Tuđman, Franjo – general, historian, politician (Veliko Trgovišće, 14 May 1922 – Zagreb, 10 December 1999). From 1942, he was a member of the partisan movement and did active military service in Belgrade from 1945 to 1961, during which he rose to the rank of major general in the Yugoslav People's Army. From 1961 to 1967 he worked as the director of the Institute for the History of the Workers’ Movement, where he addressed several thorny issues from the modern past, including the exaggerated numbers of victims at Jasenovac. This led him into conflict with the regime, to his early retirement and expulsion from the Communist Party of Croatia. As a result of his political activities, he was sentenced to nine months in prison in 1971 and again to three years in (not fully served due to illness) in 1981 because of several statements he made to foreign media.
His political activity resumed in early 1989, when he initiated the formation of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) with a campaign to overcome ideological divisions in the Croatian national body. As the head of the party, in the spring of 1990 he won the multi-party elections and was elected President of the Presidency, that is, the President of the Republic of Croatia. From May that year until his death, he was the most influential Croatian politician, a fact he confirmed with his victories in the 1992 and 1997 presidential elections. Owing to the semi-presidential system, he was in control of all key elements of Croatian politics: defense, internal and foreign affairs. As the Yugoslav crisis unfolded, he advocated the idea of a confederated Yugoslavia and later of an independent Croatia. Through skillful warfare, despite unfavorable economic conditions and an unfavorable international environment, he played a decisive role in the creation of the Republic of Croatia as an independent country.
dr. sc. Davor Marijan
Head of the Department of
Contemporary History at the Croatian
Institute of History
