Interwar Yugoslavia Research Articles

Volunteer Veterans and Entangled Cultures of Victory in Interwar Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were two successor states of the Austro-Hungarian empire at great pains in the interwar period to portray themselves, both domestically and internationally, as ‘victor states’ of the First World War, even though both states inherited societies that were deeply fractured by the experience of war. The symbol of the pro-Entente war volunteer was an important part of both states’ interwar cultures of victory. Such volunteers represented just a fraction of war veterans in both countries, but they were given great prominence in their respective state-forming cultures. This article is a study of the origins and the nature of this important entanglement. It begins by defining the problematic nature of the ‘culture of victory’ in the region, before going on to explore the common origins of the volunteer movements in the wartime pro-Entente émigré groups. It then moves on to a discussion of consequences of the privileging of volunteer veterans in the institutional, political, and commemorative cultures of the two states.

Narrating democracy in interwar Yugoslavia: From state creation to its collapse

This article examines the narratives of democracy in interwar Yugoslavia. It starts with the premise that the commitment to democracy in the immediate post-war period was deep and sincere as it was seen as an answer to domestic and international political challenges. The article focuses on how democracy was understood and narrated, and maintains that virtually every political actor engaged with the idea and/or practice of democracy, thereby making it a subject of an important debate. Thus, democracy was at the time as significant a concept and theme as was nationalism, which usually receives more attention in historical analysis. Such issues as national self-determination, the establishment of the state, and the symbolic place of Yugoslavia among well-established European nations impacted the way democracy was debated. At the same time, local political actors used claims to possess better expertise in democracy to back up specific ideological and national projects. Finally, socio-economic issues emerged in the later half of the period to complement the national considerations. A significant difference in the narratives of democracy as understood primarily in political terms and the narrative of democracy that emphasizes its social and economic dimension emerged towards the late 1930s.

Trade and nationalism: market integration in interwar Yugoslavia*

Abstract This article empirically analyses the relationship between nationalism and regional economic integration in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between the First and the Second World War. It argues that prevailing nationalism had a negative impact on the economic integration of the regions within the Kingdom and further contributed to the political disintegration of the Kingdom. The analysis implies that the ideology of nationalism increased trade costs and thus retarded economic interconnectivity in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, notwithstanding the favorable trade environment and the desire of the central elites to discourage ethnocentric sentiment.

To serve the King, the State and the people: the Adriatic Guard’s ambiguous position in interwar Yugoslavia

From 1922 to 1941, the Adriatic Guard, a non-governmental Yugoslav volunteer association, was active in a very broad spectrum of sectors (transport, social and economic policies, education, tourism, science, national defense) with the aim of transforming Yugoslavia into a sea-oriented nation. Examining these activities alongside the association’s leadership, administrative, and membership structures, as well as its relationship with other Yugoslav nationalist volunteer associations and the Yugoslav state, this article highlights aspects of the association’s history and legacy. At the same time, it demonstrates that the association’s external signs of success masked internal operational problems as well as ethnic and political tensions. While the Adriatic Guard firmly supported the state and integral Yugoslavism, and succeeded in negotiating its position within the Yugoslav space and with the Yugoslav dictatorship, because of continuing conflicts over, for instance, the national question and transport infrastructure, the association’s pan-Yugoslav mobilization faded slightly in the late 1930s in favor of a Croatian orientation. The Adriatic Guard’s position was thus precarious and ambiguous: on the one hand, it was a non-governmental association that enjoyed a fair degree of agency, and on the other hand, it cultivated close relationship with the state.

Voluntary associations, state and gender in interwar Yugoslavia. An introduction

There is a promising way of looking at Yugoslav history, that is, by focusing on non-state actors, and particularly on voluntary associations. Historical studies both in and about south-eastern Eur...

