Zastava Arms was originally founded in 1853 and had its headquarters in Kragujevac, Serbia, but after the collapse Yugoslavia in the early 1980's, a majority of the surviving corporation's leaders escaped to Macedonia, where no city had been hit, the remnant that remained in Serbia soon came under government control in the country. When the Kingdom of Macedonia was established in 1991, the corporation's former head was appointed by the new president, Kiro Gligorov, as the Secretary of Manufacturing and Production. He helped build the Macedonian economic infrastructure to a stable level and the result was that by the late 1990's a majority of factories in Macedonia had been reopened. After, the president was voted out in 1996, the Zastava Arms Corporation was re-established and now based in