From the history of the Solin region during World War II and post-war period : the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) through the dossier of Jozo Bulj (1945 – 1961)

At the end of October 1944, Partisan units occupied Solin, Split, and the entire central Dalmatian area. Soon after the administration at factories in Solin, Vranjic, and Kaštel Sućurac were established, and the cement factory in Majdan was immediately operational. Some German prisoners of war worked here, and documents about them have been preserved. A number of prison camps were also organized, at least one of which was in Solin, as evidenced by rental contracts found at the construction company »Gradnja«, which are kept at the State Archives in Split. A number of reports from the Yugoslav authorities about the situation in the wider Split and Solin area in the first post-war months have been preserved. Among the so-called reactionaries who troubled the new communist government were numerous opponents of the Communist Party, including members of other political parties and organizations. The archives of the Secretariat of the Interior (SUP) for Dalmatia, that are kept in the State Archives in Split, have a record of the Yugoslavian authorities (UDB), which states »there is a very dangerous group of HSS in the Solin basin« whose »spiritual leader before the war was Marin Kljaković«. The record also points out that no other place in Dalmatia had such a strong and firmly organized Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) headed by about 20 young people who, during the Second World War, never wavered on the Party's policies. According to the same document, two were executed during the war, although it does not explicitly state how and by whom. Five of the most prominent in this group were taken `to Croatia´ by Kljaković to save them from the same destiny. Among them was Jozo Bulj, whose dossier preserved an abundance of information about the work of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) in the Solin basin during the Second World War and immediately thereafter. Bulj’s statements to the interrogators of the National Guard (OZN) and later the UDB contain a wealth of information on the work of the Croatian Peasant Party in the wake of the Second World War and during the war in the Solin area and therefore represent a valuable source for studying Dalmatian history from the 20th century