OWTF 2012-2014

1. Croatian Spring in the
1970's: Students against
the regime

2. Content:
 Croatian Spring
 Beginning
 Initiators
 Matrix Croatica
 Development
 Miko Tripalo
 Ending

3. Croatian Spring
 The Croatian Spring was a cultural and political movement in the early
1970s that called for rights for Croatia within Yugoslavia
 The opponents of this movement called it MASPOK("mass movement")
 There were many reasons for the rise of this movement: first, the economic
ones: Croatia and Slovenia were more developed than other countries in
Yugoslavia

4. Beginning:
 During 1970. and 1971. Croatia faced even a bigger problem
 Constitutional amendments were proposed that would put Croatia in a
much worse position: for example, it was proposed to put in the
amendment paragraph about the sovereignty that the Socialist Republic
of Croatia was a Serbian and Croatian people's country they asked for
withdrawing "Lijepa naša" from the position of the anthem because "only
the Croats were mentioned and not the Serbs"etc.

5. Initiators
 The initiators were part of the Croatian (SKH) elite and organizations of
that time: Matica hrvatska (Matrix Croatica), Društvo hrvatskih pisaca
(Croatian Writers' Association), Zajednica pisaca TIN (Writers' Society TIN)
and also members of the intellectuals (humanistic intelligence) and
students

6. Matrix Croatica
 Matrix Croatica played one of the most significant roles in the events
concerning the Croatian Spring by actively representing cultural,
economic and political interests of the Socialist Republic of Croatia and
Croatian people. After the collapse of the Croatian Spring this role
brought some of it's notable members hard times with dismissals,
prosecutions and long-term sentences
 Matrix Croatica (as an institution) was discontinued after session in
Karađorđevo and it was renewed after fall of Yugoslavia

8. Development
 There were attacks and the media hunt on Croatia, Croats and members
of the Croatian Spring all the time during the Croatian Spring and even
before the meeting in December in Karadjordjevo which meant cutting of
Croatia
 The political demands of the mass movement were condemned as "the
revival of fascism„
 After Croatia had been cut at the meeting, more than two thousand
Croats were arrested and convicted for participating in the Croatian
Spring
 Students' Union of Croatia was dissolved by the government, the Students'
Letter was forbidden.

9.  A new emigration was encouraged in a way that people were forced into
a political emigration and they weren't allowed to return
 Many government officials from the economic systems were if not fired
than replaced or degraded to extremely low positions
 Miko Tripalo states very precisely in his memories that two thousand
people were arrested and more than hundred thousand people was
replaced, fired from work, moved or harassed in some way

10. Miko Tripalo
 Miko Tripalo (Sinj, 1926 - Zagreb, 1995) was
a Croatian and Yugoslav politician
 A son of well-to-do farmers' family near Sinj, he joined Tito's Partisans as a
teenager. Later he joined Communist Party of Yugoslavia and rose
through its ranks, getting many important positions in Yugoslavia
 In 1970 Tripalo and Savka introduced new Party platform that demanded
more autonomy for Croatia within Yugoslavia
 Tripalo, faced with deteriorating health, died few years later

12. Ending
 The Socialist Republic of Croatia was under siege by the army and the
police
 And what's most despised politicians like Dušan Dragosavac and Milka
Planinc were appointed party chiefs i.e. given power
 There was actually a coup in Croatia
 "The Croatian Silence" was established and it lasted up to 1989.
 The Croatian Spring countinued in the emigration It marked the beginning
of a new Croatian movement for independence