD), and by 1989 remittances were $6.2 billion (USD), making up over 19% of the world's total.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In 1990, US policy insisted on the shock therapy austerity programme that was meted out to the ex-Comecon countries. Such a programme had been advocated by the IMF and other organisations "as a condition for fresh injections of capital."


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In 1987, Serbian official Slobodan Milošević was sent to bring calm to an ethnically driven protest by Serbs against the Albanian administration of SAP Kosovo. Milošević had been, up to this point, a hard-line communist who had decried all forms of nationalism as treachery, such as condemning the SANU Memorandum as "nothing else but the darkest nationalism". However, Kosovo's autonomy had always been an unpopular policy in Serbia, and he took advantage of the situation and made a departure from traditional communist neutrality on the issue of Kosovo.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Milošević assured Serbs that their mistreatment by ethnic Albanians would be stopped. He then began a campaign against the ruling communist elite of SR Serbia, demanding reductions in the autonomy of Kosovo and Vojvodina. These actions made him popular amongst Serbs and aided his rise to power in Serbia. Milošević and his allies took on an aggressive nationalist agenda of reviving SR Serbia within Yugoslavia, promising reforms and protection of all Serbs.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The ruling party of SFR Yugoslavia was the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ), a composite political party made-up of eight Leagues of Communists from the six republics and two autonomous provinces. The League of Communists of Serbia (SKS) governed SR Serbia. Riding the wave of nationalist sentiment and his new popularity gained in Kosovo, Slobodan Milošević (Chairman of the League of Communists of Serbia (SKS) since May 1986) became the most powerful politician in Serbia by defeating his former mentor President of Serbia Ivan Stambolic at the 8th Session of the League of Communists of Serbia on 22 September 1987. At a 1988 rally in Belgrade, Milošević made clear his perception of the situation facing SR Serbia in Yugoslavia, saying:


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The Anti-bureaucratic revolution was a series of protests in Serbia and Montenegro orchestrated by Milošević to put his supporters in SAP Vojvodina, SAP Kosovo, and the Socialist Republic of Montenegro (SR Montenegro) to power as he sought to oust his rivals.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The government of Montenegro survived a coup d'état in October 1988, but not a second one in January 1989.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In addition to Serbia itself, Milošević could now install representatives of the two provinces and SR Montenegro in the Yugoslav Presidency Council. The very instrument that reduced Serbian influence before was now used to increase it: in the eight member Presidency, Milošević could count on a minimum of four votes – SR Montenegro (following local events), his own through SR Serbia, and now SAP Vojvodina and SAP Kosovo as well. In a series of rallies, called "Rallies of Truth", Milošević's supporters succeeded in overthrowing local governments and replacing them with his allies.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: As a result of these events, in February 1989 ethnic Albanian miners in Kosovo organized a strike, demanding the preservation of the now-endangered autonomy. This contributed to ethnic conflict between the Albanian and Serb populations of the province. At of Kosovo in the 1980s, ethnic-Albanians were the majority.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In June 1989, the 600th anniversary of Serbia's historic defeat at the field of Kosovo, Slobodan Milošević gave the Gazimestan speech to 200,000 Serbs, with a Serb nationalist theme which deliberately evoked medieval Serbian history. Milošević's answer to the incompetence of the federal system was to centralise the government. Considering Slovenia and Croatia were looking farther ahead to independence, this was considered unacceptable.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Meanwhile, the Socialist Republic of Croatia (SR Croatia) and the Socialist Republic of Slovenia (SR Slovenia), supported the Albanian miners and their struggle for recognition. Media in SR Slovenia published articles comparing Milošević to Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Milošević contended that such criticism was unfounded and amounted to "spreading fear of Serbia". Milošević's state-run media claimed in response that Milan Kučan, head of the League of Communists of Slovenia, was endorsing Kosovo and Slovene separatism. Initial strikes in Kosovo turned into widespread demonstrations calling for Kosovo to be made the seventh republic. This angered Serbia's leadership which proceeded to use police force, and later the federal army (the Yugoslav People's Army JNA) by order of the Serbian-controlled Presidency.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In February 1989 ethnic Albanian Azem Vllasi, SAP Kosovo's representative on the Presidency, was forced to resign and was replaced by an ally of Milošević. Albanian protesters demanded that Vllasi be returned to office, and Vllasi's support for the demonstrations caused Milošević and his allies to respond stating this was a "counter-revolution against Serbia and Yugoslavia", and demanded that the federal Yugoslav government put down the striking Albanians by force. Milošević's aim was aided when a huge protest was formed outside of the Yugoslav parliament in Belgrade by Serb supporters of Milošević who demanded that the Yugoslav military forces make their presence stronger in Kosovo to protect the Serbs there and put down the strike.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: On 27 February, SR Slovene representative in the collective presidency of Yugoslavia, Milan Kučan, opposed the demands of the Serbs and left Belgrade for SR Slovenia where he attended a meeting in the Cankar Hall in Ljubljana, co-organized with the democratic opposition forces, publicly endorsing the efforts of Albanian protesters who demanded that Vllasi be released. In the 1995 BBC2 documentary "The Death of Yugoslavia", Kučan claimed that in 1989, he was concerned that with the successes of Milošević's anti-bureaucratic revolution in Serbia's provinces as well as Montenegro, that his small republic would be the next target for a political coup by Milošević's supporters if the coup in Kosovo went unimpeded. Serbian state-run television denounced Kučan as a separatist, a traitor, and an endorser of Albanian separatism.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Serb protests continued in Belgrade demanding action in Kosovo. Milošević instructed communist representative Petar Gračanin to make sure the protest continued while he discussed matters at the council of the League of Communists, as a means to induce the other members to realize that enormous support was on his side in putting down the Albanian strike in Kosovo. Serbian parliament speaker Borisav Jović, a strong ally of Milošević, met with the current President of the Yugoslav Presidency, Bosnian representative Raif Dizdarević, and demanded that the federal government concede to Serbian demands. Dizdarević argued with Jović saying that "You [Serbian politicians] organized the demonstrations, you control it", Jović refused to take responsibility for the actions of the protesters. Dizdarević then decided to attempt to bring calm to the situation himself by talking with the protesters, by making an impassioned speech for unity of Yugoslavia saying:


