Interwar Yugoslavia Research Articles

Local Ethnic Demography and Ethnonationalist Voting: Evidence from Interwar Yugoslavia

The study explores the impact of local ethnic demography on ethnic voting, focusing on an understudied democratic experiment in Southeastern Europe during the 1920s—Yugoslavia. Using original data on 378 counties across four parliamentary elections, the study tests two competing hypotheses regarding inter-ethnic contact between Serbs and Croatians: the threat hypothesis and the contact hypothesis. The findings indicate that in contexts where demographic distribution nears parity between rival ethnic groups, minority nationalist voting intensifies while majority nationalist voting diminishes. Although majority nationalists benefit from the overall ethnic diversity, they lose to liberals in scenarios where there is parity with the rival side of the cleavage conflict.

Tombstones, Stonemasons, and Mental Maps

Abstract This article proposes a methodology for understanding the business networks and mental maps of Jewish communities in central and eastern Europe from the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries. The methodology is based on scrupulous documentation of Jewish tombstones, especially the signatures of stonemasons. Through analysis of the signatures found in the Jewish cemeteries of Croatia, geographical networks become apparent, and we can reconstruct the mental maps of Croatian Jews, both in the Austro-Hungarian period and in interwar Yugoslavia. The Jewish cemeteries in some other central European cities serve as comparative material for our discussion.

Unreachable youth: physical education, national mobilization and intergenerational conflict in interwar Yugoslavia. The case of the Yugoslav Sokol

ABSTRACT For the Yugoslav Sokol, the leading organization dedicated to physical education in Interwar Yugoslavia, the youth was both an object and a tool of conquest. The education of younger generations was at the heart of its project of creating a new ‘Yugoslav man’ and a key asset in enforcing its legitimacy as an important agent in state-building. Yet, while the Sokol multiplied its initiatives to attract children and youth, these showed a contradictory interest in the organization. Moreover, besides the epic overtones of the official’s narrative, intergenerational relations were often contentious: while the older representatives expected the younger ones to commit to the Yugoslav national project, the latter were frequently more interested in popular entertainment, and, even at times, in radical forms of political engagement. By critically analysing a diverse corpus of sources – publication and archives related to the Sokol’s educational programmes together with different types of visual documents – as well as focusing on its local implementation in the Belgrade Sokol district, this article observes the discrepancies between the Sokol’s ambitions and its reception on the ground, trying thus to shed light on the young people’s experience and agency inside the organization.

The Serbian Orthodox Church in Western Historiography: Maria Falina, Religion and Politics in Interwar Yugoslavia: Serbian Nationalism and East Orthodox Christianity, (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023)

This essay is a review of Maria Falina’s book, which investigates the complex interaction between the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), nationalism, and politics in Yugoslavia during the interwar period. It delves into Maria Falina’s ideas, historical context, and various perspectives that she offers. Falina questions commonly held beliefs about the natural relationship between religion and Serbian nationalism, and digs into the SOC’s changing role as a political actor during a period of profound social and political change. Falina investigates the influence of people such as Nikolaj Velimirović and Justin Popović, the Church’s reaction to the Yugoslav state, religious competition, and modernity issues.

Women Editors in Interwar Yugoslavia Between the Struggle to Write and the Struggle for Rights: Katarina Bogdanović and Paulina Lebl Albala

What did it mean to be a woman periodical editor in the Kingdom of SCS/Yugoslavia? What was the price of constant efforts made by some women periodical editors to reconcile the private and public, individual and collective, the desire for creative freedom or belonging to the literary community on the one hand, and feminist engagement on the other? How were their habitus and identity shaped between the struggle to write and the struggle for (women’s) rights? In this paper, I partially answer these and similar questions – which I cover more extensively in my doctoral dissertation in progress Women Periodical Editors in the Kingdom of SCS/Yugoslavia: Biographical, Literary-Historical and Typological Aspects – using the magazine Ženski pokret (Women’s Movement, 1920–1938) and the (auto)biographies of its founders and first editors, Katarina Bogdanović and Paulina Lebl Albala, as the subject of a case study. The interdisciplinary framework in which I operate consists of periodical studies, gender studies, intellectual history and literary studies.

