Creation of the kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Sabor Representative body of some South Slavic peoples

Sabor (Serbian-Croatian)

representative body of some South Slavic peoples. In Croatia, it was first convened (in Northern Croatia) in 1273, from the 16th century. common to the whole country; existed until December 1918. S. included representatives of the aristocracy, nobility, clergy, and free royal cities; headed by S. ban. Considered questions domestic policy. In 1848, S. spoke in favor of the separation of Croatia and Slavonia from the Kingdom of Hungary and the federal organization of the Habsburg Empire. Since 1848 S. has lost its class character. Heads began to participate in the elections peasant families(two-stage voting). Under the Croatian-Hungarian agreement of 1868, the S. had limited legislative functions (in the area of administration, courts, schools, and churches) and the right to vote an autonomous budget. His decisions needed the approval of the Austrian emperor. In 1870 6-7% of men had the right to vote, in 1910 about 30%. In Dalmatia, socialism was established in 1861. In the struggle against the Italian bourgeoisie and officialdom in 1870, Croatian-Serbian liberals won the majority in it. Ceased to exist December 1, 1918.

IN Socialist Republic Croatian S. is called parliament.

Big soviet encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1969-1978 .

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The name of the representative body in Croatia (16th century 1918), Dalmatia (1861 1918). In the Republic of Croatia, the Parliament… Big encyclopedic Dictionary

Exist., Number of synonyms: 1 Parliament (42) ASIS Synonym Dictionary. V.N. Trishin. 2013 ... Synonym dictionary

The name of the representative body in Croatia (16th century 1918), Dalmatia (1861 1918). The Republic of Croatia has a parliament. Political Science: Dictionary Reference. comp. Prof. floor of sciences Sanzharevsky I.I.. 2010 ... Political science. Dictionary.

Sabor- a representative body of some South Slavic peoples. It was first convened in Croatia: in the North in 1273, in the South in the 14th century. From the 16th century S. (official name "Assembly of estates and ranks of the Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia") common to all ... Encyclopedia of Law

Croatian Sabor (Croatian Hrvatski sabor) unicameral representative and Legislature(Parliament) of Croatia. Coat of arms of the Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia on the Croatian Sabor Meeting of the Croatian Sabor, 1848 (Dragutin Weingartner) ... Wikipedia

The name of the representative body in Croatia (XVI century 1918), Dalmatia (1861 1918). In modern Croatia, the parliament. * * * SABOR SABOR, the name of the representative body in Croatia (16th century 1918), Dalmatia (1861 1918). In the Republic of Croatia… … encyclopedic Dictionary

- (Serbo-Croatian) representative body of some Yugoslavs. peoples. It was first convened in Croatia: in the North in 1273, in the South in the 14th century. From the 16th century S. (official name. Meeting of estates and ranks of the kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia) common to all ... ... Soviet historical encyclopedia

Sa "boron(Serb.-Croatian), a representative body of some South Slavic peoples. In Croatia, it was first convened (in Northern Croatia) in 1273, from the 16th century. common to the whole country; existed until December 1918. S. included representatives of the aristocracy, nobility, clergy, and free royal cities; headed by S. ban. Discussed issues of domestic policy. In 1848, S. spoke in favor of the separation of Croatia and Slavonia from the Kingdom of Hungary and the federal organization of the Habsburg Empire. Since 1848 S. has lost its class character. The heads of peasant families began to participate in the elections (two-stage voting). Under the Croatian-Hungarian agreement of 1868, the S. had limited legislative functions (in the area of administration, courts, schools, and churches) and the right to vote an autonomous budget. His decisions needed the approval of the Austrian emperor. In 1870 6-7% of men had the right to vote, in 1910 about 30%. In Dalmatia, socialism was established in 1861. In the struggle against the Italian bourgeoisie and officialdom in 1870, Croatian-Serbian liberals won the majority in it. Ceased to exist December 1, 1918.

In the Socialist Republic of Croatia, S. is called parliament.

The South Slavic regions that separated from Austria-Hungary did not represent a stable state association.

Zagreb People's Council, which declared itself supreme authority on the territory of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, was not a representative body of all South Slavic lands.

In November 1918, part of Dalmatia, Istria and Croatian Littoral was occupied by Italian, French and Serbian troops under the pretext of disarming the remnants of the Austro-Hungarian troops.

Italy, based on the secret articles of the London Treaty of 1915, was going to annex a number of South Slavic territories of Austria-Hungary. But these lands were also claimed by Serbia, which had long sought to gain access to the Adriatic Sea.

It was supported by France, whose ruling circles, creating a system of military alliances in Eastern Europe, assigned an important role in their plans to the projected large South Slavic state, designed to serve as a counterweight to Italy in the Balkans and one of the anti-Soviet footholds. The Serbian bourgeoisie also used the slogan of uniting the South Slavs to fight against the developing revolutionary movement.

In Montenegro, the second independent South Slavic state, two directions fought in the ruling circles: supporters of unification with Serbia and other South Slavic lands and supporters of preserving the old order and the Njegos dynasty. Many progressive figures joined the first direction, hoping for the democratization of the political system and public life in the new state.

The Serbian, Bosnian and some other Social Democratic parties spoke out for the unification of the South Slavic peoples; they also hoped that within the framework of the new state it would be possible to carry out democratic reforms.

The bourgeoisie of the South Slavic regions of the former Austria-Hungary was moving towards unification with Serbia, hoping with the help of Serbian bayonets to suppress the revolutionary movement and at the same time prevent the capture of these regions by Italy. In the future South Slavic state, she expected to play a much larger role than in Austria-Hungary, since Serbia was much inferior economically to the former dual monarchy.

The meeting discussed the question of uniting the South Slavic regions of the former Austria-Hungary with Serbia. The participants in the conference ignored the right of peoples to determine their own state form of government. The behind-the-scenes talks that began in Geneva continued after the meeting.

