The response in the slovene newspapers to the 1902 anti-serbian demonstrations in Zagreb

Abstract

In August 1902, the most important newspaper of the Serbian community in Croatia, The Srbobran, neglecting to keep a stance of professional objectivity, published an article by Nikola Stojanović on the Serbs and the Croats, in which the author denied the existence of the Croatian nationality. This article was the cause of a three-day anti- Serbian demonstration in Zagreb, which turned into a rampage of destruction aimed at Serbian shops and bars. The Slovene newspapers reported extensively on the events, but their commentaries proved that they were badly, or - in some cases - not at all acquainted with the situation. While the liberally-oriented Slovenski Narod ascribed the blame for the conflicts »between brothers of the same blood« to religious differences, the clericallyoriented Slovenec, on the other hand, stressed that the Catholic faith was the soul of the Slavs, and the socialdemocratic Rdeči Prapor remained faithful to the slogan »Proletarians of all countries, unite!«. The Slovene papers in the regions of Gorizia and Trieste, and those in Styria, however, only appealed to the public to uphold and maintain the unity of the South Slavonic peoples.