Croatian question in the first and second Yugoslavia

In this study titled "Croatian Question in the First and Second Yugoslavia", policies pursued by Croats in the direction of federalization of Yugoslav states, which they were part of it in the XXth century are elucidated. Determination of Croatian policy within the framework of the federalism program is based on political program of Croatian Yugoslavism movement that emerged in the XIXth Century. During this period, the idea that national integration of Croatia which was under the Habsburg Monarchy could be ensured by establishment of the federated Yugoslav state along with other Southern Slavs living in the monarchy formed the basis of the political program of Croatian Yu-goslavists. The Federal Yugoslavian program was also defended by the Croats in the Yugoslav period of XXth century. After the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918, the Croats struggled for the organization of the political structure of this new state within federalism. However, the federalist policy of the Croats has been consistently hindered by the Serbs, who were tied to the idea of Great Serbia and advocated that the Yugo-slav state should be organized centralist-uniterist way. The Serbian blockade of Croatian federalist policy created a political crisis in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which led to the emergence of the "Croatian Question". In the so-called parliamentary regime, the Serbs prevented the Croats and other Southern Slavs in the kingdom from forming a federalist block and caused the state to enter a crisis of legitimacy. In the Socialist Yugoslavia state, founded in 1945 under the leadership of the Croatian communist Josip Broz Tito after the Second World War the conflict between federalist Croats and centralistic Serbs continued. However, with the socialist self-government model of which the Slovenian communist Edvard Kardelj was the planner and co-practiced with J. B. Tito, authorities of the federated republics in Yugoslavia increased and stated was federalized. In the 1980s the Serbs took action under the leadership of Slobodan Milošević and tried to eliminate the 1974 Constitution which was federalized Yugoslav state. When Croats with other Yugoslav nations opposed to efforts of Serbs to return to centralization, the Yugoslav state collapsed also because of the Cold War was ended. Keywords: Croatia, Yugoslavia, Federalism, Nationalism