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: This statement received polite applause, but the protest continued. Later Jović spoke to the crowds with enthusiasm and told them that Milošević was going to arrive to support their protest. When Milošević arrived, he spoke to the protesters and jubilantly told them that the people of Serbia were winning their fight against the old party bureaucrats. A shout came from the crowd to "arrest Vllasi". Milošević pretended not to hear the demand correctly but declared to the crowd that anyone conspiring against the unity of Yugoslavia would be arrested and punished. The next day, with the party council pushed into submission to Serbia, Yugoslav army forces poured into Kosovo and Vllasi was arrested.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In March 1989, the crisis in Yugoslavia deepened after the adoption of amendments to the Serbian constitution that allowed the Serbian republic's government to re-assert effective power over the autonomous provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina. Up until that time, a number of political decisions were legislated from within these provinces, and they had a vote on the Yugoslav federal presidency level (six members from the republics and two members from the autonomous provinces).


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: A group of Kosovo Serb supporters of Milošević who helped bring down Vllasi declared that they were going to Slovenia to hold "the Rally of Truth" which would decry Milan Kučan as a traitor to Yugoslavia and demand his ousting. However, the attempt to replay the anti-bureaucratic revolution in Ljubljana in December 1989 failed: the Serb protesters who were to go by train to Slovenia were stopped when the police of SR Croatia blocked all transit through its territory in coordination with the Slovene police forces.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In the Presidency of Yugoslavia, Serbia's Borisav Jović (at the time the President of the Presidency), Montenegro's Nenad Bućin, Vojvodina's Jugoslav Kostić and Kosovo's Riza Sapunxhiu, started to form a voting bloc.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In January 1990, the extraordinary 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia was convened. The combined Yugoslav ruling party, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ), was in crisis. Most of the Congress was spent with the Serbian and Slovene delegations arguing over the future of the League of Communists and Yugoslavia. SR Croatia prevented Serb protesters from reaching Slovenia. The Serbian delegation, led by Milošević, insisted on a policy of "one person, one vote" in the party membership, which would empower the largest party ethnic group, the Serbs.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In turn, the Croats and Slovenes sought to reform Yugoslavia by delegating even more power to six republics, but were voted down continuously in every motion and attempt to force the party to adopt the new voting system. As a result, the Croatian delegation, led by Chairman Ivica Račan, and Slovene delegation left the Congress on 23 January 1990, effectively dissolving the all-Yugoslav party. Along with external pressure, this caused the adoption of multi-party systems in all the republics.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The individual republics organized multi-party elections in 1990, and the former communists mostly failed to win re-election, while most of the elected governments took on nationalist platforms, promising to protect their separate nationalist interests. In multi-party parliamentary elections nationalists defeated re-branded former Communist parties in Slovenia on 8 April 1990, in Croatia on 22 April and 2 May 1990, in Macedonia 11 and 25 November and 9 December 1990, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 18 and 25 November 1990.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In multi-party parliamentary elections, re-branded former communist parties were victorious in Montenegro on 9 and 16 December 1990, and in Serbia on 9 and 23 December 1990. In addition Serbia re-elected Slobodan Milošević as president. Serbia and Montenegro now increasingly favored a Serb-dominated Yugoslavia.