Franjo Tuđman
President of Croatia from 1990 to 1999 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Franjo Tuđman?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Franjo Tuđman[lower-alpha 1] (Croatian pronunciation: [frǎːɲo tûdʑman]; 14 May 1922 – 10 December 1999) was a Croatian politician and historian who became the first president of Croatia, from 1990 until his death. He served following the country's independence from Yugoslavia. Tuđman also was the ninth and last president of the Presidency of SR Croatia from May to July 1990.
Franjo Tuđman | |
---|---|
1st President of Croatia | |
In office 22 December 1990 – 10 December 1999 | |
Prime Minister | |
Preceded by | Himself (as President of the Presidency of the Republic of Croatia) |
Succeeded by |
|
President of the Presidency of the Republic of Croatia | |
In office 25 July 1990 – 22 December 1990 | |
Prime Minister | |
Deputy | Josip Manolić |
Preceded by | Himself (as President of the Presidency of the Socialist Republic of Croatia) |
Succeeded by | Himself (as President of Croatia) |
President of the Presidency of the Socialist Republic of Croatia | |
In office 30 May 1990 – 25 July 1990 | |
Prime Minister | Stjepan Mesić (as President of the Executive Council of the Socialist Republic of Croatia) |
Deputy | Josip Manolić |
Preceded by | Ivo Latin |
Succeeded by | Himself (as President of the Presidency of the Republic of Croatia) |
President of the Croatian Democratic Union | |
In office 17 June 1989 – 10 December 1999 | |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by |
|
Personal details | |
Born | (1922-05-14)14 May 1922 Veliko Trgovišće, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes |
Died | 10 December 1999(1999-12-10) (aged 77) Zagreb, Croatia |
Resting place | Mirogoj Cemetery, Zagreb, Croatia |
Nationality | Croatian |
Political party | SKH (1942–1967) HDZ (1989–1999) |
Spouse | |
Children | 3, including Miroslav |
Parents |
|
Alma mater | |
Profession | Politician, historian, soldier |
Signature | |
Website | tudjman |
Nickname | "Francek" |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Yugoslavia (1942–61) Croatia (1995–99) |
Branch/service | Yugoslav Partisans (1942–45) Yugoslav People's Army (1945–61) Armed Forces of Croatia (1995–99) |
Years of service | 1942–1961 1995–1999 |
Rank | Major general (YPA) Vrhovnik (HV)[1][2] |
Unit | 10th Zagreb Corps |
Battles/wars | World War II in Yugoslavia Croatian War of Independence Bosnian War |
Tuđman was born in Veliko Trgovišće. In his youth, he fought during World War II as a member of the Yugoslav Partisans. After the war, he took a post in the Ministry of Defence, later attaining the rank of major general of the Yugoslav Army in 1960. After his military career, he dedicated himself to the study of geopolitics. In 1963, he became a professor at the Zagreb Faculty of Political Sciences. He received a doctorate in history in 1965 and worked as a historian until coming into conflict with the regime. Tuđman participated in the Croatian Spring movement that called for reforms in the country and was imprisoned for his activities in 1972. He lived relatively anonymously in the following years until the end of communism, whereupon he began his political career by founding the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in 1989.
HDZ won the first Croatian parliamentary elections in 1990 and Tuđman became the President of the Presidency of SR Croatia. As president, Tuđman introduced a new constitution and pressed for the creation of an independent Croatia. On 19 May 1991, an independence referendum was held, which was approved by 93 percent of voters. Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991. Areas with a Serb majority revolted, backed by the Yugoslav Army, and Tuđman led Croatia during its War of Independence. A ceasefire was signed in 1992, but the war had spread into Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Croats fought in an alliance with Bosniaks. Their cooperation fell apart in late 1992 and Tuđman's government sided with Herzeg-Bosnia during the Croat-Bosniak War, a move that brought criticism from the international community. In a final verdict of war crimes trial of former high-ranking officials of Herceg-Bosnia, the ICTY stated that Tuđman shared in their joint criminal enterprise goal of establishing an entity to reunite the Croatian people which was to be implemented through the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims. However, it did not find him guilty of any specific crimes.
