page_title: Socialist Republic of Croatia
section_title: Tito period
hierarchical_section_title: Socialist Republic of Croatia / Politics and government / Tito period
caption_attribution_description: English: Vladimir Bakarić
context_page_description: The Socialist Republic of Croatia, or SR Croatia, was a constituent republic and federated state of Yugoslavia and the nation state of Croats. By its constitution, modern-day Croatia is its direct continuation.
  Along with five other Yugoslav republics, it was formed during World War II and became a socialist republic after the war. It had four full official names during its 48-year existence. By territory and population, it was the second largest republic in Yugoslavia, after the Socialist Republic of Serbia.
  In 1990, the government dismantled the single-party system of government – installed by the Communist Party – and adopted a multi-party democracy. The newly elected government of Franjo Tuđman moved the republic towards independence, formally seceding from Yugoslavia in 1991 and thereby contributing to its dissolution.
context_section_description: The first post-war President of the Socialist Republic of Croatia was Vladimir Nazor (actually President of the Presidium of the Parliament of the People's Republic of Croatia), who was, during the war, Chairman of the State Antifascist Council of the People's Liberation of Croatia (ZAVNOH), while the first Prime Minister was Vladimir Bakarić. Ironically, even though communists promoted federalism, post-war Yugoslavia was strictly centralized. The main organ was the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Croatia (from 1952 the League of Communists of Croatia) made of around ten persons. Its members were assigned to certain fields: one controlled the armed forces, another the development of the state, a third the economy etc. Ostensibly, the system of government was representative democracy: people would elect councillors and members of parliaments.  However, the real power was in the hands of executive organs. Representative organs (the Parliament and various councils on local and district levels) only served to give legitimacy to their decisions.  The party that ruled the SR Croatia was the branch of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, the Communist Party of Croatia (KPH). Even though the party had a Croatian name, its membership was only 57% Croats, along with 43% Serb.  The majority of members were peasants and the majority was half-educated.
  Soon after they gained power, the Communists started to persecute former officials of the Independent State of Croatia in order to compromise them to the general public. On 6 June 1946, the Supreme Court of the SR Croatia sentenced some of the leading officials of the NDH, including Slavko Kvaternik, Vladimir Košak, Miroslav Navratil, Ivan Perčević, Mehmed Alajbegović, Osman Kulenović and others. Communists also had a number of major and minor show trials in order to deal with the fascist regime of the NDH. Also, local leaders of the civic parties would often "disappear" without any witness. Communists not only cleansed the officials who were working for the NDH, but also those who supported the Croatian Peasant Party and the Catholic Church.
  The only major civic party in Croatia, the Croatian Republican Peasant Party, was active only a few years after the election, but as a satellite of the Communist Party. The clash with the civic anti-communist forces stimulated the Communist Party's centralism and authoritarianism. 
  When he took power, Tito knew that the greatest threat to the development of communism in Yugoslavia was nationalism. Because of that, the communists would crush even the slightest form of nationalism by repression. The communists made the most effort to crush nationalism in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia and tried to suppress the hatred between Croats, Serbs and Muslims, but even so, their greatest supporters in this process were local Serbs. Soon, the Serbs were overrepresented in the Croatian and Bosnian state and party leadership.
caption: Vladimir Bakarić, the first Prime Minister of the SR Croatia.
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