Pregledni rad
National Identification in Croatia
Miroslav VUJEVIĆ
Sažetak
Croatians established their state a long time ago and
managed to retain elements of their sovereignty within the
countries they joined of their own free will throughout history.
However, Croatian identity was suppressed in them. National
revival defined the difference among Croats, Austrians and
Hungarians, but not among the Croats and other South
Slavs. As a result, Croats joined the unitarian South-Slavic
state without their identity and lost all the elements of
sovereignty for the first time in history. This led to the conflict
between the Croats and Serbs and Croats amongst
themselves. The greatest conflicts occurred in the Second
World War. After this war Yugoslavia was reconstructed, but
the national conflicts continued. Although the Croatian
contribution to the victory of antifascism was the greatest, a
complex of guilt arose due to the former existence of the
NDH (Independent State of Croatia) and patriotism came to
be regarded as something negative, while nationalism was
equated to chauvinism. The establishment of the
independent Croatian state, which was supposed to protect
its national and cultural values, began to pose a threat to
them again. Unity yielded, giving way once more to conflicts,
criminal activities within the process of transition, a decrease
in birth rate, growth of debt, banks and successful
companies being sold for nothing, the Liberation War and its
soldiers becoming criminalised and the latter committing
suicides… National values cannot be protected solely with
the establishment of an independent state unless necessary
changes occur in the political culture as well. Among other
things, the concept of patriotism should be distinguished
from chauvinism, while the terms patriotism and national
pride should be freed from the negative connotation they
were given in a society which prohibited them.
Ključne riječi
national identification; patriotism; nationalism; chauvinism; national awareness; national feeling
Hrčak ID:
19039
URI
Datum izdavanja:
30.6.2007.
Posjeta: 4.269 *