In March 1994, he signed the Washington Agreement with Bosnian President Alija Izetbegović that re-allied Croats and Bosniaks. In August 1995, he authorized a major offensive known as Operation Storm which effectively ended the war in Croatia. In the same year, he was one of the signatories of the Dayton Agreement that put an end to the Bosnian War. He was re-elected president in 1992 and 1997 and remained in power until his death in 1999. While supporters point out his role in achieving Croatian independence, critics have described his presidency as authoritarian.[5][6][7] Surveys after Tuđman's death have generally shown a high favorability rating among the Croatian public.
Franjo Tuđman was born on 14 May 1922 in Veliko Trgovišće, a village in the northern Croatian region of Hrvatsko Zagorje, at the time part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The family moved to the house marked as his birthplace soon after he was born.[8][9] His father Stjepan ran a local tavern and was a politically active member of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS).[10] He had been president of the HSS committee in Veliko Trgovišće for 16 years (1925–1941 and had been elected as mayor of Veliko Trgovišće in 1936 and 1938).[11] Mato, Andraš and Juraj, brothers of Stjepan Tuđman, emigrated to the United States.[12] Another brother, Valentin, also tried to emigrate, but a travelling accident prevented him and kept him in Veliko Trgovišće, where he worked as an (uneducated) veterinarian.[12]
Besides Franjo, Stjepan Tuđman had an elder daughter Danica Ana (who died as a baby), Ivica (born in 1924) and Stjepan "Štefek" (born in 1926).[12] When Franjo Tuđman was seven, his mother Justina (née Gmaz) died while bearing her fifth child.[13][14] Tuđman's mother was a devout Catholic, unlike his father and stepmother. His father, like Stjepan Radić, had anticlerical attitudes and young Franjo adopted his views.[10] As a child, Franjo Tuđman served as an altar boy in the local parish.[15] Tuđman attended elementary school in his native village from 15 September 1929 to 30 June 1933 and was an excellent student.[16]
He attended secondary school for eight years, starting in the autumn 1935.[17] The reasons for the interruption are not clear, but it is assumed that the primary cause was an economic crisis in that period.[18] According to some sources, the local parish helped young Franjo to continue his education[19] and his teacher even proposed him to be educated to become a priest.[20] When he was 15, his father brought him to Zagreb, where he met Vladko Maček, the president of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS).[10] At first young, Franjo liked the HSS, but later he turned towards communism.[21] On 5 November 1940, he was arrested during student demonstrations celebrating the anniversary of the Soviet October Revolution.[22]
On 10 April 1941, when Slavko Kvaternik proclaimed the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), the puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, Tuđman left school and started publishing secret newspapers with his friend Vlado Stopar.[22] He was recruited into the Yugoslav Partisans at the beginning of 1942 by Marko Belinić.[22] His father also joined the Partisans and became a founder of the State Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia (ZAVNOH). According to Tuđman, his father was arrested by the Ustashas, the fascist and ultranationalist organization that governed the NDH, and one of his brothers was taken to a concentration camp.[22] They both managed to survive, unlike the youngest brother Stjepan[22] who was killed by the Gestapo[23] fighting for the Partisans in 1943.
Tuđman was traveling between Zagreb and Zagorje using false documents which identified him as a member of the Croatian Home Guard. There, he was helping to activate a partisan division in Zagorje.[22] On 11 May 1942, while carrying Belinić's letter, he was arrested by the Ustashas, but managed to escape from the police station.[22]
Franjo Tuđman and Ankica Žumbar were married on 25 May 1945 at the Belgrade City Council.[24] In this way, they wanted to confirm their faith in the Communist movement and the importance of civil rituals over religious ones.[24] (In May 1945, the government created the law which allowed civil weddings, taking weddings, among other things, out of Church jurisdiction.) They returned to work that same day.[24]
On 26 April 1946, his father Stjepan and stepmother were found dead.[24] Tuđman never clarified the circumstances of their death. According to the police, his father Stjepan killed his wife and then himself. Other theories accuse Ustasha guerrillas (Crusaders) and members of the Yugoslav secret police (OZNA).[24]
Franjo and Ankica did not qualify as secondary school graduates until after the war, in Belgrade.[25] He graduated from the Partisan High School in 1945 and she finished five semesters of English language in the Yugoslav Foreign Office.[25]
