Original scientific paper
PARISH PRIEST JURAJ TOMAC AND THE AUTHORITIES OF THE KINGDOM OF SERBS, CROATS AND SLOVENIANS 1919-1923
Ivica MIŠKULIN
Abstract
Political profile of Juraj Tomac was defined a long before the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians was formed. As an supporter and a member of the Pure Party of the Right (from 1919 Croatian Party of the Right), Tomac thought that Croatian people in the historical circumstances of the 30s of the twentieth century had to relay only on its own political forces. Though he was rather sceptic towards ideas of Yugoslavian unity, which was propagated by the Croato-Serbian coalition, he was not surprised with the foundation of a state in which such a unity had grown to be a kind of religion. His post of a parish priest helped him to figure out the exact position of the Croatian peasantry, which only backed up his political convictions. Since he was criticising already from the beginning the monarchism that was publicly proclaimed in 1921, the authorities suppressed him in many ways; such as by putting him in exile, not giving him a wage, and constant control. Moreover, in these times Tomac was also feeling kind of lonely, since the political forces in Croatia were rather dispersed; and this was partly caused by the activities of the local supporters of Stjepan Radić. At the end the author concludes that perhaps this local aspect is the best way to demonstrate how this lack of the concentrated and organised political
activities caused political tragedy.
Keywords
The Kingdom of Serbs; Croats and Slovenians; Juraj Tomac; political history; the twentieth century; Catholic Church
Hrčak ID:
9667
URI
Publication date:
15.6.2005.
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