The Nationalities Policy of the Bosnian Communist League in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1960-1974

At the end of World War II the communists founded the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising six republics. Each of these republics had a nominal nation; the Slovenes, for example, had Slovenia. Bosnia and Herzegovina represented an exception because Serbs and Croats lived there alongside Slavic Muslims. The national status of the latter remained unresolved until they were gradually recognised as a sixth ethnic group in Yugoslavia in the period from 1961 to 1974. This process dominated the nationalities policy of the League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SK BiH), which wanted to grant Muslims rights of self-determination without threatening the fragile balance in interethnic relations between Serbs, Croats and Muslims. Furthermore, the SK BiH was faced with different nationalist demands from each of the three ethnic groups in this period. Until now, the complex nationalities policy of the SK BiH in the period from 1960 to 1974 has not been extensively researched. This dissertation project intends to compensate for this deficit. The sources examined include SK BiH files, e.g. from the Executive Bureau or the Commission for Inter-ethnic Relations.
 
Sevan Pearson