Yugoslavism

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The blue-white-red horizontal tricolour flag is a symbol of Yugoslavism and is the pan-Slavicmovement's flag
that was adopted in 1848.

Flag of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. After the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, this flag
remains a popular Yugoslavist symbol.

Monument to the Unknown Hero at the Avala mountain near Belgrade, a monument for the fallen Yugoslavs in
the Balkan Wars and World War I, designed by Yugoslav sculptor Ivan Metrovi.

Yugoslavism refers to nationalism or patriotism centred upon the Yugoslavs - an identity referring to
a united singular South Slav people and the South Slav populated territories of southeastern Europe.
Yugoslavism has historically advocated the union of all South Slav populated territories now
composing Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia(and the disputed region
of Kosovo), Slovenia, and Macedonia.[1] Yugoslavism was a potent political force during World War I
with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by the Yugoslavist militant Gavrilo
Princip and the subsequent invasion of Serbia by Austria-Hungary, which sought to rally the South
Slav peoples against Austro-Hungarian imperial domination and in support of an
independent Yugoslavia that was achieved in 1918.[2]
Contents

[hide]

1 Background

2 Rise of Yugoslavism

3 World War I and the creation of Yugoslavia

4 Communist Yugoslavia to present-day

5 See also

6 References

7 Bibliography

Background[edit]
There were sectional South Slavic ethnic nationalists who endorsed Yugoslavism as a means to
achieve their ethnicity's unification. After 1878, Serbian nationalists merged their goals with those of
Yugoslavists, emulating the leading role of the kingdom of Sardinia and Piedmont in
the Risorgimento of Italy by claiming that Serbia sought not only to unite all Serbs in one state, but
that it intended to be a South Slavic equivalent of Piedmont, uniting all South Slavs into one state to
be known as Yugoslavia.[3] Croatian nationalists became interested in Yugoslavism as a means to
achieve the unification of the Croatian lands, in opposition to their division under Austria-Hungary,
particularly with Yugoslavist leader Strossmayer advocating this as being achievable within a
federalized Yugoslav monarchy.[4] Slovenian nationalists such as Anton Koroecalso endorsed
Yugoslav unification during the First World War, seeing it as a means to free Slovenia from AustroHungarian rule.[5]
Efforts were made to incorporate Bulgaria into Yugoslavia.[6] However, Bulgarian
nationalists resented Serbia's annexation ofVardar Macedonia in 1913, a region they had sought to
incorporate into Bulgaria, and the Bulgarian government thus rejected pan-South Slavic unification
led by Serbia and waged war on Serbia on the side of the Central Powers, who had promised
Bulgaria the right to annex Vardar Macedonia in exchange for waging war on Serbia. [4] However,
the Bulgarian coup d'tat of 1934 resulted in the supporters of that coup rising to power. They
declared their intention of immediately forming an alliance with France and seeking the unification of
Bulgaria into an integral Yugoslavia, but this was not achieved.[7]
Yugoslavists claim that the factional divide, differences, and conflict between the Yugoslav peoples
are the result of foreignimperialism in the history of the Balkans.[2] As a result of religious divisions,
Yugoslavism has typically avoided religious overtones.[2]
Yugoslavism had two major internal divisions that typically splintered the movement. One faction
promotes a centralised state and assimilation of all ethnicities into a single Yugoslav nationality.[2] The
other faction supports a decentralised and multicultural federation that would preserve existing
identities while promoting unity, while being opposed to the idea of centralisation and assimilation
that they deemed as effectively favouring Serb hegemony rather than Yugoslav unity.[2]

Rise of Yugoslavism[edit]
The concept of Yugoslavism first arose in the 1830s with the creation of the Illyrian movement that
based its views of South Slavic national identity upon the ideal of national awakening of the French

