National Council in Zagreb

On 5 October 1918 representatives of the political parties and organisations of the Slovenes, Croats and Serbs from almost all the South Slav lands of the Habsburg monarchy met in Zagreb: from Croatia-Slavonia, Dalmatia, Istria, Trieste, the Slovene lands, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and southern Hungary. They decided to create a joint political representation, the National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (Narodno vijeće). The British chronology of the war records under this date the meeting of Yugoslav delegates in Zagreb and the decision to form a united National Council. The deliberations lasted until 8 October, which is why studies date the founding of the Council to 5, 6 or 8 October.

The meeting had been prepared for several weeks. At the end of September four opposition parties from Croatia-Slavonia, among them the Party of Rights of Starčević, led by the dentist Ante Pavelić, the Croatian People’s Peasant Party of Stjepan Radić and the Social Democrats, came to an agreement with the national organisations that had sprung up in the summer in Split for Dalmatia, in Sušak for the Littoral and Istria, and in Ljubljana for the Slovene lands. The last of these, the Slovene National Council headed by Anton Korošec, had from the outset been meant to be only part of a wider organisation based in Zagreb. The haste stemmed from the monarchy’s situation. In mid-September Austria-Hungary had proposed peace talks, and at the end of the month Bulgaria left the war while Serbian and French troops were marching north through Macedonia towards Serbia, which was occupied by the Central Powers.

On 8 October the assembly adopted the Council’s rules. The Council was to be the political representation of all Slovenes, Croats and Serbs living in Croatia-Slavonia with Rijeka, in Dalmatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Istria, Trieste, Carniola, Gorizia, Styria, Carinthia, Bačka, the Banat, Baranya, Međimurje and in other lands of south-western Hungary. Its basic programme was the unification of all Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in a national, free and independent state organised on democratic principles. There was no longer any mention of the Habsburg sceptre, which in the May Declaration of 1917 was still to have held these lands together. Each land was to send to the Council one delegate per 100,000 inhabitants: Croatia-Slavonia with Rijeka 28, Bosnia and Herzegovina 18, the Slovene lands with Trieste 14, Dalmatia 7, Istria 3 and the Yugoslavs of Hungary 10. Deputies to the provincial diets and to the Austrian Imperial Council could attend sessions as observers. Day-to-day work was to be directed by a Central Committee of no more than 30 members.

The most important political force in Croatia, however, remained the Croat-Serb Coalition, which governed in the Zagreb Sabor and had until then been loyal to Budapest. Its leader, the Croatian Serb Svetozar Pribićević, had agreed in advance with the organisers of the meeting that the coalition would be invited to join the Council. According to some studies it joined on 8 October, according to others only after talks on 10 October. From then on politicians of almost all the South Slav parties of the monarchy sat on the Council, with the exception of the few supporters of trialism, that is the transformation of Austria-Hungary into a three-part monarchy.

The Council’s leadership was elected at a plenary session on 17–19 October. Korošec became president, and Pribićević and Pavelić vice-presidents, the latter unrelated to the later Ustaše leader. On 19 October the Council announced that it was taking the conduct of national policy into its own hands and demanded the unification of the whole nation of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in a single, fully sovereign state, regardless of existing provincial and state borders. Ten days later the Council took charge of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs.