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The land reform in interwar Yugoslavia was a process of redistribution of agricultural land in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed Yugoslavia in 1929) carried out in the interwar period.

The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (subsequently renamed Yugoslavia) was established by proclamation of the Prince Regent Alexander of Serbia on 1 December 1918. The proclamation was made in response to a petition presented by a delegation of the National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, thereby creating a unified South Slavic state composed of the short-lived State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and the Kingdom of Serbia. Serbia had annexed the territories of Banat, Bačka and Baranja (also referred to as Vojvodina) and the Kingdom of Montenegro in the immediate aftermath of the World War I.^[1] Additions of Vojvodina and Montenegro followed annexation of Sandžak, and areas of present-day Kosovo and North Macedonia in the immediate aftermath of the 1912–1913 Balkan Wars. Those territories were organised as the province of South Serbia.^[2] The State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was organised in areas of former Austria-Hungary inhabited by South Slavs, specifically in the Slovene Lands, Croatia-Slavonia, Dalmatia, and Austro-Hungarian Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[3]

The provinces of Yugoslavia enjoyed different levels of development and had different legislation in place. The Slovene Lands were organised similarly to the Cisleithanian (Austrian) part of the former Austria-Hungary, while Croatia-Slavonia had been previously linked more closely to the Kingdom of Hungary. Ownership models resembling feudalism were widespread in Bosnia and Herzegovina, South Serbia, as well as in Dalmatia. Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as South Serbia drew on Ottoman heritage, but there were differences in various parts of those territories as well.^[4] Parts of Dalmatia were occupied by the Italian Army attempting to enforce the Italian territorial award made through the Treaty of London.^[5]

No ethnic group constituted the majority of population of Yugoslavia. The Serbs were the most numerous among them accounting for almost 39% of inhabitants of the country. Croats and Slovenes constituted nearly 24% and 9% of the population respectively. The first Yugoslav government considered the three groups three "tribes" a single nation in line with the ideology of the integral Yugoslavism. In practice, Serbs dominated the government which became highly centralised.^[6] Parts of the country saw civil unrest, looting by armed groups, and revolutionary movements. In Croatia-Slavonia and in Vojvodina, those were largely associated with the Green Cadres or inspired by the Hungarian Soviet Republic. In South Serbia, Albanians resisted the new state in the Kachak Movement, and there was pro-Bulgarian, anti-Yugoslav struggle championed by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation. In Montenegro, civil war known as the Christmas Uprising broke out.^[7]

The land reform was one of the first steps taken by the authorities of the newly established Yugoslavia.^[8] On 24 December 1918, within four weeks following proclamation of Yugoslavia, Regent Alexander issued a declaration asking peasants to calmly wait for the state to settle the agrarian question and give them land that will be "only God's and theirs".^[9] Two weeks later, on 6 January 1919, the Regent Alexander published a manifesto declaring his wish for an urgent and just agrarian reform. The Regent Alexander's manifesto was in line with the declaration of the Serbian government made in February 1917, after the defeat in the World War I Serbian campaign, promising land to those voluntarily joining the Royal Serbian Army. The manifesto was also in line with the November 1918 declaration of the National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. Faced with the civil unrest associated with the Green Cadres, the National Council promised land to every peasant. New Yugoslav authorities feared unrest that might be caused by former soldiers returning to impoverished homes after the war, especially the former prisoners of war captured in the Russian Empire who saw the Bolshevik Revolution frist hand.^[10] The main objective of the land reform appeared to be forging a closer tie between peasantry and the monarchy, reducing the likelihood of a revolution.^[11]