In 1953, Tuđman was promoted to the position of colonel and in 1959, he became a major general.[25] At the age of 38, he had become the youngest general in the Yugoslav Army. His promotion was not extreme, but it was atypical for a Croat because senior officers were increasingly likely to be Serbs and Montenegrins.[25] In 1962, Serbs and Montenegrins composed 70% of army generals.[26]
On 23 May 1954, he became secretary of JSD Partizan Belgrade[27] and, in May 1958, its president,[27] becoming the first colonel to occupy that position (all previous holders were generals).[27] He was placed in that position in order to solve administration problems inside of the club, especially the football section. When he arrived, JSD Partizan Belgrade was a kind of intelligence battlefield where leaders of UDBA and KOS struggled for influence.[28] That caused clubs (despite having notable and good players) to have bad results, especially its football section.[29] During his club presidency, the club adopted the black-white striped kit which is used to this day. According to Tuđman, he wanted to create a club that would have a pan-Yugoslav image and oppose SD Crvena Zvezda that had an exclusive Serbian image.[30] Tuđman was inspired by Juventus F.C. uniforms. However, Stjepan Bobek (former player of FK Partizan) claimed that uniform colors idea was, in fact, his, which he passed on to Tuđman.[31]
Tuđman attended the military academy in Belgrade, like many officers who did not have formal military education. He graduated from the tactical school on 18 July 1957 as an excellent student.[32] One of his teachers was Dušan Bilandžić, who would be a future advisor.[33] Before he turned 40 years old, he had risen to become the youngest general in the Yugoslav Army. He was prominent in attending to communist indoctrination while based in Belgrade, where his three children were born.[34]
In 1963, he became professor at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Political Sciences where he taught a course called "Socialist Revolution and Contemporary National History".[35] He left active army service in 1961 at his own request and began working at the Institut za historiju radničkoga pokreta Hrvatske (English: Institute for the History of Workers' Movement of Croatia), and remained its director until 1967.[35]
Tuđman's increasing insistence on a Croatian interpretation of history[clarification needed] turned many professors from University of Zagreb like Mirjana Gross and Ljubo Boban against him.[36] In April 1964, Boban denounced Tuđman as a nationalist.[36] During Tuđman's leadership the Institute became a source of alternative interpretations of Yugoslav history which caused his conflict with official Yugoslav historiography.[33] He did not have an appropriate academic degree to qualify him as a historian. He began to realize that he would need to obtain a doctorate in order to keep his position. His dissertation was entitled The Causes of the Crisis of the Yugoslav Monarchy from Unification in 1918 until Its Breakdown in 1941, and was a compilation of some of his previously published works. The University of Zagreb's Faculty of Philosophy rejected his dissertation, on the grounds that some parts of it had already been published.[37] The Faculty of Arts in Zadar (then part of University of Zagreb, today University of Zadar) accepted it and he graduated on 28 December 1965.[38][37]
In his thesis, he stated that the primary cause of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia's breakdown was the repressive and corrupted regime which was at odds with the contemporary mainstream Yugoslav historiography which considered Croatian nationalism to be its primary cause.[37] Bogdanov and Milutinović (both ethnic Serbs) did not object to this. However, the Zagreb-based publisher Naprijed cancelled the contract following his refusal to change some controversial statements in the book.[37] He publicly supported the goals of the Declaration on the Name and Status of the Croatian Literary Language.[clarification needed] The Croatian Parliament and League of Communists of Croatia from Zagreb, however, attacked it and the board of the institute requested Tuđman's resignation.[39]
In December 1966, Ljubo Boban accused Tuđman of plagiarism,[40] stating that Tuđman had compiled four-fifths of his doctoral thesis, The Creation of the Socialist Yugoslavia, from Boban's work. Boban offered conclusive proofs to his claim from articles published previously in the magazine Forum and the rest from Boban's own thesis.[40] Tuđman was then expelled from the Institute and forced to retire in 1967.[41]
Between 1962 and 1967, he was the president of the Main Committee for International Relations of the Croatian League of Communists Main Board[clarification needed] and deputy in the Croatian Parliament between 1965 and 1969.[41]
Apart from his book on guerrilla warfare, Tuđman wrote a series of articles criticizing the Yugoslav Socialist establishment. His most important book from that period was Velike ideje i mali narodi ("Great ideas and small nations"), a monograph on political history that brought him into conflict with the central dogmas of the Yugoslav Communist elite with regard to the interconnectedness of the national and social elements in the Yugoslav revolutionary war (during World War II).