Revolution.[1] The Illyrian movement was formed by Croatian writers who emphasized the common
ethnic and linguistic ties between the South Slavic peoples as a basis for their cooperation and
eventual political unification.[1] The Illyrian movement was centred in Croatia and Croatian politics,
believing that a Croatian renaissance was necessary to be achieved prior to the movement's longterm goal of ethnic and political unification of South Slavs.[1] Ljudevit Gaj, a key figure of the Illyrian
movement declared Croats and Serbs to be the two major subgroups of the South Slav or "Illyrian"
nationality, which also included Slovenes, and South Slavic inhabitants of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and Montenegro.[1] In spite of its pan-South Slavic ideals, the Illyrian
movement was dominated by upper-class Croats, originally with little support amongst Serbs,
Slovenes, or other South Slavic peoples.[1]
During the Revolutions of 1848, the Illyrian movement became a strong political force in the
Habsburg Austrian Empire, and advocated cooperation between Croats and Serbs to oppose
Hungarian rule of its South Slavic populated territories.[1]
The concept and term "Yugoslavism" was founded in the later-half of the nineteenth century by two
Croatian Catholic Bishops: Josip Juraj Strossmayer, an ethnically mixed Croat-German liberal
politician; and Franjo Raki who both emphasized Yugoslavism as a supranational cultural patriotism
to unite South Slavs on the basis of common origins, cultural ties, and spiritual bonds of South
Slavs.[8] However like the Illyian movement, Strossmeyer's and Raki's Yugoslavism found little
support outside of Croatia.[9] Yugoslavism faced strong competition from other nationalist movements
seeking to rally the various South Slav peoples, such asSerbian nationalism.[9] Initially Serbian
nationalists who were focused on fighting the Turks, did not cooperate with Yugoslavists, seeing little
benefit in a joint movement or unification with Croats of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. [9] However this
period of noncooperation was briefly broken in the mid-1860s when Strossmeyer and Serbian
foreign minister Ilija Garaanin agreed to work together to create "a Yugoslav state free from Austria
or Turkey."[10]
The concept of Yugoslavism did not become strong until the beginning of the twentieth century due
to the lack of belief that South Slavs could realistically unify and the lack of popular government in
Yugoslav populated territories.[2] Yugoslavism began to arise with the overthrow of the Obrenovi
dynasty in Serbia in 1903 and the creation of a popular government within a constitutional monarchy.
[2]
After the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary in 1908 Yugoslavism soared
as the multiple South Slav denominations saw themselves as victims of foreign imperialism. [2]
Famous Croat sculptor Ivan Metrovi became a supporter of Yugoslavism and Yugoslav identity
after he traveled to Serbia and became impressed with Serb culture.[11] Metrovi created a sculpture
of Serbian folk-legend hero Prince Marko at the International Exhibition in Rome in 1911, when
asked about the statue, Metrovi replied "This Marko is our Yugoslav people with its gigantic and
noble heart".[11] Metrovi wrote poetry speaking of a "Yugoslav race".[11] Those who knew Metrovi's
views referred to him as "The Prophet of Yugoslavism". [11]
In 1912, the eruption of the Balkan Wars saw various South Slavs unite against the Ottoman Empire.
[2]
In 1913, Slovene intellectuals published a manifesto recognising the existence of a Yugoslav
nation and calling for its independence, declaring:
As it is a fact that we Slovenes, Croats and Serbs constitute a compact linguistic and ethnic group
with similar economic conditions, and so indissolubly linked by a common fate on a common territory
that no one of the three can aspire to a separate future, and in consideration of the fact that among
the Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, the Jugoslav thought is even today strongly developed, we have
extended our national sentiments beyond our frontier to the Croats and SerbsBy this we all
become members of one united Jugo-slav nation. [12]

World War I and the creation of Yugoslavia[edit]

Depiction of the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serb Yugoslavist militant Gavrilo
Princip.

Ante Trumbi, the Croat Yugoslavist who led the Yugoslav Committee that advocated for the creation
independent Yugoslavia during World War I.