On November 24, 1918, the Zagreb People's Council decided to annex the former Austro-Hungarian South Slavic regions to Serbia. December 1, 1918 delegation people's council presented in Belgrade a loyal address to the Prince Regent of the Kingdom of Serbia, Alexander Karageorgievich. Serbia was also joined by Montenegro, where the supporters of unification won. On December 4, on behalf of the King of Serbia, the Prince Regent's manifesto was published on the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (since 1929 - Yugoslavia).

This was the unification of the South Slavic lands into one state. This event had a double meaning. On the one hand, it was a step forward in historical development South Slavic peoples, whose liberation struggle against the Austro-Hungarian monarchy V. II. Lenin called national revolution southern Slavs.

But, on the other hand, the victory of the popular masses was incomplete, and the Serbian big bourgeoisie took advantage of its fruits in the first place. The new multinational state was not a democratic association of free and equal peoples, but arose as a militaristic kingdom pursuing a reactionary domestic and foreign policy.

The leading role in the government from the very beginning belonged to the representatives of the Serbian big bourgeoisie. The post of head of the cabinet was taken by the leader of the Serbian Radical Party Stojan Protic, the deputy prime minister - the chairman of the clerical People's Party of Slovenia Anton Koroshets.

National contradictions in the South Slavic state became more acute.

The Serbs, who became the dominant nation, made up only half of the country's population. Croats, Slovenes, Montenegrins, Macedonians, Albanians, Hungarians, and others had significantly less rights than Serbs. Macedonians and Albanians were even forbidden to use their native language in public institutions, schools and press.

In the created national parliament - the National Assembly, the overwhelming majority of mandates were received by the Serbian bourgeois parties.

State independence of Yugoslavia

On June 28, 1389, the army of the medieval Serbian state fell on the Kosovo field, defeated by the hordes of the troops of the Turkish Sultan Murad I. Since then, a dark night of foreign domination fell over Serbia for many centuries. Only in 1878, after devastating wars with the Turks, Serbia finally gained independence.

Montenegro for a number of centuries defended its independence in wars against the Ottoman Empire, and only after Russian-Turkish war 1877-1878 strengthened its statehood.

As for Croatia and Slovenia, they lost their independence in the Middle Ages. Croatia in 1102 was included in the Kingdom of Hungary on the basis of a personal union, and in the 16th century. Hungary itself fell under the rule of the Habsburgs. At the same time, the territories where the Slovenes lived began to belong to the Habsburgs. In 1867, the Austrian Empire was divided into two parts: the Austrian, or Cisleithania. and Hungarian, or Transleitania, the conditional borders between which passed along the Leyte River. Both of these parts were formally equal, although in fact Austria had a number of advantages over Hungary. The Austrian part included Slovenia, Istria. Styria, Carinthia, part of the Hungarian - Croatia. Slavonia, Dalmatia. The population of these lands was mixed; Serbs professed, like their brothers in Serbia, Orthodoxy, Croats and Slovenes - Catholicism.

In 1868, an additional agreement was signed between Hungary and Croatia - the so-called "nagodba", which granted the latter additional rights that were not available in other Yugoslav lands, Croatia retained its historical name "Kingdom of Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia", received the right to elect a local parliament - Sabor, to create their own government, headed by the bearer of state power - the ban. Croatia sent its representatives to the Hungarian parliament, had a national banner, a state emblem, and local governments. However, it never became an independent state. largely subordinate to Hungary. The crown, in addition to the ban, appointed its representative to Croatia - the governor or the royal commissioner, the Hungarian parliament could suspend any law adopted by the Croatian Sabor, and the fiscal apparatus, the gendarmerie and the highest officials consisted only of Hungarians. Croatia did not have its own army, was deprived of the right to conduct international affairs.

Even fewer rights were granted to the Yugoslav regions in Cisleitania. The population of Slovenia, Istria, Styria and other lands elected their local legislative parliaments - Landtags and executive authorities, but were under the supreme control of the governors, who were appointed by Vienna. There was an inequality in the norms of representation in the Austrian Reichsrat. Slovenia actually did not participate in the work of the Austrian government.

The fate of both Bosnians and Herzegovinians was not easy. Back in the 15th century. Bosnia and Herzegovina were conquered by the Turks, in 1878 they were occupied by Austria-Hungary, and in 1908 they were finally included in its composition. The population of Bosnia and Herzegovina (most of them were Turkified Serbs, called "Muslims") was infringed on their civil rights. These areas were called the Reichsland and were under the jurisdiction of both Austria and Hungary. The supreme executive power in the country belonged to the governor-general, who was also the commander of the military district. The competence of local authorities was extremely limited, the provincial parliament - the Sabor in Bosnia - was created only in 1910.

The acquisition of freedom and independence, the revival of statehood has become the task of many Yugoslav peoples.

The system of dualism became more and more obsolete. It hindered the development of the productive forces and caused discontent among the Yugoslav political parties. Only the block ruling in Croatia - the Croatian-Serbian coalition - continued to support the 1868 agreement. The rest of the parties advocated a revision of this system, leaning towards trialism. those. to grant the Yugoslav territories equal rights with Austria and Hungary. These demands were half-hearted, since the parties of the Yugoslav lands did not raise the issue of creating an independent state, limiting themselves to its solution within the framework of the Habsburg monarchy. The social democratic parties of Croatia, Slavonia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina also took a reformist position. Their program provisions also did not go beyond the demands for the expansion of the cultural and national autonomy of the Yugoslav territories.

Significant changes in the political programs of the Yugoslav parties began to be introduced only during the First World War, which deepened the crisis of the dualistic system.

