Immediately after the political
hybrid was formed, the Croats expressed their discontent by handing
election victories to the "Croatian Peasant Party" headed by Radic.
The latter was a dour and devout anti-Yugoslav. He openly agitated
for an independent - rustic and pastoral - Croatia. But Radic was a
pragmatist. He learned his lesson when - having boycotted the
Constituent Assembly in Belgrade - he facilitated the imposition of
a pro-Serb, pro-central government constitution. Radic moderated his
demands, if not his rhetoric. The goal was now a federated
Yugoslavia with Croat autonomy within it. There is poetic justice in
that his death - at the hand of a Montenegrin deputy on the floor of
the Skupstina in 1928 - brought about the dictatorship that was to
give rise to Macek and the Sporazum (Croat autonomy). The irony is
that a peasant-favouring land reform was being seriously implemented
when a deadlock between peasant parties led to King Alexander's
fateful decision to abolish the parliamentary system.
King Alexander I was a good and worthy man forced by circumstances
into the role of an abhorrent tyrant. He was a great believer in the
power of symbols and education. He changed the name of his loose
confederacy into a stricter "Yugoslavia".
Pages:
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66