From top left to right: Yugoslav Committee in 1916, Celebration of establishment of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in the St. Mark's Square, Zagreb, Proclamation of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in Ljubljana's Congress Square, National Council delegation addressing the Prince Regent Alexander, Corfu Declaration, Vidovdan Constitution, Decision on promulgation of the 1946 Yugoslav Constitution, 2nd session of AVNOJ in Jajce, 3rd session of AVNOJ in Belgrade preparing for the second Yugoslavia's Constitutional Assembly, Monument to the Unknown Hero by Ivan Meštrović on Avala Hill in Belgrade.
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Yugoslavism, Yugoslavdom, or Yugoslav nationalism is an ideology supporting the notion that the South Slavs, namely the Bosniaks, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs and Slovenes, but also Bulgarians, belong to a single Yugoslav nation separated by diverging historical circumstances, forms of speech, and religious divides. During the interwar period, Yugoslavism became predominant in, and then the official ideology of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. There were two major forms of Yugoslavism in the period: the regime favoured integral Yugoslavism promoting unitarism, centralisation, and unification of the country's ethnic groups into a single Yugoslav nation, by coercion if necessary. The approach was also applied to languages spoken in the Kingdom. The main alternative was federalist Yugoslavism which advocated the autonomy of the historical lands in the form of a federation and gradual unification without outside pressure. Both agreed on the concept of National Oneness developed as an expression of the strategic alliance of South Slavs in Austria-Hungary in the early 20th century. The concept was meant as a notion that the South Slavs belong to a single "race", were of "one blood", and had shared language. It was considered neutral regarding the choice of centralism or federalism.
The Yugoslavist idea has roots in the 1830s Illyrian movement in Habsburg Croatia, where a group of intellectuals saw the unity of South Slavs within the Austrian Empire or outside of it, as a protection against Germanisation and Magyarisation. Cooperative talks began with Serbian politicians and working to standardise Serbo-Croatian as a common language with orthographer Vuk Karadžić, with limited success. Following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the concept was rivalled by Trialism. Control of the Balkans by the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary prevented practical implementation of Yugoslavist ideas until the Ottomans were pushed out of the Balkans in the 1912 First Balkan War and Austria-Hungary disintegrated in the final days of the First World War. During the war, preparations for unification began in the form of the Niš Declaration of Serbian war aims, establishment of the Yugoslav Committee to represent South Slavs living in Austria-Hungary and adoption of the Corfu Declaration on principles of unification. The short-lived State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was proclaimed in the South Slavic lands formerly ruled by the Habsburgs at the end of the First World War. Its leadership primarily wanted unification with Serbia on a federal basis, while Serbia preferred a centralised state.
The unification took place on 1 December 1918, when the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was proclaimed. In the first years of the new kingdom, politics became increasingly ethnic as individual political parties became identified with particular nations within the country. Similarly, integral Yugoslavism became associated with the regime, and the political struggle against the government was increasingly equated with the ethnic struggle between the Serbs (identified with the regime) and various ethnic groups – most often the Croats as the most vocal political opposition to the regime. Alliances shifted over time and were not always ethnic-based. They depended largely on the form of Yugoslavism adopted by those concerned. The outcome of the political debates of the first few years of the new country resulted in the Vidovdan Constitution – deemed illegitimate by many – and in regime- and opposition-sponsored violence. The state abandoned integral Yugoslavism in 1939 when a settlement was reached with the Croat opposition leader Vladko Maček with the Cvetković–Maček Agreement. The regime attempted to unify the common language. Lack of standardisation of Serbo-Croatian brought about the practice of publication of official documents in the Ekavian speech favoured in Serbia, often in Cyrillic script not normally used by the Croats or the Slovenes to write. The Serbian Orthodox Church was given preference by the regime. The regime tried reducing the power of the Catholic Church in the Kingdom, promoting conversions and rival churches, and refraining from ratification of the Concordat with the Holy See over Serbian Orthodox Church protests. Before the First World War, a synthetic Yugoslavist culture was largely confined to Croat artists and writers. Ivan Meštrović became the most prominent among them at a 1911 exhibition in Rome. Disillusioned after the unification, most artists and writers distanced themselves from the synthetic culture.
