Tujman, Franjo

Born May 14, 1922 in Veliko Trgovishce. His father, Stepan Tudjman, the district leader of the Croatian Peasant Party , died during the war ^[5] . Justin's mother died in 1929, during the birth of her fifth child ^[6] . Three of the four Franjo brothers emigrated to the United States by the end of the 1930s ^[6] . In 1935 he moved to Zagreb.

Military career

In 1941 he graduated with honors from high school. During the Second World War he joined the Yugoslav Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army . In April 1944 he became commander of the partisan brigade " Matiya Gubets " ^[7] . In peacetime, he quickly grew up in ranks - in 1953 he became a colonel, and in 1959 a major general ^[8] . He served in the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense, dealing with personnel issues, as well as theoretical issues ^[8] .

He retired from the armed forces in 1961 with the rank of major general , and became director of the Zagreb Institute for the History of the Labor Movement . At this post he conducted active teaching activities, including abroad - he lectured both in the capitalist ( USA , Canada , Italy , Austria ) countries and in socialist Czechoslovakia ^[9] . In December 1965, in Zadar he defended his doctoral dissertation, prepared at the University of Zagreb on the topic “Causes of the crisis of monarchist Yugoslavia: from education in 1918 to collapse in 1941” ^[10] . However, in December of the following year he was accused by academician L. Boban of plagiarism, after which he resigned as director of the Institute and was expelled from the Communist Party ^[11] .

Dissident Activities

Twice imprisoned on charges of supporting nationalism, the first time in 1972, the second time in 1981, was deprived of all awards. The first time he was sentenced to 2 years, but released after 9 months ^[11] . After his release in the 1970s, he gave interviews to foreign media, thanks to which he became famous among the Croatian diaspora abroad as an oppositionist. In New York in 1981, Tudjman's book Nationalism in Modern Europe was published, concluding that “the position of the Republic of Croatia in Yugoslavia is comparable to that of India during the period of British colonial rule” ^[12] . Already in February 1981, Tudjman received a second term - three years in prison and a ban on social activities for five years ^[13] . From this period he left in Lepoglava prison for 17 months (with a break when he was sent home for treatment), and in September 1984 he was released ahead of schedule ^[13] . In June 1987, he was allowed to go abroad, and Franjo Tudjman and his wife went to Canada, where he lectured at the universities of Ottawa and Toronto ^[13] .

In 1989-1990 he gave lectures in Chicago , New York and Toronto on the topics "Stepan Radic and Croatian sovereignty" and "Democratic processes in modern Croatia" ^[14] . In the same year he performed in Denmark and Sweden ^[14] .

In 1989, Franjo Tudjman published his most famous work, “The Wasteland of Historical Reality” ( Croatian Bespuća povijesne zbiljnosti ). In it, Tudjman questioned the estimates of the number of victims of genocide that are dominant in Yugoslav historiography. Without citing any sources, he indicated that only 30,000 people were killed in Jasenovac, and he estimated the number of Holocaust victims at 900,000. Somewhat later, speaking at the congress of his CDU party , he stated that Croatia was World War II not only a Nazi entity, but also expressed the millennial aspirations of the Croatian people ^[15] .

Political Activities

With the support of Croatian emigrants, he founded the Croatian Democratic Commonwealth (Hrvatska Demokratska Zajednica), which won the 1990 elections and remained in power until the end of 1999. Tujman was elected by the parliament as president of Croatia in 1990 and was re-elected in direct elections in 1992. In the same 1992, Tudjman was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Zagreb ^[16] .

November 21, 1995 signed the Dayton Agreement from Croatia. Despite poor health, he was re-elected for a third term in elections in June 1997 .

In 1999, Tudjman was diagnosed with stomach cancer . After hospitalization on November 26, he transferred his powers to Parliament Speaker Vlatko Pavletich for 2 months. On December 10 of that year, at 22:15 local time, Tudjman passed away in a Zagreb hospital. In connection with the death of Tudjman in Croatia, a three-day mourning was declared ^[17] . He was buried in the city cemetery Mirogoj .

In a sentence to the military and political leadership of the Bosnian Croats on May 29, 2013, the Hague Tribunal indicated that Tujman was a member of a joint criminal conspiracy whose purpose was to expel the non-Croatian population from territories that were to become part of the Croatian state on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina ^[18] .

He was married to Ankitsa Tudjman (nee Zhumbar) since May 25, 1945 . Three children were born in the marriage - sons Miroslav (b. 1946 ), Stepan (b. 1948 ) and daughter Nevenka (b. 1951 ) ^[19] .

Son Miroslav was elected as a deputy of the Sabor (parliament) of Croatia ^[20] .

Croatian Awards