Yugoslavism (Serbo-Croatian: Југославизам
/ Jugoslavizam, Slovene: Jugoslavizem) or
Yugoslavdom (Serbo-Croatian: Југословенство
/ Jugoslovenstvo, Slovene: Jugoslovanstvo)
refers to the unionism, nationalism or patriotism
associated with South Slavs and Yugoslavia.
Yugoslavism has historically advocated the
union of all South Slav populated territories
now composing Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,
Montenegro, Serbia (and the disputed region
of Kosovo), Slovenia, and Macedonia.
It became a potent political force during
World War I with the assassination of Archduke
Franz Ferdinand of Austria by the Yugoslavist
militant Gavrilo Princip and the subsequent
invasion of Serbia by Austria-Hungary.
During the war the Yugoslav Committee composed
of South Slav emigres from Austria-Hungary
(including twelve Croats, three Serbs, and
one Slovene), supported Serbia and vouched
for the creation of a Yugoslav state.
On 1 December 1918, King Peter of Serbia proclaimed
the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes,
commonly known as "Yugoslavia".
During the Yugoslav period, a Yugoslav identity
(the "Yugoslav nation", Jugoslovenska nacija)
was propagated.
== Background ==
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.
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.
Slovenian nationalists such as Anton Korošec
also endorsed Yugoslav unification during
the First World War, seeing it as a means
to free Slovenia from Austro-Hungarian rule.Yugoslavism
also had support among Bulgarians, most notably
Aleksandar Stamboliyski.
However, Bulgarian nationalists resented Serbia's
annexation of Vardar Macedonia in 1913, a
region they had sought to incorporate into
Bulgaria, and the Bulgarian government thus
rejected a pan-South Slavic unification led
by Serbia, and fought against Serbia on the
side of the Central Powers who had promised
Bulgaria Vardar Macedonia in exchange for
their alliance.
The Bulgarian coup d'état of 1934 briefly
brought pro-Yugoslav Bulgarians to power.
They declared their intention of immediately
forming an alliance with France and leading
Bulgaria into an integral Yugoslavia, but
this was not achieved.Yugoslavists claim that
the factional divide, differences, and conflict
between the Yugoslav peoples are the result
of foreign imperialism in the history of the
Balkans.
As a result of religious divisions, Yugoslavism
has typically avoided religious overtones.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.
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.
== Rise of Yugoslavism ==
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.
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.
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 long-term goal of ethnic
and political unification of South Slavs.
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.
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.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.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 Rački 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.
However like the Illyian movement, Strossmeyer's
and Rački's Yugoslavism found little support
outside Croatia.
Yugoslavism faced strong competition from
other nationalist movements seeking to rally
the various South Slav peoples, such as Serbian
nationalism.
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.
However this period of noncooperation was
briefly broken in the mid-1860s when Strossmeyer
and Serbian foreign minister Ilija Garašanin
agreed to work together to create "a Yugoslav
state free from Austria or Turkey."Yugoslavism
is related to two contrasting doctrines from
the 19th century: Pan-Slavism which then focused
on unification and independence of Slavic
nations from non-Slavic rulers, and Austroslavism
which appealed to Slavic subjects of the Habsburg
Monarchy as it had been concocted to unify
Slavic nations and serve their interests within
the Austro-Hungarian Empire.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.
Yugoslavism began to arise with the overthrow
of the Obrenović dynasty in Serbia in 1903
and the creation of a popular government within
a constitutional monarchy.
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.Famous
Croat sculptor Ivan Meštrović became a supporter
of Yugoslavism and Yugoslav identity after
he traveled to Serbia and became impressed
with Serb culture.
Meštrović created a sculpture of Serbian
folk-legend hero Prince Marko at the International
Exhibition in Rome in 1911, when asked about
the statue, Meštrović replied "This Marko
is our Yugoslav people with its gigantic and
noble heart".
Meštrović wrote poetry speaking of a "Yugoslav
race".