According to historian Jozo Tomasevich, the most significant piece of legislation for the land reform in interwar Yugoslavia was the Interim Decree on the Preparation of the Agrarian Reform (Prethodne odredbe za pripremu agrarne reforme) of 25 February 1919. The decree determined that the land belongs to the one who tills it as the ideological basis for the reform. It also prescribed abolition of serfdom where it and similar relations existed. The decree also provided for expropriation of large estates and redistribution of land to those who had none, giving preference to the veterans. It further prescribed that the former owners of the land would be compensated, except if they are related to the House of Habsburg. Initially, the reform was led by the Ministry of Social Affairs.^[12] Social affairs minister and co-author of the Interim Decree Vitomir Korać unsuccessfully argued against the compensations as "parliamentary and judicial nonsense".^[13] In April 1919, the Ministry of Agrarian Reform was established and the Temporary National Representation (the interim legislative) endorsed the Interim Decree without any discussion. The ministry argued that the urgency of the matter did not allow for the regular procedure. Until 1931, the reform was based on ministerial decisions and decrees.^[12]

According to economist Mijo Mirković, the government committed "a range of revolutionary acts" and went against its principles as it feared unrest among the peasants or even a revolution.^[12] Conversely, economist Doreen Warriner deemed the reform in line with similar processes in the Eastern Europe at the time, marked by gradual development of agricultural relations rather than revolutionary change.^[14] The land reform was touted as the foundation of social concord, the source of power of the state and the source of prosperity of the people, critical for peace in the country. It became a “sacred question” in the politics. Scientific and economic justifications for the reform were made even though there were no scientific analyses. Critics arguing that small plots would not be economically viable or prosperous were discredited politically as anti-social, anti-cultural, and anti-national.^[15]

The Interim Decisons exempted the territory of the former Principality of Serbia (the northern part of the pre-World War I Serbia) from the land reform. Instead, the territory was taken as the desired model of peasant land ownership. There, the feudal relations were abolished in 1833 and small free peasant-owned plots were created. That led to portrayals of the Serbian countryside as the "peasant paradise" defying the laws of capitalist economy and imparting national identity on the peasant landowners.^[16] The region of Šumadija was particularly glorified as the land of simple "illitierate peasants" where an idigenous land ownership model existed, unlike foreign-invented ones found elsewhere in the country.^[17] In reality, the Serbian agricultural sector was highly dependent on government aid and its production presented an obstacle to modernisation of Serbian society.^[18]

According to historian Srđan Milošević, the model was not selected as a particularly successful, but because it was customary to extend solutions previously applied in Serbia to Yugoslavia due to Serbia's political position in the process of creation of Yugoslavia regardless of opposition from the majority of non-Serbs.^[16] As Serbian politicians insisted on political continuity between pre-unification Serbia and Yugoslavia, Serbian institutions and practices, including the land ownership, were extended to the entire Yugoslavia.^[19] Contemporaries like Nikola Stojanović spoke of Serbia's destiny to give direction to the new state as its unifying power, comparing it to Piedmont, as the driving force in the unification of Italy.^[20] In a speech of 16 March 1919, the Regent Alexander asked for urgent land reform by application of the Serbian ownership model to other parts of Yugoslavia.^[21]

Strengthening of the "national element" was made an integral part of the land reform in interwar Yugoslavia. A strong proponent of this development was the interior minister Svetozar Pribićević who argued that colonisation is necessary for the reform to happen at all. The colonisation had a number of direct objectives. One was to increase proportion of South Slavic population in areas home to significant non-Slavic populations; it was to facilitate amalgamation of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by mixing their populations; and it was meant to reduce emigration from Yugoslavia by providing an opportunity people otherwise living in overpopulated areas where land was scarce. The colonisation process was to favour "nationally conscious", "reliable men",^[22] primarily referring to Serbs.^[23] The majority of the colonists, 76% of them, were drawn from Serbia and Montenegro. Further 11% came from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Authorities determined that the colonists were to be settled in specifically designated areas to avoid their dispersion in areas of their settlement.^[24] The restriction was imposed in pursuit of the objective of ethnic homogenisation of ethnically mixed areas in border regions.^[25]

