Socialist Republic of Croatia
Encyclopedia
Socialist Republic of Croatia (often abbreviated SR Croatia; ) was a sovereign constituent country
of the second Yugoslavia
. It came to existence during World War II
, becoming a socialist state
after the war, and was also renamed four times in its existence (see below). It was the second largest republic in Yugoslavia by territory and population, after SR Serbia. In 1990, the state adopted a new constitution, adopted a multi-party system and free market economy. In 1991 it formally seceded, contributing to the dissolution of Yugoslavia
.
On April 7, 1963, the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FPRY) was renamed into the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). Yugoslavia (and therefore Croatia) gradually abandoned Stalinism
after the Tito-Stalin split
in 1948. In 1963 the People's Republic of Croatia also accordingly became the Socialist Republic of Croatia.
In 1990, after the first free elections, the prefix "socialist" was dropped, so between 1990 and independence of Croatia in 1991, it was officially named Republic of Croatia, the name that it still bears.
was nationalized
. This caused the old landowners as well as the Catholic Church
to lose large amounts of money and property. The republic underwent a major rebuilding process in order to recover from World War II. A notable phenomenon during this process were the major volunteer public works
that rallied young people in the building of roads and other public facilities. In contrast to popular opinion, the vast majority of public works of the period (among others, the Adriatic coastline highway) were financed by the federal government
.
The economy developed into a type of socialism called workers' self-management
(radničko samoupravljanje), in which workers partially shared profit
in state-run enterprises. This type of socialism was first introduced in Croatia, then in other parts of Yugoslavia. Croatia gave one of world's biggest, if not the world's biggest name in the field of workers' self-management in economic theory, Branko Horvat
. This kind of market socialism
created significantly better economic conditions than in the Eastern Bloc countries. Croatia went through intensive industrialization in the 1960s and 1970s with industrial output increasing several-fold, and with Zagreb
surpassing the Yugoslav federal capital Belgrade
in the amount of industry in the city (even though Belgrade is much larger than Zagreb).
Factories and other organizations were often named after Partisans
who were declared People's Heroes
. Before WWII Croatia's industry was not significant, with the vast majority of the people employed in agriculture. By 1989 the country was completely transformed into a modern industrialized state. At the same time, the Croatian Adriatic coast began to take shape as an internationally popular tourist destination
, all coastal republics (but mostly SR Croatia) profited greatly from this. The government brought unprecedented economic and industrial growth, high levels of social security and a very low crime rate. The country completely recovered from WW2 and achieved a very high GDP and economic growth rate.
, where over 1000 inmates died between 1945 and 1946.
Croats
were less numerous in Yugoslavia compared to the Serbs
, but Tito, whose father was Croatian, adopted a carefully contrived policy to manage the conflicting national ambitions of the two nations: nationalism on either side was suppressed. The constitution
of 1963, the one that introduced the country name Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
, SFRY, didn't allow Serbs to have all the political power in the country. Indeed, this was true to such an extent that the Serbs grew increasingly more disgruntled. Croatians participated in state politics at the highest levels: five out of the nine Prime Ministers of the SFRY were Croats. The Serbs, however, in the same way that happened in the old Kingdom of Yugoslavia
, dominated the military and the secret services, as most of the generals in the Yugoslav People's Army
were either Serbian or Montenegrin.
Trends after 1965 (like the fall of OZNA
and UDBA
chief Aleksandar Ranković
in 1966) led to the Croatian Spring
of 1970–1971, when students in Zagreb
organized demonstrations for greater civil liberties
and greater Croatian autonomy. The regime stifled the public protest and incarcerated the leaders (making them political prisoners
), but many key Croatian representatives in the Party silently supported this cause, so a new Constitution
was ratified in 1974 that gave more rights to the individual republics, much to the (eventual) satisfaction of the protesters.
and all the subtle benefits Yugoslavia received because of it, inflation soared. The last federal prime minister Ante Marković
, who was Bosnian Croat, spent two years implementing various economic and political reforms. His government's efforts were initially successful, but ultimately they failed due to the incurable political instability of the SFRY.
