The Croatian Bloc () was a coalition of Croatian political parties in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes in existence from 1921 to 1923. The principal member of the group was the Croatian Republican Peasant Party (HRSS) led by Stjepan Radić, mainly supported by the Croatian Union and the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP).
The coalition formed in protest against the Constitutional Assembly's refusal to use supermajority voting during the drafting of the country's first constitution. The HRSS, as the dominant partner in the coalition, also sought to pressure its partners, especially the Croatian Union and the central government, to introduce republicanism – at least at the sub-national level. The Croatian Bloc issued several public statements primarily intended to foster negotiations with the Serb-dominated Democratic Party on constitutional reform. Radić would eventually expel the HSP from the coalition after they criticised the Croatian Bloc's strategy. The coalition dissolved in the run-up to the 1923 parliamentary elections.
The work of the Croatian Bloc strengthened the HRSS and Radić. At the same time, divisions within the Democratic Party deepened over the readiness of the party's president, Ljubomir Davidović, to discuss and potentially accommodate Radić's demands for a confederation in place of a highly-centralised state. While Radić and Davidović negotiated, the HSP negotiated and eventually aligned with the People's Radical Party, another Serb-dominated political party, to undermine the HRSS's dominant position in Croatian politics.
Background
The 1920 parliamentary elections were called in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) to elect members of the national constituent assembly. At the time, the most significant political division in Yugoslavia appeared around the degree of centralisation in the government, or the issue of how much authority should be exercised by the central government and the provinces respectively. The elections were decisively won by the Croatian Republican Peasant Party (HRSS) in Croatia-Slavonia, taking a lead over the Croatian Union and the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) by about 45 percentage points combined. The HRSS thus established itself as the main representative of the Croats in Yugoslavia, taking over the role from the Croatian Union.
At a rally held on 8 December 1920, just days after the election, HRSS leader Stjepan Radić announced that the party would refuse to participate in the Constitutional Assembly, since the party members refused to swear an oath of allegiance to the King due to their republican standpoints, as was required to assume their seats in the Assembly. In addition, they hoped to compel the government to renounce its intention of concentrating power in the central government and to initiate genuine negotiations on the system of government. The HSP followed the HRSS and decided not to participate in the parliament, adding their two seats to the list of abstentionists.
At first, the Croatian Union's four elected representatives assumed their seats in the Assembly in opposition to the government's proposed constitution, while trying to entice Radić to follow their example and work from within the parliament. However, in May 1921, the Croatian Union also resigned from the Assembly, protesting that votes only required a simple majority to pass, rather than a supermajority. They claimed that a supermajority was needed for passage of the country's constitution based on the 1917 Corfu Declaration and the Croatian Sabor authorising separation from Austria-Hungary and unification of the South Slavs.
On 12 May, Mate Drinković, an independent member of the Assembly, issued a declaration on behalf of the Croatian Union, accusing the government of trying to impose its will on the Croatian people, denying the assembly's right to adopt any constitution that would be binding for the Croatian region. In October, Radić proposed a merger of the three parties, which was essentially an absorption of the Croatian Union and the HSP by the HRSS, but the offer was declined.
Establishment
On 21 May 1921, the HRSS, the HSP, and the Croatian Union issued a declaration called A Message to the Croatian People (). The declaration, largely reflecting Radić's opinions at the time, stated that they had formed the Croatian Bloc coalition for the purpose of safeguarding Croatian national individuality. The coalition parties rejected any claims to the remaining assembly's legitimacy, or that it was entitled to enact a constitution binding for Croats or Croatia.
Following the declaration, the leadership of all three parties spent the entire months of June and July negotiating a joint political programme. In addition to Radić, the HRSS representatives in the negotiations were Ljudevit Kežman and Vladko Maček. Drinković was joined by Ivan Lorković on behalf of the Croatian Union, while Mirko Košutić and represented the HSP. Additionally, Juraj Šutej, Bariša Smoljan, Ivan Pavičić, and Stjepan Janković were present as representatives of the – a political party active in Bosnia and Herzegovina, closely tied with the Croatian Union. The HRSS-sponsored supported the coalition.
The parties held different views regarding Croatia's future. The HRSS advocated a Yugoslav confederal republic or, failing that, a Croatian republic within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The HSP agreed with the HRSS in advocating for a republic. The HSP was ready to support the HRSS in demanding a decentralised government, viewing it as a necessary step towards an independent Croatia. In contrast, the Croatian Union supported decentralisation of Yugoslavia, but did not support the establishment of a republic. While the coalition talks were in progress, the national assembly adopted the Vidovdan Constitution. The decision was made by a simple majority of parliamentarians, and it established Yugoslavia as a highly centralised monarchy without participation, contrary to the will of the majority of non-Serb parties. This made Yugoslavia subjectively illegitimate in view of most Croats.
