Original scientific paper
Fieldtrip of Zagreb students to Serbia in april 1912
Mislav Gabelica
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Using the existing historical sources, memories of the witnesses, newspaper articles, and the material from the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb, the author studies the mass fieldtrip of Zagreb students to Serbia that took place in the second half of April 1912. The author analyses the importance, cause and effect of this event primarily within the context of the foreign policy of the Kingdom of Serbia, and concludes that the fieldtrip of Zagreb students was directed by the state of Serbia, which was at that time preparing itself for conflict with the Ottoman Empire. It was further ready to enter into conflict with the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, organising the Yugoslav-oriented Croatian youth into petu kolonu. Supported by an official society named Slovenski jug (Slavic South) and the terrorist organisation Ujedinjenje ili smrt (Unity or Death), with which it cooperated during the preparation for the conflict with the Ottoman Empire, the state of Serbia established in Belgrade a youth club named Narodno Ujedinjenje (National Unity), which was intended to become the central organisation of the Yugoslav Nationalist Youth in the Monarchy. The fieldtrip of Zagreb students was organised in order for them to meet the persons, as well as official and non-official Serbian institutions that stood behind this club; and further, in order to convince them of the club’s respectable power, which should guarantee the realisation of its programme. It was only then that in Croatian lands of the Monarchy, club chapters were established; according to the claims made by their members, they were – apart from being of propagandistic nature – also intended for terrorist activities that were dictated from the centre in Belgrade.
Keywords
Kingdom of Serbia; Slovenski jug (Slavic South); Ujedinjenje ili smrt (Unity or Death); Narodno Ujedinjenje (National Unity); Yugoslav Nationalist Youth
Hrčak ID:
131230
URI
Publication date:
19.12.2014.
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