Ethnic tensions were on the increase and would result in the demise of Yugoslavia. The growing crisis in Kosovo
, the nationalist memorandum
of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
, the emergence of Slobodan Milošević
as the leader of Serbia, and everything else that followed provoked a very negative reaction in Croatia. The fifty-year-old rift was starting to resurface, and the Croats increasingly began to show their own national feelings and express opposition towards the Belgrade
regime
.
On October 17, 1989, the rock group Prljavo kazalište
held a major concert before almost 250,000 people on the central Zagreb
city square. In the light of the changing political circumstances, their song "Mojoj majci" ("To my mother"), where the songwriter hailed the mother in the song as "the last rose
of Croatia", was taken to heart by the fans on the location and many more elsewhere because of the expressed patriotism. On October 26, parliament declared All Saints Day (November 1) a public holiday.
In January 1990, during the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the delegation of Serbia
led by Milošević insisted on replacing the 1974 constitutional policy that empowered the republics with a policy of "one person, one vote", which would benefit the majority
Serb population. This caused the Slovenian and Croatian delegations (led by Milan Kučan
and Ivica Račan
, respectively) to leave the Congress in protest and marked a culmination in the rift of the ruling party.
Ethnic Serbs, who constituted 12% of the population of Croatia, rejected the notion of separation from Yugoslavia. Serb politicians feared the loss of influence they previously had through their membership of the League of Communists in Croatia (that some Croats claimed was disproportionate). Memories from the Second World War were the rhetoric coming from the Belgrade administration. As Milošević and his clique rode the wave of Serbian nationalism across Yugoslavia
, talking about battles to be fought for Serbdom, emerging Croatian leader Franjo Tuđman reciprocated with talk about making Croatia a nation state. The availability of mass media allowed for propaganda to be spread fast and spark jingoism
and fear
, creating a war climate.
In March 1990, the Yugoslav People's Army
met with the Presidency of Yugoslavia (an eight member council composed of representatives from six republics and two autonomous provinces) in an attempt to get them to declare a state of emergency
which would allow for the army to take control of the country. Serbian and Serb-dominated representatives (Montenegro, Vojvodina and Kosovo) already in consent with the army, voted for the proposal, but as representatives of Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Bosnia voted against, the plot failed. The dying country had yet to see few more Serb leadership's attempts to push the plan for centralizing the power in Belgrade, but because of resistance in all other republics, the crisis only deteriorated.
The Croatian parliamentary election, 1990
was held on on April 22 and May 6, 1990. After the first multi-party elections, the creation of a constituent republic based on democratic institutions occurred.
Franjo Tuđman was elected resident and promised independence if reforms were not introduced. While generally heading towards independence, the government attempted final negotiations with the Serbian government to create a confederal Yugoslavia in which Croatia
and other republics would be autonomous and powers would be decentralized. This was not accepted.
replaced the President of the Presidency, in addition to other changes.
Croatia faced political crisis within Yugoslavia as Serb-populated areas attempted to form an enclave called Serbian Krajina which intended to separate from Croatia if Croatia itself attempted to separate. The Serb leadership in Krajina refused to recognize the government of the Republic of Croatia as having sovereignty over them. The crisis began in August 1990 with the Log Revolution
as Croatian Serbs cut down trees which they used to block roads. This hampered Croatian tourism and caused alarm in the province of Dalmatia
as Croatia was hosting the 1990 European Athletics Championships in Split
.
On December 21, 1990, a new Constitution was passed. On February 21, 1991, Croatia declared its Constitution and laws supreme to that of the SFRY. On May 19, 1991, a referendum was held on independence, where a majority of Croatians endorsed independence from Yugoslavia (93% of the total number of votes). On June 25, 1991, it declared its independence from the SFRY, in an effort to end its status as a constituent republic. By mid-1991, the Croatian War of Independence
had started. Serb-controlled areas of Croatia became part of the unrecognized Republic of Serbian Krajina
, which would not be under Croatian control until 1995/1998. With the end of 1991, the second Yugoslavia effectively ceased to exist as a state
, with no leadership representing it in the beginning of 1992.
