HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Yugoslavism, Yugoslavdom, or Yugoslav nationalism is an ideology supporting the notion that the South Slavs, namely the Bosniaks, Croats, Macedonians,
Montenegrins Montenegrins ( cnr, Црногорци, Crnogorci, or ; lit. "Black Mountain People") are a South Slavic ethnic group that share a common Montenegrin culture, history, and language, identified with the country of Montenegro. Genetics Accordi ...
,
Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
and
Slovenes The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( sl, Slovenci ), are a South Slavic ethnic group native to Slovenia, and adjacent regions in Italy, Austria and Hungary. Slovenes share a common ancestry, culture, history and speak Slovene as their na ...
, but also
Bulgarians Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe. Etymology Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely unders ...
, belong to a single Yugoslav nation separated by diverging historical circumstances, forms of speech, and religious divides. During the interwar period, Yugoslavism became predominant in, and then the official ideology of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 ...
. There were two major forms of Yugoslavism in the period: the regime favoured integral Yugoslavism promoting unitarism, centralisation, and unification of the country's
ethnic groups An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
into a single Yugoslav nation, by coercion if necessary. The approach was also applied to languages spoken in the Kingdom. The main alternative was federalist Yugoslavism which advocated the autonomy of the historical lands in the form of a federation and gradual unification without outside pressure. Both agreed on the concept of National Oneness developed as an expression of the strategic alliance of South Slavs in
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
in the early 20th century. The concept was meant as a notion that the South Slavs belong to a single "race", were of "one blood", and had shared language. It was considered neutral regarding the choice of centralism or federalism. The Yugoslavist idea has roots in the 1830s Illyrian movement in Habsburg Croatia, where a group of intellectuals saw the unity of South Slavs within the
Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...
or outside of it, as a protection against Germanisation and Magyarisation. Cooperative talks began with Serbian politicians and working to standardise
Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...
as a common language with orthographer Vuk Karadžić, with limited success. Following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the concept was rivalled by Trialism. Control of the
Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
by the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
and Austria-Hungary prevented practical implementation of Yugoslavist ideas until the Ottomans were pushed out of the Balkans in the 1912
First Balkan War The First Balkan War ( sr, Први балкански рат, ''Prvi balkanski rat''; bg, Балканска война; el, Αʹ Βαλκανικός πόλεμος; tr, Birinci Balkan Savaşı) lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and invo ...
and Austria-Hungary disintegrated in the final days of World War I. During the war, preparations for unification began in the form of the Niš Declaration of Serbian war aims, establishment of the
Yugoslav Committee Yugoslav Committee ( sh-Latn, Jugoslavenski odbor, sr-Cyrl, Југословенски одбор) was a political interest group formed by South Slavs from Austria-Hungary during World War I aimed at joining the existing south Slavic nations in ...
to represent South Slavs living in Austria-Hungary and adoption of the
Corfu Declaration The Corfu Declaration ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Krfska deklaracija, Крфска декларација) was an agreement between the prime minister of Serbia, Nikola Pašić, and the president of the Yugoslav Committee, Ante Trumbić, concluded on the ...
on principles of unification. The short-lived
State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs The State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs ( sh, Država Slovenaca, Hrvata i Srba / ; sl, Država Slovencev, Hrvatov in Srbov) was a political entity that was constituted in October 1918, at the end of World War I, by Slovenes, Croats and Serbs ( ...
was proclaimed in the South Slavic lands formerly ruled by the Habsburgs at the end of the World War I. Its leadership primarily wanted unification with Serbia on a federal basis, while Serbia preferred a centralised state. The unification took place on 1 December 1918, when the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was proclaimed. In the first years of the new kingdom, politics became increasingly ethnic as individual political parties became identified with particular nations within the country. Similarly, integral Yugoslavism became associated with the regime, and the political struggle against the government was increasingly equated with the ethnic struggle between the Serbs (identified with the regime) and various ethnic groups – most often the Croats as the most vocal political opposition to the regime. Alliances shifted over time and were not always ethnic-based. They depended largely on the form of Yugoslavism adopted by those concerned. The outcome of the political debates of the first few years of the new country resulted in the
Vidovdan Constitution The Vidovdan Constitution was the first constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. It was approved by the Constitutional Assembly on 28 June 1921 despite the opposition boycotting the vote. The Constitution is named after the feast ...
– deemed illegitimate by many – and in regime- and opposition-sponsored violence. The state abandoned integral Yugoslavism in 1939 when a settlement was reached with the Croat opposition leader Vladko Maček with the
Cvetković–Maček Agreement The Cvetković–Maček Agreement ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Sporazum Cvetković-Maček, Споразум Цветковић-Мачек), also known simply as the Sporazum in English-language histories, was a political compromise on internal divisions in the ...
. The regime attempted to unify the common language. Lack of standardisation of Serbo-Croatian brought about the practice of publication of official documents in the Ekavian speech favoured in Serbia, often in
Cyrillic script The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking co ...
not normally used by the Croats or the Slovenes to write. The Serbian Orthodox Church was given preference by the regime. The regime tried reducing the power of the
Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
in the Kingdom, promoting conversions and rival churches, and refraining from ratification of the
Concordat A concordat is a convention between the Holy See and a sovereign state that defines the relationship between the Catholic Church and the state in matters that concern both,René Metz, ''What is Canon Law?'' (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1960 st Edi ...
with the
Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...
over Serbian Orthodox Church protests. Before World War I, a synthetic Yugoslavist culture was largely confined to Croat artists and writers.
Ivan Meštrović Ivan Meštrović (; 15 August 1883 – 16 January 1962) was a Croatian sculptor, architect, and writer. He was the most prominent modern Croatian sculptor and a leading artistic personality in contemporary Zagreb. He studied at Pavle Bilinić's ...
became the most prominent among them at a 1911 exhibition in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
. Disillusioned after the unification, most artists and writers distanced themselves from the synthetic culture. After World War II, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) ruled the country. The KPJ adopted a formal commitment to federalism in a highly centralised state, promoting social Yugoslavism and a diversely interpreted notion of "
brotherhood and unity Brotherhood and unity was a popular slogan of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia that was coined during the Yugoslav People's Liberation War (1941–45), and which evolved into a guiding principle of Yugoslavia's post-war inter-ethnic poli ...
". The 1948
Tito–Stalin split The Tito–Stalin split or the Yugoslav–Soviet split was the culmination of a conflict between the political leaderships of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, under Josip Broz Tito and Joseph Stalin, respectively, in the years following World W ...
pushed the KPJ to gradual decentralisation until the mid-1950s, when a Yugoslavist campaign was launched to reverse the course, leading to a debate on levels of decentralisation. Centralist forces were defeated by the mid-1960s. Significant decentralisation occurred during, and in the aftermath of, the Croatian Spring. In 1947, Slovenian intellectuals cited Yugoslavism as the main threat to Slovenian identity. The issues raised by them contributed to the motivation for a 1990 proposal to restructure Yugoslavia as a confederation and for subsequent Slovenian and Croatian declarations of independence marking the breakup of Yugoslavia.


Background

The South Slavs are a subgroup of Slavic peoples comprising the
Bulgarians Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe. Etymology Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely unders ...
, Croats, and
Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
whose national identity developed long before modern
nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...
through collective memory of their medieval states. Furthermore, the South Slavs include the Bosniaks (i.e. Muslim Slavs of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Macedonians,
Montenegrins Montenegrins ( cnr, Црногорци, Crnogorci, or ; lit. "Black Mountain People") are a South Slavic ethnic group that share a common Montenegrin culture, history, and language, identified with the country of Montenegro. Genetics Accordi ...
, and
Slovenes The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( sl, Slovenci ), are a South Slavic ethnic group native to Slovenia, and adjacent regions in Italy, Austria and Hungary. Slovenes share a common ancestry, culture, history and speak Slovene as their na ...
. In the early 19th century, the
Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
were divided between the Austrian and the Ottoman empires. The Austrian Empire comprised the Slovene Lands, the Kingdoms of
Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...
,
Slavonia Slavonia (; hr, Slavonija) is, with Dalmatia, Croatia proper, and Istria, one of the four historical regions of Croatia. Taking up the east of the country, it roughly corresponds with five Croatian counties: Brod-Posavina, Osijek-Baran ...
, Dalmatia with significant Croat populations, and
Vojvodina Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Војводина}), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia. It lies within the Pannonian Basin, bordered to the south by the national capital ...
, containing a substantial Serb population. ''
Hofkriegsrat The ''Hofkriegsrat'' (or Aulic War Council, sometimes Imperial War Council) established in 1556 was the central military administrative authority of the Habsburg monarchy until 1848 and the predecessor of the Austro-Hungarian Ministry of War. Th ...
''-controlled Military Frontier separated the Kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia from each other and Ottoman territory. Substantial Croat and Slovene populations lived in the Istria, organised as the Kingdom of Illyria. In the Ottoman Empire, the semi-independent
Principality of Serbia The Principality of Serbia ( sr-Cyrl, Књажество Србија, Knjažestvo Srbija) was an autonomous state in the Balkans that came into existence as a result of the Serbian Revolution, which lasted between 1804 and 1817. Its creation wa ...
developed in the early 19th century. The empire included the
Bosnia Eyalet The Eyalet of Bosnia ( ota, ایالت بوسنه ,Eyālet-i Bōsnâ; By Gábor Ágoston, Bruce Alan Masters ; sh, Bosanski pašaluk), was an eyalet (administrative division, also known as a ''beylerbeylik'') of the Ottoman Empire, mostly based o ...
, as its westernmost part between Serbia and the Austrian realms. There was also the unrecognised
Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro The Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro ( sr, Митрополство Црногорско, Mitropolstvo Crnogorsko) was an ecclesiastical principality that existed from 1516 until 1852. The principality was located around modern-day Montenegro. It ...
.