In early August, after failing to agree on a common political programme, Radić accepted the Croatian Union's proposal for a common committee to coordinate activities towards the central government in Belgrade. Under that proposal, the individual parties would continue to pursue their own programmes while recognising HRSS as the leading partner in their joint efforts in relation to Belgrade. The HRSS received six out of twelve seats on the board, while the Croatian Union and the HSP received three each. Radić, Drinković and Košutić formed the presidency of the committee. In practice, the committee was dominated by Radić alone, but the coalition was hindered by mutual competition of its members and their ideological divisions.
Activities Memorandum
On 13 January 1922, Politika published a working draft of the Croatian Bloc's memorandum, intended as a message to Prime Minister Nikola Pašić. The draft was accepted by the Croatian Bloc's elected parliament members the next day before being formally approved on 25 February. The document declared unity in terms of foreign policy and called for an agreement on internal policy. Additionally, the Croatian Bloc called on Pašić to include Croatian experts in the Yugoslav delegation to the upcoming Genoa Economic and Financial Conference. While Radić believed that the conference would be about discussing Yugoslavia's place in the world during a global geopolitical realignment, Pašić thought of the conference as a venue to engage Italy regarding a potential resolution of the Fiume territorial dispute after the Treaty of Rapallo in 1920.
Pašić ignored the Croatian Bloc's memorandum, leading Radić to present a new memorandum to the coalition on 25 March, believing that it would help the Yugoslav delegation win a favourable deal during the negotiations with Italian diplomats. Through the memorandum, Radić demanded a truly sovereign Croatia or a Croatian state under a new constitution ensuring the establishment of a federal Yugoslavian nation. Radić intentionally avoided mentioning the official name of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes within the memorandum, instead referring to it as the "internationally recognised territory of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes" to avoid referring to the nation as a monarchy. In early April, the Croatian Bloc issued a press release to further explain its policy. The document asserted the province of Dalmatia as indisputably Croatian and recognized Bosnia and Herzegovina as an essential part of the Croatian question, declaring the province's status as an issue to be resolved in a future Croat–Serb agreement. He also expressed in the memorandum that the Bunjevci people are Croats and rejected that the emigré Croatian Committee should represent Croatia or Croats.
According to historian Hrvoje Matković, the memorandums and other public declarations of early 1922 were the only public activity of the Croatian Bloc. He concluded that Radić, as the main author of all those documents, had tried to set up negotiations between himself and Pašić. The government either ignored the Croatian Bloc's activities or denounced them as acts against the state.
Croatian National Youth The Croatian National Youth (HANAO) was established in spring of 1922 in Vukovar under the patronage of the Croatian Bloc, ostensibly to protect Croats against government-sponsored violence and the violent actions of the Organization of Yugoslav Nationalists. The HANAO, itself resorting to violence and terrorism, quickly spread from the region of Syrmia throughout Croatia as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina. The organisation became increasingly radical and had similar political positions as the HSP. The HANAO was used by the Croatian Bloc as a tool to mobilise its voters, threaten political enemies, as well as to physically protect the HRSS political rallies. The organisation's leadership gradually split into two factions: a moderate wing supporting the HRSS and a radical wing supporting the HSP.
Dissolution
The Croatian Bloc supported Radić's idea of negotiating with some Serb-dominated political parties to topple the existing government and amending the Vidovdan Constitution. Contacts were established with the Democratic Party when the HSP's Ante Pavelić brought Pavle Andjelić to Zagreb for initial talks with Radić in early November 1922. Shortly after that meeting, Drinković travelled to Belgrade with the HRSS's Juraj Krnjević and Josip Predavec, carrying Radić's letter to Democratic Party president Ljubomir Davidović. On 18 November, the HSP pulled out of the talks with Davidović. On 25 November, the HSP's leader Vladimir Prebeg informed Radić at a coalition meeting that the party now considered the Croatian question an international problem and would no longer entertain any attempt to resolve it within Yugoslavia. In response, Radić, supported by Lorković, rebuked the Party of Rights for trying to assume control over the Croatian Bloc, ejected it from the coalition, and told Prebeg, Košutić and Pavelić to leave the room immediately. Radić also resented frequent contacts between the HSP leaders and Pašić-led People's Radical Party (NRS), and interpreted it as backstabbing. He accused the HSP of being under influence of Frankist emigrés formerly organised as the Croatian Committee.