Constituent country
Constituent country is a phrase sometimes used in contexts in which a country makes up a part of a larger entity. The term constituent country does not have any defined legal meaning, and is used simply to refer to a country which is a part Constituent country is a phrase sometimes used in contexts...
of the second Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
. It came to existence during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, becoming a socialist state
Socialist state
A socialist state generally refers to any state constitutionally dedicated to the construction of a socialist society. It is closely related to the political strategy of "state socialism", a set of ideologies and policies that believe a socialist economy can be established through government...
after the war, and was also renamed four times in its existence (see below). It was the second largest republic in Yugoslavia by territory and population, after SR Serbia. In 1990, the state adopted a new constitution, adopted a multi-party system and free market economy. In 1991 it formally seceded, contributing to the dissolution of Yugoslavia
Dissolution of Yugoslavia
The Breakup of Yugoslavia refers to a series of conflicts and political upheavals resulting in the dissolution of Yugoslavia . The SFR Yugoslavia was a country that occupied a strip of land stretching from Central Europe to the Balkans – a region with a history of ethnic conflict...
.
Names
Croatia was became part of the Yugoslav federation in 1943 after the Second Session of the AVNOJ and through the resolutions of the ZAVNOH, Croatia's wartime deliberative body. It was officially founded as the Federal State of Croatia on May 9, 1944 at the 3rd session of the ZAVNOH. Yugoslavia was then called the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia (Demokratska Federativna Jugoslavija, DFJ), it was not a constitutionally socialist state, or even a republic, in anticipation of the conclusion of the war, when these issues were settled. On November 29, 1945, the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia became the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (Federativna Narodna Republika Jugoslavia, FNRJ), a socialist People's Republic. Accordingly, the Federal State of Croatia became People's Republic of Croatia (Narodna Republika Hrvatska, NR Hrvatska).On April 7, 1963, the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FPRY) was renamed into the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). Yugoslavia (and therefore Croatia) gradually abandoned Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
after the Tito-Stalin split
Tito-Stalin Split
The Tito–Stalin Split was a conflict between the leaders of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which resulted in Yugoslavia's expulsion from the Communist Information Bureau in 1948...
in 1948. In 1963 the People's Republic of Croatia also accordingly became the Socialist Republic of Croatia.
In 1990, after the first free elections, the prefix "socialist" was dropped, so between 1990 and independence of Croatia in 1991, it was officially named Republic of Croatia, the name that it still bears.
Economy
In the People's Republic of Croatia, private propertyPrivate property
Private property is the right of persons and firms to obtain, own, control, employ, dispose of, and bequeath land, capital, and other forms of property. Private property is distinguishable from public property, which refers to assets owned by a state, community or government rather than by...
was nationalized
Nationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
. This caused the old landowners as well as the Catholic Church
Catholic Church in Croatia
Roman Catholicism in Croatia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and curia in Rome.There are an estimated 3.8 million baptised Roman Catholics in Croatia, roughly 85% of the population. The national sanctuary of Croatia is in Marija Bistrica...
to lose large amounts of money and property. The republic underwent a major rebuilding process in order to recover from World War II. A notable phenomenon during this process were the major volunteer public works
Public works
Public works are a broad category of projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community...
that rallied young people in the building of roads and other public facilities. In contrast to popular opinion, the vast majority of public works of the period (among others, the Adriatic coastline highway) were financed by the federal government
Federal government
The federal government is the common government of a federation. The structure of federal governments varies from institution to institution. Based on a broad definition of a basic federal political system, there are two or more levels of government that exist within an established territory and...
.
The economy developed into a type of socialism called workers' self-management
Workers' self-management
Worker self-management is a form of workplace decision-making in which the workers themselves agree on choices instead of an owner or traditional supervisor telling workers what to do, how to do it and where to do it...
(radničko samoupravljanje), in which workers partially shared profit
Profit sharing
Profit sharing, when used as a special term, refers to various incentive plans introduced by businesses that provide direct or indirect payments to employees that depend on company's profitability in addition to employees' regular salary and bonuses...
in state-run enterprises. This type of socialism was first introduced in Croatia, then in other parts of Yugoslavia. Croatia gave one of world's biggest, if not the world's biggest name in the field of workers' self-management in economic theory, Branko Horvat
Branko Horvat
Branko Horvat was a Croatian economist and politician. He worked a long time at the Institute of Economic Sciences, the former Planning Institute of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...
