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https://doi.org/10.17234/RadoviZHP.56.10
Ante Starčević in Ustaša Propaganda 1941–1945 (Summary)
Tomislav Jonjić
Sažetak
As the founder and key ideologist of the Party of Rights, one of the central Croatian political parties in the second half of the 19th century, Ante Starčević was already declared the Father of the Homeland during his lifetime. Given his role in shaping the Croatian national integration ideology, he remains to this day a symbol, even a personification, of the Croatian aspiration for an independent state. As a result, many Croatian political parties used his name in their propaganda, and Starčević significantly influenced not only those who invoked his ideas but also those who discredited or even denied them.
This influence was particularly pronounced in the period before World War II, at a time of heightened ideological polarization on the Croatian, European, and even global political stage. During that time, in the late 1920s, as a reaction to the violence and persecution of Croats in the first Yugoslav state, the Ustaše movement emerged. Since both its founder, Ante Pavelić, and many of his associates originally belonged to the Croatian Party of Rights, it was entirely natural for Starčević and his ideology to become central themes in Ustaše propaganda. This was especially evident in the pre-war period, notably in Ustaše literature in the homeland, where Ustaše ideology, representing militant Croatian nationalism, clashed with the reformist tendencies in the Croatian Peasant Party, whose leadership was satisfied with achieving Croatian autonomy within the Yugoslav framework.
When, in the context of the Axis attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the Independent State of Croatia was declared, the Ustaše movement found itself in a position where it could develop the cult of Ante Starčević and his closest associate, Eugen Kvaternik. Indeed, Starčević became a figure whom the regime’s propaganda celebrated second only to the head of state, Pavelić. Starčević was written about almost daily, although most often superficially; streets and settlements were named after him; statues were meant to adorn Croatian cities; his photographs and drawings frequently appeared on the front pages of newspapers and magazines; his likeness appeared on postage stamps, and the state claimed copyright over his and Kvaternik’s works.
Ustaše movement was portrayed as the modern, militant form of Starčević’s ideology in specific international military-political circumstances, and the Independent State of Croatia was presented as the realization of Starčević’s work. In parallel, the regime sought to cultivate the cult of Stjepan Radić, with Pavelić himself taking the lead in that. In the period before going into exile, Pavelić had directed numerous derogatory remarks at Radić and his Peasant Party. However, after Croatian national representatives were murdered in the Belgrade National Assembly in 1928, and Radić himself soon died from the effects of the assassination, Pavelić realized that among the predominantly peasant population of Croatia, Radić, as an extremely popular symbol of the struggle for peasant rights and a victim of Greater Serbianism, could serve to attract his former supporters and to unify the Croatian people in difficult wartime circumstances.
For this reason, the cult of Radić was also developed. Although it never reached the same level as the cult of Ante Starčević, it was incorporated into the regime’s narrative that Pavelić and the Ustaša movement represented the only authentic synthesis and affirmation of both Starčević’s and Radić’s doctrines.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
330245
URI
Datum izdavanja:
22.12.2024.
Posjeta: 1.376 *