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In Croatia, the nationalist Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) was elected to power, led by controversial nationalist Franjo Tuđman, under the promise of "protecting Croatia from Milošević", publicly advocating Croatian sovereignty. Croatian Serbs were wary of Tuđman's nationalist government, and in 1990 Serb nationalists in the southern Croatian town of Knin organized and formed a separatist entity known as the SAO Krajina, which demanded to remain in union with the rest of the Serb population if Croatia decided to secede. The government of Serbia endorsed the rebellion of the Croatian Serbs, claiming that for Serbs, rule under Tuđman's government would be equivalent to the World War II era fascist Independent State of Croatia (NDH), which committed genocide against Serbs. Milošević used this to rally Serbs against the Croatian government and Serbian newspapers joined in the warmongering. Serbia had by now printed $1.8 billion worth of new money without any backing of the Yugoslav National Bank.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Croatian Serbs in Knin, under the leadership of local police inspector Milan Martić, began to try to gain access to weapons so that the Croatian Serbs could mount a successful revolt against the Croatian government. Croatian Serb politicians including the Mayor of Knin met with Borisav Jović, the head of the Yugoslav Presidency in August 1990, and urged him to push the council to take action to prevent Croatia from separating from Yugoslavia, because they claimed that the Serb population would be in danger in Croatia which was ruled by Tuđman and his nationalist government.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: At the meeting, army official Petar Gračanin told the Croatian Serb politicians how to organize their rebellion, telling them to put up barricades, as well as assemble weapons of any sort, saying "If you can't get anything else, use hunting rifles". Initially the revolt became known as the "Log Revolution", as Serbs blockaded roadways to Knin with cut-down trees and prevented Croats from entering Knin or the Croatian coastal region of Dalmatia. The BBC documentary "The Death of Yugoslavia" revealed that at the time, Croatian TV dismissed the "Log Revolution" as the work of drunken Serbs, trying to diminish the serious dispute. However, the blockade was damaging to Croatian tourism. The Croatian government refused to negotiate with the Serb separatists and decided to stop the rebellion by force, sending in armed special forces by helicopters to put down the rebellion.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The pilots claimed they were bringing "equipment" to Knin, but the federal Yugoslav Air Force intervened and sent fighter jets to intercept them and demanded that the helicopters return to their base or they would be fired upon, in which the Croatian forces obliged and returned to their base in Zagreb. To the Croatian government, this action by the Yugoslav air force revealed to them that the Yugoslav People's Army was increasingly under Serbian control. SAO Krajina was officially declared a separate entity on 21 December 1990 by the Serbian National Council which was headed by Milan Babić.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In August 1990 the Croatian Parliament replaced its representative Stipe Šuvar with Stjepan Mesić in the wake of the Log Revolution. Mesić was only seated in October 1990 because of protests from the Serbian side, and then joined Macedonia's Vasil Tupurkovski, Slovenia's Janez Drnovšek and Bosnia and Herzegovina's Bogić Bogićević in opposing the demands to proclaim a general state of emergency, which would have allowed the Yugoslav People's Army to impose martial law.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Following the first multi-party election results, the republics of Slovenia, Croatia, and Macedonia proposed transforming Yugoslavia into a loose federation of six republics in the autumn of 1990, however Milošević rejected all such proposals, arguing that like Slovenes and Croats, the Serbs also had a right to self-determination. Serbian politicians were alarmed by a change of phrasing in the Christmas Constitution of Croatia that changed the status of ethnic Serbs of Croatia from an explicitly mentioned nation ("narod") to a nation listed together with minorities ("narodi i manjine").


