Yugoslav Republic Research Articles

Demographic future of Russia in the UN forecasts: "scientific foresight" and reality

The article provides a brief history of the emergence of demographic forecasts, shows their use by the United Nations, the range of countries for which forecasts were made and are being drawn up, considers demographic forecasts that were carried out during the Soviet era and provides a detailed analysis of demographic forecasts for Russia. In contrast to the forecasts of the population of the Soviet Union as a whole, for Russia they initially began to focus on the downward dynamics. It is concluded that over two decades (1996-2015) in countries with a predominance of the Slavic ethnos (excluding the former republics of Yugoslavia), the population as a whole has decreased to 95.5%, while in countries with a predominance of the Anglo-Saxon ethnos — it increased to 123.8%. The forecasts given in the article are compared with the actual size of the population that has already taken place. Everywhere in countries with a predominance of the Slavic ethnos, the actual population is higher than the predicted, and in countries with a predominance of the Anglo-Saxon ethnos, on the contrary. Comparing the forecasts with the actual population dynamics, the conclusion is substantiated about a noticeable change in the ratio between the two groups of countries united by ethnicity, a decrease in the demographic potential of the Slavic group and its increase in the group with a predominance of the Anglo-Saxon ethnos. In the final part of the work, it is said that the presented rates of change in the population size in 35 years and then in another 50 years, arising from the UN demographic forecasts for 2050 and 2100, as well as the demographic dynamics in the 90s of the twentieth century and in the first 15 years of the new century, indicate that if Russia, like other Slavic countries do not make radical efforts and, accordingly, do not consistently take effective measures to change the demographic trends, then the same thing can happen to Russia as has happened in different centuries to many countries such as Assyria, the Hunnic Empire, etc. The current geopolitical situation in which Russia is, its status as a great power, the country's largest territory in the world, favorable geographical position and colossal natural resources, dictate the need to increase its economic, defense and, naturally, demographic potential.

Long-Term Effects of Yugoslav War

ABSTRACT We examine the long-term effects of civil war in former Yugoslavia on economic growth and development. To this end, we employ the synthetic control methodology, and estimate the missing counterfactual scenario for the long-run growth and development of former Yugoslav republics, in the absence of the civil war by matching their growth and development characteristics with non-Yugoslav countries at the similar stages of development. The results suggest that the civil war led to unprecedented long-run growth and development losses. In the absence of the war, per capita income levels of former Yugoslav republics would improve markedly with notable differences in the magnitude of the growth and development gains across the affected countries. The estimated effects of the civil war are robust to a large number of placebo checks, and falsification-based random permutation tests. The results show that not a single former Yugoslav republic down to the present day has achieved the level of per capita income predicted by their synthetic control groups in the years preceding the civil war. Our results show that the Yugoslav civil war appears to be a permanent institutional shock with long-lasting implications for economic growth and development.

Pluricentricity in the classroom: the Serbo-Croatian language issue for foreign language teaching at higher education institutions worldwide

Abstract The study presented in this article looks at the effects of the changes in national language policies following the break-up of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on teaching the Serbo-Croatian language or a “language which is simultaneously one and more than one” as a foreign language. The study explores how language ideologies and conflicting attitudes towards national standard languages, recorded both within nation-states and across nation-state borders, are understood by teachers in the context of teaching Serbo-Croatian as a foreign language. The article also examines the extent to which these understandings reflect current discussions of pluricentric languages and methods adopted for teaching pluricentric languages as foreign languages.

Bosnia and Herzegovina under the Communist Regime: an Outlook on Educational Policy

Bosnia and Herzegovina as one of the nine republics of Yugoslavia was always among the poorest republics in the former state. However, the school system, as it was the case in the totalitarian regimes, was under direct control of the state. The state had the power to influence school programs and to decide who could apply for school profession. After World War II, education became compulsory for all children and the state could have influenced easily all aspects of education. The state conception how to educate a new society and how to produce a common Yugoslav identity was in focus of the new ideology and those who did not agree with this concept were exposed to negative connotations and even to persecution. Human rights of an individual were openly proclaimed but not respected. Totalitarian societies commonly expect the system of education to operate as a main transformational force that will facilitate the creation of the new man in the social order they have proclaimed. After the split of the Soviet model of pedagogy (1945–1949), the changes occurred in education when the communists established a new regime with universal characteristics of the Yugoslavian education which differentiated among the republics in accordance with their own specificities. Bosnia and Herzegovina with its multi-ethnic nature occupied a special place inside the common state as a model that served as a creation of possible, multiethnic, socialist Yugoslavia.

