The book reflects the current level of study in Russia of the history of the Yugoslav peoples in the 20th century. Based on the latest literature and an accessible source base, the emergence of the Yugoslav state in 1918, the formation of its institutions and political system are traced, much attention is paid to the events of the Second World War, the period of socialist Yugoslavia is highlighted, which ended with the so-called Yugoslav crisis - the collapse of the state and a series of interethnic civil wars. For historians and a wide range of readers.