FRANJO TUĐMAN |
Biography
FRANJO
TUĐMAN (1922-1999)
FIRST CROATIAN PRESIDENT 1990 - 1999
Franjo
Tudjman is the first president of the independent and democratic Croatian state
and the supreme commander of its armed forces. As head of state, he was the
initiator of the organisation of the defence and the creation of the Croatian
army, and the chief political and military strategist in the establishment of a
sovereign
Franjo Tudjman was born in Veliko Trgovišće, in the northern Croatian region of
Zagorje, on
During secondary school, Tudjman was part of a national democratic movement,
for which he was imprisoned in 1940. He was a member of the anti-fascist
movement since 1941. After the Second World War, he was employed at the
Ministry of National Defence's Personnel Service, and Main Staff of the
Yugoslav People's Army between 1945 and 1961. Despite being promoted to the
rank of general in 1960, Tudjman left active military service in 1961, and in
As senior lecturer Tudjman taught "Socialist Revolution and Contemporary
National History of Croatia" at the Faculty of Political Sciences in
Tudjman was imprisoned after the suppression of the "Croatian
Spring" democracy movement in 1971. The communist authorities labelled
him the chief culprit for allegedly suspicious connections with foreign factors
and Croatian emigrants. Thanks to the intervention of Croatian writer Miroslav
Krleza with Josip Broz Tito, Tudjman escaped long-term imprisonment. In 1972,
he was sentenced to two years in prison. The sentence was subsequently reduced
to nine months.
Tudjman was sentenced again in February 1981 to three years in prison,
and prohibited from public activity for five years on account of an interview
given to Swedish and German televisions and the French radio, in which he
voiced his opinions on history and advocated pluralist democracy.
He was imprisoned in Lepoglava between January 1982 and February 1983, when he
was released for medical treatment. He was returned to prison in May 1984, but
was paroled in September due to a deteriorating health condition.
In 1987, when he got his passport after 17 years, Tudjman travelled abroad,
first to Canada and the United States of America, and then to European countries.
He gave lectures to Croatian emigrants, promoting the notion of an all-round
Croat reconciliation and advocating the creation of a Croatian state.
In 1989, Tudjman established the Croatian Democratic
Tudjman and the HDZ won the first free multiparty
elections in 1990; he was elected President of the Republic, and formed the first
democratic Croatian government.
At presidential elections in 1992 and 1997, the
Croatian people re-elected him President of the Republic to five-year
terms.
Due to the growing pressure of Serbian hegemonies and Yugoslav centralism after
the first multiparty elections, Tudjman accelerated his activities on organising
the state and securing its international recognition. Referring to the
historical and cultural identity of the Croatian people, he encountered special
understanding and continual support of Pope John Paul II.
At the time of
After the declaration of
Following the declaration of Croatia's independence, Tudjman skilfully
avoided traps in diplomatic games around Croatia and by 1995 he organised
the army and police forces to the extent, which enabled the country to on
its own liberate the largest part of its territory in operations
"Flash" (May 1995) and "Storm" (August 1995).
The strength of the Croatian Army enabled the peaceful reintegration of the
Croatian Danube River region in January 1998, completing the process of
establishing sovereignty on the whole of Croatia's territory recognised by
international law, under Tudjman's leadership.
In regard to
Relations between
Dr. Franjo Tudjman, a Croatian officer, historian and statesman, has written numerous books and
papers (treatises) on topics from the fields of military doctrine, history,
political science and the philosophy of history.
His
most important works are:
Rat protiv rata (War Against War), Zagreb, 1957;
Stvaranje
socijalističke Jugoslavije (The Establishment of the Socialist Yugoslavia),
Zagreb, 1960;
Okupacija
i revolucija
(Occupation and Revolution), Zagreb, 1963;
Velike
ideje i mali narodi
(Great Ideas and Small Nations), Zagreb, 1969;
Nacionalno
pitanje u suvremenoj Europi (The National Issue In Modern Europe),
Munich-Barcelona, 1981;
Državnost
nacija - ključ mira Europe (The Statehood of Nations - The Key to Peace in
Europe), Lidingo, 1982;
O
povijesti rješavanja hrvatskog pitanja i samoodređenja naroda u svijetu (On the History of Resolving the
Croatian Issue and the Self-Determination of World Nations), Toronto, 1987;
Stjepan
Radić u hrvatskoj povijesti (The Role of Stjepan Radic in Croatian History),
Sudbury (Canada), 1988;
Bespuća
povijesne zbiljnosti. Rasprava o povijesti i filozofiji zlosilja, (Horrors of War. An Essay on the
History and Philosophy of Violence),
Hrvatska
u monarhističkoj Jugoslaviji 1918 - 1941 (Croatia In the Yugoslav Monarchy),
S vjerom
u samostalnu Hrvatsku (Believing in
Povijesna
sudba naroda. Izabrani tekstovi (The Historical Fate of the Nation. Selected Texts),
Horrors
of War,
Das
historische Schicksal des Volkes, Bad Kissingen-Koeln, 1997.
Due to
illness Franjo Tudjman was hospitalised at Zagreb's "Dubrava" clinic.
He died during the night between December 10 and 11, 1999.
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© Zdeslav Milas 2003.