The Axis occupation ended in 1944 with the liberation of Yugoslavia by the Yugoslav Partisans; Serbia was formed as one of the republics of the new socialist Yugoslavia. In 1945, Vojvodina and Kosovo became autonomous provinces within Serbia, thus the part of Serbia that was outside these two regions became known as "uža Srbija" ("Serbia proper"). At the beginning of the 1990s, the term "uža Srbija" was replaced with the new term "Centralna Srbija" ("Central Serbia") which was used in all official publications of the Serbian government that referred to the region.