The Illyrian Movement as the Basis of Genesis of the Croatian National Identity

Abstract

By the end of the 18th century, the ideology of nationalism was revealed to the world, which spread in Western Europe during the Napoleonic wars. It also had spread in the South Slavic lands of the Balkan Peninsula's western part at the beginning of the 19th century. The events of the late 20th and early 21st centuries in Eastern Europe force us to turn our attention to the ancient origins of the history of this region as the source of their genesis. The article is devoted to the study of the evolution of the term «Illyrianism», its substantive changes in relation to Serbo-Croatian history, as well as the role of the concepts of ancient history in it. Particular attention is paid to such a phenomenon of the 19th century as the Illyrian movement, as well as to the figure of its founder, the linguist Ljudevit Gaj, the creator of the Gajic alphabet, modern Croatian writing system based on the Latin alphabet and the legacy of Jan Hus. The literary legacy of the «Illyrians» Demeter Dimitrie and Ivan Mazhuranich is also considered. In particular, their appeal to classical antiquity and to the history of the ancient Illyrians, in which the figure of Queen Teuta plays a special role, is noteworthy. These and other examples demonstrate the use of the reception of antiquity for the realization of certain cultural and ideological goals of the Croatian national idea. As a result of this process, the phenomenon of the Vienna Literary Agreement of 1850 is analyzed, which allowed the common Serbo-Croatian literary language to be realized in the form of two sub-dialects of the Shtokavian dialect of the Serbo-Croatian spoken language.

Acknowledgements
The work was prepared with the support of a grant from the National Research University «BelSU» for the creation and development of youth studios of scientific and innovative creativity (order of the Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education NRU «BelSU» No. 992-OD dated August 22, 2022). Studio «Citadel» Khronos»; project «From ancient history to new nations: ethnos, nation, nationalism in the past and present» (scientific director of the studio, Doctor of History, Prof. N.N. Bolgov).