l , Il Peasan t CO...!l.S.Q.!"d Il between the wars: an examination of the cu l tura 1 wing of t he Croa t i dn Peasant party wi th specia...!. re:erence to the 1920s. (c) Anthony M. Sraka, Departrnent, of History McGill University, Montréal June, 1992 A thes i s subm i t ted to the Facul t y of Gradua te Stud i es and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the deg ree 0 f Mas ter of Arts. ( Î • Shortened thesis title: IIPeasant. Concord" between the wars • .. TO MY PARENTS r 1 1 1 Table of Contents: Foreword Introduction: The Origins of Croatian Peasantism Chapter 1: The Founda t ions of Peasan t Concord 1918-1925 1 r; 3 1 Map of Croatia in 1918 JL Chapter 2: The Organisa t i on of Peasan t Concord Conclusion: Assessing Peasant Concord 71 Endnotes Bibliography Append ices Abstract: Between the two Warld Wars the Croë..tian Peasant Party emerged as the largest political party among the Croats. It consistently received between seventy and ninety per cent of the Croa tian vate and i t ranked as the largest party in croatia, and the second largest in Yugoslavia. 1 n 1925 Rudal f Herceg, a lead ing party ideologue, created the CPP's cultural wing: Peasant Concord (Selja~ka Sloqd): WhlCh worked ta prornote peasant r.=ulture as separate from and superior ta that of modern industrial society elsewhere in Europe. Although the political aspects of the Croatian Peasaht l'ùrty have been well-covered, its cultural wing has been comparatively neglected. This thesis presents an account of Peasùnt Concord: its aims, activities and influence. • l' l.brégé: Entre les deux guerres mondiales le Parti Paysan Crodte s'est manifesté comme le plus grand parti politique des Croates. Il a obtenu consécutivement entre soixante-dix et quatre vingt-dix pour cent des voix crodtcs, pour devenir le plus grand parti en Croatie, et le deuxi~me plus grand en Yougos lavie. En 1925 Rudolf Herceg, un des idéologues principaux du parti, a fondé l'aile culturelle du PPC: la Concorde Paysanne (Selja~ka Sloga), qui a tent~ de promouvoir la culture paysanne comme distincte et supérieure à celle de la société moderne industrielle ailleurs en Europe. Bien que les aspects politiques du PartI Paysan Croiltc' ont été bien traité, son aile culturelle a été relatlvement neg 1 igée. Cet te th~se expose les buts, 1 es ac t i v it t·s L't l'influence da la Concorde Paysanne. 1 Foreworc1. Although the pollt1cal act1v1ty and social pollcies of the Cr0atlan Peasant Party dur1ng the Inter-war perlod have been well- c0vered ln the Ilterature, Its cultural pollcy has been comparatlvely neglected. This thesis a1ms ta flll th1S gap ln part by examlnlng the party's cultural wlng durlng the 1920s. Ivan MUZ lé and L]ubo Boban have cavered the poli t1cal lUf:tory ; v of the CPP under the leadershlp of st)epan Radlc and Vladko Macek .. .; respect 1 vel y ( 1 ) , whlle Flkreta Jellc-Bu tlC has analysed the party' s decllne ln 1941 and Jts wartlme 11lstory. (2) The relatlonshlps between the CPP and other polltlcnl partIes ln Yugoslavia durIng tIns perlod have been examlned by BranJ.slav GllgOriJevic (3), whIle BrAnka Boban has examIned Croatlan peasantlsm as an ideo10gy. (4) The best Engllsh language examlnatlon of the Croatlan Peasant Party's polltlcs and Ideology from 1904-29 remalns Robert Gerald Llvlngston's doctoral dIssertatlon, stJepan Radle". and the Croat1an v Peas,lllt Party 1904-192'l, (Harvard, 1959). Iva Lukac ln her doctoral dlfsertatlon Stlepan Rad16 and the Croatlan Peasant Party 1914-19:8 (UnlversIty of Clnclnattl, 1989) deals wlth the same sub]ect but cc'ncentrates ,)n st] epan Radic" and 1115 l'ole ln shaplng party POllCY. Amy Kd therlne SchmIdt' 5 Croa tl an Peas an t Party ln Yugos l av POlI tICS \ Ken t state, 1984) lS a s tudy 0 f the party' s later hlstory. Another valuable wlll-k cornes from Ivo Banac whose study of the varlOUS p011tIcal partIes and IdeologIes of lnterwar Yugoslavia pays Fp~Clal attentIon ta the power and appeal of natlonallsm.(5) None ..."'f thes.:> _'1l1thon; howevel- offer more than a cllrsory examlnation of • 11 Peasant Concord, the partyls cultural orgaI11satl~n. Contemporary writers also neglect It. Of the large body 0f Ilterature devoted to Croatlan politlCS and Ideology wInch appeart:'d dUl"lng the 19205 to 194 (. (Peasan t Concol-d was dl ssol veel ln 19 <11 ) 11ttle deals wlth the Cppis cultural wlng(6), and the same applle~ to scholars concerned wlth Croat1an culture, peasants dDJ v peasant1sm in the per1ùà. Zvane Crn] ais SUl"Vey of Crndt 1 n 1h cul tural hlst:ory between the ',."ars (7) vlrtually 19nores Peasant: v ~ CCJncord and the work of non-COmmlllllst peasants Ivo SlvrlC and Ruth 'l'rotitcn(8) bath neglect the work of Croatlan peasantl.sts, \'111111- Mllhs1n R1ZVlC" (9) provldes 11ttle on Croatlan peasantlstf; 1 prum()t- 1011 of peasant wr1ters and adult llteracy Hl 11lS otherWlE"e thCJUJ\IÇJ!1 examlnatl011 of Il terature 111 lnter-war BOS111a and HerceCjovllld. Mos t of such mater laI as we have on Peas ant Concord W.