After the Second World War, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) ruled the country. The KPJ adopted a formal commitment to federalism in a highly centralised state, promoting social Yugoslavism and a diversely interpreted notion of "brotherhood and unity". The 1948 Tito–Stalin split pushed the KPJ to gradual decentralisation until the mid-1950s, when a Yugoslavist campaign was launched to reverse the course, leading to a debate on levels of decentralisation. Centralist forces were defeated by the mid-1960s. Significant decentralisation occurred during, and in the aftermath of, the Croatian Spring. In 1987, Slovenian intellectuals cited Yugoslavism as the main threat to Slovenian identity. The issues raised by them contributed to the motivation for a 1990 proposal to restructure Yugoslavia as a confederation and for subsequent Slovenian and Croatian declarations of independence marking the breakup of Yugoslavia.
ideology of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. There were two major forms of Yugoslavism in the period: the regime favoured integral Yugoslavism promoting unitarism...
social Yugoslavism within the notion of "brotherhood and unity", while organizing the country as a federation. The three major languages in Yugoslavia were...
identity. The word Yugoslav, meaning "South Slavic", was first used by Josip Juraj Strossmayer in 1849. The first modern iteration of Yugoslavism was the Illyrian...
may also refer to: Yugoslavs, either as citizens of the former Yugoslavia, or people who self-identify as ethnic YugoslavsYugoslavism, various strands...
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or Socialist Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central...
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from...
The tragic death of Yugoslavia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 9780816629473. Djokić, Dejan (2003). Yugoslavism: Histories of a Failed...
Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbian: Савезна Република Југославија, Savezna Republika Jugoslavija), FR Yugoslavia (FRY) or simply Yugoslavia (Serbian: Југославија...
1357029. S2CID 158362422. Nielsen, Christian Axboe (2009). "Policing Yugoslavism: Surveillance, Denunciations, and Ideology during King Aleksandar's Dictatorship...
World War II in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia began on 6 April 1941, when the country was invaded and swiftly conquered by Axis forces and partitioned among...
periodical), Ljubljana 1929/30, št. 1, str. 22, letnik I.) Dejan Djokić, Yugoslavism: histories of a failed idea, 1918–1992, p. 123, at Google Books Eastern...
Alexander of Yugoslavia may refer to: King Alexander I of Yugoslavia (1888–1934), reigned 1921 to 1934 Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia (1924–2016), son...
The Yugoslav Partisans, or the National Liberation Army, officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia, was the communist-led...
Slovene national programmes adopted Yugoslavism in different, conflicting, or mutually exclusive forms. Yugoslavism became a pivotal idea for the establishment...
Yugoslav Army, Army of Yugoslavia, or Military of Yugoslavia may refer to: Royal Yugoslav Army (1918–1941), the army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia Yugoslav...
foundation of Yugoslavia, which existed in various political formations until the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. During the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbia formed...
Yugoslav Americans are Americans of full or partial Yugoslav ancestry. In the 2021 Community Surveys, there were 210,395 people who indicated Yugoslav...
The invasion of Yugoslavia, also known as the April War or Operation 25, was a German-led attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers which...
The Parliament of Yugoslavia was the legislature of Yugoslavia. Before World War II in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia it was known as the National Assembly...
in December 1918, it merged into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, most of Croatia was incorporated...
Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After World War II, it was granted full republic status in the newly formed Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In 1992, following...
Paul of Yugoslavia Radenko Stanković Ivo Perović Prince Paul, far more than Alexander, was Yugoslav rather than Serb in outlook (Yugoslavism versus Serbian...
For Yugoslavia (Serbian: За Југославију/Za Jugoslaviju) was a political alliance that existed in the Republic of Montenegro from the late 1990s to 2001...
June 1999. It was fought between the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the war,...
Yugoslav cuisine or Yugoslavian cuisine may be covered in the following articles: Bosnia and Herzegovina cuisine Croatian cuisine Kosovan cuisine Macedonian...
Queen of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from 1922 to 1929 and Queen of Yugoslavia from 1929 to 1934 as the wife of King Alexander I. She was the mother...