Violent Diversion – Croatia Goes It Alone (Lost Lands #90)

Slavonia is as much a part of the Balkans, as anywhere else in the former Yugoslavia with the notable exception of Slovenia. The fracturing along ethnic lines that set Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians at each other’s throats had vast and violent ramifications for Slavonia, This lost land beyond Hungary’s borders diverged violently from its neighbor to the north just as the Iron Curtain was collapsing. Most of Croatia had been part of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1102 up until the end of World War I. Croatia then joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later renamed Yugoslavia).

Though Croatia was part of a different country, its development ran in parallel with Hungary’s. The rise of fascism and alignment with Nazi Germany during World War II. This was followed by a turn to communism. Josip Broz Tito’s Yugoslavia and Jano Kadar’s Hungary (post-1956 Hungarian Revolution) practiced a softer, somewhat market-oriented kind of communism. Croatia may have been subsumed within Yugoslavia, but as the Cold War came to end, it looked to continue following along the same path as Hungary. Then Yugoslavia took a tragic turn, nearly bringing Croatia down along with it.?

Feeding Frenzy – Going In Different Directions

The divergent paths of Hungary and Croatia were not immediately obvious in 1989. Yugoslavia, which was part of the Non-Aligned Movement rather than the Eastern Bloc, would hobble on for a couple more years. Meanwhile, Hungary peacefully transitioned from a one-party communist state to a multi-party democratic one. Hungary was back to its old historic self, shifting towards Central and Western Europe. Communism had turned out to be a lamentable aberration that tried to turn Hungarians into something they were not. Being a satellite of the Soviet Union was something they had never gotten used to. It was tolerated until the opportunity came for Hungary to break away from what had always been an unhealthy marriage. Hungary was much closer geographically and spiritually to the west than it was to the Soviet Union. Red Army troops were stationed inside the country, but the Soviet Union had internal problems that were much more pressing. Mikhail Gorbachev was in no mood for military action. Hungary was free to follow its own course.

Croatia would have loved to do the same thing as Hungary. The situation both geographically and politically was very different for them. Croatia and Serbia were constituent republics in Yugoslavia. The two shared a 314-kilometer border. There were almost twice as many Serbs in Yugoslavia as there were Croatians. Croatians were stuck in a Serb dominated state. Tito had been dead for a decade and the iron fisted ruler was no longer around to keep the forced marriage together. Throughout the 1980’s Yugoslavia had been shaken by rabid ethno-nationalism. Slobodan Milosevic whipped up Serbian nationalists into a frenzy. Croatia had their own nationalist strongman in Franjo Tudman. Croats and Serbs were no longer politically compatible. Yugoslavia had become a front for Serbian interests. The Serbs were going to make Croatia’s attempt to extricate themselves from Yugoslavia as hard as possible. In June 1991, Croatia declared its independence. By October, it severed all existing ties with Yugoslavia. This should have been cause for celebration, but instead it was time to prepare for war.?

Dreams & Delusions - A Dazzling Sight

Serbian nationalists had the Yugoslav People’s Army at their disposal. That provided them with a major advantage when fighting broke out in what came to be known as the Croatian War of Independence. Croatians, and Slavonians in particular (there were also plenty of Serbs in Slavonia), must have looked to the north and wondered why they could not be more like Hungary. Post-iron curtain, Hungary was struggling with economic hardship as it transitioned to capitalism. That transition would be extremely difficult. Corruption and capture of state resources by insiders from the previous regime were a major problem. A magic wand could not be waved to suddenly make Hungarians into capitalists. Guaranteed jobs no longer existed, everyone had to fend for themselves in a brave new world.

Capitalism was not what many Hungarians had imagined when the Iron Curtain was first pulled back. Those early days of optimism gave way to skepticism, if not outright cynicism. In 1989, all Hungarians saw was the bright and shining future of the west. Tired, drab, gray communism would be replaced by a technicolor world lit by dollar signs.? This dazzling sight held the promise of prosperity. There would be stores filled with consumer products, and homes with cars in the driveways. The dream was there for anyone who was ready to work their way up the ladder. At least that was what Hungarians were either led to believe or wanted to believe. Most likely both. Reality in the form of economic hardship hit hard. Despite such problems, Slavonians would have gladly taken this over the nightmare they were about to face.

Soft Targets – Battleground States

If only Slavonia could have been Slovenia. In 1991, Slovenia only had to fight a ten-day war to break away from Yugoslavia. The Serbs let the Slovenes go without much of a fight. A larger war simply was not worth it for the Yugoslav People’s Army to expend valuable military resources since there were hardly any ethnic Serbs in Slovenia. Those resources could be put to better use in Croatia. Ethnic Serbs lived in Croatia’s borderland regions. This was a legacy of the military frontier set up as a buffer zone by the Habsburgs to hold back the Ottoman Turks. By then, Serb lands had already been conquered by the Turks. This led Serbs to flee into the lands under Habsburg administration.

Serbs had lived in the border regions ever since then. The idea of being part of a Croatian dominated state was not something ethnic Serbs entertained. Both Croats and Serbs were south Slavs, but they were less alike than they appeared. Serbs were Orthodox Christians and Croats Roman Catholics. Croats had been aligned with the Hungarians and later the Habsburgs from the Middle Ages until the creation of Yugoslavia. Since the 19th century, Serbia had been allied with Russia. History was a hard habit to break. Serbs wanted to treat Croats like they were little brothers. Croats wanted a divorce from Yugoslavia, which had turned into a bad marriage of mismatched ethnic groups. Serbians were going to make Croats fight for their independence. Slavonia would be one of the main battlegrounds and the region’s largest city, Osijek, was a soft target.