In 1970, he became a member of the Croatian Writers' Society. In 1972 he was sentenced to two years in prison for subversive activities during the Croatian Spring. According to Tuđman's own testimony[citation needed], the Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito personally intervened to recommend the court to be lenient in his case, sparing him a longer prison sentence. The authorities of SR Croatia additionally intended to prosecute Tuđman on charges of espionage, which carried a sentence of 15–20 years in prison with hard labour, but the charge was commuted by Tito. Other sources mention that Miroslav Krleža, a writer, lobbied on Tuđman's behalf.[35] According to Tuđman, he and Tito were close friends.[42] However, Tuđman later described Tito's crackdown as an "autocratic coup d'état".[43]
The Croatian Spring was a national movement set in motion by Tito and the Croatian communist party chairman Vladimir Bakarić amid the climate of growing liberalism in the late 1960s. It was initially a tepid and ideologically controlled party liberalism, but it soon grew into a mass nationalist-based manifestation of dissatisfaction with the position of Croatia within Yugoslavia. As a result, the movement was suppressed by Tito, who used the military and the police to put a stop to what he saw as separatism and a threat to the party's influence. Bakarić quickly distanced himself from the Croatian communist leadership that he himself had helped to gain power earlier and sided with the Yugoslav president. However, Tito took the protesters' demands into consideration and in 1974 the new Yugoslav constitution granted the majority of the demands sought by the Croatian Spring. On other topics like Communism and one-party political monopoly Tuđman remained mostly within the framework of the communist ideology of the day. His sentence was eventually commuted by Tito's government and Tuđman was released after spending nine months in prison.[citation needed]
In 1977, he traveled to Sweden using a forged Swedish passport to meet members of the Croatian diaspora.[44] His trip apparently went unnoticed by Yugoslav police. However, on that trip he gave an interview to Swedish TV about the position of Croats in Yugoslavia that was later broadcast.[44] Upon returning to Yugoslavia, Tuđman was put on trial again in 1981 because of this interview, and was accused for having spread "enemy propaganda". On 20 February 1981 he was found guilty and sentenced to three years of prison and 5 years in house arrest.[45] However, he served only eleven months of the sentence.[41] In June 1987, he became a member of the Croatian PEN centre.[41] On 6 June 1987, he travelled to Canada with his wife to meet Croatian Canadians.[46] They were trying not to discuss sensitive issues with emigrants abroad fearing that some might be agents of the Yugoslav secret police UDBA, which was a common practice at the time.[47]
During his trips to Canada he met many Croatian emigrants who were natives of Herzegovina or were of Herzegovinian ancestry. Some of these later became Croatian government officials after the country's independence, the most prominent of whom was Gojko Šušak, whose father and elder brother had been members of the Ustaše.[48] These meetings abroad in the late 1980s later gave rise to many conspiracy theories. According to these rumours the Croats of Herzegovina had somehow used the meetings to earn a huge amount of influence inside the HDZ, as well as the post-independence Croatian establishment.[49]
In the latter part of the 1980s, when Yugoslavia was nearing its demise, torn by conflicting national aspirations, Tuđman formulated a Croatian national programme that can be summarized in the following way:
- The primary goal is the establishment of the Croatian nation-state; therefore all ideological disputes from the past should be thrown away. In practice, this meant strong support from the anti-Communist Croatian diaspora, especially financial.
- Even though Tuđman's final goal was an independent Croatia, he was well aware of the realities of internal and foreign policy. His chief initial proposal was not a fully independent Croatia, but a confederate Yugoslavia with growing decentralization and democratization.
- Tuđman envisaged Croatia's future as a welfare capitalist state [clarification needed] that will inevitably move towards central Europe and away from the Balkans.