Those who knew Meštrović's views referred
to him as "The Prophet of Yugoslavism".In
1912, the eruption of the Balkan Wars saw
various South Slavs unite against the Ottoman
Empire.
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 Serbs…By this we all become members
of one united Jugo-slav nation.
== World War I and the creation of Yugoslavia
==
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
of Austria by Yugoslavist revolutionary Gavrilo
Princip, a Serb associated with Young Bosnia,
a group composed of mainly Serbs, but also
Bosnian Muslims and Croats, marked the beginning
of a militant nationalist activity by South
Slavs against Austro-Hungarian rule.
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."
The assassination of Franz Ferdinand however
triggered resentment amongst those Austro-Hungarian
Croats and Slovenes who had favoured being
within Austria-Hungary.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.
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.
The leadership of the Croatian Peasant and
social democratic parties in Croatia and 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.As the Serbian military made advances
against Austria-Hungary in the early months
of the war, Serbian Prime Minister Nikola
Pašić 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.
Pašić supported the creation of the Yugoslav
Committee to be composed of South Slav émigrés
from Austria-Hungary.
The Yugoslav Committee was led by Yugoslavist
Ante Trumbić and initially composed of twelve
Croats (including eight from Dalmatia and
two from Croatia proper), three Serbs, and
one Slovene.
The Yugoslav Committee lobbied the Allies
to support the liberation of the South Slav
peoples of Austria-Hungary.
Pašić 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.In
1917, Pašić, representing the Serbian government,
and Trumbić, representing the Yugoslav Committee
(including twelve Croats, three Serbs, and
one Slovene) 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
Karađorđević.
At the end of World War I, the National Council
of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was 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.
== Kingdom of Yugoslavia ==
Vladimir Dvorniković, a famous philosopher,
advocated the establishment of a Yugoslav
ethnicity in his 1939 book entitled "The Characterology
of the Yugoslavs".
His views included eugenics and cultural blending
to create one, strong Yugoslav nation.
He did not dismiss the differences among people
that inhabited Yugoslavia, but stressed that
these differences were "contingent and temporary
and that they mask a deeper and more profound
racial unity".
He also believed that "the primary ability
of Yugoslavs is their ability to sacrifice
themselves for a higher goal".
Dvorniković also advocated the idea of a
Dinaric race, and his book overall gives a
comprehensive description of unitarist Yugoslav
mythology.
Several nationalist and far-right groups arose
in support of Yugoslavism, such as ORJUNA
and ZBOR.
== SFR Yugoslavia ==
During the Titoist era, a Yugoslav socialist
patriotism was advocated by the Yugoslav government.
It stressed that this socialist patriotism
was not related to nationalism.
The League of Communists of Yugoslavia denounced
nationalism, declaring that "every nationalism
is dangerous".
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.The
basis of this socialist patriotism was the
armed struggle by the Yugoslav Partisans against
the Axis Powers who occupied and partitioned
Yugoslavia during World War II.
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.
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 puppet state allied to Italy and Germany.
== Yugoslav nation ==
In the early days of Yugoslavia, influential
intellectuals Jovan Cvijić and Vladimir Dvorniković
advocated the Yugoslavs as a Yugoslav supra-ethnic
nation that had tribal ethnicities, such as
Croats, Serbs, and others within it.Identity
politics failed to assimilate the South Slavic
peoples of Yugoslavia into a Yugoslav identity.
During the reign of King Aleksandar I, a modern
single Yugoslav identity was unsuccessfully
propagated to erase the particularistic identities.
== See also ==
Yugo-nostalgia
Titoism
Balkanization
Yugoslavs
Yugoslavs in Serbia
Serbian–Montenegrin unionism
Bosnianism
Croatian nationalism
Macedonian nationalism
Montenegrin nationalism
Serbian nationalism
Slovenian nationalism
Bulgarian nationalism
Czechoslovakism
Pan-Slavism