Formation of the Yugoslav state in 1914-1918

First World War marked the beginning of a new, turning point in history. These events did not bypass the Balkan states, which relatively recently emerged from the Turkish yoke, also became enemies. Bulgaria joined the Central Coalition. Romania and Greece declared their neutrality. Serbia and Montenegro took the side of the Entente countries. Serbia was attacked by Austria-Hungary. In these circumstances, Serbia began to wage a liberation struggle to maintain its independence. On December 7, 1914, she adopted the Nis Declaration, thereby declaring her claims to the unifying center of all Slavs under the rule of Austria-Hungary. But the declaration was not officially recognized by the Entente countries, including Russia.

Defeatist moods were among the ruling circles of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Count Ottokar Czernin, the future First Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1916-1918), considered entering the war "suicide". “It is impossible to foresee,” he wrote, “in what form the collapse of the monarchy would have resulted if war had been avoided. But it would undoubtedly have been less terrible. We were doomed to death and had to die. But we could choose the type of death and we have chosen the most painful death."

A similar point was shared by many. One of the leading parties in Croatia, the Croatian Party of Rights of Ante Starcevic, already in the autumn of 1914, proposed a truce, set out in the party newspaper Hrvat, in which the question was asked: does Austria-Hungary need conquests that will have to be paid with the blood of millions of people ? There were similar sentiments among the intelligentsia of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia.

Great concern in Austria-Hungary was caused by the defeat of its troops in December 1914 from the Serbs in the battle on the Kolubara River. In these battles, the Austro-Hungarian troops lost almost a third of their strength. There were cases when the troops, consisting of the Serbs of Hungary, did not go into battle even under the threat of execution. "The Austrians," wrote V.N. The Hungarian publicist Magyar Lajos wrote that already in the autumn of 1914 a “psychological breakdown” occurred in the Austro-Hungarian troops, the successes of Serbian and Russian weapons dispelled the myth about the possibility of an easy victory for the imperial army. The military defeats of the Austro-Hungarian forces followed one after another. In 1916, they suffered a crushing loss during the Brusilov offensive. In 1917, up to 3 million soldiers and officers of the Austro-Hungarian army turned out to be in Russian captivity, and a significant part surrendered voluntarily. they were achieved thanks to the German troops.

For the first time during the war years, part of the Yugoslav political and public figures made a bet on the victory of the Entente. Two centers of Yugoslav emigration were formed in Rome (Italy) and Nis (Serbia). Then, on the basis of the Roman center, the Yugoslav Committee was formed. Having moved to London, he began to conduct active anti-Austrian propaganda. The Committee, headed by a prominent Croatian public figure, Dr. Ante Trumbich, founded branches in Switzerland, Russia, France, and in the countries of Northern and South America. He established contacts with political parties both in Austria-Hungary itself and with the Serbian government. The committee proclaimed the unity of the three Yugoslav peoples - Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, calling them one nation with three names, and spoke in favor of their unification outside the framework of the Habsburg empire. The Yugoslav parties in Austria-Hungary itself maintained their former positions of preserving the monarchy, without raising their demands above territorial-national autonomy.

There was no unity in the Yugoslav Committee itself about the post-war future of the Yugoslav lands. But the leaders of the committee managed to jointly develop a program for the future state on the principles of federalism.

Initially, the activities of the committee by the Entente countries and the Serbian government were regarded as a charitable, propaganda organization of Yugoslav emigrants from Austria-Hungary and were in alliance with the Serbian government. But the military situation of Serbia made changes in the relationship between the Serbian royal government and the emigrant Yugoslav Committee of Ante Trumbich, who began to seek official recognition from the Entente powers as a representative body of all Yugoslav peoples.

Ante Trumbich sent a memorandum to the British and French governments, in which he questioned the legitimacy of the Nis Declaration of the Serbian Assembly of December 7, 1914, arguing that Serbia, having lost the war, no longer has grounds to claim the sole role of unifier of the South Slavic peoples. Croatia, rather than Serbia, has more reason to become such a center. It is more economically developed than Serbia, has a more ancient culture, and is a civilized parliamentary state. "The capital of the future Yugoslavia should be Zagreb, not Belgrade," he argued.

This was contrary to the great Serbian aspirations of the Serbian ruling circles and personally Nikola Pasic and Prince Regent Alexander. In his very first public speech, delivered at the parade of Serbian troops, in which he emphasized the idea of creating Great Serbia: “We,” the regent said, “we will fight for Great Serbia, which unites all Serbs and Yugoslavs.”

It is quite natural that the future state can be created under the condition of disintegration. This did not suit the financial circles of London and Paris, which were associated with the banking houses of Vienna. The governments under their influence also did not consider the situation of the collapse of the “patchwork empire”. This was also explained by the fact that the Western countries saw in Austria-Hungary a bastion in the east of Europe from the export of the revolution from Soviet Russia, and until 1917 they did not want to strengthen it in the Balkans. They are trying to knock Austria-Hungary out of the Central Coalition and thereby deal directly with Germany. British Prime Minister D. Lloyd George on January 5, 1918, at the Congress of British Trade Unions, said: "The collapse of Austria-Hungary does not meet our plans." The French government, more actively than others, took the same position. Until the end of the war, she postponed the decision to create a Yugoslav state.

The new emperor Charles I, in the face of an obvious catastrophe, was looking for ways to conclude a separate peace with the Entente. The odious Hungarian Prime Minister Count Istvan Tisza was dismissed. In his throne speech in parliament (Reichsrat) on May 30, 1917, the emperor announced the need for reforms. The leaders followed national movements Austria-Hungary. On behalf of the faction of the Yugoslavs (Yugoslavian Club), a speech called the May Declaration was made by the Slovenian MP Anton Koroshets. He proclaimed the unification of all the Yugoslav lands that were part of Austria-Hungary into a single state body. There was no talk of secession from the empire and the creation of Yugoslavia, but the promulgation of the declaration caused a wide response. The declaration was supported by the Catholic Church in Slovenia and Croatia, the Serbian Metropolitan of Sarajevo, and a number of Yugoslav parties and organizations.