Before Yugoslavia


Illyrian movement

The idea of South Slavic unity predates the
creation of Yugoslavia Yugoslavia was a state concept among the South Slavic intelligentsia and later popular masses from the 19th to early 20th centuries that culminated in its realization after the 1918 collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I and the ...
by nearly a century. First developed in Habsburg Croatia by a group of Croat intellectuals led by Ljudevit Gaj in the 1830s, the concept developed through diverse forms of the proposed unity from varying levels of cultural and political cooperation or integration. Members of the Illyrian movement held that the South Slavs could unite around a shared origin, variants of a shared language, and the natural right to live in their own polity. They argued Croatian history is a part of a wider history of the South Slavs and that Croats, Serbs, as well as potentially Slovenes and Bulgarians were parts of a single 'Illyrian' nation (using that word as a neutral term). The movement began as a cultural one, promoting Croatian national identity and integration of all Croatian provinces within the Austrian Empire. The reference to "Croatian provinces" was normally interpreted as a reference to the Kingdoms of Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia, and sometimes a part of or the entirety of
Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
. A wider aim was to gather all South Slavs or ''Jugo-Slaveni'' for short in a commonwealth within or outside of the Empire. The movement's two directions became known as Croatianism and Yugoslavism respectively, meant to counter Germanisation and Magyarisation. In the 1830s and 1840s, there were very few proponents of the Illyrian idea. Virtually all of them were Croats from the ranks of intellectuals – clergy, officials, artists, students, and soldiers. By 1910, they rallied around the People's Party (NS) but accounted for barely one per cent of the population. In mid-19th century Slovene Lands, early Slovenian nationalists felt closer to
Czechs The Czechs ( cs, Češi, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, ...
or
Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...
than other South Slavs, seeking solutions within a reformed framework of the Habsburg empire. Support for Serbo-Croat cooperation grew as a reaction to ongoing Germanisation, but most Slovene intellectuals rejected the Illyrian ideas.


Illyrian contribution to linguistic unity

Since the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
, Croats spoke three dialects – named after forms of the word ''what'' –
Chakavian Chakavian or Čakavian (, , , sh-Latn, čakavski proper name: or own name: ''čokovski, čakavski, čekavski'') is a South Slavic regiolect or language spoken primarily by Croats along the Adriatic coast, in the historical regions of Dalmat ...
,
Kajkavian Kajkavian (Kajkavian noun: ''kajkavščina''; Shtokavian adjective: ''kajkavski'' , noun: ''kajkavica'' or ''kajkavština'' ) is a South Slavic regiolect or language spoken primarily by Croats in much of Central Croatia, Gorski Kotar and no ...
, and western
Shtokavian Shtokavian or Štokavian (; sh-Latn, štokavski / sh-Cyrl, italics=no, штокавски, ) is the prestige dialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin standards. It ...
. The Serbs spoke two – eastern Shtokavian and the Prizren–Timok dialect. From the 12th century, the two Shtokavian dialects grew increasingly mutually similar and more distinct from the other dialects. Gaj supported the idea proposed by Serbian orthographer Vuk Karadžić that a common language was the foundation of a nation. Karadžić held that Serbs and Croats could be united by a common
orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...
. To support this aim, the Illyrian movement chose to promote Shtokavian as the standard
literary language A literary language is the form (register) of a language used in written literature, which can be either a nonstandard dialect or a standardized variety of the language. Literary language sometimes is noticeably different from the spoken langua ...
because nearly all Serbs spoke it. This represented a sacrifice made on purpose – most prominent Illyrians spoke Kajkavian normally used in
Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...
. This led to the
Vienna Literary Agreement The Vienna Literary Agreement (Serbo-Croatian: ''Bečki književni dogovor'', Бечки књижевни договор) was the result of a meeting held in March 1850, when writers from Kingdom of Croatia (Habsburg), Croatia, Principality ...
on standardisation of the
Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...
language as the common language. This also produced nationalist claims that Serbs were
Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canonical ...
Croats and that Croats were
Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
Serbs, as well as that the Slavic Muslims were Islamised Serbs or Croats – denying the existence of the "rival" ethnic groups. Despite the agreement, the Illyrians did not adopt the standard proposed by Karadžić for another four decades. Croats did not universally accept Gaj's linguistic determination of a nation. The founder of the Party of Rights (SP), Ante Starčević, held that existence of states gives rise to existence of nations. Starčević cited
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
and
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
as examples of such nation building. He applied the idea of a state as the foundation of a nation to the Croats by advocating the concept of the .
Josip Frank Josip Frank (16 April 1844 – 17 December 1911) was a Croatian lawyer and politician, a noted representative of the Party of Rights in the Croatian Parliament, and a vocal advocate of Croatian national independence in Austria-Hungary. Early l ...
, Starčević's successor at the helm of the SP, argued that nations had different racial traits, assuming an anti-Serbian stance. The Illyrians found little support among
Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
in
Habsburg lands The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...
, as they viewed Serbia as a nucleus of South-Slavic unification ascribing to it the role played by
Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...
in Italian unification. Most Serb intellectuals dismissed the modified Shtokavian as a threat to the liturgical Church Slavonic, and the
Gaj's Latin alphabet Gaj's Latin alphabet ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Gajeva latinica, separator=" / ", Гајева латиница}, ), also known as ( sh-Cyrl, абецеда, ) or ( sh-Cyrl, гајица, link=no, ), is the form of the Latin script used for writing Serb ...
– recommending Croats use the
Cyrillic script The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking co ...
as a truly Slavic alphabet. In 1913, there was an attempt to create a Serbo-Croatian standard by Serbian literary critic
Jovan Skerlić Jovan Skerlić (, ; 20 August 1877 – 15 May 1914) was a Serbian writer and literary critic.''Jovan Skerlić u srpskoj književnosti 1877–1977: Zbornik radova''. Posebna izdanja, Institut za knjizevnost i umetnost, Belgrade. He is seen as one ...
. He proposed Croats accept the "Eastern dialect" while Serbs would abandon the Cyrilic script. The plan had a mixed reception in Croatia and was abandoned at the outbreak of the
war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
.


19th-century Serbia and the Yugoslavist idea

Vojvodina Serbs favoured closer ties with or joining the ''
de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
'' independent Serbia over the Illyrian ideas. Serbia discouraged their
irredentism Irredentism is usually understood as a desire that one state annexes a territory of a neighboring state. This desire is motivated by ethnic reasons (because the population of the territory is ethnically similar to the population of the parent sta ...
to preserve good relations with Austria. In the 1860s, within the framework of efforts by
Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. T ...
Mihailo Obrenović Prince Mihailo Obrenović III of Serbia ( sr-Cyrl, Михаило Обреновић, Mihailo Obrenović; 16 September 1823 – 10 June 1868) was the ruling Prince of Serbia from 1839 to 1842 and again from 1860 to 1868. His first reign ended w ...
to establish an anti-Ottoman coalition, Roman Catholic bishop
Josip Juraj Strossmayer Josip Juraj Strossmayer, also Štrosmajer (; german: Joseph Georg Strossmayer; 4 February 1815 – 8 April 1905) was a Croatian politician, Roman Catholic Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop, and benefactor (law), benefactor. Early life an ...
and Serbian Foreign Minister Ilija Garašanin, agreed to work towards establishing a Yugoslav state independent of Austria and the Ottomans. The plan, inspired by ''
Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...
'' (Italian unification), called for unification of the lands from Carinthia, Carniola and Southern Styria in the north to
Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
,
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
, and
Thrace Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to ...
in the south. The scheme was mostly used to promote the unification of South Slavic lands in
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
around Croatia and South Slavic regions of the Ottoman Empire around Serbia. The plan was abandoned after the assassination of Mihailo and the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. As
Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
achieved independence through the
1878 Treaty of Berlin The Treaty of Berlin (formally the Treaty between Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Great Britain and Ireland, Italy, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire for the Settlement of Affairs in the East) was signed on 13 July 1878. In the aftermath of the ...
, the Yugoslav idea became irrelevant in the country. Before the 1912
First Balkan War The First Balkan War ( sr, Први балкански рат, ''Prvi balkanski rat''; bg, Балканска война; el, Αʹ Βαλκανικός πόλεμος; tr, Birinci Balkan Savaşı) lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and invo ...
, Serbia was mono-ethnic and
Serbian nationalism Serbian nationalism asserts that Serbs are a nation and promotes the cultural and political unity of Serbs. It is an ethnic nationalism, originally arising in the context of the general rise of nationalism in the Balkans under Ottoman rule, u ...
sought to include (those considered to be) Serbs into the state. It portrayed work of bishops Strossmayer and
Franjo Rački Franjo Rački (25 November 1828 – 13 February 1894) was a Croatian historian, politician and writer. He compiled important collections of old Croatian diplomatic and historical documents, wrote some pioneering historical works, and was a key f ...
as a scheme to establish Greater Croatia. There was pressure to expand Serbia by a group of Royal Serbian Army officers known as the
Black Hand Black Hand or The Black Hand may refer to: Extortionists and underground groups * Black Hand (anarchism) (''La Mano Negra''), a presumed secret, anarchist organization based in the Andalusian region of Spain during the early 1880s * Black Hand (e ...
. They carried out the May 1903 coup installing the Karađorđević dynasty to power and then organised nationalist actions in "unredeemed Serbian provinces" specified as Bosnia, Herzegovina,
Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...
,
Old Serbia Old Serbia ( sr, Стара Србија, Stara Srbija) is a Serbian historiographical term that is used to describe the territory that according to the dominant school of Serbian historiography in the late 19th century formed the core of the ...
(meaning
Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
), Macedonia,
Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...
,
Slavonia Slavonia (; hr, Slavonija) is, with Dalmatia, Croatia proper, and Istria, one of the four historical regions of Croatia. Taking up the east of the country, it roughly corresponds with five Croatian counties: Brod-Posavina, Osijek-Baran ...
, Syrmia,
Vojvodina Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Војводина}), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia. It lies within the Pannonian Basin, bordered to the south by the national capital ...
, and Dalmatia. This echoed Garašanin's 1844 '' Načertanije'' – a treatise anticipating the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, calling for the establishment of Greater Serbia to pre-empt
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
or Austrian expansion into the Balkans and unifying all Serbs into a single state.


