Franjo Tuđman (May 14, 1922 - December 10, 1999) was the first president of Croatia in the 1990s. May 14 is the 134th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (135th in leap years). ... 1922 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... December 10 is the 344th day (345th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Events and trends The 1990s are generally classified as having moved slightly away from the more conservative 1980s, but keeping the same mind-set. ...

Tuđman's political party HDZ (Hrvatska Demokratska Zajednica, Croatian Democratic Union) won the first post-communist multi-party elections in 1990 and he became the president of the country. A year later he proclaimed the Croatian declaration of independence. He was reelected twice and remained in power until his death in late 1999. The Croatian Democratic Union (Croatian: Hrvatska Demokratska Zajednica, HDZ), is a Croatian political party. ... Communism - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... 1990 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...

Franjo Tuđman Order: 1st President Term of Office: May 30, 1990 - December 10, 1999 Date of Birth: May 14, 1922 Place of Birth: Veliko Trgovišće, Croatia Spouse: Ankica Tuđman Profession: soldier & historian Political Party: Croatian Democratic Union HDZ

The Communist

Franjo Tuđman was born in Veliko Trgovišće, a village in Hrvatsko Zagorje, region in northern Croatia. Categories: Geography stubs | Counties of Croatia ...

During WWII Tuđman fought on the side of Tito's partisans, where he also met his future wife, Ankica. He became one of the youngest generals in the Yugoslav People's Army in the 1960s — a fact which some observers linked to the fact that he sprung from Zagorje, a region that gave few Communist partisans. German soldiers at the Battle of Stalingrad World War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the worlds nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. ... Josip Broz Tito (May 7, 1892 - May 4, 1980) was the ruler of Yugoslavia between the end of World War II and his death in 1980. ... The Yugoslav partisans were the main anti-fascist resistance movement which fought against the occupation of Yugoslavia by Axis forces during World War II. The uniting force of the anti-fascist partisans on the territory was Peoples Liberation Army and Partisan detachments of Yugoslavia (NOV i POJ; Narodnooslobodilačka vojska... The Yugoslav Peoples Army (Jugoslavenska/Jugoslovenska narodna armija, JNA, Slovene Jugoslovanska ljudska armada, JLA) was the army of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia prior to its dissolution. ...

Others have observed that Tuđman was probably the most educated of Tito's generals (as regards military history, strategy and the interplay of politics and warfare) — this claim is supported by the fact that generations of future Yugoslav generals based their general exam theses on his voluminous book on guerilla warfare throughout history: Rat protiv rata ("War against war"), 1957, which covers as diverse topics as Hannibal's drive across the Alps, Spanish war against Napoleon and Yugoslav partisan warfare. A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. ... 1957 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Hannibal Barca Hannibal (247 BC – 182 BC) was a military commander of ancient Carthage, best known for his achievements in the Second Punic War in marching an army from Spain over the Pyrenees and the Alps into northern Italy and defeating the Romans at the Battles of the river Trebia... For other uses, see Napoleon (disambiguation). ... Yugoslavia (Jugoslavija in all south Slavic languages) is a term used for three separate but successive political entities that existed during most of the 20th century on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe. ...

Tuđman left active army service in 1961 to found the "Institute for the history of the workers' movement", and remained its director until 1967. 1961 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1967 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The Dissident

Apart from the book on guerilla warfare, Tuđman wrote a series of articles attacking the Yugoslav Communist establishment, and was subsequently expelled from the Party. His most important book from that period was Velike ideje i mali narodi ("Great ideas and small peoples"), a monograph on political history that collided with central dogmas of Yugoslav Communist elite with regard to the interconnectedness of the national and social elements in the Yugoslav revolutionary war (during WWII). This article is about communism as a form of society built around a gift economy, as an ideology that advocates that form of society, and as a popular movement. ... German soldiers at the Battle of Stalingrad World War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the worlds nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. ...

In 1971 he was sentenced to two years of prison for alleged subversive activities during the so-called "Croatian Spring". 1971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ... The Croatian Spring (Hrvatsko proljeće, also called masovni pokret or MASPOK, for mass movement) was a political movement from the early 1970s that called for greater rights for Croatia which was then part of Yugoslavia. ...