Kosovo in the 1980s – Yugoslav Perspectives and Interpretations

AbstractThe introductory article in this issue argues for greater consideration of the impact of the Kosovo crisis on political developments in other Yugoslav republics and on the entire federal state structure of Yugoslavia after Tito’s death. It also calls for a closer examination of alternative paths that were considered by various actors to resolve the conflict but were not or could not be pursued. Such a discussion of developments in Kosovo in the 1980s in a broader Yugoslav perspective would, it is argued, also have the potential to contribute to a more complex understanding of the Kosovo crisis itself.

Slovenian Territorial Defense in the Ten-Day War

In 1991, the process of disintegration of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia began. The former Socialist Republics of Croatia and Slovenia were the first to announce their secession from the Federation in the last days of June. To restore the constitutional order, units of the Armed Forces of the SFR of Yugoslavia were sent to Slovenia, which faced the armed resistance of the Slovenian Territorial Defense (TO RS or TOS). In the Ten-Day War, the Federal troops, despite their numerical and technical advantage, suffered a defeat in the confrontation with the TOS subunits. Decisive for the success of Slovenian actions turned out to be the right choice of method of operation, knowledge of the combat environment, as well as high morale and support provided by the civilian population. The example of the Ten-Day War, an analysis of its course, shows that with the appropriate use of the TOS forces, they can conduct an effective fight against operational troops and be a fully-fledged component of the Armed Forces.

Sojusz artystyczno-cyrkowy w filmie "Tratwa Meduzy"

The film The Raft of the Medusa (1980, directed by Karpo Godina) attempts a recreation of a short part of the day in the life of avant-garde artists belonging to the “Zenit” group. The director aims to re-create the energy of artists‘ actions, and to analyse the reasons behind the movement‘s downfall. Central to the plot is the question of the possibility of revolutionary art in the remote, muddy plazas and roads of the newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. His search for an answer to that question eventually turns into a stance in the fierce discussion on the independence of art and its right to interfere in politics, which raged in the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia at the time of the movie‘s making. The figure of the athlete Alojz Žnidaršič is of particular importance to the message of the movie. As a symbolic type, he needs no external justification – his self-sustaining artistic act has a direct, if limited, impact on reality.

SRBIJA I POLITIČKI ODNOSI U JUGOSLAVIJI U VREME SAHRANE ALEKSANDRA RANKOVIĆA 1983: TAČKE SUKOBA

Serbia’s political status after the death of Josip Broz was determined by two kinds of efforts by the state. Firstly, the Serbian leaders aimed to change its unequal status in federal Yugoslavia. Secondly, they aimed to stop fragmentation within Serbia, which grew steadily after the 1974 Constitution. Political relations between Serbian leaders on the one hand, and some political circles and leaders of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and the autonomous provinces on the other, were strained. They worsened even more after several clashes in 1983. Despite the opposition of politicians in Bosnia, Croatia, and Vojvodina to Dragoslav Marković (who was described as a strong advocate of Serbian political unity), he was elected as chairman of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (CK SKJ) in 1983. Serbo-Croatian relationships were further damaged after the publication of the book Enigma Kopinič in Belgrade. The Croatian leaders were against this publication because it revealed – as far as the Party was concerned – undesirable information about the interwar years and the period during World War II. The major confrontation came over the interpretation of events that occurred at the funeral of Aleksandar Ranković (mainly over who was responsible for the mass gathering and the respectful attitude toward the deceased). Federal party units, as well as those from the Yugoslav republics and from Belgrade, jointly condemned those events as a political rally against the government. However, they disagreed over who was responsible for the incident and what had caused the public outcry. The CK SKJ chairmanship members from the autonomous provinces, Croatia, and Bosnia accused Serbia and the Serbian Communist Party for the display of nationalism. They also held the Belgrade City Party Committee responsible for letting the rally happen. Contrary to this, the Belgrade City Committee led by Ivan Stambolić, whom the Serbian leadership supported, felt that the uproar was caused by the overall political, economic, and social crisis, for which the Federal government was to blame.