With the promulgation of the May Declaration, the final period of the struggle between the two currents actually began. Both advocated the unification of all the Yugoslav lands of Austria-Hungary into a single state-administrative entity, but at the same time, some politicians saw this association as part of Austria-Hungary, others as part of a federal Yugoslavia. The peak of the struggle came in 1917-1918, when the Habsburg Empire was approaching death.

The February Revolution in Russia had a great influence on these parties. The ruling circles of Austria-Hungary were shocked and frightened by the ease of destroying the Russian monarchy. The emperor himself was alarmed. The Governor-General of Bosnia and Herzegovina, General Stefan Sarkotić, wrote in his diary on March 19, 1917: “Yesterday I visited the young emperor, who said that thoughts about the world occupy him day and night ... Turning to a conversation about the Russian revolution, he said, that evaluates it as an event, the consequences of which are difficult to foresee." "The Russian revolution," Chernin stated in a secret report to Karl Habsburg on April 12, "affects our Slavs."

Even the most conservative leaders of the Yugoslav parties were forced to admit that after the overthrow of tsarism in Russia, it became impossible to govern the country by the old methods. "In our time," stated one of the functionaries of the Slovenian People's Party (clerics), Bishop of Ljubljana Anton Eglich Bonaventure, "the ranks of the democratic direction are growing, the influence of the Russian revolution is growing ... We need to change our old methods." Eglich noted that big influence the Yugoslavs were affected by the program provision of the Provisional Government of Russia on granting the peoples the right to self-determination. The idea of separatism, he said, could be used by "Serbian propaganda." Jeglich called for the expansion of the autonomy of Slovenia and other national lands of Austria-Hungary.

Fundamental changes in the position of the Yugoslav parties of Austria-Hungary began only at the very end of the war.

Complex processes also took place in another part of the Yugoslav political world - in the government of Serbia in exile. At the end of 1916, an internal crisis in the Serbian government escalated due to the failure of the offensive on the Solonin Front and the beginning of an internal confrontation between Nikola Pasic and Regent Alexander. Prince Alexander relied on a narrow layer of officers, called the White Hand in contrast to the Black Hand organization, and Pasic did not want to share power with the green youth. The crisis grew through the fault of Pasic, as he was used to ruling the country undividedly under Peter I and not looking back at the demands of the National Assembly. Pasic had to make concessions. The Black Hand officer organization went into opposition.

After February Revolution in Russia, Serbia greatly undermined its position in the Entente camp. Serbia lost its traditional foreign policy support in the form of the tsarist government, and the subsequent October coup in Petrograd and the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks actually left Serbia face to face with Europe.

In this situation, the Serbian ruling circles entered into serious negotiations with the Yugoslav Committee. In mid-July 1917, Prime Minister Nikola Pasic met with representatives of the Yugoslav Committee. Initially, the positions of the parties differed greatly: Nikola Pasic and other Serbian nationalists adhered to the position of creating a "Great Serbia", and the Yugoslav Committee was in favor of a federal Yugoslavia. But the foreign policy situation dictated the need for a compromise: no one in the world is going to take care of the interests of the southern Slavs, and they have to rely only on themselves.

Long and difficult negotiations ended with the signing of the Corfu Declaration on July 20, 1917. It said that the future state - the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes - would include all the Slavic lands of Austria-Hungary, Serbia and Montenegro. The Constitution of the country should be developed by the Constituent Assembly, but it was decided in advance that the new state would be a constitutional monarchy headed by the Karageorgievich dynasty, and not a federation.

The Corfu Declaration proceeded from the principle of observance of constitutional rights and political freedoms and the complete equality of the three peoples - Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, recognized freedom of religion: Orthodox. Catholic and Muslim (for Turkified Serbs). According to the declaration, the supreme legislative power was exercised by the national parliament - the People's Assembly, elected by the entire population of the country on the basis of equal and universal suffrage by direct and secret ballot. executive power, according to the declaration, belonged to the government, responsible to the monarch, and locally - to self-government bodies.

The Corfu Declaration, however, was missing a number of important provisions. So. it bypassed the issue of the rights of national minorities - Macedonians, Albanians, Hungarians and other peoples. Nothing was said about the competence of the bodies local government, there was no clause on the rights of the parliaments and governments of Croatia, Slovenia, Dalmatia and other national regions. The document did not specify the provision on the prerogatives of the monarch, and the question of the formation of the legislative power was postponed until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly.

The compromise nature of the Corfu Declaration is explained by the unequal and precarious position in which both sides were: the Serbian government in exile had an army, the Yugoslav Committee had certain financial resources and the support of Yugoslav emigrants and some politicians in Austria-Hungary. But both sides were suspended in the air, because. the war was not yet over and its outcome was not yet clear, and therefore they needed each other. But at the same time, the advantage was on the side of the Serbian government. The government, although in exile, was nevertheless officially recognized by the powers of the Entente as a full-fledged ally and had a real military force. That is why the Great Serb sentiment prevailed in the declaration, and this was reflected in the subsequent history of interwar Yugoslavia.

Despite the controversial nature of the declaration, it caused a wave of enthusiasm among all the Yugoslav peoples. Only Montenegrin was the loser royal dynasty- from now on, the king of Montenegro, Nikolai, remained a king without a kingdom. Back in March 1917, the emigrant Montenegrin National Salvation Committee was created in Paris, which expressed solidarity with the principles of the Corfu Declaration. The Montenegrin Committee established close ties with the Yugoslav Committee and the government of Serbia. In response, the king declared all supporters of the Corfu Declaration "traitors".