Interwar Yugoslav state-building and the changing social position of the Sokol gymnastics movement

The Sokol gymnastics movement was both in numbers and in spatial range one of the largest voluntary associations in interwar Yugoslavia. It was very active and visible, through numerous public activities at the local, regional, national and even international level, prestigious new halls and regular publications and media presence. In giving a historical overview of the Sokol movement against the background of interwar Yugoslav state-building, this article focusses on the politicisation and state incorporation of the association. During the 1920s, the Sokol served as a proxy for local and regional political struggles between centralist and decentralist parties in the Croatian part of the country. Under the Royal Dictatorship, the Sokol movement developed into a compulsory and state-controlled institution for physical and national education. This article argues that the incorporation of the Sokol movement in the state-controlled civil sphere was not a one-directional development. The Sokol movement itself made use of the central state’s predisposition towards state control over associative culture for internal institutional purposes. In the process, however, the social position of the Sokol movement transformed from a voluntary association that could mediate between state and society into an exclusive marker of loyalty to nation and state.

A smouldering fire: the national, political and gender adaptations of volunteer firefighters in interwar Yugoslavia

The popularity and importance of Volunteer Fire Departments (VFD) lay not just in their role as rescue associations, but also in their social and potential political roles in the local community. This article looks at how VFDs as institutions of patriotically engaged citizens played an important role in nation- and state-building during the transition from the Habsburg Empire to the new state of South Slavs. The new state faced difficulties in how to organize and unify the regulations for firefighters. The year 1933 proved very important, as this was the year when King Alexander issued a National Firefighting Law, which united all VFDs in the state into a common Firefighting Association of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The Firefighting Association of Drava Governorate lost some of its competences to the Royal Ministry, although the new law helped to unify the departments and make the compulsory language of command Slovenian. As well, the new Law allowed all citizens, male and female, to enter the VFD. Interwar VFDs prevailed as a male domain although women, especially from the medical services (samaritanke), were able to enter the departments.

Muslim, educated and well-dressed: Gajret’s self-civilizing mission in interwar Yugoslavia

This article addresses the activities of Gajret, the most important Muslim cultural association in the Yugoslav space of the first half of the twentieth century. Established in 1903 in Sarajevo, the association managed in its four decades of existence to involve thousands of activists of both sexes in its activities, and to organize a network of local branches reaching even beyond the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Initially established to provide scholarships for Muslim male pupils, the association gradually diversified its activities, published journals and books, provided literacy and handiwork courses, established student dorms and workshops, and much more. The text will focus on two aspects of the association’s life: firstly, its relationship with the state authorities, and how this relationship shifted over time, from cooperation, to opposition, to co-optation. Secondly, the article will focus on the association’s gender agenda, discourses and practices, with a special focus on Muslim women. At the intersection between these two research questions, the thesis of this article posits that Gajret’s self-civilizing project aimed to foster new generations of modern, nationally aware Muslim men and women capable of playing an active role in the emerging Yugoslav middle class.

From great expectations to great disappointments: Petar Krstic’s contribution to the process of reforms of music education in interwar Yugoslavia (1918-1921)

This paper deals with the activities of Petar Krstic in the domain of music education in the first years after the First World War and the constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. As a long-serving director of the Serbian Music School, Krstic initiated various processes in order to modernize it and transform it into institution of higher level of music education. For that purpose he focused on the school?s internal reorganization and ?etatization?. As a result, Krstic prepared new school regulations and several draft s of legal texts and started negotiations with the authorities. Krstic?s ideas, plans and his undertakings concerning the reforms during the rule over the Serbian Music School/Music School in Belgrade will be discussed in detail together with their historical value.

Metropolitan Belgrade: Culture and Class in Interwar Yugoslavia. By Jovana Babović. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018. ix, 259 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations. Photographs. $27.95, paper.

Metropolitan Belgrade: Culture and Class in Interwar Yugoslavia. By Jovana Babović. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018. ix, 259 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations. Photographs. $27.95, paper.