The Republic of North Macedonia - A 'new' country in the Western Balkans

Abstract The article tries to explain and define political processes and changes trhough history of the 'new' Western Balkans country - the Republic of North Macedonia. It is word about analysis of the political dispute between Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Greece, from its biginnings until the present day. This paper will try to give the real picture of political area in the Balkans and explore deeper roots of the 'Macedonian Question' controversy. Also, it will give the explinations of the resolution of 27-year dispute, (between the two neighbor countries), by signing the Prespa Agreement. Hence, leaving by side national identity and history, the North Macedonia will be able to join the European Union and NATO. Thus, in short period of time, a 'new' country in the Western Balkans has putted in the center of the regional politics, with clear purpose: promoting ethnic and cultural heritance in the edge of the European continent.

Made in Yugoslavia: Studies in Popular Music

Made in Yugoslavia: Studies in Popular Music (edited by Danijela Špirić Beard and Ljerka Rasmussen) is a fascinating study of how popular music developed in post-World War II Yugoslavia, eventually reaching both unsurpassable popularity in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, and critical acclaim in the West. Through the comprehensive discussion of all popular music trends in Yugoslavia − commercial pop (zabavna-pop), rock, punk, new wave, disco, folk (narodna), and neofolk (novokomponovana) − across all six socialist Yugoslav republics, the reader is given the engrossing socio-cultural and political history of the country, providing the audience with a much-needed and riveting context for understanding the formation and the eventual demise of Tito’s Yugoslavia.

The City of Solidarity's Diverse Legacies: A Framework for Interpreting the Local Memory of the 1963 Skopje Earthquake and the Post-earthquake Urban Reconstruction

Abstract On July 26, 1963, a calamitous tremor struck Skopje, the capital of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, the southernmost Yugoslav federal unit. The politically nonaligned Yugoslav government immediately issued a call for help for its third-largest city. The call was initially picked up by the Yugoslav republics, who were then followed by more than 80 states across the globe and a high number of international organizations, all providing help to Skopje and Skopjans in the aftermath of the catastrophe—an episode of human solidarity many contemporaries described as unprecedented. This paper aims to provide an overview of commemorative activities held in Skopje from 1964 to 2020 related to the 1963 Skopje earthquake. I aim to reconstruct both the commemorative events and commemorative narratives about the 1963 Skopje earthquake in Skopje as well as its major memory agents and agencies by triangulating archival materials, media and institutional discourses, and secondary literature. I identify and discuss three commemorative phases, 1963–81, 1981–2000, and 2001–20, and I structure the argument on the multidirectionality of the notion of solidarity in the public domain.

When Ships Don’t Come Ashore – a Yugoslav cinema club production’s dissent in-between the personal and the political

As in other Eastern European Countries, film industry and culture were of central interest for the newly established socialist Yugoslav state after the Second World War. Besides the institutionalisation of a professional and profitable film industry, amateur cinema clubs were inaugurated all over the Yugoslav republics for educative purposes in the field of technical culture. Due to a prevailing underestimation of their activities and the specific, relatively liberal Yugoslav socialist path, some of these clubs became hubs of an experimental and critical film scene. This article discusses the film ‘Ships don’t come ashore’ (1955) which Mihovil Pansini – one of the leading figures of Yugoslav experimental film – made in Cinema Club Zagreb in his initial years as a film maker. It is discussed as an early example of a filmic counterpoint to political ideologies and mainstream film themes. A detailed analysis reveals that the dissent of the film, with its story of a person’s impossible escape from an island, comes in three dimensions: the individual stance, the artistic experiment, and the political message.