Trialism in Austria-Hungary

While the Illyrians achieved the goal of raising Croatian national awareness by 1850, they failed elsewhere. In the 1850s, the NS, Strossmayer and Rački championed the Illyrian idea. Fearing ''
Drang nach Osten (; 'Drive to the East',Ulrich Best''Transgression as a Rule: German–Polish cross-border cooperation, border discourse and EU-enlargement'' 2008, p. 58, , Edmund Jan Osmańczyk, Anthony Mango, ''Encyclopedia of the United Nations and Interna ...
'' ('drive to the east'), they believed Germanisation and Magyarisation could only be resisted through unity with other Slavs, especially the Serbs. They advocated the unification of Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia as the
Triune Kingdom The Triune Kingdom ( hr, Trojedna kraljevina) or Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia ( hr, Trojedna Kraljevina Hrvatske, Slavonije i Dalmacije) was the concept—advocated by the leaders of the 19th-century Croatian national revival ...
expanded to include other South Slavs in Austria (or Austria-Hungary after the Compromise of 1867) before joining other South Slavic polities in a
federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-govern ...
or confederation. The proposed consolidation of variously defined Croatian or South Slavic lands led to proposals for trialism in Austria-Hungary accommodating a South-Slavic polity with a rank equal to the
Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen ...
. Croatia and Slavonia were consolidated with the Military Frontier into Croatia-Slavonia in 1881. Nonetheless, divisions remained as it was among the
Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen The Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen ( hu, a Szent Korona Országai), informally Transleithania (meaning the lands or region "beyond" the Leitha River) were the Hungarian territories of Austria-Hungary, throughout the latter's entire exis ...
– the Hungarian part of the monarchy – while Dalmatia and Istria were included in Austrian Cisleithania. There was also a significant Croatian population in
Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
, annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908. Unification of those lands became the central issue for Croatia-Slavonian politics in the trialist context. Béni Kállay, the administrator of the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina, introduced the concept of Bosnians, rejecting
ethnic An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
and religious divisions. Kállay's project entailed a campaign to standardise the Bosnian language. It was viewed as having key cultural, social, and political role in strengthening the Austro-Hungarian rule. Kállay's language policy coincided with the formal introduction of the orthographic norms set out in the Vienna Literary Agreement by the administration of Ban Károly Khuen-Héderváry in Croatia-Slavonia in the 1890s. At the same time, linguistic differences grew with the departure of Belgrade-based Serbian standard from the Karadžić-proposed form by adoption of Ekavian speech. The start of Austrian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina – and the consequent reorienting of Serbian political priorities prompted the shift. Macedonia became the priority and Ekavian was deemed better suited for expansion into the region. During the
Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina fell under Austro-Hungarian rule in 1878, when the Congress of Berlin approved the occupation of the Bosnia Vilayet, which officially remained part of the Ottoman Empire. Three decades later, in 1908, Austria-Hungary pr ...
, a religious community developed to preserve the cultural and religious autonomy of the Islamic population, renouncing a nationalist agenda. Secular
Bosnian Muslim The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry, cu ...
intelligentsia was divided into pro-Croat and pro-Serb factions declaring themselves instead as Croats or
Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
of Islamic faith. In 1878–1903, strong antagonism developed between Serbs and Croats as the agendas for creation of the Greater Serbia and the Triune Kingdom clashed over the issue of Serbian or Croatian control of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This clash was used and exacerbated by Héderváry whose
divide and rule Divide and rule policy ( la, divide et impera), or divide and conquer, in politics and sociology is gaining and maintaining power divisively. Historically, this strategy was used in many different ways by empires seeking to expand their ter ...
policies increased mutual hostilities. They also resulted in the decline in support for Yugoslavist ideas in the period.


End of two empires


Branching concept

In the first two decades of the 20th century, various Croat, Serb, and Slovene national programmes adopted Yugoslavism in different, conflicting, or mutually exclusive forms. Yugoslavism became a pivotal idea for establishing a South Slavic political union. Most Serbs equated the idea with a Greater Serbia under a different name or a vehicle to bring all Serbs into a single state. For many Croats and Slovenes, Yugoslavism protected them against Austrian and Hungarian challenges to preservation of their Croat and Slovene identities and political autonomy. The proponents of the political union pursued different forms of Yugoslavism. Unitarist or integral Yugoslavism and federalist Yugoslavism were the two major categories. The former denied the existence of separate nations or sought to supersede them by the introduction of a single Yugoslav nation. Some sources draw a distinction between the unitarists and the integralists. According to them, the unitarists believe South Slavs are a single ethnic unit, but refrain from active unification – unlike the integralists who actively work to amalgamate the Yugoslav nation. The federalists acknowledged the existence of separate nations and wanted to accommodate them in a new political union through a federation or another system affording various South Slavic nations political and cultural autonomy. Some sources also identify a group associated with the concept of Yugoslavism as the pseudo-Yugoslavs tactically choosing to pursue an apparently Yugoslavist agenda to implement specific national interests. The concept of National Oneness was first developed by the Croat-Serb Coalition (HSK) as an expression of a strategic alliance of South Slavs in Austria-Hungary in the early 20th century. It did not imply unitarist Yugoslavism. While the concept was meant as an expression of the notion that the South Slavs belong to a single "race", were of "one blood", and had one shared language, it was considered neutral regarding the possibility of centralised or decentralised government in a common state.


Defeat of the Ottoman Empire

The existence of the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary in the Balkans was a barrier to political unification of the South Slavs. This changed in late 1912 with the outbreak of the First Balkan War. In the conflict, the Ottomans lost most of the Balkan possessions as Serbia,
Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
, and
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
took control of
Vardar The Vardar (; mk, , , ) or Axios () is the longest river in North Macedonia and the second longest river in Greece, in which it reaches the Aegean Sea at Thessaloniki. It is long, out of which are in Greece, and drains an area of around . Th ...
, Aegean and
Pirin Macedonia Pirin Macedonia or Bulgarian Macedonia ( bg, Пиринска Македония; Българска Македония) (''Pirinska Makedoniya or Bulgarska Makedoniya'') is the third-biggest part of the geographical region Macedonia located on t ...
respectively. The region's borders were to be adjusted under mediation of Nicholas II of Russia. However, the war produced a rivalry between Bulgaria on one side and Greece and Serbia on the other. After suffering the greatest losses in the war Bulgaria was dissatisfied with the size of its territorial gains. To protect against Bulgaria, Greek–Serbian Alliance of 1913 was concluded, and the allies specified territorial claims against Bulgaria. In 1913, Bulgaria attacked Serbia, starting the Second Balkan War, to expand its territory but ended in further losses.


Outbreak of the First World War

On 28 June 1914,
Gavrilo Princip Gavrilo Princip ( sr-Cyrl, Гаврило Принцип, ; 25 July 189428 April 1918) was a Bosnian Serb student who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. Pr ...
– a
Bosnian Serb The Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sr-Cyrl, Срби у Босни и Херцеговини, Srbi u Bosni i Hercegovini) are one of the three constitutive nations (state-forming nations) of the country, predominantly residing in the politi ...
member of the Young Bosnia movement assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary, in
Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...
. The organisation, supported by the Black Hand, consisted of Yugoslavist nationalists advocating a political union of Serbs, Croats, Slavic Muslims, and Slovenes through revolutionary actions. The July Crisis and the outbreak of the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
followed the assassination. Since the outbreak of hostilities, Serbia had considered the war an opportunity for territorial expansion beyond Serb-inhabited areas. A committee tasked with determining war aims produced a programme to establish a Yugoslav state by adding Croatia-Slavonia, Slovene Lands, Vojvodina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Dalmatia. In the Niš Declaration, the National Assembly of Serbia announced the struggle to liberate and unify "unliberated brothers". In 1915, the Yugoslav Committee was established as an ad hoc group with no official capacity. Its members thought that the Yugoslavist idea entered the final phase in 1903. That was the year the Khuen Hedervary Administration ended, the year Kallay died, and the year of the dynastic change in Serbia. The committee, partially funded by the Serbian government, consisted of intellectuals and politicians from Austria-Hungary claiming to represent the interests of South Slavs. The president of the committee was
Ante Trumbić Ante Trumbić (17 May 1864 – 17 November 1938) was a Yugoslav and Croatian lawyer and politician in the early 20th century. Biography Trumbić was born in Split in the Austrian crownland of Dalmatia and studied law at Zagreb, Vienna and ...
, but its most prominent member was Frano Supilo, the co-founder of the ruling HSK in Croatia-Slavonia. Supilo urged the establishment of a Yugoslav state as a federation with Serbia (including Vojvodina), Croatia (including Slavonia and Dalmatia), Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Montenegro as its federal units. Supilo distrusted Serbian prime minister,
Nikola Pašić Nikola Pašić ( sr-Cyrl, Никола Пашић, ; 18 December 1845 – 10 December 1926) was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician and diplomat who was a leading political figure for almost 40 years. He was the leader of the People's Radical ...
, a proponent of Greater Serbia and cautioned the committee about Pašić's likely intentions. On the other hand, the committee learned of the Treaty of London awarding the
Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to an institutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and f ...
parts of the Slovene Lands, Istria, and Dalmatia by the
Triple Entente The Triple Entente (from French '' entente'' meaning "friendship, understanding, agreement") describes the informal understanding between the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as well a ...
in return for an Italian alliance. In May 1917, members of the Yugoslav Deputies' Club of the Imperial Council in Vienna drafted the May Declaration on unification of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs within Austria-Hungary and a trialist restructuring of the empire. Starčević's faction of the SP and the Croatian People's Peasant Party (HSS) led by Stjepan Radić, supported the declaration in the
Diet of Hungary The Diet of Hungary or originally: Parlamentum Publicum / Parlamentum Generale ( hu, Országgyűlés) became the supreme legislative institution in the medieval kingdom of Hungary from the 1290s, and in its successor states, Royal Hungary and ...
where Croatia-Slavonia was represented. Frank's faction of the SP rejected the idea. The declaration was debated in the press for a year before the imperial authorities outlawed the proposal. In June–July 1917, the Serbian government and the Yugoslav Committee held a series of meetings on Corfu. They discussed the future common state and produced the
Corfu Declaration The Corfu Declaration ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Krfska deklaracija, Крфска декларација) was an agreement between the prime minister of Serbia, Nikola Pašić, and the president of the Yugoslav Committee, Ante Trumbić, concluded on the ...
that the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes were one "tri-named" people, and that the Karađorđević dynasty would reign in the new unified state organised as a parliamentary, constitutional monarchy. The document did not say if the state would be federal or centralised. Trumbić proposed to establish a provisional government of the new state. Pašić declined, however, to avoid undermining diplomatic advantage enjoyed by Serbia in the unification process as a recognised state. Supilo died two months later.


