Chapter 1546 Yugoslav Federation
In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Croatia has always been a very unique region. For a long time, Croatia has been administratively part of Hungary, but it has a certain degree of autonomy. Croatia is to Hungary as Hungary is to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Croatia has its own parliament, government, education, legal and religious management systems, and is like a Hungarian version of a country within a country.
The funny thing is that Austria once tried to assimilate other regions of the empire, with Hungary being the biggest obstacle. However, Hungary promoted the Hungarian language and culture in its regions, including Croatia, which was strongly opposed by the Croatians.
As time goes by, Croatia's sense of national independence becomes stronger.
City of Zagreb.
This was the political and cultural center of the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The population of Zagreb in 1933 was about 180,000. Zagreb expanded rapidly from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, and continued to grow in the 1930s, but the growth rate slowed down due to the Great Depression.
The economic crisis had a relatively small impact on the city of Zagreb and Croatia as a whole, as Croatia was arguably one of the least economically developed regions within the empire.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire itself was a semi-industrialized country, and the Hungarian part was mainly agricultural. In the previous plans of the Hungarian government, Croatia was the supplier of raw materials and agricultural products for Hungary.
Therefore, Croatia as a whole is still an agricultural society as a whole. This can be seen from the largest political party in Croatia. The largest political party in Croatia is the Croatian Peasants' Party, and its main supporters believe that farmers should have a middle class.
However, the protagonist in Croatia today is not the Croatian Peasants' Party, but other small parties in Croatia.
On the outskirts of Sabugal, a joint secret meeting was taking place.
"This is Mr. Stojadinovic, the leader of the Yugoslav National Party. This meeting was chaired by Stojadinovic. Representatives came from all over Yugoslavia, including Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia. We also invited people from the Power Party, Ustasha, and the Labor Party to attend the meeting."
At the meeting, Vlatko, one of the representatives of the Yugoslav National Party, introduced himself to everyone and asked Stojadinovic to speak, although he gave up his seat.
Stojadinovic came to the front of the crowd and said to them with a serious face: "This joint meeting of Croatian political parties will play a decisive role in the future of our Croatia, so we hope that everyone will put aside their prejudices, sit down and discuss the future of Croatia calmly."
In fact, there was no need for Stojadinovich to say much. Everyone present knew the purpose of their gathering together. Every participant in this meeting was considered a "traitor" in the eyes of Vienna.
Ustasha representative Mirko said rudely: "Mr. Stojadinovich, with all due respect, you called us to this meeting for a purpose that is clear to everyone, but your party has set the bar too low, allowing even people like the Labour Party in."
"This directly lowers the level of our conference. The Labour Party is nothing more than a running dog of the Soviets. They might sell us all out when the time comes."
What kind of organization is Ustasha? It is actually the Croatian extreme national party, which is of the same nature as the Italian National Party and the German National Party. In fact, Ustasha was funded by the Italian National Party.
Therefore, the Ustasha was pro-Italian and pro-German, but this also caused them to encounter a small ideological problem.
The Ustasha's goal was to create an ethnically "pure" Croatia.
However, the Croats themselves were Slavs, so according to the standards of the German National Party, they themselves became an inferior race. For this reason, the Ustasha theorists had to fabricate a theory to prove that the Croats originated from "non-Gothic culture" and thus put themselves in the ranks of the Aryans.
All in all, Ustasha is definitely not a good word in Croatia, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it as notorious. In the past period of time, this organization has been particularly famous for its "terrorist attacks."
3 The fact that the Yugoslav National Party was able to bring them into the meeting was very abstract. After all, as the name of the Yugoslav National Party suggests, their goal is to establish an independent and unified "Yugoslavia".
"Yugoslavia" naturally also includes Slovenia, Serbia, and even Montenegro.
The Ustasha, on the other hand, is an extreme "Croatist" party that does not regard Slovenes, Serbs and Montenegrins as its own compatriots.
"You bastard, what right do you have to slander our Croatian Labor Party? You terrorists are the cancer of Croatia. And if you want to talk about running dogs, don't think that everyone doesn't know that you have a close relationship with Italy..."
Mirko's remarks immediately aroused the dissatisfaction of the representative of the Croatian Labor Party. He pointed at Mirko and said: "We, the Croatian Labor Party, have always been based on the interests of Croatia. We have a cooperative relationship with the Soviet Union at most. You, the Ustasha, are the vicious dogs raised by the Italian National Party."
Ustasha's representative Mirko looked at the furious young man in front of him, raised his lips and said disdainfully: "Young man, you should be Croatian! As someone who has experienced this, I advise you not to be brainwashed by the Soviets. The Soviet Union is the biggest saboteur in all of Europe."
"They support you only because they want to become the master of Europe and ride on the head of the whole of Europe. I see that you are still young. If you stop now, you can avoid going astray."
The young man that Mirko was referring to was none other than Tito, the representative of the Croatian Labor Party. Tito was actually 41 years old at that time, but he did look younger than the old guys present.
As for why Mirko spoke so "kindly" to Tito, it was because Tito fits his imagination of a "pure Croatian". He naturally has an aura that is very "tough guy".
Tito was not impressed by Mirko, and he had no good impression of the Ustasha behind him.
"Representative Mirko, you Ustasha can only trick some extremists who are half-hearted into joining us. It will not have any positive effect on Croatia and Yugoslavia as a whole. You will definitely not succeed because the Ustasha is a completely anti-human terrorist organization..."
Seeing that the two were about to continue arguing, Stojadinovic had to come out to mediate.
"Okay, everyone, give me some face. The purpose of this meeting is not to quarrel."
"Whether you are a nationalist, a Workers' Party, or any other party, there is actually no need for confrontation now."