Kornelija Rakić: A Woman Doctor for Women and Children in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This short biography focuses on the life and medical activities of Kornelija Rakić (1879-1952), a Serbian female pioneer of medicine from the then Hungarian province of Vojvodina, who acquired an MD from the University of Budapest in 1905. Rakić came from a humble background, and a Vojvodina Serbian women's organization enabled her to become a physician and pursue her social medicine mission. After a futile attempt to open a private practice as a "woman doctor for women" in Novi Sad in 1906, she successfully applied to the Austro-Hungarian provincial government in Sarajevo for the position of an official female physician in occupied Bosnia. Rakić began her career as an Austro-Hungarian (AH) official female physician in Bihać (1908-1912) and was transferred to Banja Luka in 1912 and to Mostar in 1917=1918. Kornelija Rakić stayed in Mostar after the monarchy collapsed in 1918 and continued to work as a public health officer in the service of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, founded in 1918. Subsequently, she served as the head of the "dispensary for mothers and children" at the Public Health Centre in Mostar, founded in 1929, where she practiced until her retirement in 1949. After World War II, Rakić served as Vice President of the Red Cross Society in Mostar. She received numerous awards and medals from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. Kornelija Rakić died in Mostar in 1952 and was buried at the local Orthodox cemetery of Bjelušine. CONCLUSION: Kornelija Rakić (1879-1952) was the first Serbian female physician in Novi Sad, Vojvodina, and she was employed as an AH official female physician in Bihać (1908-1912), Banja Luka (1912-1917) and Mostar (1917-1918). After World War I, she participated in the establishment and expansion of public health institutions in Mostar and Herzegovina from 1918-1949 against the backdrop of the devastation of the two World Wars.

From People into Nations: A History of Eastern Europe by Connelly John (review)

REVIEWS 367 living conditions and peasant participation in local governance institutions (zemstvo, volost´ governments, etc.). And finally, although avowedly about the entire Russian peasantry over time, this book is mostly focused on the central industrial region between Moscow and Petersburg. This feels like a lost opportunity, as a more substantive and clearer documentation of differences across space, over time and between Russian peasants and other groups would have strengthened the contribution of this study. While wide-ranging, written in a student-friendly way, and emphasizing a novel ‘ecological’ perspective on the history of the Russian peasantry, Gorshkov’s study offers few challenges to current historical interpretations. David Moon’s The Russian Peasantry 1600–1930 (London, 1999) covers much of the same ground in a way that nicely incorporates quantitative evidence, original sources and a comparative perspective on the heterogenous nature of rural Russian life. Reading the two books together would provide a useful entry point into the large, hugely important, and still evolving historiography of the Russian peasantry. Department of Economics Steven Nafziger Williams College Connelly, John. From People into Nations: A History of Eastern Europe. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ and Woodstock, 2020. vii + 956 pp. Maps. Illustrations. Notes. Appendix. Index. £30.00: $35.00. East European history can be a daunting subject for historians and specialists let alone for those fair weather or armchair enthusiasts interested in events that shaped the region over the past decades. Writing a detailed history of Eastern Europe is an even more challenging undertaking. For this reason, John Connelly’s latest attempt at narrating and examining a considerable period of modern history set in the context of Eastern Europe is a welcome contribution to the topic’s growing historiography. The author is no stranger to the complex historical cleavages of the region at the centre of this monograph. Connelly, who specializes, among others, in topics of modern East and Central European political and social history, has previously written on the Sovietization of higher education in post-war Eastern Europe during the period of high Stalinism as well as about German occupational ethnopolitics in the east during World War Two. It is fitting that this scholar chose to tackle the project of chronologically mapping a complex 150-year period of East European development over five broad thematic sections totalling twenty-seven chapters. SEER, 99, 2, APRIL 2021 368 From the outset the author outlines what exactly he means by ‘Eastern Europe’, a term used interchangeably with ‘East Central Europe’ throughout the text. The book traces nineteenth-century anti-imperialist struggles that gave rise to twentieth-century nationalist trends before questioning the current state of nationalism in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary; the former Yugoslav Republics; Bulgaria, Romania and Germany. Absent however, are more dedicated discussions on countries many today also associate as East European — the Baltic States, Belarus and Ukraine. Whereas some aspects of their national development are mentioned in the context of the aforementioned countries, the author explains how their experiences largely under the rule of other states during much of the period examined led to the creation of ‘separate stories’, thereby suggesting they deserve distinct attention. This argument may be contested by some, especially those who maintain how nationalist movements, for example in present-day western Ukraine, were also part of greater anti-imperial struggles. For Connelly however, the Eastern Europe designation serves more than just denoting a physical space on the reader’s mental map. Rather it is synonymous with his description of shared experiences and common narratives about the past still circulating throughout the region today. Connelly’s methodology of employing accepted and new vocabulary to trace how patterns and changes reverberated throughout the region deserves appreciation. Terms familiar to even the most amateur of historians like ‘decolonization’ and ‘national self-determination’ described events throughout the region discussed in the first half of his book; that is roughly until the outbreak of World War Two. From there a series of new phrases is introduced — ludobójstwo (the Polish term for genocide coined by Polish Jew Raphael Lemkin), ‘foreign in their own land’, and ‘reform communists’ — that to specialists may seem common, but which encapsulate the wartime events and...

