Croatian Spring

The Croatian Spring (Croatian: Hrvatsko proljeće, also called masovni pokret or MASPOK, for "mass movement") was a political movement from the early 1970s that called for democratic and economic reforms in SFR Yugoslavia and therefore more rights for Croatia within Yugoslavia. In 1971, the Yugoslav authorities suppressed the movement by force.

History

The 1960s and 1970s in Croatia were marked by a general emancipation from the Stalinist policies employed in Yugoslavia after World War II. Despite significant conservative resistance, the country underwent major reforms, including economic reforms that in 1964/1965 started to introduce a market economy, and the democratization of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia between 1966 and 1969 which led to giving a bigger role to the Leagues of Communists of each individual republic and province.

Political demands

Things were set in motion just nine months after the removal of Aleksandar Ranković, when a group of 130 influential Croatian poets and linguists, 80 of whom were Communists, published a Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Standard Language in March 1967. After 1968 the patriotic goals of that document morphed into a generic Croatian movement for more rights for Croatia which received grassroots support, especially amongst many student organizations which actively started to voice their support for the cause.