"Korak naprijed". Češka manjina između Marseilleskoga atentata (1934.) i Masarykove smrti (1937.)
A STEP FORWARD: CZECH MINORITY BETWEEN MARSEILLES ASSASSINATION (1934) AND DEMISE OF MASARYK (1937)

Summary/Abstract: This work analyzes key segments of the activity of the Czech minority on Croatian territory from the assassination of King Alexander in 1934 up to the death of the first President of Czechoslovakia, T. G. Masaryk in 1937, two individuals who left an indelible mark on the political, cultural and economical life of the Czech minority community. Although Czechs supported the idea of Yugoslavian unitarianism and centralism from the moment the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was founded, for which they were awarded (in the 1931 Yugoslav Constitution) with the right to establish private (minority) schools and to put members of the Czech and Slovak minorities as substitutes on the government list for the 1931 elections, systematic prolonging in dealing with the issues of nationality for a large number of the members of the Czech minority and general impoverishment of Czech peasants and craftsmen in smaller rural communities due to the effects of the larger economical crisis and corruption of the Yugoslavian government apparatus led to the political stratification of the Czech minority. While the Czech intelligentsia, mostly employed in the government, for its own benefit continued to support state unitarianism and centralism, Czech peasants started to side with the opposing Croatian Peasants’ Party (HSS), which offered solutions for their economical problems, and by publicly admitting Czech cultural and national individuality, Maček insured the support from some of the intelligentsia that, through the articles in the Jugoslávští Čechoslováci newspaper, began to openly advocate for dealing with the Croatian issue.

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