In the summer of 1918, provisional local governments on an inter-party basis began to emerge in the South Slavic provinces of the empire - people's councils. Their goal was to unite all the South Slavic lands of Austria-Hungary into one state. On October 5, 1918, members of the leading parties of Croatia, Slovenia and other regions formed the Central People's Council in Zagreb. Anton Koroshets, the leader of the Slovenian People's Party, became its chairman. The veche declared itself the representative of all southern Slavs in Austria-Hungary. On October 29, 1918, the People's Veche announced the withdrawal of all South Slavic provinces from Austria-Hungary and the formation of an independent State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. It included Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slavonia, Vojvodina and Dalmatia. His government was the Central People's Council in Zagreb.

That. 2 centers arose that claimed to unite all Yugoslav lands - Zagreb and Belgrade. Belgrade put forward the slogan of unification with Serbia of all southern Slavs. Serbia had the authority of a long-term stronghold of the liberation movement in the Balkans. The assemblies of Vojvodina and Montenegro (they overthrew King Nikola I Negosh) expressed a desire to unite with Serbia. There was also the threat of Italian intervention in the Balkans. France decided to support Serbia, because. a large South Slavic state could become a counterweight to Italy in the Balkans. During negotiations between representatives of the Serbian government, the Yugoslav Committee and the Central People's Council in November 1918, a decision was made to unite all South Slavic lands with Serbia. On November 24, 1918, the People's Council in Zagreb adopted a decision on the entry of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs into the Serbian Kingdom. On December 1, 1918, a corresponding appeal was submitted to Belgrade. On December 4, Prince Regent Alexander, on behalf of the Serbian king, issued a manifesto announcing the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The question of the political and administrative structure of the new state was to be decided by the Constituent Assembly.

That. almost all Yugoslav lands (except for the part of Carinthia, divided between Italy and Austria) were united under the scepter of the Serbian dynasty Karageorgievich. The positive outcome of this event was the deliverance from the centuries-old Austro-Hungarian rule. However, the new state was not federal, but unitary, where Serbia played a decisive role, which caused tension in national relations. The first SHS government was created on December 20, 1918 and was of a compromise nature: it was headed by one of the leaders of the Serbian Radical Party, Stojan Protic, Anton Koroshets became vice-premier, and Ante Trumbich, minister of foreign affairs.

The South Slavic regions that separated from Austria-Hungary did not represent a stable state association. The Zagreb People's Council, which declared itself the supreme authority on the territory of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, was not a representative body of all South Slavic lands. In November 1918, part of Dalmatia, Istria and Croatian Primorye was occupied by Italian, French and Serbian troops under the pretext of disarming the remnants of the Austro-Hungarian troops. Italy, based on the secret articles of the London Treaty of 1915, was going to annex a number of South Slavic territories of Austria-Hungary. But these lands were also claimed by Serbia, which had long sought to gain access to the Adriatic Sea. It was supported by France, whose ruling circles, creating a system of military alliances in Eastern Europe, assigned an important role in their plans to the projected large South Slavic state, designed to serve as a counterweight to Italy in the Balkans and one of the anti-Soviet footholds. The Serbian bourgeoisie also used the slogan of uniting the South Slavs to fight against the developing revolutionary movement.

In November 1918, a meeting of representatives of the Serbian government, the Zagreb People's Council and the South Slavic Committee, created in London in 1915 by South Slavic politicians who emigrated from Austria-Hungary, met in Geneva. Among those present were head of the Serbian cabinet Nikola Pasic, chairman of the Zagreb People's Council Anton Korosec and chairman of the South Slavic Committee Ante Trumbich. The meeting discussed the question of uniting the South Slavic regions of the former Austria-Hungary with Serbia. The participants in the conference ignored the right of peoples to determine their own state form of government. The behind-the-scenes talks that began in Geneva continued after the meeting.

On November 24, 1918, the Zagreb People's Council decided to annex the former Austro-Hungarian South Slavic regions to Serbia. On December 1, 1918, a delegation of the People's Council presented in Belgrade a loyal address to the Prince Regent of the Kingdom of Serbia, Alexander Karageorgievich. Serbia was also joined by Montenegro, where the supporters of unification won. On December 4, on behalf of the King of Serbia, the Prince Regent's manifesto was published on the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (since 1929 - Yugoslavia).

This was the unification of the South Slavic lands into one state. This event had a double meaning. On the one hand, it was a step forward in the historical development of the South Slavic peoples, whose liberation struggle against Austro-Hungarian Monarchy V. I. Lenin called the national revolution of the southern Slavs ( See V. I. Lenin, War and Russian Social Democracy, Soch., vol. 21, p. 12.). But, on the other hand, the victory of the popular masses was incomplete, and the Serbian big bourgeoisie took advantage of its fruits in the first place. The new multinational state was not a democratic association of free and equal peoples, but arose as a militaristic kingdom pursuing a reactionary domestic and foreign policy.

On December 20, 1918, the first government of the kingdom was formed. It included representatives of various national parties that existed on the territory of the new state, including Croatian and Slovenian right-wing socialists. The leading role in the government from the very beginning belonged to the representatives of the Serbian big bourgeoisie. The post of head of the cabinet was taken by the leader of the Serbian Radical Party Stojan Protic, the deputy prime minister - the chairman of the clerical People's Party of Slovenia Anton Koroshets.

National contradictions in the South Slavic state became more acute. The Serbs, who became the dominant nation, made up only half of the country's population. Croats, Slovenes, Montenegrins, Macedonians, Albanians, Hungarians, and others had significantly less rights than Serbs. Macedonians and Albanians were even forbidden to use their native language in public institutions, schools and the press.

The Protich government, pursuing the policy of the Serbian great power, limited the activities of those few representative bodies of national self-government that had previously existed in the South Slavic regions of Austria-Hungary and Montenegro. In the created national parliament - the National Assembly, the overwhelming majority of mandates were received by the Serbian bourgeois parties.

Economic and political situation in the country

The new state united Serbia (together with most of Macedonia, annexed to it after the Balkan wars of 1912-1913), Montenegro, Croatia, Vojvodina, Slovenia, Dalmatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina - with a total area of 248 thousand square meters. km, with a population of about 12 million people. Its boundaries were determined in 1919-1920. on the basis of Saint-Germain, Neuilly and Trianon treaties.