The Croatian Spring was a reformist movement that was actually set in motion by Tito and Croatian party chief Bakarić in the climate of growing liberalism in the late 60s. It was initially a tepid and ideologically controlled party liberalism, but it soon grew into mass manifestation of dissatisfaction with the position of the Croatian people in Yugoslavia, and it began to threaten the party's political monopoly. The result was a brutal suppression by Tito, who used the military and the police to crush what he saw as the threat to his undivided power - Bakarić quickly distanced himself from the Croatian Communist leadership that he himself helped gain power earlier, and sided with the Yugoslav ruler. Josip Broz Tito (May 7, 1892 - May 4, 1980) was the ruler of Yugoslavia between the end of World War II and his death in 1980. ... Vladimir Bakarić (8 March 1912-16 January 1983) was Chairman of the Croatian League of Communists from 1948 to 1969. ... Yugoslavia (Jugoslavija in all south Slavic languages) is a term used for three separate but successive political entities that existed during most of the 20th century on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe. ... Josip Broz Tito (May 7, 1892 - May 4, 1980) was the ruler of Yugoslavia between the end of World War II and his death in 1980. ...

During the turbulent 1971, Tuđman's role was that of the dissident who questioned the central myth of modern Serbian nationalism, the number of victims of the Jasenovac concentration camp, as well as the role of centralism in Yugoslav and the continuation of ideology of unitary "Yugoslavism". Tuđman felt that this originally Croatian romantic pan-Slavic idea from the 19th century had been mutated in harsh realities in both Yugoslav states into the front for a pan-Serbian drive for domination over non-Serb peoples — from economy and army to culture and language. A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively opposes an established opinion, policy, or structure. ... Serbs (in the Serbian language Срби, Srbi) are a south Slavic people living chiefly in Serbia and Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. ... Jasenovac gate Jasenovac was the largest concentration and extermination camp in Croatia during the World War II, and possibly the third largest in the world at the time. ... Centralization is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding decision-making, become concentrated within a particular location and/or group. ... National flag of all Slavs approved on the Pan-Slav convention in Prague in 1848 The 19th century movement Pan-Slavism was a movement in the mid 19th century aimed at unity of all the Slavic peoples. ...

On other topics like Communism and one-party monopoly, Tuđman remained mostly within the framework of Communist ideology. His sentence was commuted and Tuđman had been released after nine months. This article is about communism as a form of society built around a gift economy, as an ideology that advocates that form of society, and as a popular movement. ...

Tuđman was tried again in 1981 for the "crime" of giving the interview to the Swedish TV on the position of Croats in Yugoslavia and got three years of prison, but again he only served a portion, this time eleven months. 1981 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Croats (Croatian: Hrvati) are a south Slavic people mostly living in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (where theyre one of the constitutive nations). ...

In 1989 Tuđman published his most famous work, The Horrors of War (Bespuća povijesne zbiljnosti) in which he questioned the number of victims during World War II in Yugoslavia. "The Horrors of War" is a strange book, a compilation of meditations on the role of violence in the world history interspersed with personal reminiscences on his squabbles with Yugoslav apparatchiks and slowly spiralling towards the true center of the work: the attack on hyperinflation of Serbian casualties in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... The Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH) was a Nazi/Fascist puppet state in World War II. It was set up in April 1941 on parts of the territory of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia after its occupation. ...

Serbian politically-motivated history writers had claimed that the number of Serbs killed in Jasenovac was between 500,000 to 1,000,000. These numbers were grossly inaccurate, yet they were intentionally propagated, cleverly manipulated and intensified for purely political reasons: the Ustaše were a defeated enemy from World War II that had to be portrayed as ultimately negative. However, some went so far to decry all Croats by extension, and victimize all the Serbs, thereby creating a self-image of a people victimized by Croats, who are depicted as diabolical Serbocidal fanatics. This in turn led to the state of mind battening on fear, hostility and thirst for revenge. The fact that such claims were promoted by members of the Serbian intelligentsia, made it look like it was a scientific fact rather than an opinion. It was Franjo Tuđman's firm opinion that all this was done in an attempt to create and solidify Greater Serbian domination on the ruins of the destroyed, post-Titoist Yugoslavia. The Ustaše (often spelled Ustashe in English; singular Ustaša or Ustasha) was a Croatian far-right organisation put in charge of the Independent State of Croatia by the Axis Powers in 1941. ... Greater Serbia is a name for a Serbian nationalist concept. ...

Tuđman had, relying on earlier investigations, concluded that the number of all victims in the Jasenovac camp (Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, Croats, and others) was somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000. Current investigations have bracketed the figure in a similar scale — between 56,000 and 85,000 — therefore by and large confirming that Tuđman's estimates were not fabricated. They were, however, considerably lower than the official numbers and most previous estimates, which caused ample controversy.

Other controversy surrounding The Horrors of War was Tuđman's alleged anti-Semitism, supposedly expressed in this book. On closer examination, Tuđman can be blamed only for the lack of sensitivity: he quoted various Jewish sources that show how the number of victims is hard to estimate — Jewish and Israeli historians placed the number of Jews killed in the Nazi genocide between 4 and 6 million. The relativity of these figures ("margin of error" fluctuating around 2 million people dead or alive) prompted Tuđman to lump these estimates with evidently overinflated Serbian ones. However, in the case of Jewish victimology, figures vary ca. 30 %, whereas the Serbian victimology had no less than 1200 % "margin of error" — a grotesque example of manipulation. Anti-Semitism (alternatively spelled antisemitism) is hostility towards Jews (not: Semites - see the Misnomer section further on). ... The Nazi Party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ... The top portion of this graphic depicts probability densities that show the relative likelihood that the true percentage is in a particular area given a reported percentage of 50 percent. ...

Also, Tuđman's style was anything but nuanced: the characteristic amply misused by Serbian propagandists who quoted Tuđman's frequently superficial generalizations taken out of context, in order to depict him as virulent anti-Semite. This ensued in tension between a part of Jewish communities (especially in the USA and Israel) and befuddled Tuđman — a tension that was soon dispelled by prominent Jewish figures like writers and publicists Alain Finkielkraut and Philip Cohen or Tommy Baer of Jewish World Congress. Alain Finkielkraut (b. ...

Aside from that furore, The Horrors of War, the most famous (but not the best) Tuđman's book, remained closer to the leftist and socialist worldview, not questioning the Marxist ideology as such.

If Tuđman’s stature as a historian and publicist is to be evaluated, it would probably be along the following lines: his voluminous (more than 2,000 pages long) “Hrvatska u monarhistickoj Jugoslaviji”/Croatia in Monarchist Yugoslavia, has become standard university textbook analyzing this period of Croatian history; his shorter treateses on national question (“Nacionalno pitanje u suvremenoj Europi/The National question in contemporary Europe; “Usudbene povijestice”/History’s fates) are still valuable essays on this particular problem, while his most celebrated work “Bespuca povijesne zbiljnosti”/”Horrors of war”, consciously distorted and misused by anti-Croat propagandists of various affiliations, will, in all probability, become regarded as a book of historical importance only, since its value lies mostly in publicly dismantled central Greater Serbian modern myth- the hyperinflation of number of Serbian victims in Jasenovac concentration camp. Generally, Tuđman’s historical works are considered to have gained the status of indispensable synthetic surveys of Croatian 20th century history, while his shorter political-cultural analyses and geopolitical essays belong to the treasury of classical Croatian political thought. However, Tuđman’s overly Marxist treatises and polemical squabbles are period pieces that will, in all likelihood, vanish into oblivion.

The national program

In the latter part of the 1980s, when Yugoslavia was creeping towards its inevitable demise, torn by conflicting national aspirations (among them the most "visible" Albanian "troubles" in Serbian province Kosovo and the pan-Serbian national populist movement, moulded by Serbian intellectual elite and led by former banker and Communist official Slobodan Milošević), Tuđman formulated a Croatian national program that can be summarized in the following way: Yugoslavia (Jugoslavija in all south Slavic languages) is a term used for three separate but successive political entities that existed during most of the 20th century on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe. ... Kosovo and Metohia (Serbian: Косово и Метохија / Kosovo i Metohija, Albanian: Kosova), in English most oftenly called just Kosovo, is a province of Serbia. ... Slobodan Milošević. ...

• The primary goal is establishment of the Croatian nation-state; therefore all ideological disputes from the past should be thrown away. In practice, this meant strong support from anti-Communist Croatian diaspora, especially financial.

• Since the grudges and impediments from western European countries could be expected, particularly along the lines:" We are undergoing a process of integration, and you (Croats) want to disintegrate a successful multiethnic country, Yugoslavia", the answer was found in an equally simplistic expression: "Your pet Yugoslavia is not a multiethnic paradise, but a Serbian Communist tyranny. Do you support "integration" based on oppression?". Or, in a more nuanced vocabulary: "Nations are simultaneously going through processes of national individualization and international integration".

• Even though Tuđman's final goal was an independent Croatia, he was well aware of the realities of internal and foreign policy. So, his chief initial proposal was not a fully independent Croatia, but a confederal Yugoslavia with growing decentralization and democratization. He knew that this process would eventually corrode all Greater-Serbia projects, only if it could be implemented in peace.

• Tuđman envisaged Croatia's future as a welfare capitalist state that will inevitably move towards central Europe and away from the Balkans.

• With regard to the burning issuses of national conflicts, his vision was the following (at least at the beginning): he knew that Serbian nationalism, which effectively controlled JNA (Yugoslav People's Army: Serbs, who constituted less than 40% of Yugoslavia's population, made ca. 80% of commissioned officers corps) could wreak havoc on Croatian and Bosnian soil. The JNA, according to some estimates the 4th European military force re firepower, was being rapidly Serbianized, both ideologically and ethnically, in less than 4 years. Tuđman's proposal was that Serbs in Croatia, who made up 11 % of Croatia's population, should gain cultural with elements of territorial autonomy.

With regard to this point, Tuđman did not satisfy Serbian appetites that operated on many levels: the lower one was the condition that they should have the right of the contitutive people (ie., the right to secede) in any form of Croatian state — effectively, that Croatia should be defined as a bi-national, Croato-Serbian country (notwithstanding the fact that Croats constituted 78 %, and Serbs 11 % of the populace in 1991).-1... Western Europe is distinguished from Eastern Europe by differences of history and culture rather than by geography. ... Greater Serbia is a name for a Serbian nationalist concept. ... Historical lands and provinces in Central Europe Central Europe is the region of Europe between Eastern Europe and Western Europe. ... The Balkans is the historic and geographic name used to describe southeastern Europe (see the Definitions and boundaries section below). ... The Yugoslav Peoples Army (Jugoslavenska/Jugoslovenska narodna armija, JNA, Slovene Jugoslovanska ljudska armada, JLA) was the army of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia prior to its dissolution. ... Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or political entity. ...

Apart from being a stew cooked in the ideological kitchen of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (the mother of all Serbian expansionist machinations in 1980s), this claim had a sort of legitimacy in a purposely ambiguous formulation of Croatia's constitution from 1974. But, it could hardly stand a dispassionate legal analysis. Everyone knew that it was only a pretext for impending Serbian aggression. 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ...

• As far as Bosnia and Herzegovina was concerned, Tuđman was more ambivalent: initially, he thought (as did many Croats from northwestern Croatia) that Bosnian Muslims or Bosniaks are, essentially, Croats of Muslim faith and will, freed from Communist censorship, declare themselves ethnically as Croats, therefore making Bosnia a predominantly Croatian country (with 44% Bosnian Muslims, 17% Croats and 33 % Serbs). But, these illusions were soon dispelled.

Bosniaks (natively: Bošnjaci) are South Slavs who converted to Islam during the Ottoman period (15th-19th century). ...

The President of Croatia

Internal tensions that had broken up the Communist party of Yugoslavia prompted the governments of federal Republics to call for the first free multiparty elections after 1945. 1945 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Tuđman's connections with Croatian diaspora (he travelled a few times to Canada and USA after 1987) have proven to be crucial when he founded Croatian Democratic Union ("Hrvatska demokratska zajednica" or HDZ, as it became known after its acronym) in 1989 — a party that was to stay in power until 2000, and which cannot be classified along criteria dominant in stable societies. 1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Croatian Democratic Union (Croatian: Hrvatska Demokratska Zajednica, HDZ), is a Croatian political party. ...

Essentially, this was the Croatian national movement that affirmed Croatian values based on Catholicism blended with historical and cultural traditions generally suppressed in Communist Yugoslavia (although soon many "repentant" Communists joined this pan-Croatian movement). The aim was to gain national independence and to establish Croatian nation-state. Tuđman's HDZ triumphed and got ca. 60% seats in the Croatian Parliament. After a few constitutional changes, Tuđman was elected to the position of President of Croatia. This article considers Catholicism in the broadest ecclesiastical sense. ... -1... The parliament of Croatia is called Hrvatski Sabor in Croatian - the word sabor means an assembly, a gathering, a congress. ... Current Constitution of the Republic of Croatia was adopted by the Parliament of the Republic of Croatia on December 22, 1990. ... The President of Croatia is the head of state. ...

Since the split among Communists in Yugoslavia was caused by the pan-Serbian movement led by Slobodan Milošević, it was inevitable that the conflict should continue after the democratic elections that brought to power non-Communists in Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Communists held their position in Serbia and Montenegro. For the tensions and wars that ensued, one should see history of Croatia and history of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Slobodan Milošević. ... This is the history of Croatia. ... This is the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina. ...

