Code of project: 019-0190609-0580
Leading researcher: dr. sc. Zdravko Dizdar
Reg. number at MZOS: 20735
E-mail: zdizdar@isp.hr
Status of project: project within program
Program: Modernizacija i identitet Hrvatske u 20. stoljeću
Affiliation: Hrvatski institut za povijest
Department: Odjel za suvremenu povijest
Duration of project: 5 years
Status and development of Croatia within the Kingdom of SHS/Yugoslavia from 1918 to 1941 represent important segment of the contemporary Croatian history. Yugoslavia was centralized country dominated by Serbs. The Royal court, military leadership and the Greater Serbian bourgeois elite represented that domination. Consequently, the national, political, economic and cultural position of Croatia and Croats was not equal to the position of Serbia and Serbs. That situation caused the emergence of strong opposition in Croatia, which was directed against the existing political system and centralized organization of the state administration. The main Croatian political organization, the Croatian Peasant Party (Hrvatska seljačka stranka – HSS), led Croatian opposition. The HSS represented the vast majority of Croatian voters in Yugoslavia. However, there existed other legal and illegal Croatian oppositional parties and organizations that acted against the Yugoslav regime. This is why Yugoslav regime was especially active to suppress oppositional activities in Croatian parts of the country. The regime had extensively used violence and terror in order to accomplish that goal. Croatian opposition had a major impact on the structure and transformation of the Croatian national identity during the period from 1918 to 1941. Many monographs, studies and articles deal with the period from 1918 to 1941. Owing to the fact that Communists ruled former Yugoslavia and Croatia from 1945 to 1990, the majority of them are dedicated to the history of the Communist party of Yugoslavia. So, it is necessary to put emphasis on other political parties and organizations. Croatian oppositional parties and organizations, their structure and activities, the structure of the Yugoslav regime, repression organized and conducted by the regime, as well as general position and development of Croatia during that period, also deserve to be researched. The research will focus on the repression of the Yugoslav regime against Croatian opposition. This is the topic that has been researched in the past, but it is necessary to continue with a research in the future. However, there are numerous topics that were not researched before.
Key words:
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia, political oppression, national identity, civilian association, liberalism, civil society
Researchers:
- dr. sc. Zdravko Dizdar, leading researcher
- dr. sc. Zdravka Jelaska Marijan
- dr. sc. Vijoleta Herman Kaurić
- dr. sc. Hrvoje Čapo
- Ivana Šubic, prof.
Visiting researchers:
- dr. sc. Ljubomir Antić