The concept of transitional justice in a context of a breach of articles 2 and 3 of the European convention on human rights

This article examines violations and crimes against human rights committed during the period of transitional justice. This topic is extremely actual for Ukraine today, thus it provokes countless discussions. Transitional justice is a complex of special measures towards reaching peace after armed conflict, reaching democracy after authoritarianism. The main aim of this conception is fairness. The last one must be established in relation to the victims of violations of human rights, in particular, the right to life and prohibition of torture. The family of the victim, for its part, has the right to know what really happened and demand reparation for the moral suffering. In fact, the human rights violation occurs in the temporarily ungoverned territories of Ukraine every day. In case the state has no opportunity to exercise effective control over the entire territory of our country and ensure all the rights set forth in the European convention on human rights for its citizens fully, after the war the state has a duty to restore valuable human rights such as the right to life and the prohibition of torture. Consequently, it is necessary to be getting ready for this period immediately. We should take into account the mechanisms of restoring justice in other countries as well as analyse the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights relating to human rights violation during armed conflicts. In particular, this article explores the proceedings against Russia, Turkey, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia that may be relevant for Ukraine. Obviously, for bringing the perpetrators to justice and in order to avoid impunity, a process of documentation or another effective instrument for recording the acts against human rights stays complicated, major and open for further development. Key words: transitional justice, right to life, prohibition of torture, European Court of Human Rights, European Convention on Human Rights.

KONCEPTUALNA UMETNOST I DRUŠTVENA DEVIJANTNOST U SFR JUGOSLAVIJI

The paper investigates the relationship between the phenomenon of conceptual art and various manifestations of social deviance in the area of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The first part discusses the general relationship between conceptual art and social deviance, while the second part presents the socio-political context in which Yugoslav conceptual art developed during the 1970s. The third part is dedicated to recognizing and analyzing several socially deviant forms that can be noticed in connection with the mentioned segment of Yugoslav art from the 1970s. Special attention is paid to the category of deviant phenomena which we defined as “anti-system deviations.” In the final, fourth part, the peculiarities of socially deviant Yugoslav conceptual art manifestations are noticed. Among the more significant insights, the considerable presence of anti-system deviations within the activities of one part of the Yugoslav conceptual scene was emphasized. The ambivalence of the Yugoslav regime in terms of its attitude towards the artistic neo-avant-garde was also identified: on the one hand, a significantly more liberal attitude compared to the Eastern Bloc regimes, but also readiness for decisive persecution in case of open encroachment on the ruling order. As one of the primary conclusions, it was noticed that Yugoslav conceptual art (following the fate of Yugoslavia as a state “between East and West”), in terms of social deviance, was also halfway between conceptualists from Western countries and those from the Eastern Bloc. In that sense, the socio-political regime in the SFRY provided a much higher degree of personal and artistic freedoms than was the case in most socialist states, but at the same time vigorously sanctioned anti-systemic and anti-state actions to ensure the ruling order.

TELEVISION CULTURES OF SOCIALIST YUGOSLAVIA

The aim of the paper is to compare television cultures of Yugoslav republics during socialism. The paper is drawing on the recent comparative studies of socialist television in South and East Europe (Perško et al. 2021; Mihelj and Huxtable 2018; Imre 2016). Following the categories developed by Mihelj and Huxtable (2018) and Imre (2016), Yugoslav television cultures are here analysed in terms of a) generic composition and share of program modes, b) the level of transnationalism, c) the level of openness of television to social critique (semi-publicness), c) focus of television on private life (privatization), d) the gendering patterns, e) temporal orientation, f) characteristics of factual, humorous and history genres. Analysis is based on the data collected for the recently published book by Peruško, Vozab and Čuvalo (2021) and original content analysis of the JRT 79 Television Programme booklet, with a short description and basic info about the program that was shared within the JRT network. The result discerns differences between republic televisions (especially TV Ljubljana, TV Zagreb and TV Novi Sad) in program development toward neo-television, such as the differences in transnational orientation, temporal orientation, gendering patterns.