During these decisive years, especially from 1990 to 1995, Tuđman proved to be a master strategist. According to the testimonies of both friends and enemies, he outmanoeuvred Croatia's adversaries on many levels: diplomatic, military, information and economic. While his opponent Milošević was a brilliant tactician who, by many accounts, lacked the strategic vision, Tuđman was the exact opposite: frequently clumsy and erratic in behavior, he possessed the strong sense of mission and the vision of Croatia's independence — and the statesman's wisdom how to realize it. 1990 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Slobodan Milošević. ... Tactics is the collective name for methods of winning a small-scale conflict, performing an optimization, etc. ...

This was seen at crucial junctures of Croatia's history: the all-out war against combined forces of Yugoslav Army and Serbian irredentist rebels, war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Operation Storm and the Dayton peace agreement. For instance: Tuđman's strategy of stalling the Yugoslav Army in 1991 by signing frequent cease fires intermediated by foreign diplomats was efficient — when the 1st cease fire was signed, the emerging Croatian Army had 7 brigades; the last, 20th cease fire the Croats had met with 64 brigades. In the summer 1995, Croatia carried out a large scale military operation called Oluja -- Storm -- the objective being to exterminate all Serb civilians living in that area of Croata. ... The Dayton Agreement or Dayton Accords is the name given to the agreement at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio to end the war in the former Yugoslavia that had gone on for the previous three years, in particular the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina. ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Apart from war, other significant changes had altered Croatian society in the "Tuđman era" that covered the last decade of the 20th century. Probably the most of these changes would have happened anyway during the transition from communism to capitalism, or from one-party dictatorship to western-type democracy. Unquestionably, Tuđman has "speeded" or "slowed down" some processes by his influential position — for better or for worse. Capitalism has been defined in various ways (see definitions of capitalism). ...

Tuđman initiated the proces of privatization and de-nationalization with mixed results: Croatian economy coped with the war extremely well, having in mind all the pros and cons; only in the last two years of Tuđman's tenure the detrimental effects of "wild" and unrestricted capitalism had become visible. The charge of nepotism and favoritism, frequently levelled at Tuđman, seems to be unresolved yet: his personal property was, as the official proving of will had shown, acquired in a completely legal way. Privatization (sometimes privatisation, denationalization, or, especially in India, disinvestment) is the process of transferring property, from public ownership to private ownership and/or transferring the management of a service or activity from the government to the private sector. ... Nationalization is the act of taking assets into state ownership. ...

On the other hand, it is beyond doubt that not few shadowy figures who moved close to Tuđman, the centre of power in Croatian society, profited from this enormously, having amassed wealth with suspicious celerity. Although this phenomenon is common to chaotic reforms in all post-communist societies (the best example being Russia with her "oligarchs"), the majority of Croats are of the opinion that Tuđman could and should have prevented at least a part of these malfeasances. Post-Communism is a name sometimes given to the period of political and economic transition in former communist states located in parts of Europe and Asia. ...

The most common accusation of all is that of autocratic behavior and "despotism". This claim is both true and false: Tuđman was a strong, but democratically elected national leader and this was a mixed blessing. Faced with a superior military aggressor, the Croats, who had not yet built functioning national institutions, had to rely on a strong personal leadership Tuđman embodied. Although such kind of leadership necessarily involved unpleasant side-effects like traits of autocratic behavior, it proved beneficial in crucial matters, as the Croats under Tuđman won the war and founded the nation-state, at least partly thanks to this characteristic. Despotism is government by a singular authority, either a single person or tightly knit group, which rules with absolute power. ... Autocracy is a form of government where unlimited power is held by a single individual. ...

Tuđman, who had been thrice elected as President of Croatia, fell ill with cancer in 1993. He recovered, but the general state of health declined in 1999 and Tuđman died from internal hemorrhage on December 10th, 1999. 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Hemorrhage (alternate spelling is Haemorrhage) is the medical term meaning bleeding. ... December 10 is the 344th day (345th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Croatian Radio Television: Dr. Franjo Tuđman, historian and statesman (http://www.hrt.hr/tudjman/index_eng.html)
• Croatian Embassy to USA: Franjo Tudjman's Biography (http://www.croatiaemb.org/tudjman/biography.html)
• BBC: Franjo Tudjman: Father of Croatia (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/294990.stm)