State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs

On 5–6 October 1918, representatives of Slovene, Croat, and Serb political parties in Austria-Hungary established the National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs to work towards independence from the empire. The same month, Emperor Charles I of Austria offered to reorganise Austria-Hungary as a federation, but his proposal was rejected as belated. On 18 October, the National Council declared itself the central organ of the new
State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs The State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs ( sh, Država Slovenaca, Hrvata i Srba / ; sl, Država Slovencev, Hrvatov in Srbov) was a political entity that was constituted in October 1918, at the end of World War I, by Slovenes, Croats and Serbs ( ...
. The
Croatian Sabor The Croatian Parliament ( hr, Hrvatski sabor) or the Sabor is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of the Republic of Croatia. Under the terms of the Constitution of Croatia, Croatian Constitution, the Sabor represents the nation, people ...
('Parliament') was convened to sever ties with Austria-Hungary formally and establish the new state on 29 October. It elected the leader of the Slovene People's Party (SLS),
Anton Korošec Anton Korošec (, ; 12 May 1872 – 14 December 1940) was a Yugoslav politician, a prominent member of the conservative People's Party, a Roman Catholic priest and a noted orator. Early life Korošec was born in Biserjane (then Duchy of Styr ...
, as the president of the state. The president of one of SP splinter parties,
Ante Pavelić Ante Pavelić (; 14 July 1889 – 28 December 1959) was a Croatian politician who founded and headed the fascist ultranationalist organization known as the Ustaše in 1929 and served as dictator of the Independent State of Croatia ( hr, l ...
and Croatian Serb, HSK co-founder Svetozar Pribićević were elected vice presidents. Representatives of the National Council, the Serbian government and opposition, and the Yugoslav Committee met in Geneva on 6–9 November to discuss unification. The National Council and the Yugoslav Committee asked Pašić to renounce centralist government in the future state. Pressured by France, and no longer enjoying the support of Russia, Pašić complied and signed the Geneva Declaration. In response, Prince Regent Alexander of Serbia compelled him to resign. The new cabinet declined to honour the declaration, annulling Serbia's commitment to a federal state. The National Council faced threats of revolutionary unrest and Italian invasion. Therefore, it invited the Serbian Second Army to preserve order. In mid-November, Italian troops entered Istria, captured Rijeka on 17 November and were stopped before
Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the are ...
by city defenders, including a battalion of Serbian prisoners of war. The National Council appealed unsuccessfully for international help. On 25 and 26 November assemblies in Vojvodina and Montenegro voted to join Serbia. In the latter case, the
Podgorica Assembly The Great National Assembly of the Serb People in Montenegro ( sr, Велика народна скупштина српског народа у Црној Гори, Velika narodna skupština srpskog naroda u Crnoj Gori), commonly known as the Po ...
was convened as an ad hoc body to depose the
Petrović-Njegoš dynasty Petrović-Njegoš (Serbian Cyrillic: , / ) is the Serbian family that ruled Montenegro from 1697 to 1916. Montenegro was ruled from its inception by '' vladikas'' ( prince-bishops) since 1516, who had a dual temporal and spiritual role. In 169 ...
in favour of Karađorđevićs. Pressed by the Italian threat, the National Council dispatched a delegation to Prince Alexander to arrange unification in a federation. The delegation ignored the instructions when it addressed the Prince Regent on 1 December. Prince Alexander accepted the unification offer on behalf of Peter I of Serbia and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was established. No ethnic or religious group had an absolute majority in the kingdom's population.


Defining the South Slavic kingdom


Provisional government

After unification, the Prince Regent appointed
Stojan Protić Stojan Protić ( sr-cyrl, Стојан Протић; 28 January 1857 – 28 October 1923) was a Serbian politician and writer. He served as the prime minister of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes between 1918 and 1919, and again in 1920, ...
as
prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
. Korošec was appointed his deputy, Momčilo Ninčić the finance minister, Trumbić the foreign minister, Pribičević the interior minister and
Ljubomir Davidović Ljubomir Davidović (24 December 1863 – 19 February 1940) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who served as prime minister (1919–1920 and 1924) of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later called Yugoslavia). Biography Davidovi ...
, the education minister. Protić and Davidović were drawn from the largest Serbian parties – the
People's Radical Party The People's Radical Party ( sr, Народна радикална странка, Narodna radikalna stranka, abbr. НРС or NRS) was the dominant ruling party of Kingdom of Serbia and later Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from the l ...
(NRS) and the
Independent Radical Party The Yugoslav Democratic Party, ''State Party of Serbian, Croatian and Slovene Democrats'' and Democratic Party, also known as the Democratic Union was the name of a series of liberal political parties that existed in succession in the State of S ...
, respectively. Soon afterwards, the Independent Radical Party went through a series of mergers to form the Democratic Party (DS). While the Prince Regent promised in the 1 December declaration that the Temporary National Representation would be appointed from a list of candidates approved with the agreement of the Serbian Assembly and the National Council, government minister Albert Kramer drew up the list instead. While Pribičević wanted maximum centralisation, Protić advocated autonomous regions, as he saw the advantages of maintaining the administrative authority of the historical provinces. The NRS thought it necessary to preserve the Serb nation as the group having the dominant role in the unification, but opposed federation. This led the NRS to insist on naming the country the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, rejecting the name of Yugoslavia. The advocates of decentralisation preferred Yugoslavia. The debate on the constitutional system produced three proposed constitutions. A centralised state put forward by Pribičević, a federation proposed by Radić and a compromise from Protić. Before the Constitutional Assembly was convened, and while the system of government was yet to be determined formally, the provisional government took measures to strengthen centralisation of the country. Pribičević moved to dismantle any pre-1918 administrative and representative bodies. In Croatia, the process contributed to increased tensions and disorder. The early centralisation processes were accompanied by government efforts in linguistic unification – by declaring the so-called Serbo-Croato-Slovenian or Yugoslavian language, also referred to as the state or national language, the sole official language. The Cyrillic script was made formally equal in use to the Latin script – the latter employed previously as the sole Croatian and Slovenian script. In practice, the bulk of official publications were made in Ekavian Serbo-Croatian (also referred to as Yugoslav) language, largely printed only in Cyrilic script. Thus, Serbian became the de facto official language. Croatian and Slovenian were declared dialects of Serbian, relegating Croatian and Slovenian culture to a secondary status, and echoing Pašić's views of South Slavic unity. In the military, use of Latin script was often regarded as reflecting anti-state sentiment and contributed to the decision by many non-Serbs to resign commissions – increasing Serb numerical domination among the officer corps. The Macedonian language was banned entirely. Even before standardisation of school curricula, the doctrine of a "three-named people" was introduced into the education system.


Initial political opposition

Over time, the centralisation–decentralisation debate evolved from contest of forms of Yugoslavism and turned primarily, but not exclusively, into a conflict between the Serbs and the Croats. Historian Ivo Banac pointed to the manner of the unification as the source of the country's ethnic conflicts and instability. Radić was a particularly vocal opponent of the monarchy while he, and the HSS supported federal or confederal Yugoslavism affording Croatia the maximum autonomy. In February, the HSS started a petition addressed to the Paris Peace Conference demanding a "neutral Croat peasant republic". Radić was imprisoned for a year in response. Even though the HSS was less influential than the NS and the SP in Croatia before the war, the imprisonment of Radić and other HSS members made them the champions of the Croatian national cause in public opinion, and a ''de facto'' Croatian national movement. While largely welcoming unification, Slovenes generally rejected integral Yugoslavism and worked to preserve their language and culture. Initially, the Korošec-led SLS advocated the federalist system of government and Slovenian autonomy. Slovenian Centralists were the most influential political opponents of the SLS in 1920, but their influence waned, leaving the SLS as the main representatives of the Slovenes in the interwar period, regardless of their support or opposition to the regime or Slovenian autonomy. The
Yugoslav Muslim Organization The Yugoslav Muslim Organization (, ''JMO'') was an Ethnic Muslim (today Bosniak) political party in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It was founded in Sarajevo on the 16 February 1919 and was led by ...
(JMO) represented the interests of the Muslim Slavic population of Bosnia and Herzegovina while the
Džemijet ''Džemijet'' ( tr, Cemiyet, "Society", sq, Xhemijet; full Turkish name tr, İslam Muhafaza-i Hukuk Cemiyeti, "Islamic Association for the Defense of Justice"/"Society for the Preservation of Muslim Rights") was a political party of the Muslim po ...
represented the Islamic population elsewhere in the state. The JMO supported Yugoslavism as a protection against assimilation by the Serbs and the Croats. While denouncing Yugoslav nationalism of the DS, the JMO allied itself with the NRS for its support of the preservation of Bosnian Muslim identity. The Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) initially supported centralisation and unitarist positions. Soon after the establishment of the kingdom, the KPJ reversed its position under instructions from the
Communist International The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by ...
and advocated the breakup of the country.