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In the 1990 Slovenian independence referendum, held on 23 December 1990, a vast majority of residents voted for independence: 88.5% of all electors (94.8% of those participating) voted for independence, which was declared on 25 June 1991.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In January 1991, the Yugoslav counter-intelligence service, KOS ("Kontraobaveštajna služba"), displayed a video of a secret meeting (the "Špegelj Tapes") that they purported had happened some time in 1990 between the Croatian Defence Minister, Martin Špegelj, and two other men. Špegelj announced during the meeting that Croatia was at war with the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA, "Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija") and gave instructions about arms smuggling as well as methods of dealing with the Army's officers stationed in Croatian cities. The Army subsequently wanted to indict Špegelj for treason and illegal importation of arms, mainly from Hungary.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The discovery of Croatian arms smuggling combined with the crisis in Knin, the election of independence-leaning governments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Slovenia, and Slovenes demanding independence in the referendum on the issue suggested that Yugoslavia faced the imminent threat of disintegration.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: On 1 March 1991, the Pakrac clash ensued, and the JNA was deployed to the scene. On 9 March 1991, protests in Belgrade were suppressed with the help of the Army.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: On 12 March 1991, the leadership of the Army met with the Presidency in an attempt to convince them to declare a state of emergency which would allow for the pan-Yugoslav army to take control of the country. Yugoslav army chief Veljko Kadijević declared that there was a conspiracy to destroy the country, saying:


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: This statement effectively implied that the new independence-advocating governments of the republics were seen by Serbs as tools of the West. Croatian delegate Stjepan Mesić responded angrily to the proposal, accusing Jović and Kadijević of attempting to use the army to create a Greater Serbia and declared "That means war!". Jović and Kadijević then called upon the delegates of each republic to vote on whether to allow martial law, and warned them that Yugoslavia would likely fall apart if martial law was not introduced.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In the meeting, a vote was taken on a proposal to enact martial law to allow for military action to end the crisis in Croatia by providing protection for the Serbs. The proposal was rejected as the Bosnian delegate Bogić Bogićević voted against it, believing that there was still the possibility of diplomacy being able to solve the crisis.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The Yugoslav presidential crisis reached an impasse when Kosovo's Riza Sapunxhiu 'defected' his faction in the second vote on martial law in March 1991.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Jović briefly resigned from the presidency in protest, but soon returned. On 16 May 1991, the Serbian parliament replaced Sapunxhiu with Sejdo Bajramović, and Vojvodina's Nenad Bućin with Jugoslav Kostić. This effectively deadlocked the Presidency, because Milošević's Serbian faction had secured four out of eight federal presidency votes, and it was able to block any unfavorable decisions at the federal level, in turn causing objections from other republics and calls for reform of the Yugoslav Federation.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: After Jović's term as head of the collective presidency expired, he blocked his successor, Mesić, from taking the position, giving the position instead to Branko Kostić, a member of the pro-Milošević government in Montenegro.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In the Croatian independence referendum held on 2 May 1991, 93.24% voted for independence. On 19 May 1991, the second round of the referendum on the structure of the Yugoslav federation was held in Croatia. The phrasing of the question did not explicitly inquire as to whether one was in favor of secession or not. Voters were asked if they supported Croatia being "able to enter into an alliance of sovereign states with other republics (in accordance with the proposal of the republics of Croatia and Slovenia for solving the state crisis in the SFRY)?". 83.56% of the voters turned out, with Croatian Serbs largely boycotting the referendum. Of these, 94.17% (78.69% of the total voting population) voted "in favor" of the proposal, while 1.2% of those who voted were "opposed". Finally, the independence of Croatia was declared on 25 June 1991.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Both Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence on 25 June 1991. On the morning of 26 June, units of the Yugoslav People's Army's 13th Corps left their barracks in Rijeka, Croatia, to move towards Slovenia's borders with Italy. The move immediately led to a strong reaction from local Slovenians, who organized spontaneous barricades and demonstrations against the YPA's actions. There was no fighting, as yet, and both sides appeared to have an unofficial policy of not being the first to open fire.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: By this time, the Slovenian government had already put into action its plan to seize control of both the international Ljubljana Airport and Slovenia's border posts on borders with Italy, Austria and Hungary. The personnel manning the border posts were, in most cases, already Slovenians, so the Slovenian take-over mostly simply amounted to changing of uniforms and insignia, without any fighting. By taking control of the borders, the Slovenians were able to establish defensive positions against an expected YPA attack. This meant that the YPA would have to fire the first shot, which was fired on 27 June at 14:30 in Divača by an officer of the YPA.