Abstract (english) | The collapse of the Autonomist Party and the victory of the National Party in 1882 elections to the municipal council, is considered by many historians to mark the end of the national revival period in Dalmatia. On the other hand, the nation-building processes of the 19th century, which, after all, do not apply to the entire population, did not fully suppress alternative identities. What was still actual is the Yugoslav ideology of solidarity and equality, later transforming itself simultaneously in the national integration factor. By the early 20th century it had found a strong foothold among the Dalmatian social and political elites and finally, near the end of the World War I, Yugoslavism stopped being "just an ideology" or "only an option" and strengthened as a realistic and achievable political goal. Further more, it had lost it's label of exclusively Croatian national integration ideology at a time when it was adopted by Serbian political circles. What the Dalmatian politicians in the years before and during the World War I were not aware, is that the Serbian integral Yugoslavism is only a disguise to a Greater Serbia ideology. After the unification with Kingdom of Serbia, Dalmatia was for a moment remained true Yugoslavdom but no later than the mid-20's, when it had recognized reality of a multinational state in which the oppressed nations constantly demanded breakdown of centralism and the introduction of self-development, while the government's only interest was the active implementation of the Greater Serbia project. At the same time, Stjepan Radić and Croatian Peasant Party (Croatian Republican Peasant Party) successfully spread the vision of social justice and the need to preserve the Croatian identity. It was almost immediately accepted by the Dalmatian peasants, followed by the remaining unitarists a few years later. Later on, the tragic circumstances of the assassination of Croatian MPs in Assembly, and the royal dictatorship that followed, wiped out the remains of Yugoslav identity in Dalmatia. When the parliamentarism was returned, in the final years of an “interwar Yugoslavia“, the Croatian identity was given another confirmation. The government then agreed to find a solution to a "Croatian question", and in a few strokes it had established a provisional, semi-autonomous Croatian Banate. It marked the beginning of federalization of Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which was abruptly interrupted by the inception of the second World War. In the years that followed, a general social crisis became a fertile ground for the manipulation of the masses and spreading reactionary ideology – deriving from the previously marginal ideological groups with a membership of only a few hundred to a few thousand individuals. |