\!-, wrltten by the organlsatlon 1 s leader Rudolf Herc'8q l '-Il l t!, the Croatlan peasantlsts' cultural pol1cy from ct ('edit Ji l" vlewpo1nt(11) c:ondemnlng the cppis ant1-L'lerlcal1:..:m dnd lt:, fc"nlul" to 03.Se 1 ts de f 1n1 t 1:)11 of Croat 1 an pedsant CHI tune:' 011 ('ct tllo11(' 1 !,IIl. The theslS WhlCh follows 1 wlnle talnng ac::ount of tlll'~ rJnrl other materlal, lS based pr1marlly on a study of Peasant Cun r '0rcl l :, ..., tvlO ]ollrnals: Sellacka Pl"OSvleta [Pedsant El,llg:1t~nment 1 (192r:;-~J), and Sellacka Sloga [Peasant Concord] \ E'36-41), and on th8 CUlatl<.Jll v (1925-9) l' Peasant Party newspapers: Dom [Home J and Se-lJarY.l D0n1 [Peasant Home] (1936-40), These 1I1cluded boo}: rE~1J1~Wf:, short storles, poetry :ind plays, th'jugh l have pald partl(~1I1ctr rjttE-nt:(.)n .~--------------------------~ to artIcles and edl tOL-lals relatlng ta the organlsation 1 [; ideology and 1ts actlvities in the realms of peasant culture and welfare. l am grateful to Professor :..Jhilip Longworth for h1s many vaIu3bIe suggestIons and critlcisrns, and to Professor Branko l' Franol H' of York Unl verSl ty who allowed me ta draw on his cons lclerable knowledge of Croatian folklore and the Croatian language. l am also grateful ta the staff at both the National and UnIversIty Library of Croatia and the Interlibrary Loan Department dt MeClll for locating sorne obscure sources, and to Robert Sraka, 3tev8n Cal.-lstrom and Peter Hundal for thelr asslstance wlth plo,)freadlng and compllters. l aiso gratefully acknowledge McGill Un] V2rSl ty 1 S Facul ty of Graduate Stud1es and Research which awarded me .'1 gri'lnt for travel and research enabling me to VIS1 t Zagreb, and Plor""Sf,or SllVl]a Letlca of the Emlgrant COUl1cil of Croatia for 0ell~ n-,\Isl y arrang 1ng a st Ipend from tha t organl satlon allowlng me tl' l} ve there, 1 have not always followed the advlce glven me, and th·~ :: aul tE-. that l-emain are entlrely my own. 1 .Introduction. The Orlglns of Croatlan Peasantism. The roots of Croa tian peasan t ism lie wi th the Hunganan peasant emancipation of 1848. Croatla had been part of Hungary Slnce 1102, although it latterly eu]oyed llffilted autonomy and itH own Diet ln Zagreb. In 1848 when Hungary's revolutionary 01e1. abol ished serfdom 1 ( 1) the Croatlan Dlet j ealous of i ts au tonomy 1 ref~sed ta recognize the declsion. It resisted emanclpatlon thereafter. However from 1848 rnany Croatian peasants hehaved aH though the Hungarlan declslon applled to them. Many refuserl to ./ render the corvee and dues to thE-ll" landlords or tlthes tu the Church, and in sorne areas where landlords attempted to enforcI? the old order peasants reacted vlolently. (;2) The de facto emancl[Ji'ltlon of the t:roatian peasantry was forrnally recognlzed by the new v '" Croatlan Governor (Ban) 1 JOSlp Jelaclc, on April 25, 1848 and confil'rned by a more liberal Croatlan Olet the follow1ng slImmer. 'l'he end of serfdom gave the peasant personal Ilberty and satlsf1ecl what has been described as hlS "centurles-old yearnings" for the land he wcrked, free of dues and tlthes. However the end of serfdorn dld lIttle to lmprove the economic lot of the peasant. (3) In order to assess the economlC changes that ernanClpatlon enta lIed i t is important to understand wha t croa Llan pPdsan t 1 Soclety had been llke ln the mld-nlueteenth century. Although sorne pLasants, partlcularly ln Slavonia, llved and worked Independently unè-er sorne form 0 f tEr.anr:" mos t Il ved U1 "commllna l hOl\Seh01rj[, Il ~ '," 2 (zadrug~) sharing the land.(4) These communal households were most often located ln the Croatlan Highlands (Hrvatsko zagorje), and on the mllltary frontler distrlcts borderlng Bosnia whlch had once formed part of the Ottoman Empire. Their establishment, among Cl-oatlan and Serblan peasants allke, l~ad been encouraged by the government as a means of defence against the Turks. Larger groups of armeà and organised peasants we:r.e better able ta defend the Empllt? from Invaders, and themsel ves from brig:lnds, than small 1I11orgal11sed peasant familles.