. This kind of market socialism
Market socialism
Market socialism refers to various economic systems where the means of production are either publicly owned or cooperatively owned and operated for a profit in a market economy. The profit generated by the firms system would be used to directly remunerate employees or would be the source of public...
created significantly better economic conditions than in the Eastern Bloc countries. Croatia went through intensive industrialization in the 1960s and 1970s with industrial output increasing several-fold, and with Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
surpassing the Yugoslav federal capital Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
in the amount of industry in the city (even though Belgrade is much larger than Zagreb).
Factories and other organizations were often named after Partisans
Partisans (Yugoslavia)
The Yugoslav Partisans, or simply the Partisans were a Communist-led World War II anti-fascist resistance movement in Yugoslavia...
who were declared People's Heroes
People's Hero of Yugoslavia
The Order of the People's Hero was a Yugoslav gallantry medal, the second highest military award, and third overall Yugoslav decoration. It was awarded to individuals, military units, political and other organisations who distinguished themselves by extraordinary heroic deeds during war and in...
. Before WWII Croatia's industry was not significant, with the vast majority of the people employed in agriculture. By 1989 the country was completely transformed into a modern industrialized state. At the same time, the Croatian Adriatic coast began to take shape as an internationally popular tourist destination
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
, all coastal republics (but mostly SR Croatia) profited greatly from this. The government brought unprecedented economic and industrial growth, high levels of social security and a very low crime rate. The country completely recovered from WW2 and achieved a very high GDP and economic growth rate.
Post WWII period
In the post-war period, a camp for Croatian Germans was opened at ValpovoValpovo work camp
The Valpovo work camp was a camp set up by the communist regime of Yugoslavia for Germans and Austrians in the aftermath of the Second World War. The camp operated from 1945 to 1946....
, where over 1000 inmates died between 1945 and 1946.
Croats
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
were less numerous in Yugoslavia compared to the Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
, but Tito, whose father was Croatian, adopted a carefully contrived policy to manage the conflicting national ambitions of the two nations: nationalism on either side was suppressed. The constitution
Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the supreme law of S.F.R. Yugoslavia and its predecessor, the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia .-Federal constitutions:...
of 1963, the one that introduced the country name Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
, SFRY, didn't allow Serbs to have all the political power in the country. Indeed, this was true to such an extent that the Serbs grew increasingly more disgruntled. Croatians participated in state politics at the highest levels: five out of the nine Prime Ministers of the SFRY were Croats. The Serbs, however, in the same way that happened in the old Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
, dominated the military and the secret services, as most of the generals in the Yugoslav People's Army
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...
were either Serbian or Montenegrin.
Trends after 1965 (like the fall of OZNA
OZNA
The Department for the Protection of the People was a security agency of the FPR Yugoslavia.-Founding:...
and UDBA
UDBA
The Department of State Security was the secret police organization of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.Although it operated with more restraint than other secret...
chief Aleksandar Ranković
Aleksandar Rankovic
Aleksandar "Leka" Ranković was a Yugoslav communist politician of Serbian origin considered to be the third most powerful man in Yugoslavia after Josip Broz Tito and Edvard Kardelj....
in 1966) led to the Croatian Spring
Croatian Spring
The Croatian Spring was a political movement from the early 1970s that called for greater rights for Croatia which was then part of Yugoslavia as well as democratic and economic reforms.-History:...
of 1970–1971, when students in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
organized demonstrations for greater civil liberties
Civil liberties
Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...
and greater Croatian autonomy. The regime stifled the public protest and incarcerated the leaders (making them political prisoners
Political prisoners in Croatia
Political imprisonment in Croatia was a factor in Croatian history during its time in the Yugoslavian state.Croatia's political prisoners' law recognizes those who were imprisoned during the period between December 8, 1918 and October 8, 1991...
