Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina

The Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina was one of two autonomous provinces within the Socialist Republic of Serbia, in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The province is the direct predecessor to the modern-day Serbian Autonomous Province of Vojvodina.

The province was formally created in 1945 in the aftermath of the World War II in Yugoslavia, as the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. In 1968, it was granted a higher level of political autonomy, and the adjective Socialist was added to its official name. In 1990, after the constitutional reform influenced by what is known as the anti-bureaucratic revolution, its autonomy was reduced to the pre-1968 level, and the term Socialist was dropped from its name. It was encompassing regions of Srem, Banat and Bačka, with capital in Novi Sad.

Throughout its existence Serbs in Vojvodina constituted the largest ethnic group in the province with a parallel strong affirmation of multi-ethnic and multi-cultural elements central to the province's identity. Alongside Serbian standard of then official Serbo-Croatian, socialist Vojvodina officially used other languages including Hungarian, Pannonian Rusyn, Slovak and Romanian. After the opposition failed to secure any seats in the 1945 elections (followed by the formal introduction of a one-party system), the province was ruled by the League of Communists of Vojvodina, part of both the Serbian and wider Yugoslav ruling party.