Depoliticizing the Modern Nation

Taking the case of the interwar Yugoslav Sokol (Sokol Kraljevine Jugoslavije), this article examines the complex relationship between the discourses of organic nationhood and political socialization in what was the largest voluntary association in the country. While Sokol typically projected a vision of itself as an apolitical entity—as it claimed to represent the organic national body—this article will explore the dynamics, as well as contradictions, between such discourses and the socio-political reality they aimed to describe and eventually alter in their pursuit of improving the ‘national body.’ In conversation with scholarship on the conceptual history of modern East Central European nationalisms, including the social history of ideas and movements and political socialization more specifically, this article provides insight into the contextual, conceptual history of nationhood by focusing on selected thinkers engaged in Sokol, against the backdrop of particular mass practices and modes of political socialization in the organization. The tension between the involvement of the masses in the allegedly apolitical formations and the reality of subjecting them to political socialization en masse provides the central axis around which the argument is organized. The article concludes that their concept of nationhood was intimately intertwined with that of democracy and simultaneously posited against (party) politics and statism. Moreover, it demonstrates that Sokol was rooted in notions of civilizational hierarchies and directly linked to producing modern political subjects for the new Yugoslav state by means of the gymnastic and educational practices they promoted and conducted.

Making Gymnastics Catholic: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of the Croatian Orao in Interwar Yugoslavia

Abstract This article focuses on the Croatian Orao, a gymnastic organization that became hegemonic among the Croatian Catholic population of interwar Yugoslavia. The first section examines the genesis of the Croatian Orao within the changing Catholic landscape of Croatia, Yugoslavia, and Europe more broadly, with particular emphasis on Orao’s relationships with Orel – a gymnastic movement very similar to Orao that was popular among Slovenes – and the Holy See, as well as Orao’s role in conflicts in the Croatian Catholic sphere. Part 2 will situate the Croatian Orao in the complex ecosystem of youth and gymnastic organizations present in the first Yugoslav state, especially with respect to the different Sokol organizations. Focusing on the actual sport activities practiced in Orao, the aim is to tackle the specific place of gymnastics in the associational culture of the Croatian Orao. The third and final part will explore the dismantling of Orao’s associational network by the state in 1929, and the association’s reorganization in other, more radical guises in 1930.

Geography and Nationalist Visions of Interwar Yugoslavia: Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe, written by Vedran Duančić

Geography and Nationalist Visions of Interwar Yugoslavia: Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe, written by Vedran Duančić

The languages of monarchism in interwar Yugoslavia, 1918–1941: variations on a theme

ABSTRACT Through a selection of primary sources, this article demonstrates the political and legal languages which articulated monarchist ideas in interwar Yugoslavia. Variations on the theme emerged in different periods. First, the national and so democratic character of the monarch and monarchy was a prevalent image at the end of the First World War and in the first decade of the Yugoslav state’s existence. During the domestic political crises in the second half of the 1920s, the language of monarchism shifted toward discourses of stability and public order. After the declaration of the royal dictatorship in January 1929, the language of monarchism became fully invested in expressing the monarch’s absolute political authority, legally inviolable character, and the resulting ‘unity of state and nation’. For the political Right, the king embodied the spirit of integral Yugoslavism. While the language of monarchism could serve disparate political ideologies – as in the liberal monarchist emigration after spring 1941 – it was rather primarily linked to the political visions of the Right in the final decade of interwar Yugoslavia.

Yugoslav Emigrants in Brazil from the Habsburgs to Karađorđevićs: Transnational Political Engagement on the Peripheries?

Abstract This article addresses how the Habsburg Empire and interwar Yugoslavia engaged with their emigrants in Brazil, and examines emigration patterns. It suggests that despite these emigrants not insignificant presence in Brazil, both European states demonstrated minimal interest in their subjects in the largest Latin American country. By contrast, the emigrants themselves aimed at attracting their home state’s attention, thus making the Yugoslav emigrant network visible. Tracing emigrant transnational political practices on the eve of the First World War, this article examines the establishment and withering of the South Slavic community in Brazil. It does so by situating the emigrant network within the transnational social field, defined by the sending and receiving states and by emigrant activists. Without oversight from the home state, and restrictive policies by the receiving country, these activists manipulated emigrants’ interests for personal benefit, contributing to community disruption before the Second World War.

