Broj Hrvata u Crnoj Gori prema popisima stanovništva 1948. – 2011.
Authors:   Institut društvenih znanosti »Ivo Pilar« – Područni centar Split, Split, Mrduljaš Saša 
Published: October 2021

The majority of Croats in Montenegro are the native population traditionally living in the Bay of Kotor, the town of Budva and Bar and its surroundings. A minority of them are immigrants or their descendants. As early as during the Austro–Hungarian rule over the Montenegrin coast, and especially during the Yugoslav period, they inhabited the area of today’s Montenegro, mostly its inland towns. This paper primarily aims to present and analyse the size of the Croatian population in Montenegro in general and at the level of its administrative units. To do so, it uses data from the censuses conducted from 1948 to 2011, which recorded national affiliation, among other things. In the context of those censuses, one can argue that, during their conduct, it was possible to declare oneself as a Croat, and that a major share of the population avoided declaring themselves as such although they could, based on their ethnic characteristics. Accordingly, the second aim of the paper was to attempt to determine, in the context of the 2011 census, which is a source of plenty of relevant data, not only the number of declared Croats but also those who were undeclared as such, but could certainly be considered to belong to the same linguistic, religious and cultural community as Croats. For this paper, that wider unit was termed the Slavic Catholic community (Slavic–Catholic), which is already recognised in language as the Central South Slavic area (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro), among other things as a certain “opposite” of the Slavic–Orthodox and Slavic–Muslim communities of the same spatial scope. To better understand the position of Croats in Montenegro, and especially their reluctance to declare Croatian national affiliation, which is more and more evident over time, an integral part of the paper is an appropriate presentation of historical circumstances that have framed their past and present identity positioning. The first data on the presence of Croats in today’s Montenegrin area refers to the period of Slavic settlement of South-east Europe, which took place until the beginning of the 7th century. According to the work of the Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus (945–959), “On the Governance of the Empire”, during their settlement, Croats occupied the former Roman province of Dalmatia (which, according to the author, “started from the surroundings of Durrës and Bar and stretched to the Istrian mountains and to the river Danube in width”), as well as Pannonia and Illyricum. According to the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja, probably written by the (Arch)Bishop of Bar Gregory in the period 1177–1189, upon settlement the Slavs had founded a state, the backbone of which was on the coast, between Istria and today’s northern Albania. According to the Chronicle, that coastal belt was divided into White and Red Croatia, which stretched from Duvanjsko Polje further south. Besides, Byzantine 11th- and 12th-century writers mention Croats and Croatia in the context of the area of today’s Montenegro. However, from the beginning of the 9th century, that is, the point in time from which one can continuously follow the political development in the Adriatic–Dinaric belt, or the area of the former Roman Dalmatia, it is certain that four smaller Slavic principalities existed between the rivers Cetina and Bojana: Neretva, Zahumlje, Travunia and Duklja. In the mid 11th century, Duklja, Travunia and Zahumlje were united into a state at the initiative of the rulers of Duklja. The expanded state of Duklja, ruled by the Vojislavljević dynasty, gained international acknowledgement since the papacy recognised it as a separate kingdom and a strong lever for maintaining its own identity, manifested in the existence of a state religious centre in the form of the Catholic metropolis of Bar. Such circumstances could have suggested the emergence of a much wider state unit, located approximately between the rivers Neretva and Drim on the one side and the Adriatic and the river Tara on the other, which would have implied the formation of an ethnic body. However, events unfolded in a different direction. Since the mid 12th century the state of Duklja had been losing ever more power, completely falling under the ruler of neighbouring Orthodox Serbia at the end of the same century. During that time the Schism of 1054 acquired full significance. The 1204 establishment of the Latin Empire, with its seat in Constantinople, led to a strong polarisation between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. In such conditions, upon establishment of its own church in 1219, the Serbian dynasty of Nemanjić began to carry out mass Orthodoxisation of the Zahumlje and Duklja areas to ensure their loyalty. Primarily exposed to religious conversion were Slavic Catholic people, who, at that time, shared many similarities with the neighbouring Orthodox in the entire area of the Adriatic–Dinaric belt in terms of external manifestations of their Christian identity, significantly marked by the tradition of Cyril and Methodius. Coastal, communal centres in the area of today’s Montenegro, Kotor, Budva and Bar, at the time still largely Romanesque, but eventually Slavicised, and their “belonging” or gravitating Slavic population, as well as the Albanian population located next to gradually Albanianised Ulcinj, along the river Bojana and in Malesia, were left Catholics. The territorial relations between Catholics and Orthodox established at the time have largely remained relevant until modern times. In the area of today’s Montenegro, the Slavic Catholic population was in principle reduced to a distinct minority concentrated in and around the coastal communes. As the Serbian state weakened from the mid 14th century, those communes gradually merged with the western states, and ultimately with the Venetian Republic. They remained under its rule until the end of the 18th century. After that, they were mainly part of the Austrian Kingdom of Dalmatia