Early unrest and violence

The period immediately after the unification saw significant violence and civil unrest in the country. There were revolutionary actions in Slavonia and Vojvodina inspired by the
Hungarian Soviet Republic The Socialist Federative Republic of Councils in Hungary ( hu, Magyarországi Szocialista Szövetséges Tanácsköztársaság) (due to an early mistranslation, it became widely known as the Hungarian Soviet Republic in English-language sources ( ...
. Macedonia and Kosovo – known as Southern Serbia then – saw a
Serbianisation Serbianisation American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), or Serbianization, also known as Serbification, and Serbisation American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), or ...
campaign and a colonisation programme. The Macedonians fought back through the Bulgaria-based Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO). In Kosovo, there were instances of retribution for killings by Albanians during the First World War Serbian Great Retreat. Acts of Albanian retaliation culminated in the failed 1919 uprising by the Committee for the National Defence of Kosovo and the massacre of Albanians by the regime forces. 50,000 police and troops were deployed to the region, supported by Chetnik paramilitaries led by Jovan Babunski. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian Serbs attacked Muslim landowners and peasants – killing about 2,000 and evicting 4,000 from their homes by 1920. Montenegrins killed several hundred Muslims in the Sandžak region in the same period. The desire to seize Muslim-owned land and compel the Muslim population to leave the country motivated the violence. In Montenegro, pro-independence Greens launched the unsuccessful Christmas Uprising against pro-Serbian
Whites White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as ...
in 1919. In early December 1918, there was an anti-monarchy protest in Zagreb suppressed by force. The same winter, violence swept through Croatian countryside – peasants looted large estates and shops, but there was also some inter-ethnic violence. After a lull, a peasant revolt broke out in Croatia in late March 1919 in response to a campaign of branding of draft animals for army use.


Vidovdan Constitution

Following the 1920 election, the DS and the NRS became the largest parliamentary parties but did not have the majority in the Constitutional Assembly. The KPJ and the HSS – the third and the fourth largest parliamentary parties – refused to participate in the assembly over the rule that a simple majority would adopt the new constitution rather than by consensus as foreseen by the Corfu Declaration. A further dispute arose when the members of parliament were asked to swear an oath to the king. All parties except the DS and the NRS refused to do this. The Constitutional Assembly adopted the Vidovdan Constitution based on the Pribičević draft on 28 June 1921. The choice was made at Prime Minister Pašić's urging as the version providing the least concessions to parties advocating decentralisation. Since the DS and the NRS did not have the votes to adopt the constitution, they obtained the support of the JMO and Džemijet in return for compensation to Muslim landowners for lost property. Even though ideological divisions existed throughout the kingdom, politics quickly became largely ethnic-based. The parties in power portrayed any criticism of government as tantamount to treason. Regardless of the ethnic nature of the country's politics, there were political parties crossing that boundary at certain times – Serb parties opposing the regime or non-Serb ones supporting it. The constitution was a product of the Serb minority, but it confirmed Serb primacy, marking the start of a long political crisis. The integral Yugoslavism was firmly associated with the royal regime. In the 1920 election, the KPJ achieved considerable success in large cities, in Montenegro, and Macedonia through protest votes against the regime, from unemployed urban voters and voters in regions having no other attractive national or regional opposition. The Vidovdan Constitution was dysfunctional and ultimately failed because it was illegitimate and did not ensure the rule of law, individual rights, neutrality of the state in the matters of religion and national culture. The national question was a product of the dysfunctional nature of the constitution. The fault laid primarily with the policies adopted by the king and Pašić as well as by Davidović and Pribičević in the first years of the kingdom. They viewed the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes essentially as an expansion of Serbia and the conflicts were a response to the Serbian hegemonism and the constitution designed to serve only a particular interpretation of Serbian national interests.


State ideology


Violence in service of ideology

Interior minister Milorad Drašković cancelled the KPJ victory in the 1920 Belgrade city election, prompting the communist terrorist group Crvena Pravda to assassinate him. In turn, this led to the outlawing of the KPJ and the enactment of legislation allowing the government to prosecute political opponents. The regime organised paramilitary forces outside the legal framework. The royal administrator for Croatia established the Organization of Yugoslav Nationalists (ORJUNA) in Split in 1921. Funded through the provincial government, it operated under the protection of a DS faction loyal to Pribičević. Its purpose was to carry out extralegal actions against communists, Croatian separatists, and other real or perceived enemies of the state, including federalists, on behalf of the regime. By 1925, ORJUNA Action Groups had 10,000 members, and supplied with weapons by the White Hand organisation – a Black Hand splinter group with military ties. ORJUNA was an openly terrorist group advocating unitarism and a dictatorship of Yugoslav nationalists, potentially under royal patronage, and abolishing parliamentarism. It had similarities with the Italian Fascist
Blackshirts The Voluntary Militia for National Security ( it, Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale, MVSN), commonly called the Blackshirts ( it, Camicie Nere, CCNN, singular: ) or (singular: ), was originally the paramilitary wing of the Nation ...
, including the glorification of violence. The Serbian National Youth (SRNAO) and the Croatian National Youth (HANAO) were formed in response. They employed similar methods of operation. The HANAO, established as a Croatian defence against the ORJUNA, and initially backed by the HSS, became the main opponent of the ORJUNA. The NRS backed the SRNAO, who viewed the ORJUNA as being insufficiently Serbian. The officially sanctioned Chetnik organisation splintered in 1924 along the same ideological lines which separated the ORJUNA from the SRNAO. Until that point, the Chetnik movement was under the influence of DS and the party was imposing Yugoslavist ideology. Following the NRS electoral victory over the DS in 1925, NRS's Puniša Račić became the dominant figure in the movement and went on to reverse its ideological course. That meant that Serbian identity, instead of the Yugoslav nation, was to assimilate other ethnic identities. Chetnik units pursued this aim by terrorising Croat and Muslim villages in Croatia and Bosnia.


Dysfunctional parliamentarism

The centralism–federalism conflict evolved in the 1920s. The HSS ended its parliamentary boycott in 1924 aiming to vote against the NRS government, but its deputies were denied the right to vote for 16 weeks on the pretext of the verification of their credentials. That year, Davidović-led DS split, and Pribičević formed the Independent Democratic Party (SDS). Pribičević realised the regime used the Croatian Serbs – his primary constituents – to antagonise Croats, stirring up ethnic tensions only to abandon Croatian Serbs, leaving them vulnerable to retribution whenever profit could be extracted from compromise with Croats. In late 1924, HSS campaigning was banned, and Radić was imprisoned on charges of communist anti-state activity after the HSS joined the Krestintern. Despite this, the HSS received more votes in the 1925 election than in
1923 Events January–February * January 9 – Lithuania begins the Klaipėda Revolt to annex the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory). * January 11 – Despite strong British protests, troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area, t ...
. The NRS and the HSS established a coalition government in 1925 as the HSS formally renounced republicanism and changed the party name to the Croatian Peasant Party, abandoning the demand for a federation, and limiting its aims to Croatian autonomy. Radić was released from prison on the day the government was formed. The coalition ended during the 1927 local election campaign when the police interfered with HSS campaigning in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Vojvodina. NRS Interior Minister Božidar Maksimović confirmed the accusations, adding the NRS would prefer Croats in Vojvodina declared themselves as
Bunjevci Bunjevci ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Bunjevci, Буњевци, ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, label=, separator=" / ", Bunjevac, Буњевац, sh-Latn-Cyrl, label=, separator=" / ", Bunjevka, Буњевка) are a South Slavic sub-ethnic group living ...
or
Šokci Šokci ( sh, / , italics=yes, , ; , ; hu, Sokácok) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to historical regions of Baranya, Bačka, Slavonia and Syrmia. These regions today span eastern Croatia, southwestern Hungary, and northern Serbia ...
. Following the split with the DS, Pribičević rejected centralism but retained a belief in the National Oneness. Since Radić remained open to the idea of a common Yugoslav identity, this allowed SDS-HSS cooperation. Radić was ready to accept that Serbs and Croats were linguistically and ethnically one people mutually distinguished by their political cultures. In 1927, the SDS and the HSS established the (SDK) ostensibly to fight a taxation system which placed a disproportionately higher tax burden on areas not included in the pre-1918 Kingdom of Serbia. Rearrangement of forces in the centralism–federalism struggle was completed by the establishment of the ruling DS–NRS–JMO coalition joined by the SLS, which abandoned demands for Slovenian autonomy.


Death of Stjepan Radić

In 1928, relations between the ruling coalition and the SDK deteriorated over accusations of unfair taxation and government corruption. Calls for violence against the SDK and specifically against Radić further inflamed the situation, resulting in shouting matches and physical altercations in the Assembly. On 20 June, after being accused of corruption in the Assembly, Račić took the floor, drew a revolver, and shot five HSS delegates – killing two and wounding three including Radić. Račić turned himself in but was never tried. In the immediate aftermath of the shootings, 19,000 people gathered in the centre of Zagreb demanding secession from Serbia. In the ensuing violence, three more people were killed, 40 wounded and 180 arrested. The government resigned, the king offered the mandate to several people who failed or declined to form a new government before turning to Korošec. Radić died on 8 August. A large crowd attended his funeral and there were numerous public displays of mourning in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Five days after his death, Vladko Maček was elected to lead the HSS. Unlike Radić, Maček dismissed the idea of a common Yugoslav nation. He claimed the ideology of National Oneness based on linguistic unity was insufficient to forge a single nation. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, the king dismissed any possibility of federalism, but offered Radić, Pribičević, and Maček "amputation" to remove Slovenia and Croatia from the country. They declined the offer for fear that it entailed transferring parts of Croatia to expanded Serbia. Instead, the SDK adopted a resolution breaking off relations with Serbia-based parties and declaring they no longer recognised the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes – returning to advocating a republic. The Frankist faction of the SP saw the killings as an opportunity to tout opposition to Yugoslavism as the central issue among Croats. As the crisis coincided with the tenth anniversary of establishment of the kingdom, Frankist leaders
Ante Pavelić Ante Pavelić (; 14 July 1889 – 28 December 1959) was a Croatian politician who founded and headed the fascist ultranationalist organization known as the Ustaše in 1929 and served as dictator of the Independent State of Croatia ( hr, l ...
and portrayed Radić as the most recent in a long line of Croatian victims who suffered at the hand of Serbs in their All Saints' Day and 5 December decennial speeches. Pavelić exaggerated the significance of the Frankists at the time, but there was a shift in attitude towards Serbian primacy. While ten years of unity and liberty were celebrated in Serbia, the decennial was spoken of as ten bloody years in the former Habsburg lands of the South Slavic kingdom.


Royal dictatorship

The king proclaimed a royal dictatorship on 6 January 1929, and integral Yugoslavism became the official ideology of the regime. In October, the country was renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to augment the National Oneness. "Tribal" symbols were prohibited, and the country was reorganised administratively to obliterate remnants of historical borders. All ethnically specific organisations, including non-political ones, were suppressed or discouraged, and "Yugoslav" counterparts set up as replacements. The regime used the "blood and sacrifice" rhetoric as justification – referring to Serbian wartime losses – privileging Serbs and denigrating or excluding others. Even though Serbs and Montenegrins (deemed Serbs by the regime) constituted 39% of the population in 1932, it was government policy to recruit most staff of key ministries among Serbs. Employees of the justice, interior, and education ministries were 85%, 89%, and 96% Serb respectively. Strict censorship was introduced, and there were arrests of opposition leaders. Police became instrumental in imposing integral Yugoslavism, using terror groups – mostly composed of police personnel – for extralegal actions against dissidents. Pavelić and Perčec left the country days after the dictatorship was announced, and HSS vice president and secretary – August Košutić and Juraj Krnjević – left by August. The police kept politically active people under surveillance. By spring, even the centralist DS held that an arrangement must be found with the HSS and the monarchy abolished, or at least a significant autonomy given to parts of Yugoslavia. The regime was under increasing international criticism, especially after a police agent killed Frankist scholar
Milan Šufflay Milan Šufflay (8 November 1879 – 19 February 1931) was a Croatian historian and politician. He was one of the founders of Albanology and the author of the first Croatian science fiction novel. As a Croatian nationalist, he was persecuted in th ...
in 1931. The event drew a protest from a group of intellectuals, including
Heinrich Mann Luiz Heinrich Mann (; 27 March 1871 – 11 March 1950), best known as simply Heinrich Mann, was a German author known for his socio-political novels. From 1930 until 1933, he was president of the fine poetry division of the Prussian Academy ...
and
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
. Urged by the
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
, French, and
Czechoslovak Czechoslovak may refer to: *A demonym or adjective pertaining to Czechoslovakia (1918–93) **First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–38) **Second Czechoslovak Republic (1938–39) **Third Czechoslovak Republic (1948–60) **Fourth Czechoslovak Repub ...
allies and possibly influenced by the toppling of Alfonso XIII of
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...
, King Alexander negotiated with the NRS and the SLS to broaden his base of support – resulting in the Octroic Constitution. It forbade most political activities and gave broad powers to the King and the executive. The Yugoslav Radical Peasants' Democracy (later renamed the Yugoslav National Party) (JNS) was established as the regime party to carry out the political programme effectively determined by the King. The JNS ran unopposed in the 1931 election, boycotted by the opposition. In 1931, the exiled Pavelić established the fascist organisation, Ustaše, rejecting Yugoslavist traditions, sharing views with Hungarian revisionists and ideology with Italian Fascists. After a failed 1932 incursion in Lika, Ustaše focused on assassinations. A plot to kill the King in Zagreb in 1933 was uncovered, and the regime executed about one hundred people in retribution – even though most of them were unrelated to the plot or Ustaše. Working with the VMRO, Ustaše assassinated the King during his visit to France in 1934.


Abandoning integral Yugoslavism

Before the end of 1934, Prince Paul, the head of the three-person regency, compelled the JNS government to resign. The united opposition contested the 1935 election running against the JNS Prime Minister, Bogoljub Jevtić. The JNS list won, but the opposition threatened to boycott the Assembly because of electoral fraud determined by foreign observers. In response, Prince Paul replaced Jevtić with Milan Stojadinović. In one of his early speeches as prime minister, Stojadinović announced his intention to negotiate a settlement of what came to be called the Croatian question, but nothing specific was done in that respect until the 1938 election. The united opposition, led by Maček, won 45% of the votes coming behind Stojadinović's Yugoslav Radical Union (JRZ). However, the opposition won 78% and 82% of votes in Littoral and Sava banovinas (roughly corresponding to Croatian lands) respectively. Prince Paul gave the highest priority to resolution of the Croatian question but knew that Maček would not negotiate with Stojadinović. Shortly after the election, minister Bogoljub Kujundžić gave a speech in the Assembly claiming Serbs were superior to Croats and Slovenes, prompting five ministers to resign. Prince Paul did not allow Stojadinović to nominate another cabinet – instead, he appointed
Dragiša Cvetković Dragiša Cvetković ( sr-cyr, Драгиша Цветковић; 15 January 1893 – 18 February 1969) was a Yugoslav politician active in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He served as the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1939 to 1941. ...
as prime minister, tasking him with negotiating with Maček. HSS was negotiating simultaneously with Cvetković and Italy – receiving Italian promises of support if the HSS started an uprising – in return for territorial concessions and turning over the defence and foreign relations of Croatia to Italy. In talks with Cvetković, Maček asked for federal reorganisation of Yugoslavia, but the proposal was turned down. Instead, they agreed on a dualist formula modelled on Austria-Hungary where Banovina of Croatia would be established from the Sava and Primorje banovinas and other territories to be determined by a series of plebiscites. After Prince Paul vetoed the arrangement objecting to the plebiscites, Maček resumed contact with Italian Foreign Minister
Galeazzo Ciano Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari ( , ; 18 March 1903 – 11 January 1944) was an Italian diplomat and politician who served as Foreign Minister in the government of his father-in-law, Benito Mussolini, from 1936 until 1 ...
. Shortly thereafter, Cvetković and Maček restarted talks and came to an agreement on the borders of Banovina of Croatia. Prince Paul accepted the new arrangement and the
Cvetković–Maček Agreement The Cvetković–Maček Agreement ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Sporazum Cvetković-Maček, Споразум Цветковић-Мачек), also known simply as the Sporazum in English-language histories, was a political compromise on internal divisions in the ...
was signed on 26 August 1939. After the agreement, the state no longer insisted on National Oneness, and abandoned Yugoslavism as official ideology.


Synthetic culture

There was no unitary Yugoslav culture. The pre-First World War cultural Yugoslavism was confined largely to Croat writers and artists. The central model of cultural unification espoused by 19th century Yugoslavist thinkers involved coalescing around Serbian culture, but this concept was mostly abandoned by 1900. In 1911, at the International Exhibition of Art in Rome, Croat and Serb artists from Austria-Hungary chose to exhibit in the Serbian pavilion to allow themselves greater presence than possible in a pavilion shared with the rest of the empire. Eighteen artists contributed 203 works of the total of 236 exhibited in the pavilion – nearly half of that number were
Ivan Meštrović Ivan Meštrović (; 15 August 1883 – 16 January 1962) was a Croatian sculptor, architect, and writer. He was the most prominent modern Croatian sculptor and a leading artistic personality in contemporary Zagreb. He studied at Pavle Bilinić's ...
's sculptures. This established him as the "Prophet of Yugoslavism" even though his works, or contemporary works of other artists like Jozo Kljaković, did not particularly incorporate any South Slavic elements in their interpretation of national themes, but personal rather interpretations of Art Nouveau. The aftermath of the First World War dampened the enthusiasm for unification of Yugoslav culture. Postwar writers and artists generally rejected such attempts. The most vocal critic of unitary culture was writer Antun Branko Šimić. Some, like
Miroslav Krleža Miroslav Krleža (; 7 July 1893 – 29 December 1981) was a Yugoslav and Croatian writer who is widely considered to be the greatest Croatian writer of the 20th century. He wrote notable works in all the literary genres, including poetry (''Ba ...
and August Cesarec turned to radical socialism and criticised monarchist and bourgeoise Yugoslavia. Those, like Tin Ujević, who went through a phase of supporting the cultural unification joined this group in the critique. Finally, with few exceptions such as
Ivo Andrić Ivo Andrić ( sr-Cyrl, Иво Андрић, ; born Ivan Andrić; 9 October 1892 – 13 March 1975) was a Yugoslav novelist, poet and short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961. His writings dealt mainly with life in ...
and
Niko Bartulović Niko Bartulović (23 December 1890 – 1945) was an Austrian and later Yugoslav writer, publisher, journalist and translator known for being one of the founders and ideologists of the Organization of Yugoslav Nationalists in 1921. He joined the ...
, nearly all Croat writers and artists associated with pre-war Yugoslavism abandoned the ideology. As Yugoslavism in general and Yugoslavist synthetic culture in particular lost support in the interwar period, even Meštrović (and to a lesser degree Andrić) drew criticism. In Croatia, Meštrović's works portraying Serbian cultural figures were resented, while in Serbia he was criticised because those same figures were not depicted wearing Serbian military hats and peasant shoes. Meštrović planned, but never realised, construction of the Vidovdan Temple commemorating the 1389 Battle of Kosovo. He planned to dedicate the monument to Lazar of Serbia as the hero of the
Kosovo Myth The Kosovo Myth ( sr, Косовски мит / ''Kosovski mit''), also known as the Kosovo Cult and the Kosovo Legend, is a Serbian national myth based on legends about events related to the Battle of Kosovo (1389). It has been a subject in Ser ...
with the aim of transforming the figure of Serbian history into a Yugoslav hero. The Kosovo Myth and Vidovdan commemorations of the battle portray Lazar as the moral victor in the battle that cost him his life, and Meštrović interpreted the Kosovo Myth as a symbolising sacrifice and moral victory of Yugoslavs. The myth was officially touted by the regime as a pan-Yugoslav
national myth A national myth is an inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nation's past. Such myths often serve as important national symbols and affirm a set of national values. A national myth may sometimes take the form of a national epic or be incorpor ...
in the interwar period (and Vidovdan was a national holiday). Association of the myth with the integral Yugoslavism was particularly emphasised in the dictatorship-era. It was compounded by the narrative of the Serbian World War I struggle and sacrifice – which was interpreted as implying entitlement of the Serbs to lead Yugoslavia on account of suffering to liberate all the Yugoslavs.


