The Croatian spring ( Croatian Hrvatsko proljeće , also referred to in the Croatian literature as “mass movement”, Croatian masovni pokret, MASPOK ) is a political movement that arose in Croatia in the early 1970s and aimed at expanding the rights of Croats in the Federation of the SFRY , and also carrying out democratic and economic reforms. Movement protesters protested the “pulling” of the economically backward regions of Yugoslavia, such as Kosovo, by cutting budget and political rights in Croatia.
The publication in 1967 of the “Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Standard Language” ( Croatian Deklaracija o nazivu i položaju hrvatskog književnog jezika ), which was signed by influential Croatian poets and linguists ( Miroslav Křlečića Tomášládis, Tomoslav Radoslav , Radoslav Borładis , Radoslav Borładis ), can be considered a moment of origin . ) The formal pretext was the imposition of Serbian norms on the Serbo-Croatian language , although formally the Serbian and Croatian norms were equal. In most dictionaries published outside Croatia, specific Croatian words, and especially the spelling features, were not reflected or were reflected with the mark “regional word”. The discussion about the language led to the spontaneous emergence of a mass movement for the extension of the rights of Croatia in the Yugoslav Federation, which received widespread support among students.
The demands of Croatian activists annoyed the Tito government; although Tito never forbade manifestations of moderate nationalism, at the same time he feared that the discussion of the rights of the various peoples of Yugoslavia would open up old disputes left over from World War II .
Sometimes calls were made for decentralization of the economy, which would allow Croatia to retain a higher portion of tourism profits. According to several nationalists, on average, more than 50% of foreign exchange earnings came to Yugoslavia through Croatia, but Croatia itself received only 7%. Refusing to depend on the federal bank of Yugoslavia, Croatia would lose subsidies from the federal fund to help the lagging regions, however, since Croatia was much richer than other republics (except Slovenia ), it used only 16.5% of the money from the federal solidarity fund during the period 1965-1970, while Serbia used 46.6% almost exclusively for its underdeveloped region of Kosovo, which at the same time had a high degree of autonomy. Criticism was also expressed about the monopoly of the Yugoslav Investment Bank and the Bank for Foreign Trade in Belgrade on all foreign investments and foreign trade. The practice was criticized when those called up for service in the Yugoslav people's army did not serve in their native republic, but in other places.
The Croats also protested in connection with the growing economic emigration to Western Europe. In their view, the federal government did little to stop these trends.
The movement organized demonstrations in Zagreb in 1971, in which thousands of students participated.
Three Croatian linguists - Stepan Babić , Bozidar Finca and Milan Mogush - published a grammar and spelling manual in 1971 entitled Hrvatski pravopis (Croatian Spelling). The term itself - instead of the official "Serbo-Croatian" - was a challenge. The book was immediately banned, but one of the copies went to London , where it was published.
The leadership of Yugoslavia and the UCC perceived the movement as a revival of Croatian nationalism and threw the police to suppress demonstrations. Tito removed the least loyal supporters, such as Savka Dabchevic-Kuchar, Miko Tripalo and Dragutin Haramia, and also purged the Croatian Communist Party and local administration. Many student activists were arrested, some even sentenced to imprisonment. Among those arrested in those years were both future Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and Stepan Mesic , as well as dissident journalist Bruno Busic .
A number of participants in those events became famous politicians after the collapse of communism in Yugoslavia. Ivan Zvonimir-Chichak became the leader of the Croatian Helsinki Human Rights Committee. Drazen Budiš led the Croatian Social Liberal Party. Savka Dubčević-Kuchar , Miko Tripalo and Dragutin Haramia became the founders of the new Croatian People’s Party.
In 1974, a new federal constitution was adopted, giving more autonomy to national republics.
The fourth edition of Croatian Spelling by Babic, Finki and Mogush is now considered the standard grammar of the Croatian language .