Croatian Spring

The Croatian Spring (Croatian: Hrvatsko proljeće, also called masovni pokret or MASPOK, for "mass movement") was a cultural and political movement that emerged from the League of Communists of Croatia in the late 1960s which opposed the unitarisation and called for an economic, cultural and political reforms in SFR Yugoslavia and therefore more rights for SR Croatia within Yugoslavia. In 1971, the Yugoslav authorities suppressed the movement by force.

The 1960s and 1970s in Croatia were marked by a general emancipation from the Stalinist policies employed in Yugoslavia after World War II. Despite significant conservative resistance, the country underwent major reforms, including economic reforms that in 1964/1965 started to introduce a market economy, and the democratization of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia between 1966 and 1969 which led to giving a bigger role to the Leagues of Communists of each individual republic and province.

The 1960s also saw the rise of social sciences in the country. Political science and sociology were introduced to universities against the resistance of communist hardliners. After studying abroad, in Western countries, social scientists introduced critical thought to their home universities, which gradually made them centers of opposition thought and criticism of the regime, especially in Ljubljana, Zagreb and Belgrade.

After being a target of significant animosity and suppression by the regime in the 1940s and the 1950s, the Catholic Church's status in Croatia also improved as a consequence of the democratization of the country, particularly in the wake of the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) and the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vatican and Yugoslavia in 1966. By the mid-1960s, public religious events were permitted again, and the relationship between the Church and the state was that of mutual tolerance. The Catholic Church, however, did not take an active role in the national movement and political events associated with it, even if its leadership was privately sympathetic with the reformists.

...
Wikipedia