Aleksandar Stamboliyski, the Bulgarian Yugoslavist who opposed Bulgaria's alliance with the Central Powers.
In 1914 during the war, Stamboliyski's patriotism was questioned when members of the Bulgarian parliament
questioned whether he was Bulgarian or not, to which he shouted in response "I am Yugoslav!". [13]

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by Yugoslavist revolutionaryGavrilo

Princip, a Serb associated with Young Bosnia, a group composed of Croats, Serbs, and Bosniaks,
marked the beginning of a militant nationalist activity by South Slavs against Austro-Hungarian rule.
[12]
At his trial in 1914, Princip stated: "I am a Yugoslav nationalist, aiming for the unification of
all Yugoslavs, and I do not care what form of state, but it must be free from Austria." [14]
In response to the outbreak of the war a number of Croats and diaspora Serbs supported Croat-Serb
cooperation against Austria-Hungary with the desire of creating a federation based on cooperation
between them.[12] Serbs in Serbia on the other hand preferred either a Greater Serbia or a centralized
Yugoslavia that would in effect create a Greater Serbia within it.[12] The leadership of the Croatian
Peasant and social democratic parties in Croatiaand Slovenia generally supported a federal
Yugoslav state that would recognize the equality of the Serb, Croat and Slovene nations as distinct
and separate tribal sub-nations of the Yugoslav nation.[12]
As the Serbian military made advances against Austria-Hungary in the early months of the
war, Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pai requested support from the Serbian parliament to support
the Serbian government's official war aims that declared that Serbia would support the liberation of
the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes under Austro-Hungarian rule.[2] Pai supported the creation of
the Yugoslav Committee to be composed of South Slav migrs from Austria-Hungary.[2] The
Yugoslav Committee was led by Yugoslavist Ante Trumbi and initially composed of twelve Croats
(including eight from Dalmatia and two from Croatia proper), three Serbs, and one Slovene. [2] The
Yugoslav Committee lobbied the Allies to support the liberation of the South Slav peoples of AustriaHungary.[2] Pai was dismayed with the discovery that the Allies had promised to give Italy a
substantial portion of Dalmatia and believed that the Committee should attempt to convince the
Allies that this was unacceptable and an injustice.[2]
In 1917, Pai, representing the Serbian government, and Trumbi, representing the Yugoslav
Committee signed the Corfu Declaration on the Greek island of Corfu that declared the intention to
create a Yugoslav state to be known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes that was to be
headed by a "constitutional, democratic, and parliamentary monarchy" headed by the Serbian ruling
dynasty, the House of Karaorevi.[2]

Proclamation of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs on Congress Square in Ljubljana, October 29, 1918

At the end of World War I, the National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbswas formed in Zagreb.
Shortly thereafter, on 1 December 1918, King Alexander of Serbia proclaimed the existence of the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes which was recognized by Belgrade and the National
Council in Zagreb on the 28th and 29 December.[2]

Communist Yugoslavia to present-day[edit]

This section requires expansion.
(February 2013)

During the Titoist era, a Yugoslav socialist patriotism was advocated by the Yugoslav government.[15]
[16]
It stressed that this socialist patriotism was not related to nationalism.[15] The League of
Communists of Yugoslaviadenounced nationalism, declaring that "every nationalism is dangerous".
[17]
Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito sought to form a communist community of "new people" of
socialist Yugoslavia, based on the concept of Brotherhood and Unity - the "brotherhood" referring to
the community of nations living in the socialist Yugoslavia while the "unity" referred to the unity of
the working class.[18]
The basis of this socialist patriotism was the armed struggle by the Yugoslav Partisans against
the Axis Powers who occupied and partitioned Yugoslavia duringWorld War II.[19] The League of
Communists claimed that the different nations of Yugoslavia had united in a common struggle
against the Axis during the war and thus had legitimized the future unity of multi-ethnic Yugoslavia.
[19]
This was broadly correct for some parts of Yugoslavia, but during the war there had been
significant cooperation with the Axis powers in Croatia, which the Axis had established as an
independent state allied to Italy and Germany.