Very interesting. I've had this in my "to read list" for ages!

I've been to the former Yugoslavia often. My first trip was just after the war. I was never a soldier, but driving through town after town where one house would be OK, and the next would be shot full of holes, and maybe the next burned to the ground made it clear to me how luck would affect whether you lived or died, had a home to return to - or nothing.

I have, and have had, many friends from former Yugoslavia. Like everywhere else, most people are nice, some aren't and a few are horrid.

My wife's family is all from (and still in) Czechia, which had a somewhat similar path up until 2000. The older generation speaks about Czechoslovakia like you speak about Yugoslavia. How much is nostalgia is hard to say.

I'm a capitalist business owner, but I a very firm believer in social democracy as we have here in Austria. Democratically deciding which parts of society to make socialist (education, armed forces, health insurance, etc.) is the best form of government, IMHO.

I'm sure that the Socialist countries just over the border from Austria had a huge impact on the post-war governments here. That and being occupied for 10 years...