Original scientific paper
THE LEADERSHIP OF THE USTASHA MOVEMENT AND THE CRUSADERS 1945-48
Zdenko Radelić
; Croatian Institute of History, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
On the basis of previously inaccessible archival documents, and the secondary literature, the author shows the aims of the Ustasha movement in emigration after 1945 to combat the communist government and Yugoslavia in order to reestablish the Independent State of Croatia. For this purpose, they planned to organize the guerrilla, or "crusader", groups still operating in Croatia and Bosnia and Hercegovina under the umbrella of so-called Croatian military forces. Counting on support from the US and Great Britain in an anti-communist alliance against the Soviet east, the political orientation of the Ustasha leadership became pro-western. Contact with western agents revealed western interest in military intelligence and information about the military potential of the "crusaders," but they insisted that contact remain with specific individuals and not extend to official recognition. In opposition to the "liberal capitalist" system of the west, the ustasha leadership emphasized the importance of state, communal and private ownership, and likewise the necessity of preserving the peasant smallhold as the basis of "Croatian national life." The anticipated armed struggle was to be carried out exclusively by the Ustasha, but the future state was to be formed on the principles of democracy and national sovereignty. The Ustasha leadership hoped to tie Croatia to Western Europe and the United Nations. Due to the effective suppression of the guerrilla movement by the communist government, and the fact that contact with western intelligence agencies did not grow beyond informal exchanges because of the absence of open warfare between east and west, the plans of the Ustasha emigration were totally crushed.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
207237
URI
Publication date:
1.4.2001.
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