Slivovitz and Everyday Nationalism: The Analysis of Slovene Newspapers in Interwar Yugoslavia

AbstractBy analyzing selected Slovene newspapers, the article discusses the role of slivovitz in the reproduction of everyday nationalism in interwar Yugoslavia. The article is based on an analysis of texts containing the word slivovka (the Slovene word for slivovitz or plum spirit) that appeared in three major Slovene newspapers and three minor Slovene pro-Yugoslav newspapers in the period 1919–1945. In the period in question, slivovitz did not (yet) have the role of a signifier of the Yugoslav state, the Yugoslav nation and other elements associated with Yugoslav identity, but it was becoming part of the “structure of national feeling” – the specific experience of life in a given time and place that was common to the Yugoslav nation. Slivovitz, frequently included in repetitive and everyday habits, practices and assumptions, began to define the Yugoslav nation through a specific culture of drinking and drinks and became a component of this everyday, largely unnoticed reproduction of the Yugoslav nation.

The Emergence and Evolution of Anti-Communist Legislation in Interwar Yugoslavia

The aim of this paper is to outline the history of anticommunist legislation in interwar Yugoslavia and to bring to the fore its key phases. This approach is employed to re-examine the effectiveness of the introduced laws, to pinpoint their shortcomings, but also their strong points. Virtually from its creation, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia) was hostile to communism. Anticommunist convictions of the ruling elites influ­enced many aspects of governance, not only internal affairs, as the outlawing of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in December 1920, but also foreign policy, as postponing the recognition of the Soviet Union to 1940. There are three distinct phases of anticommunist legislation, each clearly marked by a key anticommunist law. During the first phase (1918-1921), there were few legal instruments for combating left-wing radicalism. The second phase (1921-1929) was marked by the introduction of a highly controversial Law on the Protection of Public Security and State Order, which gave previous unprecedented powers to the prosecutors and police to crush the emerging communist movement. This legal framework was further expanded after the proclamation of the King`s dictatorship in 1929, and the overhaul of the Law, as well as the introduction of a special tribunal – The State Court for the Protection of the State.

Mihailo Konstantinović o radu na građanskom zakoniku u međuratnoj Jugoslaviji

The paper analyses the work on the codification of the civil code in interwar Yugoslavia and Mihailо Konstantinović’s opinion of that work, which lasted almost a decade and a half but did not lead to the adoption of the code. The paper describes the environment and circumstances in which the work on codification began, the main actors, their positions, the method of codification, and the outcome of that work – the creation of The Pre-Draft of the Civil Code for the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Mihailo Konstantinović’s opinion on that work begins with the history of the creation of the Serbian Civil Code, and how it happened that the Austrian Civil Code was used as the basis, as opposed to the French Civil Code. Konstantinović’s arguments for why it was wrong to use the Austrian Civil Code, instead of the 1888 Montenegrin General Property Code are presented.

Čija Kriza?

In 1929, the central feminist organization in interwar Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes / Yugoslavia Alijansa ženskih pokreta (Women's Movements' Alliance) removed the demand for women's suffrage rights from their program. By analyzing and carefully contextualizing articles published in the central Yugoslav feminist magazine Ženski pokret (Belgrade, 1920-1938), the article addresses a specific gap in historiography about women's movements and feminisms in interwar Yugoslavia, and argues that the removal od this demand from the feminists' program was not only a direct consequence of the Royal dictatorship, but also a reflection of a broader disillusionment with the parliamentary and party politics in interwar Yugoslavia. More broadly, the article addresses the narrative of the „crisis of feminism“, suggesting that this is not a sufficently satisfactory explanation for the transformation of feminism in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Furthemore, the article contributes to the historiography of the political history of feminisms, and acknowledges the entangled history of the Yugoslav feminist movement with the parliamentary and party politics. Methodologically, it follows the recent approaches to the history of political thought in East Central Europe, and gives new insights into the political thought of the feminists from the AŽP, and particularly their leader Alojzija Štebi and her „political vocabulary“ and her understanding of political neutrality, moral crisis of political life, and small-scale work.

Building Loyalty on the Margins: Interwar Yugoslavia and Emigrants from the Julian March and Prekmurje

By examining the cases of emigrants coming from the Julian March to Argentina and Prekmurje to the United States, the article evaluates state-diaspora relations in the interwar context of shifting borders and changing political regimes. Whereas the Slovene-speaking population of Prekmurje, due to lasting Hungarian influence, was reluctant to embrace the Yugoslav idea, Slovene and Croat emigrants from the Julian March were fond of it. Assessing the methods of the Yugoslav extraterritorial nation-building process and emigrants’ identifications, the author suggests that while Prekmurje emigrants maintained their non-national identity, the Julian March diaspora developed its own vision of the Yugoslav “homeland.”

