Forging Consensus: How Franjo Tuđman Became an Authoritarian Nationalist

If there is a consensus in the literature on the Yugoslav wars of succession, it is that Franjo Tuđman was not merely a nationalist, but an authoritarian nationalist. Few today would doubt that judgment, but prior to 1993, Tuđman’s reputation was more moderate. Tuđman was not simply a nationalist. He had fought with the Partisans; he had written a prizewinning book on partisan warfare and another praising Tito; he had served on the board of Yugoslavia’s Military Encyclopedia; and he had been the first Director of the Institute for the Workers’ Movement in Croatia, handpicked for the job by the Party hierarchy. Jailed in 1972 for his efforts to liberalize Yugoslavia’s Communist system and again in 1981 for speaking to foreign journalists and besmirching the image of Yugoslavia, Tuđman became a reluctant dissident during the 1970s. However, prior to 1989, most scholars did not consider him a dangerous nationalist or a racist or authoritarian, so it seems reasonable to ask how and when he came to be portrayed as an “authoritarian nationalist” who has been regularly paired with the Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević