THE SERB CULTURAL CLUB AND THE BANOVINA OF CROATIA

Srpski kulturni klub (SKK) je u Beogradu potkraj 1936. osnovala srpska intelektualna, politička i gospodarska elita za društveni, kulturni i gospodarski razvoj Srba u Kraljevini Jugoslaviji. Nakon uspostave Banovine Hrvatske 26. VIII. 1939. SKK je izvršio reviziju programa te nastavio tijekom druge polovice 1939. djelovati kao najžešći kritičar unutarnje političke reforme započete Sporazumom Cvetković-Maček, da bi tijekom 1940. godine postao glavnim nositeljem protubanovinskog i protusporazumskog pokreta među jugoslavenskim Srbima koji su se ujedinili pod parolom "Srbi na okup". Pokret je, djelujući na temeljima velikosrpske ideologije, otvoreno zahtijevao stvaranje velike Srbije na svim srpskim "povijesnim" prostorima, uključujući i dijelove Banovine Hrvatske koji su zbog povijesnih, geostrateških ili gospodarskih razloga trebali pripasti velikoj Srbiji.The Serb Cultural Club (SKK) was established in Belgrade towards the end of 1936 by Serb intellectuals, politicians and economic leaders to promote the social, cultural, and economic development of Serbs in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After the formation of the Banovina of Croatia on 26 August 1939, the SKK carried out a revision of its programme and began during the second half of 1939 to act as the staunchest critic of political reforms undertaken under the Cvetković-Maček Agreement (Sporazum), and thus became the main proponent of the anti-Banovina and anti-Sporazum movement among Yugoslavian Serbs united behind the slogan “Serbs unite.” On the basis of Greater Serbia ideology, it openly called for the creation of a Greater Serbia. The Society developed its activities through local subcommittees and its publication, Slavonije, published in Vinkovci, which popularized and supported the efforts of the Serbs of the Banovina to organize subcommittees of the SKK in eastern Slavonia and western Srijem. Consequently, in the short period between October 1939 and February 1940 subcommittees of the SKK were formed in Vinkovci, Vukovar, Šid, and Dalj which became the nuclei from which anti-Banovina and anti-Sporazum politics were spread. An analysis of the sources has revealed that the work of the SKK in eastern Slavonia and the northern parts of Dalmatia was instrumental to wider actions taken by subcommittees in Banja Luka in Vrbska Banovina, in Novi Sad in the Danubian Banovina, in Niš in the Banovina of Moravska, and in Skoplje in the Vardar Banovina, that is, in those territories which were believed to form part of Greater Serbia. These actions were also visible in the territories the Zagreb society Krajina considered its exclusive sphere of influence, namely northern Dalmatia and western Slavonia. In conjunction with these efforts, the SKK was able at the start of 1940 to create an umbrella Serbian organization - the Assembly of patriotic, veteran, and chivalrous organizations – which came to include almost all of the important Yugoslavian associations which worked among the Serbs, such as the Chetnik organizations and the Savez Sokola of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Eventhough the SKK political formations, the so-called independent lists, were catastrophically unsuccessful at the district elections in the Banovina of Croatia, the SKK continued the campaign to unite the Serbs in a single political formation and actively participated in the military coup against Regent Paul and the Cvetković-Maček government of 27 March 1941