Presidency of SR Croatia

The Presidency of the Socialist Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Predsjedništvo Socijalističke Republike Hrvatske), also erroneously known, based on its Russian-language title, as the Presidium (Russian: Президиум Социалистической Республики Хорватий, Prezidium Socialističeskoĵ Respubliki Horvatiĵ), despite the facts that Russian was never an official language in Yugoslavia, and that the Presidency was established well after Yugoslavia's break with the Soviet Union, was the collective head of state of the Socialist Republic of Croatia from 1974 to 1990.

The concept of a collective presidency was introduced nationally to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1971 with amendments to the constitution.[1] The new constitution of 1974 formalized the presidency with a member from each of the eight constituent republics. SR Croatia adopted a nearly identical system in its own new 1974 constitution, also including the President of the League of Communists of Croatia as an ex oficio member.[2] The constitution originally allowed for the president of the presidium to serve a maximum of two terms of four years.[2] Jakov Blažević served as president of the presidium for the maximum two terms before constitutional reforms in 1981 changed how the presidium functioned. The death of federal president-for-life Josip Broz Tito in 1980 brought into force constitutional articles which made the federal presidium have a rotating president, which was followed with constitutional amendments in 1981 which introduced the rotating practice into other offices.[3] SR Croatia introduced similar amendments into its own constitution which made the president of the presidium a rotating function on a one-year basis.

The presidium was controlled by the League of Communists for the vast majority of its history. After democratic reforms in 1989 and the subsequent democratic elections in 1990, a presidium led by Franjo Tuđman of the Croatian Democratic Union was voted in. The new Constitution of Croatia was adopted on 22 December 1990 which abolished the presidium.