), but many key Croatian representatives in the Party silently supported this cause, so a new Constitution
Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the supreme law of S.F.R. Yugoslavia and its predecessor, the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia .-Federal constitutions:...
was ratified in 1974 that gave more rights to the individual republics, much to the (eventual) satisfaction of the protesters.
After Tito's death
In 1980 Josip Broz Tito died, and political and economic difficulties started to mount and the federal government began to crumble. The economy was actually in a very good shape until the fall of communism, and Croatia was the most prosperous of the six republics. However, probably due to the imminent end of the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
and all the subtle benefits Yugoslavia received because of it, inflation soared. The last federal prime minister Ante Marković
Ante Markovic
Ante Marković was a statesman of the former Yugoslavia. He was the last prime minister of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.- Early life :...
, who was Bosnian Croat, spent two years implementing various economic and political reforms. His government's efforts were initially successful, but ultimately they failed due to the incurable political instability of the SFRY.
Ethnic tensions were on the increase and would result in the demise of Yugoslavia. The growing crisis in Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, the nationalist memorandum
Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts was a draft document produced by a 14-member committee composed by members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts from 1985 to 1986, presided by Kosta Mihailović...
of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts is the most prominent academic institution in Serbia today...
, the emergence of Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
as the leader of Serbia, and everything else that followed provoked a very negative reaction in Croatia. The fifty-year-old rift was starting to resurface, and the Croats increasingly began to show their own national feelings and express opposition towards the Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
regime
Regime
The word regime refers to a set of conditions, most often of a political nature.-Politics:...
.
On October 17, 1989, the rock group Prljavo kazalište
Prljavo kazalište
Prljavo kazalište is a rock and roll band from Zagreb, Croatia. Since its formation in 1977, the group changed several music styles and line ups but remained one of the top acts of both the Croatian and the former Yugoslav rock scenes.-Beginnings:Prljavo kazalište was formed in 1977 in Dubrava,...
held a major concert before almost 250,000 people on the central Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
city square. In the light of the changing political circumstances, their song "Mojoj majci" ("To my mother"), where the songwriter hailed the mother in the song as "the last rose
Rose
A rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...
of Croatia", was taken to heart by the fans on the location and many more elsewhere because of the expressed patriotism. On October 26, parliament declared All Saints Day (November 1) a public holiday.
In January 1990, during the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the delegation of Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
led by Milošević insisted on replacing the 1974 constitutional policy that empowered the republics with a policy of "one person, one vote", which would benefit the majority
Majority
A majority is a subset of a group consisting of more than half of its members. This can be compared to a plurality, which is a subset larger than any other subset; i.e. a plurality is not necessarily a majority as the largest subset may consist of less than half the group's population...
Serb population. This caused the Slovenian and Croatian delegations (led by Milan Kučan
Milan Kucan
Milan Kučan is a Slovenian politician and statesman. He was the first President of Slovenia.-Early life and political beginnings:...
and Ivica Račan
Ivica Racan
Ivica Račan was a Croatian career politician, leader of the League of Communists of Croatia and later Social Democratic Party from 1989 to 2007...
, respectively) to leave the Congress in protest and marked a culmination in the rift of the ruling party.
Ethnic Serbs, who constituted 12% of the population of Croatia, rejected the notion of separation from Yugoslavia. Serb politicians feared the loss of influence they previously had through their membership of the League of Communists in Croatia (that some Croats claimed was disproportionate). Memories from the Second World War were the rhetoric coming from the Belgrade administration. As Milošević and his clique rode the wave of Serbian nationalism across Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, talking about battles to be fought for Serbdom, emerging Croatian leader Franjo Tuđman reciprocated with talk about making Croatia a nation state. The availability of mass media allowed for propaganda to be spread fast and spark jingoism
Jingoism
Jingoism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy. In practice, it is a country's advocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests...
and fear
Fear
Fear is a distressing negative sensation induced by a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger...
, creating a war climate.
In March 1990, the Yugoslav People's Army
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...
met with the Presidency of Yugoslavia (an eight member council composed of representatives from six republics and two autonomous provinces) in an attempt to get them to declare a state of emergency
State of emergency
A state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...
which would allow for the army to take control of the country. Serbian and Serb-dominated representatives (Montenegro, Vojvodina and Kosovo) already in consent with the army, voted for the proposal, but as representatives of Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Bosnia voted against, the plot failed. The dying country had yet to see few more Serb leadership's attempts to push the plan for centralizing the power in Belgrade, but because of resistance in all other republics, the crisis only deteriorated.