Serbia, around which the union of the South Slavic lands took place, was predominantly an agrarian country, although industry existed in it and financial capital developed. In terms of economic development, Slovenia and partly Croatia were higher than Serbia. Vojvodina had a much more developed agriculture than Serbia, but had a weak industry. The rest of the lands lagged even further behind in their economic development. In Montenegro, the remains of the patriarchal-communal way of life and tribal life were preserved. In Bosnia, Herzegovina and Macedonia, semi-serf relations were not abolished.

The working masses hoped that after the end of the war and the formation of a new state there would be a radical improvement in their living conditions. They demanded a fight against devastation, the food crisis, speculation, and the granting of democratic rights to the people. However, time passed, and the situation did not change. The political freedoms promised in the manifesto of Prince Regent Alexander remained unfulfilled, labor legislation was not developed, food difficulties were not eliminated, industrial enterprises destroyed or rendered useless during the war years were not restored. The bourgeoisie refrained from financing industrial enterprises, preferring to give their capital for growth or to place it in foreign banks.

In 1919 the prices for bread, meat, sugar and other foodstuffs were 200-300% higher than before the war, and even more for some other necessities. The rise in wages lagged far behind the rise in prices. Unemployment has reached enormous proportions.

Describing the post-war economic situation in the new state, the Serbian Social Democratic Labor Party reported in a letter to the Communist International: “Incredible difficulties, lack of fuel and clothing, shameless speculation and the cessation of railway communication are causing ever-increasing discontent among the broad masses of the people. With our national association, things did not move forward in the least. "Our" Yugoslav bourgeoisie has shown its inability to complete the national revolution.

The revolutionary movement was expanding in the Serbo-Croat-Slovenian state.

Workers, national liberation and peasant movement in 1918

On December 5, 1918, the day after the publication of the manifesto on the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, in the main city of Croatia - Zagreb, there were unrest among the Croatian troops in protest against the fact that the manifesto did not say a word about the national rights of Croatia and workers' demands were ignored. These unrest testified to the revolutionary mood in the army. However, the performance of the soldiers was spontaneous and poorly organized. The government quickly suppressed it. At the same time, the leader of the Croatian Peasants' Party, Stepan Radic, demanded the independence of Croatia. The government arrested Radic. But this only led to an increase in his popularity in Croatia.

Clashes between government troops and the population also took place in a number of regions of Montenegro and Vojvodina. In Slovenia, where the influence of the Catholic Party, which supported the government, was strong, the authorities managed to keep the masses from active speeches. However, even there, dissatisfaction with the royal manifesto and the first measures of the government was manifested among the population.

Strong indignation of the workers was caused by the monetary reform carried out at the very beginning of 1919. The population of the regions formerly part of Austria-Hungary had to give 4 Austrian crowns per dinar when exchanging old money for Serbian dinars, although its purchasing power was less than one crown. In connection with the monetary reform, new unrest broke out in Croatia and some other areas.

In late 1918 and early 1919, the strike struggle of the working class intensified. On the basis of economic difficulties, strikes took place in Belgrade, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Ljubljana, Mostar, Osijek, Tuzla, Maribor and other cities. The workers also put forward political demands, advocating the democratization of social and political life. The Bosnian workers' general strike in February 1919, involving up to 30,000 people, was held under the slogan of abolishing police censorship, ensuring the freedom of workers' organizations, and guaranteeing political and civil rights.

In many areas, the peasant poor rose up to fight. Not having received land from the new government, she began to seize landowners' estates by force. The refusal of the peasants to pay taxes assumed a massive character. “Every day,” wrote one of the ministers, right-wing socialist Vitomir Korac, “the ministry received more and more news about peasant unrest in Zagorje, Srem, Vojvodina, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Every day we learned about the burning of landowners' estates and skirmishes ... The situation became very serious.

In an attempt to stop the growing peasant movement, the government hastened to carry out a land reform in February 1919. With its help, the bourgeoisie wanted to eliminate the most outdated feudal relations that hindered the development of capitalism, and to strengthen their class support in the countryside - the kulaks.

The agrarian reform marked the beginning of the liberation of the peasants (through ransom) from semi-serfdom in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Macedonia. But she did not resolve the issue of land. Of the 11 million rural inhabitants of the Serbo-Croat-Slovenian state, 212 thousand peasant households received land, the vast majority of which were Serbian. The peasants of the oppressed nations—Croats, Macedonians, Slovenes, Albanians, Hungarians, and others—were bypassed in the distribution of land. One of the clauses of the law on agrarian reform read: "Anyone who, after the publication of this law, arbitrarily seizes land, or makes an arbitrary division, or robs someone else's estate, will be prosecuted ..."

After the reform, almost all landowners retained their estates. Only the lands of the Habsburgs and other Austrian and Hungarian land magnates, who, by law, were declared enemies of the Serbo-Croat-Slovenian state, were completely alienated. The rest of the landowners transferred "surpluses" that exceeded the land maximum (for Croatia 150-400 hectares, for Vojvodina 300-500 hectares) to the agrarian reform fund, and received large monetary compensation from the state for the alienated land. This often turned out to be more profitable for them than to keep surplus land, which was difficult to cultivate due to the massive refusal of the peasants to work on the same conditions.

The implementation of this limited reform dragged on for more than 20 years. It gave little to the peasantry, but contributed to the development of capitalist relations in the countryside.

Labor movement in the spring and summer of 1919 Creation of the Communist Party

As in 1918, the labor movement in 1919 was especially strong in Belgrade and other industrial centers of Serbia, as well as in Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The proletariat fought for the 8-hour working day and labor legislation. The progressive workers enthusiastically accepted the ideas of the socialist revolution that had taken place in Russia and declared their solidarity with the Hungarian and Bavarian proletarian revolutions.

