Flexible Exercise of Authoritarian Power in the Yugoslav Communist Leadership: A Discursive Profile of Vladimir Bakarić

Vladimir’s Bakarić’s Idea of a Socialist (Croatian) Nation: From Communist Historicism to Depoliticization

“…acting as chairman of the Croatian party and as the head of the Croatian government, he mainly focused on policies regarding industry and agriculture in Croatia. 28 at that time, there was only one occasion where he was forced to reckon with the status of the Serbs in Croatia: namely, he was called to persecute several leading Croatian communists, all of them Croatian Serbs, under the accusation of siding with Stalin. Notwithstanding whether the leaders of the Croatian Serbs truly sided with Stalin or not, they took the Soviet-Yugoslav clash as an incentive to vent grievances stemming from their belief that the Serbs, despite their great contribution during the war, were being neglected in communist-governed Croatia.…”

“…88 Thus, he tacitly withdrew from the political mainstream, to be appointed with Tito's support as the representative of Croatia in the Collective Presidency of Yugoslavia, the body introduced by the last constitution of Socialist Yugoslavia, declared in 1974. 89 The constitution reflected the perception of Kardelj and Bakarić that any attempt to recentralize the Yugoslav state could lead to renewed national discontent. In order to come to terms with the tension between the need for ensuring Party unity while allowing for national diversity, the constitution institutionalized the systemic changes introduced through the constitutional amendments since 1968, thus making the republics and the autonomous provinces the main actors in the decision-making process.…”

“…For Serbs, paradoxically, he was a leading socialist anti-Serbian politician and a carefully disguised Croatian nationalist serving only the interests of his nation. 1 These words by the biographer of Vladimir Bakarić, Dino Mujadžević, epitomize the controversies present in the post-Yugoslav states related to the legacy of Vladimir Bakarić, the head of the Croatian branch of the Yugoslav Communist Party from 1944 until his death in 1983. The literature on Yugoslav Socialism, by and large, recognizes the key role of Vladimir Bakarić in socialist Croatian and Yugoslav politics, respectively, especially in the development of the doctrine of self-management.…”