Just a hand-drawn map and some basic geography and history for the beginning. There are also two quizzes about Valjevo in the Quiz section of LINGVA ESL Café.
Our plan is to keep adding up reports on various aspects of our country.

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Serbia, Yugoslavia

Written by Marina Skoric, Vladimir Bajic and Mina Banovic, Valjevo

Map design: Ana Markovic, Brankovina

Our country is Yugoslavia. It consists of Serbia and Montenegro. We live in Valjevo, a town in the western part of the republic of Serbia.

Some geographical facts...

Area: 88,362 sq. km Population: 10,500,000 Capital: Belgrade Longest rivers: Danube, 588 km (total 2783 km) and Zapadna Morava, 308 km Highest peaks: Djeravica, 2,656 m, in Prokletije Mountain and Crni vrh, 2,585 m, in Sara

… and a brief history

Our ancestors came from the area between the Carpathian mountain, the river Dnieper and the Baltic Sea. Slavic tribes moved from their homeland to the east, west and south. They are divided into East, West and South Slavs. South Slavs settled into the Balkan peninsula and the Eastern Alps in the 6th and 7th centuries. Searching for the best fields for farming, they moved to the south of our country. Our ancestors lived in wretched houses. They were tall and strong and had blond hair.

The first South Slav state was made in the 12th century. St Sava was the first Serbian Archbishop. He belonged to the Nemanjic dynasty, whose kings built many beautiful monasteries in the Middle Ages. On 29th June, 1389, the battle of Kosovo took place. Both the Serbian and the Turkish commander were killed, but the Turks won. They ruled Serbia for over five centuries.

In the First World War, Austro-Hungary attacked us, but the Serbian army won at the end. In 1918 the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was made. Our people fought on the right side during the Second World - against the fascists. The President of Yugoslavia after the war was Josip Broz Tito, and he ruled until 1980, when he died. From that time on, Yugoslavia began to disintegrate, and in 1991 Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina seceded from Yugoslavia.