Unification of Criminal Law in the Interwar Yugoslav State (1918–1941)

Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa » Tom 12 (2019) » Zeszyt 4 » Unification of Criminal Law in the Interwar Yugoslav State (1918–1941) A A A

What is Justice? Complaints about Courts in Interwar Yugoslavia

What is Justice? Complaints about Courts in Interwar Yugoslavia

Nationalist geographies in interwar Yugoslavia: manoeuvring between national and transnational spaces

Taking into consideration several seemingly contradictory characteristics of Yugoslav geography, this article examines the employment of transnational spaces by the competing nationalist geographical narratives in interwar Yugoslavia. Though preoccupied with Yugoslavia and its political crises, at the beginning and the end of the interwar period Yugoslav geographers were concerned with international political developments, especially in East Central Europe. There were tensions between a geographical region and a national space as a preferred framework of research as well as between the belief that the political, economic and cultural development of Yugoslavia was unique and that it was comparable to development of other parts of East Central Europe. The determinist understanding of the nation as shaped by the physical landscape emphasized not only the ability, but also the necessity, of nationalist geographies to function on multiple spatial levels. Yugoslav geographers used the conceptual apparatus developed by French and German geographical traditions to establish a comparative framework in which they elaborated on various geographical characteristics of Yugoslavia, especially those politically significant, by referring to other European countries because it seemed difficult to describe the new country in terms of itself. German Geopolitik became particularly influential and, although taking different stands on it, several Yugoslav geographers pointed to geopolitical similarities with Czechoslovakia and Poland to draw conclusions regarding Yugoslavia. But geographical comparison had ambiguous implications, as it was used both to fortify and challenge the interwar Yugoslav state.

Nacionalno-internacionalna dijalektika Sime Markovića

Sima Marković is the most important Serbian intellectual of the communist movement in interwar Yugoslavia. Marković developed his ideological convictions through studying all key issues of social development. His attitude to economy, political and national issues derived from his aspiration to remain in line with the basics of Marxist theory while simultaneously questioning the existing knowledge related to it. In his attitudes, despite emphasizing ideological perspectives, Marković was often original. That satisfied his inquisitive mind but also opened up the space for doubt in the inferiority to ideological authority, but primarily to the party and leadership authority. His attitudes to nationalism in relation to the international character of the communist movement are the key topic of the work.

\u2018Social literature swindlers\u2019: the r/evolutionary controversy in interwar Yugoslav literature

Political and literary controversies on the Yugoslav literary left, known as Sukob na ljevici (Conflict on the left), remain famous for their culmination points, such as Miroslav Krleža’s book of essays Moj obračun s njima (My reckoning with them, 1932), his “Predgovor Podravskim motivima Krste Hegedušića” (The foreword to the Podravina motives by Krsto Hegedušić, 1933), Bogomir Hermann’s (alias A.B.C.) subsequent invective “Quo vadis, Krleža?” (1933), Krleža’s later “Dijalektički antibarbarus” (Dialectical antibarbarous, 1939), and the one-issue journal Književne sveske (Literary volumes, 1940). As the historiographic memory of these controversies is mainly concentrated on the authoritative personality of Krleža himself, the arguments of his opponents are mostly remembered as arguments of ‘the others’ and are granted only marginal validity. This article gives an account of the debates of the Conflict’s first stage (1928–1934), which were manifold and profound, and which foreshadowed the literary and ideological positions of the Conflict’s later, culminating stages. By taking into account the dynamic and complex international context that serves as a backdrop to the Conflict, this paper explores the developments in the Yugoslav ‘counterpublic’ literary sphere, especially with a view to discussions, debates, and polemics over the emerging social literature. Particular attention goes to the group of authors gathered around Socijalna Misao, Zagreb’s sociological and cultural journal edited by Božidar Adžija. As this journal’s most productive authors were derogated as ‘social literature swindlers,’ which affected their marginal position in the cultural historiography of this period, the aim of this article is to offer a proper analysis of their particular position on the literary and political left.

