„Kult ličnosti“ kralja Aleksandra I. Karađorđevića u splitskim međuratnim (nacionalističkim) novinama
„PERSONALITY CULT“ OF KING ALEXANDER I. KARADJORDJEVIC IN THE SPLIT (NATIONALIST ) NEWSPAPERS BETWEN THE TWO WORLD WARS

Summary/Abstract: The first Yugoslav state was marked by Alexander I. Karadjordjevic, by whose proclamation it was also created in 1918. Through the strict laws, including the newspaper articles, his personality was sacrosanct. On the theoretical background of Max Weber, E. A. Rees and A. R. Willner, the paper shows how the Split interwar nationalist newspapers, as well as some non-nationalist such as The Official Gazette, tried during the interwar period to create Alexander’s „personality cult“ by attributing his exceptional qualities, calling him, among other things, a legendary knight, a hero, the Liberator Knight, Symbol of the Nation and the Father of the Nation. In the parliamentary period the lead was taken by the radical State and the Orjuna Victory, and a short visit by the king and his family to Split in the second half of 1925, only intensified those efforts. The king’s introduction of the personal dictatorship in 1929, a common form of government in the European interwar history, which had resulted from the assassination of Stjepan Radic in the National Assembly in mid-1928, brought to joining of the newly established nationalist newspapers in the creation of the „personality cult“, some of which were especially prominent like Folk’s Paper, The Flag and The Call from the Adriatic. Alexander’s death in the assassination in Marseille in 1934 was the culmination of the „personality cult“. Along with the title of the creator and the saviour of the state by introducing the dictatorship and using the religious motives, Alexander was also added the title of the martyr, thus he was called the Anointed from God, the Yugoslav Christ and the Mesiah of all Yugoslavs. Each year his death was solemnly marked, and until the Second World War the nationalist newspapers had been highlighting that the king’s spirit and his most important work – the state would continue to live in his successor Peter II. Karadjordjevic.

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