Društveni i simbolički položaj boraca Narodnooslobodilačkog rata nakon oslobođenja u Federativnoj Narodnoj Republici Jugoslaviji

The paper deals with the attitude of the newly formed state government in Yugoslavia, after the Second World War, towards war veterans, in the period between the enactment of the first and second constitutions of the Communist Yugoslavia, the period of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (1946-1963). On the example of social protection of the fighters and their symbolic representation, especially through sculpture as the most suggestive and the most communicative medium for transmitting symbolic messages, the aim of the paper is to establish what the social position of the war veterans was in that historical period, and also to point to the important knowledge that the social protection of veterans, war invalids, as well as the families of the fallen soldiers was at an enviable level and that the new government immediately saw the importance of the symbolic representation of valuable ideals through the medium of sculpture also. In the newly formed Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FPRY, 1945-1963), nurturing the revolutionary tradition and the legacy of the People's Liberation War were priority social tasks.

Divergence or convergence? The case of the former Yugoslav area

Europe is differentiated socio-economically, both at the global and state level. The former Yugoslav republics are no exception. Due to cultural, religious, and developmental diversity, the area of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia can be considered a microcosm of Europe as a whole. The decision to research in this area was taken because this group of independent states, formed part of a larger territory for nearly 70 years. The study covers the territory of former Yugoslavia and the period from 2000 to 2019. The coefficient of variation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita and Purchasing Power Parity (PPP; constant 2017 international $) showed the persistence of significant polarization of the relative measure of the regional differentiation. Using 21 statistical variables and applying the taxonomic method, we made a comparative assessment of the level of socioeconomic development of individual countries. It is noteworthy that the value of the taxonomic measure of the regional socio-economic development of Slovenia is nearly forty times higher than that of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The comparison of the values of taxonomic measures of socio-economic development consistently points to a significant differentiation in the level of development in former Yugoslavia. It seems that a review of current actions and strategies in the area of sustainable development of this region is necessary.

Dekada srpskog vaterpola

Water polo was originally developed in the British Isles. The colloquial term "aquatic football" was quickly adopted in many countries and their sport systems. With the adoption of the first rules (1929) the development of technique and tactics was intensified, and the philosophy of the game itself deepened. An important development factor was the founding and the work of the International Swimming Federation (FINA, 1908) and its water polo board (1929), as well as the affirmation through the Olympic Games program (Paris, 1900), European (Budapest 1926) and World Championships (Belgrade 1973). Water polo appeared in Serbia at the beginning of the last century, when the students from Sombor who studied in Budapest "transferred" the essence and the appeal of this game to Serbia. The students - the players of Sombor sports society won the first Kingdom of Yugoslavia National Championship in water polo held in Bled (1921). The primacy was quickly obtained by the teams from the sea coast, primarily the "WPC Jug" from Dubrovnik, and from the 1960s also the teams from the continental part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, primarily Partizan and Mladost. The water polo organization played a significant role in the development of water polo in the SFRY and ensured the conditions for the development of "the Yugoslav school of water polo". The successes of the national team and the clubs during the period of the SFRY, continue in today's Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia. The national independence of the Republic of Serbia (2006) did not affect the national team's results. The teams of the Serbian Water Polo Federation, from 2006 to 2016 have accomplished extraordinary sports results, and today, at the end of 2020, the Serbian senior national team is ranked first on the FINA's list of national teams. This paper addresses the golden decade of Serbian water polo (2006-2016). It aims at analysing the factors considered to have influenced the development of the water polo game, primarily, the players - their talent and hard work, coaches, the efficient national organization, sports officials, science and scientific methods… all of them who together encourage the improvement and development of the water polo game through individual contribution - the Serbian players' ethos.