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Prof. Tomaž Pavlin, PhD
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Sport, Ljubljana, Republic of Slovenia

 

CONTINUITY OR RENEWAL IN YUGOSLAV GYMNASTICS: 6 JANUARY, 1929 DICTATORSHIP AND GYMNASTIC ORGANISATIONS

Vol. XLIV, 2/2026, pp. 359–376
https://doi.org/10.29362/ist20veka.2026.2.pav.359-376

 

ABSTRACT/RESUME:

The tense domestic political situation in the first Yugoslav state following the shooting in parliament in mid-1928 was addressed by King Alexander through the introduction of the so-called 6 January Dictatorship in 1929. Under the Law on the Protection of the State, political parties with a “tribal” or religious character were banned and dissolved. Civil society associations were also affected, including gymnastics organisations, but not sports ones. Gymnastic organisations before the First World War were organised on a national and Slavic basis (Sokols) or on a national and religious basis (the Catholic Orl). After the establishment of the first Yugoslav state, they renewed their activities and, in accordance with the new political and state framework, organised themselves at the state level. In the first decade of the state, the main gymnastic representatives were the Yugoslav Sokol (Falcon) Union, the Croatian Sokol Union, and the Catholic Yugoslav Orel (Eagle) Union. Their emphasis was on educating citizens through physical education, which was politically relevant and maintained indirect links to political camps; this did not apply to sports organisations. With the 6 January dictatorship, the King and the government intervened in gymnastics and in the work of the government. They drafted a plan for a new, unified, all-state association that would be the bearer and educator of Yugoslavism. That idea was already central to the YSU. Consequently, the main point of the gymnastics revival and the preparation of the law on the state gymnastics organisation was Sokolism under the YSU. The law on the new Sokol organisation was adopted in early December 1929, and the gymnastics organisations then had to decide on their further (Sokol) path, which the Catholic Orel rejected. In the article, based on sources from the main Slovenian daily newspapers and the YSU bulletin “Sokolski glasnik”, we shed light on the formation of the new all-state organisation, present the law and responses to it at home and abroad, primarily among the Czechoslovak Sokols. As shown, there was a strong tendency to design the new organisation on the foundations of the YSU.

 

KLJUČNE REČI: gymnastics, Sokol, physical education, the 6 January Dictatorship, the Sokol of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia

 

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