COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE HISTORICAL CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING THE EMERGENCE AND ACTIVITIES OF THE CZECHOSLOVAK, SLOVENIAN AND CROATIAN OREL/ORAO MOVEMENTS

The beginnings of the Orel movement can be found in the Czech lands and Slovakia at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, where it was a response to liberal trends and the Sokol organization, but also a movement founded in the Slav/cultural discourse which aspired to Orel mutualism, cultural unity and equal status as creators of European thought and socio-cultural renewal. The Orel movement came via Slovenia to Croatia, where the unified orientation of the Croatian Orao movement was determined by Ivan Merz through the introduction of the a specific course for the Croatian Orao movement, particularly apparent in the guidelines set forth in the encyclical Ubi Arcano Dei: political neutrality, a new approach to physical culture and comprehensive personal growth. This article analyzes the activity of the Orel/Orao movement in Czechoslovakia, Slovenia and Croatia and ascertains the specific aspects of the Croatian Orao Federation, summarizing them under the term Croatian Orao specificum