The Croatian parliamentary election, 1990
Croatian parliamentary election, 1990
Parliamentary elections were held in Croatia on 22 April 1990, with a second round of voting on 6 May. The first free elections since multi-party politics were introduced, they resulted in a victory for the Croatian Democratic Union, which won 55 of the 80 seats...
was held on on April 22 and May 6, 1990. After the first multi-party elections, the creation of a constituent republic based on democratic institutions occurred.
Franjo Tuđman was elected resident and promised independence if reforms were not introduced. While generally heading towards independence, the government attempted final negotiations with the Serbian government to create a confederal Yugoslavia in which Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
and other republics would be autonomous and powers would be decentralized. This was not accepted.
Independence
On July 2, 1990, Croatia declared its sovereignty. On July 25, 1990, Croatia made more constitutional amendments effecting this sovereignty – the "Socialist" prefix was dropped from the country's name, the President of CroatiaPresident of Croatia
The President of Croatia , officially styled the President of the Republic represents the Republic of Croatia in the country and abroad as the head of state, maintains the regular and coordinated operation and stability of the national government system, and safeguards the independence and...
replaced the President of the Presidency, in addition to other changes.
Croatia faced political crisis within Yugoslavia as Serb-populated areas attempted to form an enclave called Serbian Krajina which intended to separate from Croatia if Croatia itself attempted to separate. The Serb leadership in Krajina refused to recognize the government of the Republic of Croatia as having sovereignty over them. The crisis began in August 1990 with the Log Revolution
Log Revolution
The Log Revolution was an insurrection which started on August 17, 1990 in areas of the Republic of Croatia which were populated significantly by ethnic Serbs....
as Croatian Serbs cut down trees which they used to block roads. This hampered Croatian tourism and caused alarm in the province of Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
as Croatia was hosting the 1990 European Athletics Championships in Split
Split (city)
Split is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its wide port bay. With a population of 178,192 citizens, and a metropolitan area numbering up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and...
.
On December 21, 1990, a new Constitution was passed. On February 21, 1991, Croatia declared its Constitution and laws supreme to that of the SFRY. On May 19, 1991, a referendum was held on independence, where a majority of Croatians endorsed independence from Yugoslavia (93% of the total number of votes). On June 25, 1991, it declared its independence from the SFRY, in an effort to end its status as a constituent republic. By mid-1991, the Croatian War of Independence
Croatian War of Independence
The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between forces loyal to the government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia —and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat...
had started. Serb-controlled areas of Croatia became part of the unrecognized Republic of Serbian Krajina
Republic of Serbian Krajina
The Republic of Serbian Krajina was a self-proclaimed Serb entity within Croatia. Established in 1991, it was not recognized internationally. It formally existed from 1991 to 1995, having been initiated a year earlier via smaller separatist regions. The name Krajina means "frontier"...
, which would not be under Croatian control until 1995/1998. With the end of 1991, the second Yugoslavia effectively ceased to exist as a state
Dissolution of Yugoslavia
The Breakup of Yugoslavia refers to a series of conflicts and political upheavals resulting in the dissolution of Yugoslavia . The SFR Yugoslavia was a country that occupied a strip of land stretching from Central Europe to the Balkans – a region with a history of ethnic conflict...
, with no leadership representing it in the beginning of 1992.
See also
- CroatiaCroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
- History of CroatiaHistory of CroatiaCroatia first appeared as a duchy in the 7th century and then as a kingdom in the 10th century. From the 12th century it remained a distinct state with its ruler and parliament, but it obeyed the kings and emperors of various neighboring powers, primarily Hungary and Austria. The period from the...
- Timeline of Croatian historyTimeline of Croatian historyThis is a timeline of Croatian history. To read about the background to these events, see History of Croatia. See also the list of rulers of Croatia and years in Croatia.This timeline is incomplete; some important events may be missing...