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Whilst supportive of their respective rights to national self-determination, the European Community pressured Slovenia and Croatia to place a three-month moratorium on their independence, and reached the Brioni Agreement on 7 July 1991 (recognized by representatives of all republics). During these three months, the Yugoslav Army completed its pull-out from Slovenia. Negotiations to restore the Yugoslav federation with diplomat Lord Carrington and members of the European Community were all but ended. Carrington's plan realized that Yugoslavia was in a state of dissolution and decided that each republic must accept the inevitable independence of the others, along with a promise to Serbian President Milošević that the European Union would ensure that Serbs outside of Serbia would be protected.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Lord Carrington's opinions were rendered moot following newly reunited Germany's Christmas Eve 1991 recognition of Slovenia and Croatia. Except for secret negotiations between foreign ministers Hans-Dietrich Genscher (Germany) and Alois Mock (Austria), the unilateral recognition came as an unwelcome surprise to most EU governments and the United States, with whom there was no prior consultation. International organisations, including the United Nations, were nonplussed. While Yugoslavia was already in a shambles, it's likely that German recognition of the breakaway republics—and Austrian partial mobilization on the border—made things a good deal worse for the decomposing multinational state. US President George H.W. Bush was the only major power representative to voice an objection. The extent of Vatican and Federal Intelligence Agency of Germany (BND) intervention in this episode has been explored by scholars familiar with the details, but the historical record remains disputed.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: Milošević refused to agree to the plan, as he claimed that the European Community had no right to dissolve Yugoslavia and that the plan was not in the interests of Serbs as it would divide the Serb people into four republics (Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia). Carrington responded by putting the issue to a vote in which all the other republics, including Montenegro under Momir Bulatović, initially agreed to the plan that would dissolve Yugoslavia. However, after intense pressure from Serbia on Montenegro's president, Montenegro changed its position to oppose the dissolution of Yugoslavia.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: With the Plitvice Lakes incident of late March/early April 1991, the Croatian War of Independence broke out between the Croatian government and the rebel ethnic Serbs of the Serbian Autonomous Province of Krajina (heavily backed by the by-now Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army). On 1 April 1991, the SAO Krajina declared that it would secede from Croatia. Immediately after Croatia's declaration of independence, Croatian Serbs also formed the SAO Western Slavonia and the SAO of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srijem. These three regions would combine into the self-proclaimed proto-state Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) on 19 December 1991.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The other significant Serb-dominated entities in eastern Croatia announced that they too would join SAO Krajina. Zagreb had by this time discontinued submitting tax money to Belgrade, and the Croatian Serb entities in turn halted paying taxes to Zagreb. In some places, the Yugoslav Army acted as a buffer zone, in others it aided Serbs in their confrontation with the new Croatian army and police forces.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: The influence of xenophobia and ethnic hatred in the collapse of Yugoslavia became clear during the war in Croatia. Propaganda by Croatian and Serbian sides spread fear, claiming that the other side would engage in oppression against them and would exaggerate death tolls to increase support from their populations. In the beginning months of the war, the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army and navy deliberately shelled civilian areas of Split and Dubrovnik, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as nearby Croat villages. Yugoslav media claimed that the actions were done due to what they claimed was a presence of fascist Ustaše forces and international terrorists in the city.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: UN investigations found that no such forces were in Dubrovnik at the time. Croatian Armed Forces presence increased later on. Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Đukanović, at the time an ally of Milošević, appealed to Montenegrin nationalism, promising that the capture of Dubrovnik would allow the expansion of Montenegro into the city which he claimed was historically part of Montenegro, and denounced the present borders of Montenegro as being "drawn by the old and poorly educated Bolshevik cartographers".


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: At the same time, the Serbian government contradicted its Montenegrin allies with claims by the Serbian Prime Minister Dragutin Zelenović that Dubrovnik was historically Serbian, not Montenegrin. The international media gave immense attention to bombardment of Dubrovnik and claimed this was evidence of Milosevic pursuing the creation of a Greater Serbia as Yugoslavia collapsed, presumably with the aid of the subordinate Montenegrin leadership of Bulatović and Serb nationalists in Montenegro to foster Montenegrin support for the retaking of Dubrovnik.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: In Vukovar, ethnic tensions between Croats and Serbs exploded into violence when the Yugoslav army entered the town. The Yugoslav army and Serbian paramilitaries devastated the town in urban warfare and the destruction of Croatian property. Serb paramilitaries committed atrocities against Croats, killing over 200, and displacing others to add to those who fled the town in the Vukovar massacre.


title: Breakup of Yugoslavia

text: With Bosnia's demographic structure comprising a mixed population of a plurality of Bosniaks, and minorities of Serbs and Croats, the ownership of large areas of Bosnia was in dispute.