The Russian Revolution; The Jugo-Slav MovementPetrunkevitch, Alexander
History
The Russian Revolution; The Jugo-Slav Movement
Petrunkevitch, Alexander
Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921; Soviet Union -- Politics and government -- 1917-1936; Yugoslavs
The occupation of Bosnia led to the first real quarrels in modern times
between Croat and Serb, for the former wanted Bosnia in Greater Croatia
in order to have connection with Dalmatia; the latter wished it annexed
to Greater Serbia, because it was Serbian. Magyar and German, further,
quarreled as to the status of Bosnia and left it unsettled. But one
thing was settled by the occupation in 1879 and the annexation in
1908. Neither Greater Croatia nor Greater Serbia were any longer truly
possible as a final solution, only a Jugo-Slavia. The Greater Croatia
received a mortal blow by the addition of Serbs up to more than one
third of the number of Croats in Austria-Hungary, and Serbia faced the
future either as a vassal or as a territory which must be annexed. From
that time until the present the Habsburg monarchy, largely owing to
the predominance of the Magyars in Croatia, adopted a policy of
prevention--Jugo-Slav nationality was to be prevented. Viewed in that
light the rule of Count Khuen-Hederv[a]ry, Ban of Croatia from 1883
to 1903, in which time, according to Croats, he corrupted a whole
generation, turned Serb against Croat, and played out the radical
demands of the party of Star[c]evi[c] and Frank, is intelligible. The
policy of Count Khuen, which was based on corruption and forgery, on
press-muzzling and career-exploding, has since been imitated, and its
imitation has been largely responsible for this war.
It was not until the Serbs and Croats formed their coalition in 1905
that the trial of strength had come. In Serbia, Peter Karageorgevitch
ascended the throne and reversed the pro-Austrian policy of his
predecessor. This it will be remembered was influenced until then by
the Bulgarian policy of Russia and by Serbia's defeat at the hands of
Bulgaria in 1885. The commercial treaty with Bulgaria in 1905, and the
tariff war which Austria began immediately afterward, pointed out which
way the wind was blowing.
An era big with decisive events arrived. The Jugo-Slavs had learned
that union meant victory, division foreign mastery. Petty politics
and religious fanaticism were forgotten, and Jugo-Slav nationality was
formed in the fierce fires of Austro-Magyar terrorism and forgery and in
the whirlwind reaped from the Balkan wars.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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