Religious centralisation and conflict

King Alexander also pursued unification in religious matters. He incorporated the
Montenegrin Orthodox Church , image = , imagewidth = , type = Eastern Christian , main_classification = Independent Eastern Orthodox , scripture=Septuagint, New Testament, theology = Orthodox theology , polity ...
into the structure of the Serbian patriarchate in 1920. Ten years later, the King revoked the Habsburg-era statute allowing autonomous administration of Islamic religious affairs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Furthermore, he ordered the seat of the Reis-ul-ulema moved from Sarajevo to Belgrade. When the sitting Reis-ul-ulema refused and resigned in protest, the King appointed a pro-regime politician, , to the post. The Roman Catholic Church structures in the country refused to bend to the King's will. Instead, the regime sought to reduce its power in the country through disproportionately low subsidies, promotion of the
Old Catholic Church The terms Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics, Old-Catholic churches or Old Catholic movement designate "any of the groups of Western Christians who believe themselves to maintain in complete loyalty the doctrine and traditions of the undivide ...
as a rival, and downplaying the historical role of the Roman Catholic Church in school curricula while stressing the role of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The Serbian Orthodox Church accepted the role the regime gave it and publicly accused the Roman Catholics and the Roman Catholic Church of threatening Yugoslavia's sovereignty. Various forms of pressure were applied to Roman Catholics to convert to Orthodoxy and thousands did so. By the late 1930s, the Concordat was negotiated between the Holy See and Yugoslavia – only to be shelved by the regime after protests from the Serbian Orthodox Church. Following the protests, the Roman Catholic Church felt rejected by the regime and deemed Yugoslavia an agency of the hostile Serbian Orthodox Church.


Socialist Yugoslavism


Federalism and conflict with Stalin

Following the
Axis invasion of Yugoslavia An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to: Mathematics * Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis * Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...
in 1941, the KPJ launched armed resistance, which had spread, by the end of 1941 to all areas of the country except Macedonia. Building on experience in clandestine operation, the KPJ organised the
Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene: , or the National Liberation Army, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska (NOV), Народноослободилачка војска (НОВ); mk, Народноослобод� ...
, as resistance fighters led by Josip Broz Tito. In November 1942, the Partisans established a pan-Yugoslav assembly – the
Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia The Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia,, mk, Антифашистичко собрание за народно ослободување на Југославија commonly abbreviated as the AVNOJ, was a deliberat ...
(AVNOJ). It adopted the federalist approach to state building, and acknowledged the failure of integral Yugoslavism. The
Tito–Šubašić Agreements The Tito–Šubašić Agreements ( sh, sporazumi Tito-Šubašić) are the result of a series of negotiations conducted by the leader of the Yugoslav Partisans, Josip Broz Tito, and the prime minister of the Yugoslav government-in-exile, Ivan ...
with the royal
Yugoslav government-in-exile The Government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Exile ( sh, Vlada Kraljevine Jugoslavije u egzilu / Влада Краљевине Југославије у егзилу) was an official government of Yugoslavia, headed by King Peter II. It evacu ...
in 1944 and 1945 confirmed AVNOJ's decision. The
Provisional Government of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia The Provisional Government of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia () was Democratic Federal Yugoslavia's temporary national government formed through the merger of the Yugoslav government-in-exile and the National Committee for the Liberation of ...
with Tito as the prime minister replaced the government-in-exile. KPJ official policy was that a supranational Yugoslav working class identity would replace national identities. Postwar socialist Yugoslavia was centralised, with a formal commitment to weak federalism. The
1946 Yugoslav Constitution The 1946 Yugoslav Constitution, officially titled as the Constitution of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia ( sr, Устав Федеративне Народне Републике Југославије; hr, Ustav Federativne Narodne ...
was proclaimed by reading the document in Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian, and Macedonian languages – but it specified no official language. Tito's foreign policy sought to integrate
Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
into the Yugoslav federation, support the Greek communist guerrillas, and broaden ties with
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
–potentially uniting the countries. The conclusion of the 1947 Bled Agreement with Bulgaria, and the imminent deployment of the
Yugoslav Army The Yugoslav People's Army (abbreviated as JNA/; Macedonian and sr-Cyrl-Latn, Југословенска народна армија, Jugoslovenska narodna armija; Croatian and bs, Jugoslavenska narodna armija; sl, Jugoslovanska ljudska ar ...
to Albania prompted a political confrontation with the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
. The clash culminated with the
Tito–Stalin split The Tito–Stalin split or the Yugoslav–Soviet split was the culmination of a conflict between the political leaderships of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, under Josip Broz Tito and Joseph Stalin, respectively, in the years following World W ...
in 1948. For political reasons, the rift was presented as an ideological rather than a geopolitical one. In response, the KPJ purged real and perceived Soviet supporters and regime opponents. Tito understood the Yugoslav government had to differ from the interwar centralism and Soviet-style socialism, therefore the KPJ moved gradually away from party centralism, introducing self-management. This led to debates about the level of (de)centralisation and a power-struggle which increasingly equated the struggle for centralism with unitarism and Serbian interests at the expense of other Yugoslav republics. The KPJ proclaimed a shift of its role from a ruler to a leader, decentralised its structure, and rebranded itself as the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ) at its sixth congress in 1952.


Yugoslavist campaign

In 1953, Tito was convinced Yugoslav nations would merge. When SKJ ideologue Milovan Đilas pointed out that King Alexander had thought the same, Tito insisted that socialism made the difference. Between 1957 and 1966, the political conflict developed with factions allied with the foreign minister, Edvard Kardelj, (a Slovene) and the Yugoslav vice-president and Tito's likely successor
Aleksandar Ranković Aleksandar Ranković ( nom de guerre Marko; sr-Cyrl, Александар Ранковић Лека; 28 November 1909 – 19 August 1983) was a Yugoslav communist politician, considered to be the third most powerful man in Yugoslavia after Jo ...
(a Serb). Ranković supported integral Yugoslavism, claiming that South Slavic unity stemmed from ethnic relatedness. Kardelj thought Yugoslav nations were bound primarily by the common interest of struggle against imperialism. In 1958, the SKJ became more centralised by revoking many powers given to its republican branches. The party programme published at the 7th Congress praised emerging Yugoslav consciousness and a series of articles was published advocating the creation of unified Yugoslav culture. This followed the introduction of the option of declaring one's ethnicity as Yugoslav in the 1953 census, and the régime-sponsored 1954 Novi Sad Agreement between cultural organisations Matica srpska and Matica hrvatska on the single Serbo-Croatian language. The socialist Yugoslavism campaign sought to replace federalism with unitarism, but proponents of the socialist Yugoslavism stopped short of declaring an intention of nation-building. The regime promoted the notions of "socialist Yugoslav consciousness", and "Yugoslav socialist patriotism" as the feeling or awareness and love of the socialist self-management community as concepts unrelated to nationalism and ethnicity. Yugoslav social patriotism was also claimed to support the values and traditions of ethnic groups living in Yugoslavia rather than aimed at creating a new Yugoslav nation. Tito endorsed the concept of "organic Yugoslavism" as a harmonious symbiosis of national specificities and affection for the Yugoslav federation as a community. The intra-SKJ debate over the future of the federation took place by proxy: Dobrica Ćosić represented pro-centralisation views he attributed to leading Serbian communist
Jovan Veselinov Jovan Veselinov Žarko (20 January 1906 – 8 February 1982) was a Serbian communist politician. He served as President of Serbia, Prime Minister of Serbia and as a Chairman of the League of Communists of Serbia. He was a Partisan fighter in Wor ...
and Tito. Slovene communist writer Dušan Pirjevec, backed by Slovene communist leader Boris Kraigher, championed the opposing argument. Ćosić claimed the pursuit of republican interests leads to the disintegration of Yugoslavia and threatens Serbs outside Serbia; Pirjevec accused Ćosić of unitarism, and Serbs generally, of expansionism. The Ćosić–Pirjevec debate mirrored interpretations of the Partisan-era "brotherhood and unity". The motto was used for wartime mobilisation largely in place of revolutionary slogans. After the war, the KPJ/SKJ used it to stress the party's role in establishing brotherhood and unity among nations of Yugoslavia, especially Serbs and Croats. However, it was generally interpreted by the Serbs as meaning the Yugoslav nations are true siblings, while Croats, Slovenes, and others largely interpreted the motto as implying the nations were friendly relatives living in unity.