The National Women’s Alliance in interwar Yugoslavia: between feminist reform and institutional social politics

ABSTRACT This article explores the history of the International Council of Women (ICW) affiliate, the National Women’s Alliance (NWA) in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes/Yugoslavia during the interwar period, by placing it in the broader history of humanitarianism, philanthropy and social work. In particular, it addresses the question how the NWA contributed to the interwar Yugoslav state from the perspective of social work, which is defined here as reform designed to remedy social inequalities and as collective action to develop the state’s duty of care towards those who cannot provide for themselves. By examining some aspects of the relationship between women’s charitable and feminist associations on the one hand, and the (emerging welfare) state on the other, this article seeks to open new questions regarding forms of cooperation between the NWA and the Yugoslav state, and thus shed light on the history of social policy and social work in interwar Yugoslavia.

“Why We Have Become Revolutionaries and Murderers”: Radicalization, Terrorism, and Fascism in the Ustaša–Croatian Revolutionary Organization

ABSTRACT This article advances an interdisciplinary and multifactorial socio-cultural approach to the fascistization of the Ustaša in interwar Yugoslavia, leading to terrorism and racial cleansing. It concentrates on the life-trajectories of Mijo Babić and Zvonimir Pospišil, two nationalist activists notoriously known as the first Ustaša terrorists. Drawing on the previously unknown political memoirs of Pospišil and Babić, the article argues that the two activists bridged several phases of cumulative radicalization in the Ustaša organization, from the adoption of political violence at the grass-root level in the 1920s to international terrorism in the 1930s and then state-sponsored genocide in the first half of the 1940s. The article points out that Ustaša underwent most forms of political radicalization to terrorism identified by McCauley and Moskalenko (2008), but it also adds to their typology a case of radicalization to mass violence in the regime phase. Ustaša’s trajectory thus illustrates a rare process of transition from the radicalization of an oppositional, non-state group to mass radicalization leading to racial genocidal policies under a fascist-totalitarian regime. It is hoped that the biographical approach to radicalization advanced by the article contributes to a better understanding of politically motivated terrorism and mass violence in post-1918 Europe.

The Bridge of King Alexander I in Belgrade and the Ambiguities of National Identity in Interwar Yugoslavia

In the period between the proclamation of royal dictatorship and the assassination of King Alexander I, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was characterised by the dynamics of competing visions of Yugoslavism. Questions concerning the identity of a Yugoslav nation-to-be, in terms of both national unity and diversity of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, were held not only in political discourse, but also through architecture and the visual culture. This article explores the ideological roles of the Bridge of King Alexander I, built between 1929 and 1934 to connect Belgrade with the ex-Habsburg town of Zemun, which carried not only heavy transport but also powerful political messages. The bridge's construction prompted a widespread public controversy, representing a vivid testimony to rivalries, tensions and discontents between different ideas about the Yugoslav nation, underpinned by both political and professional agendas.

Duančić, V.: Geography and Nationalist Visions of Interwar Yugoslavia

Duančić, V.: Geography and Nationalist Visions of Interwar Yugoslavia

Dragisa Stojadinovic’s Open letter regarding Miroslav Krleza’s “Serbian themes”

This article examines the reaction of Dragisa Stojadinovic to the feuilleton ?Serbian themes? done by the writer Miroslav Krleza. Krleza?s feuilleton was being published in newspaper Politika during April, May and June of 1963. It consisted of fragments from his earlier writings organized in thematic units and concerning different topics from Serbian history. Dragisa Stojadinovic, former soldier, chief of Cinematographic section of Serbian army on Salonica front during the First World War and politician in interwar Yugoslavia, responded to Krleza?s feuilleton by writting an Open letter to the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts (Zagreb), the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Belgrade) and the Matica Srpska (Novi Sad). Stojadinovic?s Open letter was sent on June 28th, 1963. It focused on scrutinizing Krleza?s article Pasic about the Salonika trial published in Politika on June 9th. Both informations stated by Krleza and criticism put forward by Stojadinovic are analyzed in the light of contemporary historiographical knowledge. Different interpretations presented by Krleza and Stojadinovic have their roots in opposed views on causes and results of Salonika trial. Stojadinovic defended the legitimacy of trial started by his father-in-law Ljuba Jovanovic Patak, he was involved in its organisation and later accused of witness tampering. Krleza saw trial in the light of ?counter-revolutionary? Yugoslav unification in 1918 and as an act of ?political and judicial murder?. Article also contains original documents from National Library of Serbia.