The Log Revolution (Croatian: Balvan revolucija) was an insurrection which started on August 17, 1990 in areas of the Republic of Croatia which were populated significantly by ethnic Serbs.[1] A full year of tension, including minor skirmishes, passed before these events would escalate into the Croatian War of Independence.
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The first democratic elections of Croatia, still within Yugoslavia, resulted in a victory for the pro-independence party of Franjo Tuđman. Tuđman's party, the Croatian Democratic Union, implicitely and explicitely announced that Croatia will not tolerate anymore what they claimed to be privileged [2] status of Serbs that they had in Croatia and propagated a policy in which Croatia will decide about itself and that Belgrade will not anymore decide about Croatian politics. Also they propagated they will not anymore support economically hypergenerous policy of giving funds to Yugoslav federal funds that distributed those money to Serbia, while Croatia had large underdeveloped areas (e.g., 1965–1970, Croatia was the source of 50% of foreign currency income of Yugoslavia, but retained solely 7%; from federal reserves, Croatia was getting solely 16,5% of funds, while Serbia 46,6%.[3]
The victory of Tuđman's party on 1990 general election was not the wished outcome for ruling political circles of Serbs, which were mostly hegemonists. The more things developed, it was more obvious that they will not easily agree on new, confederative relations in organization of Yugoslavia, proposed by new Croatian and Slovenian authorities. In Yugoslavia before democratization and free elections, Serbs lived in one country and on that basis they used many privileges, established during openly Serb hegemonist Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Communist dictatorship (Communist Yugoslavhood was often implicitely Greater Serbian chauvinism[3]) in Yugoslavia,[2] that proved to be the dungeon for Croats.[3] Because of that, the followers the idea of Serb hegemony and the idea of the Greater Serbia, which were the big majority in military and civil structures of Yugoslav government, needed Yugoslavia for the greaterserbianist ethnocentric expansion (the program developed by from Jovan Rajić, Ilija Garašanin, Vaso Čubrilović, Stevan Moljević and many others to Memorandum SANU). That very idea, idea about the Serbs as the chosen nation that must be the leading nation among all neighbouring nations, was the ideological embrio of the all evils done by Serbs to their neighbours.[3]
So even before first democratic elections in Croatia, general situation was getting risingly tense in some parts of Croatia. Serbian politicians tagged the very idea of elections in Croatia as the betrayal of Yugoslav ideals, socialism, etc. So before first free elections, local Serbs in the village of Berak in Vukovar area put the baricades, in order to disrupt the elections.[2] During May 1990, before the elections, the weapons of TO (Territorial Defense) of Croatia was taken away[2] by JNA, preventing the possibility of Croatia having its own weapons. Same thing was not done to Slovenia.[2]
Following the first democratic elections and victory of HDZ, militant part of Croatian Serb minority, incited, encouraged and supported by Greater Serbian ideologists and Serb hegemonist circles from Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina started to refuse authority of the new Croatian government.
During the act of passing of governing from the former to the new authorities in Croatia, the Yugoslav People's Army made an implicit threat by organizing a "regular military maneuvre" in which a regiment of parachutists was deployed to the Pleso Airport.[2]
Already in June and July 1990, Serb representatives in Croatia openly rejected and proposals of Amendments to the Constitution of SR Croatia.[2]
In an act of protest, the militant part of Croatian Serbs in some areas where they formed a majority started to refuse authority to the new Croatian government and held several meetings and public rallies since early 1990 protesting their cause.[1]
Led by Milan Babić and Milan Martić, the local Serbs proclaimed SAO Kninska Krajina in August 1990 and began blockading roads connecting Dalmatia to the rest of Croatia. The blockade was mostly made from logs cut down from nearby woods, which is why the event was dubbed the "Log Revolution". The organizers were armed with illegal weapons supplied by Martić.[1] Since it was planned action, done during the Summer and severed land ties to Dalmatia, high economic damage was done to Croatian tourism.
The revolt was explained by the Serbs with words that they are "terrorized [by Croatian government]" and that they "[fight for] more cultural, language and education rights". Serbian newspaper "Večernje Novosti" wrote that "2.000.000 Serbs [are] ready to go to Croatia to fight". The Western diplomats commented that the Serbian media is inflaming passions and Croatian government said "We knew about the scenario to create confusion in Croatia...".[4]
The tension grew at a rate that was described as crawling (puzajuća agresija, "a crawling aggression").
The minor skirmishes of the Log Revolution had apparently caused a police casualty - in the night of November 22/23, 1990, a Croatian police car was fired upon on a hill near Obrovac and one of the policemen, 27 year old Goran Alavanja, died of seven gunshot wounds. The incident involved three policemen of Serb ethnicity[5] who were reportedly shot by a sole rebel Serb gunman, but the murder was never actually officially resolved.[6]
In another earlier incident near Petrinja, another Croatian policeman one Josip Božićević, was shot by a firearm in the night of September 28, 1990,[6][7] and a leaked Ministry of Internal Affairs memo classified this as a fatality.[6]
On December 21, 1990, the municipalities of Knin, Benkovac, Vojnić, Obrovac, Gračac, Dvor and Kostajnica adopted the "Statute of the Serbian Autonomous Region of Krajina".[8]
On December 22, 1990, the Parliament of Croatia ratified a new Constitution of Croatia. It changed the status of Serbs from an explicitly mentioned minority to a national minority listed with other minorities.[9] Majority of Serb politicians read this as a removal of some of the rights from the Serbs that had been granted by the previous Socialist constitution, because Constitution of SR Croatia treated solely Croats as constitutive nation. Croatia was "national state" for Croats, "state" for Serbs and other minorities.[9]
Over two hundred armed incidents involving the rebel Serbs and Croatian police were reported between August 1990 and April 1991.[8][10] The open hostilities of the Croatian War of Independence began in April 1991.
As a part of his plea bargain with the prosecution, in 2006 Milan Babić testified against Martić during his ICTY trial, saying Martić "tricked him into agreeing to the Log Revolution". He also testified that the entire war in Croatia was "Martić's responsibility, orchestrated by Belgrade".[11]
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