engleski

From collaboration to resistance – national and supranational identity of Dalmatian elite during the interwar period

Dalmatia was one of the least developed provinces in Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and its population welcomed enthusiastically the creation of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918 (Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1929). That attitude was particularly emphasized due to the complicated foreign policy situation immediately after the war, while Kingdom of Italy claimed the rule over large part of eastern Adriatic coast. It resulted in a strong pro-Yugoslav movement and constant highlighting of the supranational Yugoslav identity of Dalmatians, especially among members of the elite, who collaborated intensively with the new, highly centralized state and its apparatus. However, it did not last long before the opposition, led by the Croatian (Republican) Peasant Party, began to organize resistance to it. They gained support from the lower class of society relatively quickly, thanks to successful combining of national and social question, while further conflicts with the regime gradually attracted more and more members of the elite to their side as well. All of that escalated after the assassination of the leader of Croatian Peasant Party Stjepan Radić in 1928, after which king Alexander had to introduce a dictatorship in order to “calm” tense situation. But, after his assassination in 1934 and loosening of the dictatorship in 1935 it was evident that the project of creation of Yugoslav nation was not successful. The aim of this paper is to analyse a process of transition from collaboration to resistance toward the Kingdom among members of Dalmatian elite, which is symbolized by a transition from theirs predominantly supranational identification immediately after the war to the national. Special attention was given to the complexity of the elite itself according to its origin, while members of the civil elite went through that process faster than members of the landowning elite.

Dalmatia; elite; identity; Kingdom of Yugoslavia

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