Identifying with the old or the new state: nation‐building vs. Y ugonostalgia in the Y ugoslav successor states

The article examines to what degree attachment to a former multinational state which breaks up may complicate national consolidation in new states, as was the case in the S oviet U nion and T itoist Y ugoslavia. In the former Y ugoslavia such attachment is usually referred to as ‘ Y ugonostalgia’, and various opinions have been expressed about its strength and possible political consequences today. Only in 2011, however, was an attempt made to measure Y ugonostalgia quantitatively and analyse this phenomenon comparatively in the various successor states. A large‐scale survey showed that while Y ugonostalgics in some countries were less loyal than other citizens towards the new state this was not the case in S erbia. In C roatia, the number of respondents who felt Y ugoslav has gone down since independence far more than in any other state; probably a result of a massive public campaign to discredit continued identification with the former state.