The Croatian Spring: Nationalism, Repression and Foreign Policy Under Tito

368 Pages·2017·21.013 MB·English

by  Ante Batovic

i
Ante Batović earned his doctorate from the University of Zadar. He spe-
cialises in international history of the Cold War and works as a security
analyst in London.
Benjamin Bilski is an author and editor. He is the executive director of the
Pericles Foundation, which specialises in developing and publishing new
research for a general audience.
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Ante Batović’s book, based on extensive research in American, British,
NATO, Croatian and Serbian archives, provides not just an authoritative
account of an important, though relatively little-known, episode in Cold
War history. It shines a spotlight more generally on how the West viewed
Yugoslavia as a pivotal state in the Cold War.
Robin Harris, Historian
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The Croatian Spring

Nationalism, Repression and
Foreign Policy Under Tito
ANTE BATOVIC´
TRANSLATED, EDITED AND EXPANDED BY
ANTE BATOVIC´ AND BENJAMIN BILSKI
WITH A FOREWORD BY
ROBIN HARRIS
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To Ana and Martina
Published in 2017 by
I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
London • New York
www.ibtauris.com
Copyright © 2017 Ante Batović and the Pericles Foundation
The right of Ante Batović to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part
thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this
book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.
References to websites were correct at the time of writing.
International Library of Twentieth Century History 99
ISBN: 978 1 78453 927 6
eISBN: 978 1 78672 184 6
ePDF: 978 1 78673 184 5
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
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Contents

List of Figures vi
Acknowledgements vii
Foreword by Robin Harris viii
Introduction 1
1. The Cold War World 6
2. Yugoslavia, 1945–65 21
3. Economic Reforms and the Fall
of Aleksandar Ranković 50
4. The Language Question 68
5. Liberal Reforms 84
6. Democratising Foreign Policy 104
7. Nixon in Yugoslavia 131
8. 1971: Yugoslavia in Crisis 153
9. Two Visits 195
10. Purge 203
11. 1972: Aftermath 233
Conclusion 264
Notes 277
Bibliography 324
Index 340
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List of Figures

6.1 Public opinion polls on Yugoslav foreign policy. 109
6.2 An overview of diplomatic staff appointments in 1969. 114
6.3 Foreign Service appointments by Republic origin 1 June
1969. 115
8.1 The Arrival of Croats at the Adriatic Sea, Oton Iveković
(1905). 162
8.2 ‘Kavanski stol’ (‘Coffeehouse table’) in the Belgrade
newspaper Vecernje Novosti on 25 May 1971, a cartoon few
understood, but everyone in Croatia agreed was offensive.
The table has the chequered pattern of the Croatian flag, a
cup of coffee, and a microphone. The ‘café plotters’ were
an invisible force, according to Tito. 166
8.3 Savka addresses the crowd. The banner reads, ‘A sovereign
state is the right of Croatia and all other nations in Yugoslavia’. 188
8.4 Two versions of the Hrvatski Tjednik of 30 July 1971. On
the left the banned edition with the leading headline,
‘Dramatic moment for Croatia’; on the right, the new
edition with a ‘mourning envelope’ cover that included
a miniature reproduction of the court order banning the
original cover. 193
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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the archives, libraries, universities, coffee baris-
tas, patient wives, everyone at I.B.Tauris and Robin Harris for making this
edition possible.
We are particularly grateful to the University of Zadar for supporting
the development of this edition based on research that was undertaken
there as part of the author’s doctoral studies.
We hope that the history of the liberal movements in Croatia and
Yugoslavia will be studied alongside similar movements in Cold War
Eastern Europe – histories that hold lessons for our time. As the first New
Talent project of the Pericles Foundation, we are pleased to present this
research to a general audience and look forward to many more such proj-
ects in the future.
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Foreword

Robin Harris
It is a privilege to be asked to contribute this foreword to Ante Batović’s The
Croatian Spring. To the limited extent that this honour is deserved, I must
call in aid my knowledge of the language and the country, my past work
on the history of Dubrovnik, my recent research for my forthcoming study
of the life and times of Zagreb’s Archbishop, Alojzije Stepinac (1898–1 960)
and, not least, my friendship with one of the few people in the West who
comes well out of this study, the late Chris (Krsto) Cviić.
The Croatian Spring is an expanded, adapted and translated version of
the doctoral thesis defended by Dr Batović at the University of Zadar in
2010. As such, it is evidence both of the quality of work being undertaken
by the younger generation of Croatian historians and of the need for more
of this work – and other classic works in Croatian – to be translated into
English. In this case, the author’s own linguistic skills – honed over the
last few years while living and working in Britain – avoided the need for
an outside translator. That is an advantage, because much translation from
Croatian into English is extremely poor. Batović’s efforts were seconded by
Benjamin Bilski, whose self-i mposed mission of bringing such work to the
attention of the English-speaking world, through the Pericles Foundation,
must also be warmly commended.
The story of the movement which became known – albeit only in ret-
rospect, after its suppression by the regime – as the ‘Croatian Spring’ is not
well known in the West. This is understandable, though regrettable. Unlike
the ‘Prague Spring’ of 1968, it was not suppressed by Russian tanks, and
though it resulted in purges, imprisonment and a fair amount of brutality,
it was over quite quickly. Tito summoned the liberally minded Croatian
Communist Party leadership to his residence in Karađorđevo, on the eve
of a meeting of the Presidium of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia
on 31 November 1971, to signal that he had lost confidence in them. The
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