Defeat of centralist forces

An exchange of letters published in the SKJ organ '' Borba'' publicly criticised the Yugoslavist campaign. Campaign proponents, largely ethnic Serbs, were accused of plotting to abolish the federation and resurrect Greater Serbian chauvinism. Most of the opposition came from SKJ branches in
Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...
, Macedonia,
Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
, and
Vojvodina Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Војводина}), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia. It lies within the Pannonian Basin, bordered to the south by the national capital ...
. In early 1963, Tito felt compelled to warn publicly about chauvinism and reassure non-Serbs that no merger of nations was intended, but he still defended Yugoslavism. In 1964, at the 8th Congress of the SKJ, Tito and Kardelj criticised proponents of the merger of the Yugoslav nations as advocates of bureaucratic centralisation, unitarism, and hegemony. Yugoslavism was not mentioned again at the Congress, and the SKJ transferred some of its powers to its republican branches. The SKJ regime abandoned Yugoslavism in favour of decentralisation. Siding with the Kardelj's ideas meant only Tito could defend Yugoslavism. All other supporters were dismissed by the SKJ leadership as unitarists. In the spring of 1966, Kardelj persuaded Tito to remove Ranković from the SKJ central committee and the position of vice president of Yugoslavia. Ranković was accused of plotting to seize power, ignoring the decisions of the 8th Congress, and abusing the
State Security Administration The State Security Service ( hr, Služba državne sigurnosti, sr, Служба државне безбедности; mk, Служба за државна безбедност; sl, Služba državne varnosti), also known by its original name ...
directly or through allies. He was accused of illegally wire-tapping SKJ leadership, including Tito, removed from official posts, and expelled from the SKJ. By removing Ranković, Tito aimed at allowing greater decentralisation of Yugoslavia. The SKJ replaced Ranković in all his former posts with Serbs, but his ouster was generally perceived in Serbia as a Serbian defeat, resulting in resentment. Republican leaderships, including that of Serbia, supported Kardelj against Ranković because none of them could influence the federal government effectively on their own, especially with Tito in control. They saw the ouster as an opportunity to limit future federal power by eliminating the possibility of anyone inheriting Tito's authority.


Croatian Spring

In 1967 and 1968, the Yugoslav constitution was amended, reducing federal authority in favour of the constituent republics. This was followed shortly by the appointment of new leadership of the Serbian SKJ branch, who favoured economic reforms and a policy of non-interference in other republics' affairs. At the 9th Congress of the SKJ in 1969, the Croatian and Macedonian branches pressured the SKJ to adopt the principle of unanimity in decision-making, obtaining a veto power for the republican branches. Further Croatian economic demands centred on contributing less tax to the federal budget, and addressing under representation of Croats in the police, security forces, and the military, as well as in political and economic institutions throughout Yugoslavia. By the end of the 1960s, the Croatian media and the authorities increasingly framed economic relations between Croatia and the federal government as an ethnic struggle. A genuine perception among Croatian nationalists of cultural and demographic threats to Croatian national sentiment, language, and Croatia's territory worsened the situation. A major point of contention were the first two volumes of the
Dictionary of Serbo-Croatian Literary and Vernacular Language The Dictionary of Serbo-Croatian Literary and Vernacular Language (Речник српскохрватског књижевног и народног језика, ''Rečnik srpskohrvatskog književnog i narodnog jezika'') or the Dictionary of the ...
based on the Novi Sad Agreement published in 1967. They sparked controversy about whether Croatian was a separate language. The dictionary excluded common Croatian expressions or treated them as local dialect while Serbian variants were presented as the standard. The unrelated 1966 Serbo-Croatian dictionary published by inflamed the situation further by omitting the term "Croat" from the vocabulary. The Declaration on the Name and Status of the Croatian Literary Language issued by 130 Croatian linguists in response criticised the 1967 dictionary and called for formal recognition of Croatian as a separate and official language in Croatia. The declaration marked the beginning of the four year-long period of increased Croatian nationalism commonly referred to as the Croatian Spring. Matica Srpska, the oldest Serbian language cultural-scientific institution, took the position that Croatian was only a dialect of Serbian and Matica hrvatska, the non-governmental Croatian national institution, withdrew from the Novi Sad Agreement in 1970. It published a new Croatian dictionary and orthography, which was condemned by Serbia but endorsed by the Croatian branch of the SKJ. In December 1971, Tito suppressed the Croatian Spring and compelled the Croatian leadership to resign. Purges targeting politicians, officials, media professionals, writers, filmmakers, and university staff continued until late 1972. In early 1972, reformists were removed or forced to resign in Slovenia, Macedonia, and Serbia. Nonetheless, the reformist achievements were preserved, as the 1974 Constitution.


Breakup of Yugoslavia

In 1987, editors of Slovene's '' Nova Revija'', Niko Grafenauer, and
Dimitrij Rupel Dimitrij Rupel (born 7 April 1946) is a Slovenian politician. Early life and education Rupel was born in Ljubljana, in what was then the PR Slovenia, into a bourgeois family of former anti-fascist political emigrants from the Julian March (hi ...
published the '' Contributions to the Slovene National Program'' as a special edition of the magazine. In a series of articles, anti-communist intellectuals argued for the independence of Slovenia and identified Yugoslavism as the main threat to Slovenian identity. Most of Slovenia's population backed this view. The Slovene centre-right
DEMOS coalition Democratic Opposition of Slovenia, also known as the DEMOS (in Slovenian: ''Demokratična opozicija Slovenije'') was a coalition of centre-right political parties, created by an agreement between the Slovenian Democratic Union, the Social Democrat ...
, which won the 1990 Slovene parliamentary elections, supported those views. The Social Democratic Party of Croatia (reformed League of Communists of Croatia, formerly a branch of the SKJ) tried to mediate the conflict between Slovenia and Slobodan Milošević-led
Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
by formulating a compromise. In the weeks that separated the Slovene and Croatian parliamentary elections, this was seen in Croatia as a weakness and boosted the popularity of the nationalist Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) led by Franjo Tuđman as a counterweight to displays of expansionist Serbian nationalism. HDZ advocated the end of Yugoslavism as "compulsory brotherhood" instead of dismantling Yugoslavia. Lacking international support for independence, the Slovene and Croatian leaderships proposed a confederal reform of Yugoslavia, but diverging circumstances made Croatian–Slovene cooperation difficult. Slovenia had no large Slovenian populations in other parts of Yugoslavia and therefore no reason to negotiate with others. Milošević and his allies in the Yugoslav Presidency, chaired by
Borisav Jović Borisav Jović ( sr-Cyrl, Борисав Јовић, ; 19 October 1928 – 13 September 2021) was a Serbian economist, diplomat and politician who served as the President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia from 1990 to 1991. He was Yugoslavia's am ...
, had different approaches to the two republics. Slovenia, unlike Croatia, had no sizable Serb minority and Jović supported its independence. At the same time Croatia saw Serb revolt (referred to as the
Log Revolution The Log Revolution ( sh, Balvan revolucija / ) was an insurrection which started on August 17, 1990, in areas of the Republic of Croatia which were populated significantly by ethnic Serbs. A full year of tension, including minor skirmishes, pa ...
) in areas predominantly populated by ethnic Serbs. Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia negotiated over preserving Yugoslavia in 1990–1991. Slovenia and Croatia proposed a confederal system – only because it was politically difficult to be openly anti-Yugoslav. This resulted from pressure to preserve Yugoslavia in some form by the international community. The confederal reform proposal became increasingly unfeasible as Milošević was rejecting it. He favoured recentralisation of Yugoslavia and proposed to re-establish the political system in existence before the fall of Ranković in 1966. In 1988–1994, Serb intellectuals were unsuccessfully proposing reintroduction of Yugoslavist ideas as state policies.


See also

*
Austro-Slavism Austro-Slavism or Austrian Slavism was a political concept and program aimed to solve problems of Slavic peoples in the Austrian Empire. It was most influential among Czech liberals around the middle of the 19th century. First proposed by Karel ...
– political concept promoting cooperation of all the Slavs in Austria-Hungary * Czechoslovakism – ideology advocating existence of a unified Czechoslovak nation *
Pan-Slavism Pan-Slavism, a movement which crystallized in the mid-19th century, is the political ideology concerned with the advancement of integrity and unity for the Slavic people. Its main impact occurred in the Balkans, where non-Slavic empires had rule ...
– ideology advocating universal unity of Slavs * Serbian–Montenegrin unionism – ideology advocating unity of the Serbs and the Montenegrins in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the successor State Union of Serbia and Montenegro * Yugo-nostalgia – concept described as nostalgic emotional attachment to some aspects of the socialist Yugoslavia after its breakup *
Yugoslav studies Yugoslav studies or Yugoslavistics ( sh, Jugoslavistika; sl, Jugoslovanske študije; mk, Југословенски студии; sq, Studime Jugosllave; german: Jugoslawistik; la, Iugoslavistica) is an academic discipline within Slavic studi ...


Notes


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * * * * * * C. Jelavich, South Slav nationalisms-textbooks and Yugoslav Union before 1914 (Ohio State University Press, 1990)


External links

* {{Authority control Pan-Slavism Ism Ism