Modernism in Belgrade: Classification of Modernist Housing Buildings 1919-1980

Yugoslavian Modernist Architecture, although part of a larger cultural phenomenon, received hardly any international attention, since there are only a few internationally published studies about it. Nevertheless, Modernist Architecture of the Inter-war Yugoslavia (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), and specially Modernist Architecture of the Post-war Yugoslavia (Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia under the “reign” of Tito), represents the most important architectural heritage of the 20th century in former Yugoslavian countries. Belgrade, as the capital city of both newly founded Yugoslavia(s), experienced an immediate economic, political and cultural expansion after the both wars, as well as a large population increase. The construction of sufficient and appropriate new housing was a major undertaking in both periods (1919-1940 and 1948-1980), however conceived and realized with deeply diverging views. The transition from villas and modest apartment buildings, as main housing typologies in the Inter-war period, to the mass housing of the Post-war period, was not only a result of the different socio-political context of the two Yugoslavia(s), but also the country’s industrialization, modernization and technological development. Through the classification of Modernist housing buildings in Belgrade, this paper will investigate on relations between the transformations of the main housing typologies executed under different socio-political contexts on the one side, and development of building technologies, construction systems and materials applied on those buildings on the other side. The paper wants to shed light on the Yugoslavian Modernist Architecture in order to increase the international awareness on its architectural and heritage values. The aim is an integrated re-evaluation of the buildings, presentation of their current condition and potentials for future (re)use with a specific focus on building envelopes and construction.

Determinants of industrial location: Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the interwar period

What determines the location of industry? Using panel data econometrics and a new dataset on interwar Yugoslavia the predictions of three theories—Heckscher-Ohlin, New Economic Geography, and Path Dependence—are quantified and compared. Results show that all three theories mattered and that New Economic Geography forces played a dominant role. The consensus view that several theories can simultaneously explain the distribution of industrial activity is thus reinforced. The main novelty is that Path Dependence can affect the location of industry in addition to Heckscher-Ohlin and New Economic Geography forces.

Literature, revolution, and national aesthetics on the interwar Yugoslav left

The interwar years are relatively understudied by intellectual historians of Eastern Europe. This is especially true of the study of the region’s radical left-wing cultures, where attention has ten...

War Veterans, Fascism, and Para-Fascist Departures in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, 1918–1941

This article discusses the role played by war veterans in the various fascist and para-fascist groups present in Yugoslavia in the interwar period. The article finds that significant numbers of veterans and the nationalist associations to which they belonged contributed to proposed or actual departures from the democratic norm in interwar Yugoslavia, and were especially supportive of King Aleksandar Karadjordjevic’s dictatorship of 1929–1934. In this respect, they could be termed ‘para-fascist’. The article also notes that whilst the two groups typically identified in the literature as ‘fascist’, the Croatian Ustashe and Serbian/Yugoslav Zbor, fit into the ‘second-wave’ of 1930s fascist forces not usually marked by a strong presence of First World War veterans, their membership and ideological organisation were nevertheless significantly influenced by both the traditions of the war and the men who fought in it.

"Albańska Golgota" - exodus Serbów na Korfu w czasie I wojny światowej w dyskursie publicznym międzywojennej Jugosławii

Both the Balkan Wars and World War I, and particularly the great migration of the Serbian army during the retreat to the Corfu island, which imprinted in the collective memory as the Albanian Golgotha, were among the most important reference points in the public discourse of interwar Yugoslavia. Official government circles tried to present them as the cornerstones for the building of a unified state of the Southern Slavs. The authorities supported all the initiatives which were commemorating those events. King Alexander Karađorđevic was one of the most active in this field, he repeatedly personally graced the celebration of all events and battles or honoured their heroes. However, it should be noted that the Albanian Golgotha was such an important point of reference in the public discourse of interwar Yugoslavia not only because it became a kind of an instrument in the hands of politicians, especially the king, but also – and perhaps primarily – because it grew it roots in the broader social discourse, not only in politics but also in the media and culture – literature or the arts. It is also worth mentioning that the memory of these events was not a homogeneous one. For obvious reasons, it were the Serbs, who excelled in the worship of the Serbian soldiers, who sacrificed their blood for building a common Yugoslav state. While the attitude of Croats and Slovenes was not so clear. Therefore the cult of the Serbian army required an appropriate action from the state. One of the actions was a way of presenting these events in the daily press. The main aim of the author is to show how the cult of the sacrifice of the Serbian soldiers and civilians during World War I, and especially the mythologized Albanian Golgotha, was created and became one of the pillars on which authorities tried to build a Yugoslav identity and the prestige of the Karađorđevic dynasty in the interwar period. A special attention is paid to the way of describing those events in the “Politika” daily, the most read and influential journal of interwar Yugoslavi