The agrarian issue was raised in the politics of Bosnia and Herzegovina since the 19th century. The nature of the local land ownership and management system stemmed from the Ottoman heritage. Therefore, the Chiflik system was in place, where the landowners were largely Muslims, while the peasants working the land were largely Christians.^[26] Austro-Hungarian occupation and annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina did not bring about substantial changes in legislation or practice of land ownership.^[27] At the same time, Austro-Hungarian authorities made it possible for serfs to purchase land from landowners, offering them loans for the purpose. However, the scheme produced little since the funds made available were inadequate at least until 1910. A census of taken in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1895 recorded 88,970 serf families.^[28] By 1914, approximately 42,500 serf families purchased their own land.^[29]

Approximately two thirds of the land encompassed by the interwar land reform were located in Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[30] A total of 1,175,305 hectares (2,904,240 acres), representing 23% of the total territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was expropriated for redistribution. Overall, 1,286,227 hectares (3,178,340 acres) were distributed to 249,580 families.^[31] Implementation of the reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina was accompanied by widespread inter-ethnic violence as the Bosnian Serbs attacked Muslim farmers and landowners. By mid-1919, about 2,000 Muslims were killed, more than 4,000 families driven from their homes and 400,000 hectares (990,000 acres) of land seized. The Muslims were targeted not only as landowners, but also because of their ethnicity.^[30] The authorities recognised peasants forcefully usurping land as beneficiaries of the reform. Such policy also led to conflicts with the army as peasants usurped parts of military training grounds.^[32] There were numerous incursions from Montenegro into Herzegovina region where they killed Muslims and looted property. Yugoslav military deployed troops to curb such attacks,^[33] but killings such as the Šahovići massacre continued into mid-1920s.^[30] The conflicts related to implementation of the land reform increasingly took on the character of an ethnic, anti-Muslim struggle. This was especially true for organisations such as the Association of Serbian Chetniks Petar Mrkonjić, the Organization of Yugoslav Nationalists, and the Serbian National Youth.^[34]

Former landowners were promised compensation in the amount of 255 million dinars paid over a 40-year period along with 6% interest. The payments started only in 1936 and stopped in 1941 with the World War II invasion of Yugoslavia. Only 10% of the expected amount was paid.^[30] The interwar land reform weakened the existing political and intellectual elite of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Muslim population,^[35] while strengthening the position of the Christian population in the land.^[36]

Colonisation of Vojvodina, a territory that passed from Hungarian to Serbian (and subsequently Yugoslav) control following the 1918 Armistice of Belgrade, was a significant element of the interwar land reform in Yugoslavia.^[37] The region was predominantly inhabited by Hungarians and Danube Swabians (Germans) as well as the Serbs. Yugoslav authorities confiscated many Hungarian-owned farms and turned the land over to Serbs. The move left many homeless. At the same time, the authorities closed down all primary and secondary schools in Vojvodina teaching in Hungarian language.^[38] There were proposals to make it possible for the Vojvodina's German population to receive land through the reform, but only in areas south of the Sava and the Danube. The scheme envisaged that the German population would be useful in promoting culture, technical and professional knowledge among the rest of the population.^[39] However, applications for award of plots through the land reform submitted by Hungarians and Germans were normally disregarded. Instead, by 1924, in the period when it was possible to opt to leave Yugoslavia and go to the "mother" country, about 30,000 German-speaking residents and approximately 45,000 Hungarians left Vojvodina.^[40]

In Vojvodina, estates exceeding 320 hectares (790 acres) were subject to expropriation and redistribution under the reform.^[4] This resulted in seizure of 222,707 hectares (550,320 acres) of land, distributed to 100,004 families.^[41] The process involved hiring o 16,000 additional (largely Serb) officials to manage the reform in Vojvodina and establishment of 130 new villages.^[37] It also led to an increase of the proportion of Serbs in the total population of Vojvodina from 34% to 38% between 1910 and 1930.^[42] At the same time, Hungarians and Germans lost their privileged status in the region, while Serbs received privileges instead.^[36] According to historian Branko Petranović, the population exchange was encouraged and pursued by the Yugoslav government as a means of strengthening the government's control over Vojvodina and to lessen the influence of minorities. State secretary Slavko Šećerov claimed in 1930, that the main objective of the reform in Vojvodina was to ruin the wealthy non-Slavic landowners while other aspects were of secondary importance.^[40]