Plitvicka Jezera National Park

First view of Plitvicka Jezera Park

As we left the town of Split, we could see the communist era construction, the same buildings we've seen in all the communist countries - grey skyscrapers with balconies. After World War II, over 400,000 volunteers either dedicated their week or their Sunday rebuilding railroads and apartments. As we went further inland we saw several abandoned villages, most of them had been inhabited by people with Serbian heritage who left during the "homeland war". We're taking the one four-lane highway from Split to Zagreb, it has reduced the time by a factor of three. We pass through numerous tunnels the longest of which is 5700 meters long.

 

The highlight of the day was our visit to Plitvicka Jezera park, Croatia's first and most popular park. Here are sixteen lakes separated by travertine barriers which results in numerous waterfalls. We had a wonderful time walking the primitive wooden walks along the lake and the over 300 stairs down and up to visit the various levels of the lakes. You gaze all around as waterfalls go from one lake level to another. The water was amazingly clear, with Caribbean blue/green color and trout swimming everywhere. We had a wonderful 2 1/2 hours hiking the trails here and watching the scenery.

 

As we proceeded on, we stopped in the village of Turang on the Korana river which was the first line of defense between the Serbs and Croats. The town was virtually leveled by 1995. We could see buildings preserved as a remembrance, others that still showed the results of shelling but had been rebuilt, and then the brand new homes built since the war. Finally they had a display of the weapons used to defend Croatia and wild mix of weapons from various other countries.

Rebuilt house next to new house

Recent Yugoslav History

In order to understand the recent conflicts since Yugoslavia was broken up, you need to under it's older history. Croatia has been a kingdom since the 10th century and included most of present day Croatia and Bosnia. Serbia was a kingdom in the 8th century, but became part of the Byzantine empire. In the 17th century the Ottoman empire controlled the eastern part of Croatia and all of Serbia. Many Serbians emigrated into Croatia to avoid becoming Muslim converts.  Meanwhile the western part of Croatia was controlled in the North by the Hapsburgs and in the West by the Venetians. Today's Croatian borders largely match the non-Ottoman portion of Croatia. Slovenia through most of it's history has been either part of the Hapsburg dynasty or Austrian-Hungary empire. Montenegro and Macedonia have been part of the Serbian kingdom or Ottoman empire.

 

After the first Balkan war in 1912, the Kingdom of Greater Serbia consisted of Serbia as well as Bosnia, Montenegro, and Macedonia. After World War I, it was renamed the Kingdom of Serbs, Croatians and Slovenians, but everyone was controlled by the Serbs. The rulers were intent upon forcing everyone to have one language, Serbian and one religion, Orthodoxy.In 1927, they changed the name to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Then World War II occurred and Yugoslavia was invaded by the Italians and Germans.

 

Meanwhile Tito had fought on the Eastern front in the Russian army and learned a lot from Stalin. He came back to Yugoslavia to lead the partisans to fight the Italians and Germans. Early on the Croats accepted the German occupation and conducted ethnic cleansing against the Serbian population that had emigrated here during Ottoman times. In 1943, the Croatian people revolted against their leadership and began joining the partisans. After World War II, Tito became the dictator of Yugoslavia, but wouldn't join Stalin as part of the Russian block. Stalin made several attempts to assassinate Tito. Tito decided that it was in his best interest to play the East and the West against each other. So Yugoslavia became a non-aligned nation, getting aid from both the U.S.S.R. And the U.S. During Tito's regime, everything was state- owned. But everyone had a job, even if there wasn't enough work. In general, the Slovenians and Croatians were the industrial hubs because of a stronger work ethic, particularly compared to Serbia and Montenegro There were very limited choices in groceries (white or dark bread, yogurt with or without fruit) or clothes giving the appearance of equality among all. Your employer helped provide lodging as well as resorts for your 2 weeks of vacation each year.

People were allowed to practice religion, but that decision was a detriment for your career. Petra told us her family story: her maternal grandparents were religious. They lived with their parents initially, but after having their one daughter, they petitioned the grandmother's employer for an apartment. They were furnished with a 1 bedroom apartment. At first, the mortgage payment for this one bedroom apartment amounted to 3/4 of her grandparent's combined salary. Thus they barely had enough left for food for their family. But they did save their money over time and because of inflation, the payment became less and less of a burden. Eventually were able to purchase a weekend home, built with the help of friends. Meanwhile her paternal grandparents were communist. In fact, her grandfather was a General in the Yugoslav army. Because they were loyal communists, every time they had another child, they got a larger apartment and their salaries allowed plenty of food and recreation. Petra contrasted visiting the two grandparents: all the kids slept in one room with her maternal grandmother, while each child had a separate room and lots of treats when they visited their paternal grandfather. But again, while you might not have had much, everyone was employed, had a place to live, and food on the table. Things today in the former Yugoslavia are actually much worse today than under Tito, 18% unemployment and much higher prices compared to the salaries and pensions.

Tito died in 1980, but he had changed the constitution in 1974 allowing the separation of Yugoslavia into its original six republics plus the potential to split Serbia into it's three provinces (because of the differing ethnicities there). splitting. In 1988, Slovenian politicians declared their plan to separate and were immediately jailed. But within a month, general strikes began to protest their treatment. In 1989, Milosevic was elected president, largely because a week before hand, he had promised Serbian dominance over Kosovo, even though it is 90% Albanian ethnicity and Moslem. In December, 1990, Slovenia had a referendum where independence was overwhelmingly approved. They started forming an independent defense force before declaring independence on June 25, 1991. The next day Croatia had their referendum and immediately declared themselves independent. The Serbs attacked, but the Slovenian defense force resisted and there was only 10 days of fighting before, the Serbs gave up. 

The Serbs turned their attention to Croatia and Bosnia. They declared a separate province within Bosnia in the north and east which would be exclusively Serbian. Ethnic Croatians began to leave for the other provinces of Croatia and eventually the Serbs began the process of ethnic cleansing. Between 1991 and 1995, that province which had been a mix of Croatian and Serbian, became completely Serbian. Bosnia probably would have been completely divided between Croatia and Serbia because of the manipulations of the politicians except for the fact that Sarajevo, its capital held out for over three years. While they were under siege they dug a mile long tunnel under the town to get food and supplies. While the war officially ended in 1995, the Serbs continued fighting until they were bombed by NATO in 1999 and Kosovo was declared independent. All of this is now called the "homeland war".