Identity and Secession: The Case of the Secession of Slovenia and Croatia from Yugoslavia

Abstract

The secessions of Slovenia and Croatia – two interrelated and interdependent processes – put an end to the existence of the socialist federal Yugoslavia. The article examines the mutual influence of the identity transformations of the Slovenes and Croats in the second half of the 1980s – early 1990s and the disintegration of the SFRY. Historical and cultural background, the influence of socio-political conditions and the purposeful efforts of key actors to transform identities are analyzed. It is shown that the main vector of changes in the identity of Slovenes and Croats in the second half of the 1980s – early 1990s favored secessions, but they were not predetermined. The influence of external factors was very strong, including, firstly, changes in the political landscape of Serbia and their echoes in the structures of power at the federal level, and, secondly, the approaching collapse of the political regime in the USSR and other countries of Eastern Europe, and also the end of the Cold War. The actions of political leaders were of particular importance for the transformations in the sphere of identity. Thanks to their efforts, the secessionist strategies strongly affected the identities of Slovenes and Croats. But in Croatia, with the coming to power of F. Tudjman and the Croatian Democratic Union, practically the entire system of government bodies began to function in the regime of a “nationalizing state” (R. Brubaker).