Srđan MILOŠEVIĆ

Institute for Recent History of Serbia, Belgrade

srdjan.milosevic@inis.bg.ac.rs

Land Property Regime According to the Vidovdan Constitution and the Agrarian Question in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

Abstract:

Тhe paper discusses the attitudes of political parties on land property regimes in the context of the agrarian issue, and dynamics of the debate on this matter in the Constitutional Committee and in the Constituent National Assembly of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The very notion of “agrarian question” concerns specifically small peasant landholdings in the process of development of capitalism. This question was raised in the context of the debate on socio-economic problems that were invited by, and eventually, introduced into the Constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Vidovdan Constitution, 1921) under the pressure of progressive opposition parties and parts of the ruling political organizations.

Key words: Vidovdan (St. Vitus Day) Constitution, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, socio-economic provisions, agrarian issue, peasantry

Summary

Provisions aimed at solving the agrarian question are present in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from 1921 in several extensive articles. This is the most notable presence of such norms compared to any other constitution adopted immediately after the First World War in Central and South-Eastern Europe. The present paper delves into the provisions regulating the property in land and their significance for the peasantry in the Kingdom SCS. The abolition of the existing feudal and similar relations, as well as the partition of large estates – both the feudal and the capitalist ones – were the topics heatedly debated during the sessions of the Constitutional Committee and of the Constituent National Assembly. These debates are the main source for this paper. The systematics of the Constitution (the articles that regulated this matter were part of the section on social and economic rights) reflected the understanding that the issue of property, especially in the context of resolving the agrarian question, was an imminently social issue. This approach was adopted under the strong pressure from the progressive opposition parties – Agrarians, Socialists and, to some extent and mostly indirectly, the Communists. However, similar views were harbored by many Democrats and by some Radicals, the two parties that were the backbone of the parliamentary majority, which catalyzed the process of adopting the progressive agenda. The constitutional solution to the agrarian question represented a compromise among the views upheld by the majority and those upheld by the opposition, but leaving a room for more conservative application of the provisions compared to seemingly progressive guaran- tees enshrined in the Constitution.