- With regard to the burning issues of national conflicts, his vision was the following (at least initially): he asserted that Serbian nationalism, controlled by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), could wreak havoc on Croatian and Bosnian soil. The JNA, according to some estimates the fourth European military force in terms of firepower, was being rapidly Serbianized, both ideologically and ethnically,[50] in less than four years. Tuđman's proposal was that Serbs in Croatia, who made up 12% of Croatia's population, should gain cultural freedom with elements of territorial autonomy.[citation needed]
- As far as Bosnia and Herzegovina was concerned, Tuđman was more ambivalent: Tuđman did not take a separate Bosnia seriously as shown by his comments to a television crew "Bosnia was a creation of the Ottoman invasion ... Until then it was part of Croatia, or it was a kingdom of Bosnia, but a Catholic kingdom, linked to Croatia".[51]
On 17 June 1989, Tuđman founded the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). Essentially, this was a nationalist Croatian movement that affirmed Croatian values based on Catholicism blended with historical and cultural traditions which had been generally suppressed in communist Yugoslavia. The aim was to gain national independence and to establish a Croatian nation-state.[citation needed]
Internal tensions that had broken up the Communist party of Yugoslavia prompted the governments of federal Republics to schedule free multiparty elections in spring 1990. These were the first free multi-party elections for the Croatian Parliament since 1913. The HDZ held its first convention on 24–25 February 1990, when Tuđman was elected its president. The election campaign took place from late March until 20 April 1990. Tuđman recruited several supporters from members of the diaspora who returned home, most importantly Gojko Šušak.[52]
Tuđman based his campaign mostly on the national question. He stated that the dinar earned in Croatia should stay in Croatia, thus objecting to the subsidies for less developed parts of Yugoslavia, or for the Yugoslav army.[53] He addressed the economic crisis, called for the renewal of a market economy and a parliamentary democracy, and expressed his support for the accession to the European Community. He maintained that Yugoslavia could survive only as a confederation.[54] Although Tuđman had ties with the right-wing anti-Communist diaspora, he also had important colleagues from the Partisan Communist establishment, including Josip Boljkovac and Josip Manolić.[53] His main opponent in the election was Ivica Račan from the League of Communists of Croatia (SKH), who became the SKH Chairman in December 1989.[55]
Tuđman's talk of Croatia's past glories and independence was not received well among Croatian Serbs. The HDZ was heavily criticized by Serbian media, portraying their possible victory as a revival of NDH.[56] Veljko Kadijević, general of the JNA, said at meeting of the army and SR Croatia leaderships that the elections will bring the Ustashe to power in Croatia. A few weeks before the elections, the army removed the weapons of the Territorial Defence from stores all over Croatia.[57] During a HDZ campaign rally in Benkovac, an ethnically mixed town, a 62-year-old Serbian man, Boško Čubrilović, pulled out a gas pistol near the podium. Croatian media described the incident as an assassination attempt on Tuđman, but Čubrilović was in late 1990 charged and convicted only of threatening the security staff. The incident further worsened ethnic tensions.[58]
During his campaign, on 16 April 1990 Tuđman had a conversation with news reporters where he said:
All sorts of other lies are being spread today, I do not know what else they will invent. I've heard that I'm of Jewish descent, but I found, I knew of my ancestors in Zagorje from around 350 years ago, and I said, maybe it would be good to have some of that, I guess I would be richer, I might not have become a Communist. Then, as if that's not enough, then they declare that my wife is Jewish or Serbian. Luckily for me, she never was either, although many wives are. And so on and so forth spreading lies ...[59]
The part of the statement about his wife was later widely criticized, including by officials of the Wiesenthal Center.[60] Croatian historian Ante Nazor cited claims by Tuđman's son, Miroslav and Stijepo Mijović Kočan [who?] about the statement being directed against the former Yugoslav communist system rather than against Jews or Serbs; instead about mixed marriages being used by Croats as a means to promotion in the system.[59] On 19 April, at a rally in Zadar, Tuđman said:[61]
Let them not deceive that we want a restoration of the fascist NDH, which was created and disappeared within the Second World War. We know that the Croatian people also fought during the war on the other side under partisan, Tito's flags because he promised to create a free Federal State of Croatia that would be equal to all other nations. Clearly, instead of a realization of these ideals we received communist hell.
The elections were scheduled for all 356 seats in the parliament. Tuđman's party triumphed and got an absolute majority of around 60% or 205 seats in the Croatian Parliament. Tuđman was elected to the position of President of Croatia on 30 May 1990. After the victory of HDZ the nationalistic Serb Democratic Party (SDS) spread its influence quickly in places where Serbs formed a high percentage of the population.[62] Since the split among communists in Yugoslavia along ethnic lines was already a fact at that time, it seemed inevitable that the conflicts would continue following the multi-party elections which brought to power new political establishments in Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, while at the same time the same communist officials kept their posts in Serbia and Montenegro.[citation needed]