"Because now we all face a common enemy, that is the Habsburg family in Vienna. If we cannot overthrow the rule of the Habsburgs, we will promote the independence of the entire Yugoslavia region."
"Then no matter what we believe in or what great ideals we have, they will not be realized. The Austrians and Hungarians will throw us into prison."
Stojanovic didn't care about the beliefs or preferences of the people in front of him. He had only one goal from the beginning to the end, which was to unite these mixed guys and overthrow the Habsburg family's rule in Croatia.
Of course, it would be even better if Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro could join the Yugoslav family.
He said: "Right now, there is a violent upheaval in the Bohemian region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This is an opportunity for us Croatia to break away from the Austro-Hungarian Empire."
"However, Croatia is weak. If we become independent from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, we will inevitably face severe repression from the Habsburgs. Therefore, we should temporarily join hands to solve this problem first."
Croatian Power Party representative Pavelic was very interested in Stojadinovic's suggestion and was the first to stand up in support.
"I agree with Mr. Stojadinović that if Croatia cannot break away from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, then it makes no sense for any of us to discuss the future of Croatia."
Among the Croatian political parties present, the Power Party has the greatest influence. They are actually also a nationalist party, but not as radical as the Ustasha and are more easily accepted by people.
However, the Power Party is quite divided, with radicals and moderates. The former have close ties with the Ustasha, and some of them are also keen on terrorist activities.
In a sense, it is precisely because of the existence of the Croatian Power Party that the ecological niche of the Ustasa organization in Croatia has been squeezed out and the spread of the Ustasa organization in Croatia has been curbed, but in reality the relationship between the two is actually quite good.
Pavelić belonged to the radical faction of the Power Party. After he spoke, Mirko nodded and said, "Let's not talk about other aspects for now. As for dealing with the Habsburg government, we Ustasha are definitely willing to participate."
At this time, Stojadinovich looked at the Labor Party representative Tito and asked: "What do you think of the Labor Party?"
Although Tito could not get along with most of the people present, he did not raise any objections at this time. He said: "The Habsburgs are one of the obstacles hindering Croatia's development, so our Labor Party also supports the issue of dealing with the Habsburg government."
Stojadinovic was naturally very satisfied that the Croatian Labor Party was willing to join the anti-Habsburg team. In fact, Stojadinovic was not very fond of the Croatian Labor Party, but now was a special period, so he didn't care whether there was a Labor Party among his partners.
Afterwards, Stojadinovic had friendly communications with representatives from Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia and other places.
In this way, a "mixed" anti-Habsburg, anti-Austro-Hungarian Yugoslav alliance was pulled together by Stojadinović.
This so-called Yugoslav Federation included the Yugoslav National Party, a nationalist party such as the Croatian National Party, an extreme terrorist organization such as the Ustasha, the unpopular Labor Party, and other forces.
The Yugoslav Federation was an exaggerated patchwork monster, and the thread that stitched them together was hostility towards the Austro-Hungarian government under Habsburg rule.
Stojadinovic excitedly announced to everyone present: "The ultimate goal of the Yugoslav Federation is to lead Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Serbia to break away from the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. From now on, all our actions will be carried out with this goal in mind. Now, I will arrange the tasks for each party..."
…
With the confluence of anti-Habsburg forces in Yugoslavia, the already precarious Austro-Hungarian Empire was even worse off.
However, the Federation of Yugoslavia was not the whole story of this turmoil. All over the Austro-Hungarian Empire, including its core Austria, there were efforts to end the rule of the Habsburg family or to break away from the empire.
Under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, there were only three regions that were relatively loyal to the Habsburg family and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, namely Hungary, the Kingdom of Dalmatia, and finally Slovenia.
Yes, although Slovenes belong to Yugoslavia, and a small number of them went to Zagreb for a meeting, the vast majority of Slovenes were not averse to the Austro-Hungarian Empire under the rule of the Habsburgs because they were the beneficiaries of this empire.
Overall, the Slovenes' biggest political demand is "autonomy", but they have no idea of breaking away from the rule of the empire and the Habsburg family.
Although Hungary often opposed Austria, they did not oppose the Habsburgs and the empire and were one of the maintainers of the empire.
Finally, there is the Kingdom of Dalmatia, a region where mixed-race Germans make up the majority. The Kingdom of Dalmatia naturally leans towards the Habsburgs because they are outsiders and need the Habsburgs' endorsement. At the same time, they are not on the same page with neighboring Yugoslavia, and the conflict between the two sides has long been intensified.
In February 1933, following the unrest in Bohemia, Eastern Lombardy became the second region to experience riots. Shortly thereafter, with the support of Poland, unrest broke out in Galicia, where some Polish nationalists instigated local people to secede from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and join Poland.
At the same time, large-scale anti-Habsburg rule activities broke out in Croatia and Bosnia, and even Romania was ready to take action.
For a time, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was caught in a dilemma surrounded by enemies on all sides. Riots broke out almost every day, and all kinds of negative news were continuously transmitted to Vienna. Emperor Rudolf's desk was full of messages from local governments requesting "help".
Emperor Rudolf even felt that he was about to become a "king who lost his country". His opponents included not only the Labor Party, but also various nationalists, and even the Austrian bourgeoisie who wanted to end the monarchy.
It can be said that the only thing Rudolf can trust now is the "army". He announced that the whole country was in a state of "martial law" with murderous intent and ordered nobles from all over the country to suppress the rebellion in the city.
Sending out troops was basically the last resort of the Habsburg family, and it also meant that the balance of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a country established through compromise since 1867, was completely broken and all contradictions broke out.
If Rudolf wanted the entire empire to continue to exist, his only choice was to suppress all opponents through iron-blooded means and establish a new political order. Once the military suppression failed, the life of the empire would come to an end completely.
(End of this chapter)
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