On April 20-25, 1919, the first unifying congress of the Socialist Workers' Party of the Serbo-Croat-Slovenian state took place in Belgrade. The Social Democratic parties of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, groups and organizations of the left socialists of Croatia, Slovenia, Dalmatia, which by this time had ideologically and organizationally separated themselves from the right, as well as representatives of the socialist groups of Vojvodina, Montenegro and Macedonia took part in its work. Among the participants in the congress were the revolutionary leaders of the labor movement Dzhuro Djakovic, Filipp Filippovich and others. The congress decided to create a single Socialist Workers' Party (Communists) of Yugoslavia and its entry into the Communist International.

The formation of the Communist Party had great importance for the working class, which has now acquired its militant leader. United trade unions and the Communist Youth League soon arose. However, this was only the beginning of the struggle for the unity of the labor movement. The Right Social Democrats organized their own party and carried out subversive, splitting activities in the working class. The reformist trade unions also caused great damage to the labor movement.

Under the leadership of the Communists in 1919, a series of strikes and demonstrations took place. On May 1, mass rallies were held under the slogans of proletarian solidarity with the working class of Soviet Russia and Soviet Hungary. For the first time, a May Day demonstration was held in Montenegro, in the town of Rijec-Crnojevice. It was led by the Communists, led by Marko Mashanovich. The slogans for the demonstration were:

"Long live Lenin!", "Long live Soviet authority!”, “Long live the Third International!” In Serbia, despite the authorities' ban, May Day demonstrations took place in all major cities.

The Yugoslav proletariat, by its struggle, supported the Soviet republics, against which the Entente waged military intervention. In April 1919, when the Entente made the first attempt to send troops of the Serbo-Croat-Slovenian state against Soviet Hungary, railway workers, loaders, metalworkers went on strike in the country, and unrest broke out in military units stationed in the regions bordering Hungary. In July, a general political strike began. In Zagreb, Novi Sad, Ljubljana, the coal-mining region of Slovenia - Trbovlja and other places, the strike embraced the entire working population. A wave of thousands of rallies and meetings also swept across the country, during which the Communist Party called for solidarity with Soviet Russia and Soviet Hungary. Soldiers revolted in the cities of Maribor and Varazdin. Unrest began again in military units located near the Hungarian border. Serbian soldiers refused to oppose the Hungarian Red Army and fraternized with them. Under these conditions, the government did not dare to take part in the intervention against Soviet Hungary.

At the end of 1919, after the defeat of Soviet Hungary and some weakening of the revolutionary movement in the Serbo-Croat-Slovenian state, the royal government and the bourgeoisie launched an offensive against the working people. The concessions made to the working class were taken back. Police repression against the Communist Party and other progressive organizations intensified.

The threat of war with Italy The workers' and peasants' movement in 1920

The year 1920 began for the Serbo-Croat-Slovenian state in unfavorable conditions. Economic ruin still reigned in the country. Not a single large industrial enterprise from those destroyed during the war was restored. In Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Slovenia, the lack of coal and raw materials has reduced the number of operating enterprises. In Dalmatia, shipping stopped. Unemployment has increased markedly.

The government has taken the path of inflation. The amount of paper money in circulation reached 10 billion dinars; the exchange rate of the dinar fell steadily. Many capitalists converted their money into American, Swiss or English currency. The state budget deficit was almost 2 billion dinars. To cover it, the government increased taxes by more than 50% and doubled railway rates.

Capture by an Italian unit led by Gabriel D'Annunzio in September

1919 Rijeki (Fiume) aggravated the international position of the Serbo-Croat-Slovenian state to the extreme. A military clash with Italy seemed inevitable. The conflict was temporarily resolved by the Rapallo Treaty of 1920, which declared Rijeka (Fiume) a "free city". At the same time, Serbian militaristic circles, wishing to please the Entente, made plans to help bourgeois Poland and Wrangel in their struggle against Soviet Russia. On the territory of the kingdom, the White Guards defeated by the Red Army found shelter; they were allowed to create new military formations here, which aroused the indignation of the workers.

The working class intensified its struggle against the entrepreneurs and the reactionary government. In 1920 there were about 600 strikes with over 200,000 participants. Particularly large was the general strike of the Railway Workers in April 1920. Up to 60 thousand workers and employees took part in it, who put forward demands for wage increases, the restoration of the 8-hour working day, which was canceled shortly before, and the recognition of the right to introduce workers' control. The strike lasted more than two weeks, paralyzing the economic life of the country. The ruling circles used all the means at their disposal against the strikers, from the splitting actions of the reformist trade unions to the imposition of martial law and the use of soldiers on the railway transport. As a result, the strike was crushed.

After this major defeat of the working class, the government, believing in its own strength, began to pursue an even more cruel anti-popular policy. In this regard, a decadent mood began to appear among a part of the proletariat and even among individual communists. Various factions arose in the ranks of the Communist Party, including a centrist trend that spoke out against revolutionary methods of struggle and in favor of leaving the Communist International.

At the II Party Congress, which met in Vukovar on June 20-25, 1920, a struggle was launched against the centrists. The congress rejected all the proposals of the centrist group, adopted a program and charter in the spirit of the decisions of the Communist International, and renamed the party the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. However, the congress left the centrists in the party, and they continued their factional activities. Only at the end of 1920, after the centrists published a reformist program - the "Opposition Manifesto", they were expelled from the party. The Second Congress also failed to overcome the mistakes in the peasant and national questions, which were expressed in the underestimation of the revolutionary potential of the peasantry and the significance of the national liberation struggle. Despite these shortcomings, the Second Congress of the Communist Party was of great importance for the further development of the workers' and revolutionary movement in the country.

In the spring and summer of the same year, 1920, elections were held for city municipalities and rural communal administrations in Croatia, Serbia, and Macedonia.

