CROATIAN POLITICAL EMIGRATION AND YUGOSLAVIA IN THE EARLY 1980s. PREPARATIONS FOR THE FINAL CLASH Cover Image

HRVATSKA POLITIČKA EMIGRACIJA I JUGOSLAVIJA POČETKOM OSAMDESETIH GODINA. PRIPREME ZA ZAVRŠNI OBRAČUN
CROATIAN POLITICAL EMIGRATION AND YUGOSLAVIA IN THE EARLY 1980s. PREPARATIONS FOR THE FINAL CLASH

Author(s): Petar Dragišić
Subject(s): History, Social history, Modern Age, Recent History (1900 till today)
Published by: Institut za savremenu istoriju, Beograd
Keywords: Croats; Emigration; Croatian National Council; Mate Meštrović; Yugoslavia;

Summary/Abstract: From the end of World War II to the dissolution of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav political emigrants were in permanent conflict with the Yugoslav socialist system. Particularly active in the fight against their homeland were Croatian émigrés, who, in this peculiar, unconventional warfare, used not only propaganda, but also resorted to violence. In the early 1980s the most influential Croatian émigré organizations were Hrvatsko narodno vijeće/Croatian National Council (HNV) and Hrvatski državotvorni pokret/Croatian Statehood Movement (HDP). While the Croatian National Council in its campaigns against Yugoslavia used chiefly political and propaganda tools, the Croatian Statehood Movement gave priority to violent methods. In comparison to the 1960s and the 1970s the terrorist activities of Croatian émigrés in the 1980s decreased in intensity. According to Yugoslav sources, in the last decade of Yugoslavia’s existence the Croatian émigrés focused their terrorist activities on targets on Yugoslav soil. In this life-and-death struggle the Yugoslav regime did not refrain from using the most radical methods. Nevertheless, the Croatian émigré organizations outlived socialist Yugoslavia and took active part in the wars of Yugoslav succession in the 1990s.

  • Issue Year: 2020
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 203-218
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Serbian