Original scientific paper
The forgotten history of city of Split an its environments - The Crusaders Organisation of the Central Dalmatia in the UDB file of Zlata Radović
Blanka Matković
; University of Cambridge
Abstract
In the first months after the partisans had taken Dalmatia started founding of Crusader groups that acted mostly in the rural and mountain areas, especially along the border with the adjacent Bosnia and Herzegovina. These groups continued their activities as long as till the early 1950s, when the last Crusaders were caught exactly in the Dalmatian area. In the same period of time in towns were organised organisations of political anti-Communist resistance, such as those of Frane Bettini and Frane Tente. However, in the historiography less known is the work of the Crusader organisations that were in larger towns responsible for collecting financial and other aid and maintaining existing and creation of new contacts. The topic of this paper are the activities of one of these organisations, so far unknown to the Croatian historic science. The Crusader Organisation [križarska organizacija] of Central Dalmatia acted in the aras of the town of Split and its surroundings, especially in Solin, Klis, Dicmo, Dugopolje and Bisko, establishing and maintaining contacts with the Crusader groups in the area of Livno in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This paper will attempt presenting the activities of this group through the information preserved in the UDB [Uprava državne bezbjednosti = State Security Administration] file of Zlata Radović of Radošić near Sinj. A more complete reconstruction of the Crusade Organisation of Central Dalmatia is made difficult by the lack of the files of other organisation members ho most certainly existed, but so far have not been found or have been destroyed. The destiny of these Crusaders also remains unknown. However, in spite of their fragmentaryness, the documents presented in the paper indicate richness of the sources on the history and activities of the Crusader groups and organisations in the period of time after the World War Two and the Croatian people's forgotten recent history.
Keywords
Crusaders; anti-Communist resistance; UDB [Uprava državne bezbjednosti = State Security Administration]; World War Two; post-war period; Central Dalmatia; Zlata Radović; Crusader Organisations
Hrčak ID:
292844
URI
Publication date:
9.12.2022.
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