It was a kind of test of strength before the elections to the Constituent Assembly, which was supposed to adopt the constitution. The Communist Party won a significant victory in Belgrade, where it collected the majority of votes, in Kraguevets, Valjevo, Šabtse, Leskovets and other cities. The Communists also received many votes in the villages of Macedonia and some other areas.

The Interior Minister annulled the election results in Belgrade. In response, a protest demonstration took place, in which more than 20 thousand people took part. But the Communist Party did not dare to call on the masses for a more effective rebuff.

In the elections to the Constituent Assembly at the end of November 1920, the Communist Party collected almost 200,000 votes. Having received 58 mandates, she came third in the Constituent Assembly. The first and second places were taken by the Serbian bourgeois parties - Democratic and Radical. In Croatia, the Croatian Republican Peasants' Party, led by Stjepan Radić, won a significant number of votes and opposed the government's Greater Serbian policies.

In the second half of 1920, the peasant movement again intensified in Croatia. In a number of regions, in connection with the forcible requisition of horses for the army, unrest occurred, often developing into uprisings. The government used force, but the revolutionary ferment did not stop. An indicator of the mood of the masses was the many thousands of gatherings of peasants during open meetings of the Croatian Republican Peasant Party. It was also restless in Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro and other parts of the state. In December 1920, the strike struggle of the working class again assumed a wide scope.

In order to suppress the revolutionary movement, the government, headed by one of the leaders of the Serbian radicals - Milenko Vesnich, issued a decree on December 30 that prohibited the propaganda activities of the Communist Party, the Komsomol and progressive trade unions, the organization of strikes, demonstrations; It was established that in order to hold meetings of members of the Communist Party, it was necessary to obtain permission from the police on a case-by-case basis. In just two months (December 1920-January 1921) about 10,000 communists and other progressive figures were thrown into prison.

Serbo-Croat-Slovenian state in 1921-1923.

In an atmosphere of terror and repression, the Constituent Assembly - June 28, 1921, the day of St. Vida (on the anniversary of the battle with the Turks on the Kosovo field in 1389), adopted a constitution called Vidovdanskaya. More than 160 opposition deputies - communists, representatives of Croatia and Slovenia - were absent during the voting. Of the non-Serbian deputies present, the vast majority refused to vote for the constitution.

The constitution proclaimed the Serbo-Croat-Slovenian state a monarchy with a unicameral parliament (assembly) elected for four years; it legitimized the hegemony of the Serbian bourgeoisie in the kingdom and ignored the rights of other nationalities. Women did not receive voting rights. Significant power was left to the king, who was the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, appointed and removed the prime minister.

After the adoption of the constitution, national contradictions in the country became even more aggravated. The government, headed by the chairman of the Serbian Radical Party Nikola Pasic, pursued an extremely reactionary policy. By the Law "On the Protection of the State" adopted on August 2, 1921, the Communist Party was declared dissolved; for belonging to it threatened hard labor for up to 20 years. All 58 communist deputies were stripped of their parliamentary immunity and put on trial. Progressive newspapers were closed and the most severe censorship was established, trade unions under the influence of the communists were dissolved, democratic rights and constitutional freedoms were limited.

The Communist Party suffered this blow painfully. She was unprepared for the transition to an illegal position. Big number organizations completely disintegrated, almost the entire party leadership was subjected to repression, the activity of the party weakened. But even in the difficult conditions of the underground, the best, revolutionary section of the party continued the struggle. The government failed to stifle the labor movement.

The economic and political situation of the country, despite some revival in industry, has not improved. The Pasic government took loans from France and other states, more and more falling into bondage to them. Gradually, foreign monopolies took over the most important sectors of the economy of the Serbo-Croat-Slovenian state - mining, electrical, shipbuilding, timber, tobacco, communications, put banks under their control. Inflation continued, the rise in the cost of living and the decline in real wages.

In 1922-1923. the strike struggle of the working class again unfolded in the country. The most significant were two strikes of miners in Trbovlje (Slovenia) in July - September 1923, a strike of river workers on the Danube, strikes of workers of a car-building plant in the town of Slavinski Brod in 1922-1923, construction workers in Croatia in the autumn of 1923.

The peasant movement did not stop in the national regions, which took place under the slogans of dividing the landlords' land and winning national rights. Macedonian couples (partisan detachments) waged an armed struggle against the gendarmerie and troops. The Croatian Peasant Party of Radić organized a petition to the National Assembly demanding the introduction of self-government in Croatia and the resolution of the agrarian issue. In March 1923, in the elections to the assembly, this party received 350,000 votes and 69 mandates, while all the other parties in Croatia, taken together, barely collected 10,000 votes. The government, forced to reckon with the new alignment of forces in parliament, entered into negotiations with the Croatian Peasants' Party and made some concessions to it (later they were taken back).

In foreign policy The Serbo-Croat-Slovenian state was oriented towards the Western powers, primarily France, which was explained not only by its ever-increasing financial dependence on France, but also by the desire of both states to preserve the position created by the Versailles system in Europe. In 1919 the royal government concluded a military agreement with Greece against Bulgaria, in 1920 a defensive alliance with Czechoslovakia against Hungary, and in 1921 a similar alliance with Romania.

The last two treaties formed the basis of the grouping, called the Little Entente (Serbo-Croat-Slovenian state, Romania and Czechoslovakia). France took an active part in the creation of the Little Entente.

In 1921, the Little Entente opposed attempts to restore the Habsburgs to the Hungarian throne; mobilization was announced in the countries of this bloc. Such a resolute position of the Little Entente was caused by the fear that in the event of the restoration of the Habsburgs, there would be a threat of revision of the territorial provisions of the Paris peace treaties.

At the same time, the activities of the Little Entente were of an anti-Soviet nature: the participating states were supposed to serve as military footholds against the Soviet Union.