until 1918. Under those conditions, sharing the social climate with the population of the eastern Adriatic coast, who spoke the same language and shared the same religion, from the mid 19th century the Slavic Catholic population of today’s Montenegrin coast became involved in the processes leading to the constitution of the Croatian nation. The political and social development of the Orthodox population in Montenegro took a different course. By integrating into the de facto Serbian Orthodox Church, they began acquiring Serbian ethnic characteristics. However, given the disintegration of the Serbian state on a part of today’s Montenegrin territory, a new state emerged in the form of Zeta, centred in sub-Lovćen Montenegro and ruled by the Balšić dynasty and the Crnojević dynasty. During the Ottoman rule, which began in the late 15th century, sub-Lovćen Montenegro retained a certain autonomy, which became the basis for the formation of the Montenegrin state close to its current borders in the late 17th century. While the Montenegrin population “remained” in the identity sphere of proto-national Serbs due to Orthodoxy, imbued with the cult of the Nemanjić dynasty, its peculiar development enabled them to acquire own ethnic consciousness. The dichotomy between the Montenegrin and Serbian sense of identity has not been overcome to this day, which is becoming increasingly clear in the division of the Orthodox population between the national Montenegrins and the national Serbs. With the disintegration of Austro–Hungary and the emergence of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, that is, Yugoslavia, the Slavic Catholic population in the area of today’s Montenegro found itself permanently separated from the political, or at least administrative framework defined by the Catholic majority, after almost five hundred years. Instead, it became a distinct minority group in an environment that was continuously exposed to strong Serbian influences, even after Montenegro gained independence. Over time, following the processes of migration towards the coast, it also became a minority in settlements where it once represented the only or majority population. Under those conditions, strongly marked by latent or real contradictions in the relations between Croats and Serbs and often radical manifestations of Serbian identity in their environment, for the Slavic Catholic population in Montenegro, the declaration of Croatian identity became a kind of burden that not everyone was ready or able to bear. In that context, among other things, it is worth looking at the data presented, which points to a decline in the share of Croats in Montenegro. Equally, attention should be paid to the data from the 2011 census, which indicates a kind of mass declaration of “alternative” forms of ethnicity on the part of the Slavic–Catholic population. According to the first census, the one of 1921, which covered the population of all parts of today’s Montenegro, 313,432 inhabitants lived on its soil, of which between 11,380 and 12,145 were Croats and other members of the Slavic–Catholic community. According to that census, which took no account of the national determinant, but recorded the religious and linguistic ones, the share of members of that community in the total population inhabiting the area of today’s Montenegro was between 3.6% and 3.9%. The censuses after 1945, which, as pointed out, covered the national determinant and were conducted in socialist Yugoslavia (1945–1991), Federal Republic of Yugoslavia / the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro (1991–2006) and in independent Montenegro (since 2006) recorded the following shares of Croats in Montenegro: 6,808 (in 1948), 9,814 (in 1953), 10,664 (in 1961), 9,192 (in 1971), 6,904 (in 1981), 6,244 (in 1991), 6,811 (in 2003), and 6,021 (in 2011). It is evident from the first censuses that part of the Slavic–Catholics in Montenegro did not declare themselves as Croats. This is primarily the case in Bar and its surroundings, where the declaration of Montenegrin nationality has permanently prevailed. Since 1971, a large number of people formerly declared as Croats began to declare themselves as “Yugoslavs”. Following the disintegration of Yugoslavia, in the 2003 and 2011 censuses, that type of declaration lost significance. However, no “return” to the declaration of Croatian national affiliation occurred, but rather the adoption of Montenegrin identity, rejection of the declaration of nationality, declaration of regional affiliation, etc. The analysis conducted in the context of the 2011 census shows that only a small part of the total Slavic–Catholic community in Montenegro declared themselves as Croats. Basically, only 5,931 people did so, if the total share of Croats (6,021) is reduced by 90 Orthodox who are probably registered as Croats for family reasons. At the same time, 29 Bosnians, 5,667 Montenegrins, 68 Yugoslavs, three Muslims, 569 nationally undeclared persons, 376 regionally declared persons, 112 Serbs and one Serb Montenegrin declared their affiliation with Catholicism. According to the insight into the share of the native Slavic Catholic population in Montenegro in 1921 and the share of Croats in the 1953–1971 censuses, it can be stated with a high level of certainty that those 6,825 respondents belonged to the Slavic Catholic population. The total share of the Slavic Catholic population in Montenegro in 2011 was larger than the sum of Croats (5,931) and the mentioned 6,825 persons, which amounted to 12,756, given that it should be increased by a certain number of respondents, primarily among Bosnians, Montenegrins, Yugoslavs, nationally undeclared and regionally declared who declared themselves as agnostics, atheists, unidentified Christians or refused to declare their religion. Primarily based on a comparison of the share of such persons within the municipalities of Boka Kotorska (Herceg Novi, Kotor, Tivat), where it is extremely high, with their shares in other Montenegrin municipalities, it could be argued that in 2011, the total share of Croats and other members of the Slavic–Catholic community amounted to approximately 15,000 or 2.4% of the population of Montenegro.