Abstract
<jats:p>The paper provides an overview of the development of nuclear research in socialist Yugoslavia from the late 1940s to the end of the 1980s. It reviews the ambitions of the state leadership in developing fundamental nuclear research, their application in energy production and the construction of nuclear power plants, as well as occasional ambitions for military applications. The development of institutions, construction of facilities, personnel training, international cooperation, internal and foreign political motives, and the role of state security bodies and the army in certain segments and periods of research are presented. An overview of the most important historiographical works, political science studies, and memoirs on this topic is also provided.</jats:p>