Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of maps
- Preface
- Guide to pronunciation
- 1 The lands of the South Slavs
- 2 The early Slav settlers
- 3 The early Slav kingdoms
- 4 The South Slavs under foreign rule
- 5 The development of independence
- 6 The First World War
- 7 The kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
- 8 The kingdom of Yugoslavia
- 9 Yugoslavia and the Second World War
- 10 The transition to socialism
- 11 The beginnings of self-management
- 12 The 1960s – a decade of reform
- 13 Tito's last ten years
- 14 Yugoslavia after Tito
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - The kingdom of Yugoslavia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 February 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of maps
- Preface
- Guide to pronunciation
- 1 The lands of the South Slavs
- 2 The early Slav settlers
- 3 The early Slav kingdoms
- 4 The South Slavs under foreign rule
- 5 The development of independence
- 6 The First World War
- 7 The kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
- 8 The kingdom of Yugoslavia
- 9 Yugoslavia and the Second World War
- 10 The transition to socialism
- 11 The beginnings of self-management
- 12 The 1960s – a decade of reform
- 13 Tito's last ten years
- 14 Yugoslavia after Tito
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The royal dictatorship
The apparent ease with which Alexander was able to overthrow the constitution can be attributed to a number of factors. The democratic experiment had obviously failed. The appalling scene of uproar in the Skupština, culminating in the murder of the Croat deputies, reflected the fact that the divisions within society were too deep to be resolved by the normal processes of parliamentary democracy. Even Dr Maček, Radić's successor, seemed to want the king to take power – ‘There is no longer a constitution, but only the King and the people.’
Once he had decided to act, the king knew that he could rely on the army, the majority of whose senior officers were Serbs who were loyal to Alexander as head of the Karadjordjevic dynasty rather than as king of the Serb, Croat and Slovene state. He invited General Petar Zivković, commander of the Royal Guard and a close friend, to lead the new government. Zivković chose a cabinet which included some former politicians, mainly Serbian, and a number of non-political specialists. The new regime immediately acted against the main opposition groups. Pribičević was arrested without trial in May and held in detention until August 1931, when the intervention of his friend President T. G. Masaryk secured his release and a safe passage to exile in Czechoslovakia. Some of the more extreme Croat nationalists fled abroad, including Ante Pavelić, the leader of the Ustaša. He was given asylum in Italy, where, under Mussolini's protection, he was able to plan acts of terrorism against the Yugoslav regime which culminated in the assassination of the king in 1934.
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- A Short History of the Yugoslav Peoples , pp. 158 - 171Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1985