Original scientific paper
THE HRVATSKA MATICA ISELJENIKA (CROATIAN HERITAGE FOUNDATION): 1964 TO 1968
Iva Kraljević
; Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The Croatian Heritage Foundation was founded on 12 February 1951 in Zagreb as a cultural-educational society with the intention of maintaining cultural and friendly relations between the emigrant community and the homeland. In the period between 1964 and 1968, the Foundation developed a very important activity in connecting the homeland with Croatian emigrants. At that time, a qualitative change in its work became apparent in its approach to the then current issue of economic emigration and the creation of links with members of the Croat nation in European lands. The changes that took place were in part tied to the melioration of government policies toward emigrants at the beginning of the 1960s, and in part to the arrival of a new president of the Foundation, Većeslav Holjevac. During the term of his presidency, events occurred for which Holjevac was investigated by the Party, resulting ultimately in his departure from Croatian political life in 1967. What spurred the investigations was the appearance of the Deklaracija o nazivu i položaju hrvatskog književnog jezika [the Declaration concerning the name and status of the Croatian literary language] in March 1967, when in party debates, the Croatian Heritage Foundation, along with the Matica Hrvatska [Croatian Cultural Foundation], the Društvo književnika Hrvatske [Society of Croatian writers], and the Institut za historiju radničkog pokreta [Institute for the history of the workers’ movement] were designated “hotbeds of nationalism”.
Keywords
Matica iseljenika Hrvatske (Croatian Heritage Foundation); Većeslav Holjevac; Emigration
Hrčak ID:
48001
URI
Publication date:
26.7.2009.
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