The National Anthem of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia[e] was created in December 1918 from the national anthems of the Kingdom's three historical constituent lands: Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia (Croatia), Kingdom of Serbia (Serbia) and Duchy of Carniola (Slovenia).
At the time, the Yugoslav authorities considered the three dominant South Slavic ethnic groups – Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes – as three interchangeable names for one ethnic group (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: narod "nation" or "people"), while the Pan-Slavic politicians and parts of academia viewed them as three subgroups of one South Slavic nation (Croatian: Jugoslaveni, Serbian: Jugosloveni, ЈугословениSlovene: Jugoslovani; "Yugoslavs"). Accordingly, the official language was thus called Serbo-Croato-Slovene.[f]
History
Although a law on the national anthem did not exist, the anthems of all three South Slavic nations were unified into a single anthem of the Kingdom. It started with a few measures from the Serbian anthem "Bože pravde", continued with a few lines from the Croatian anthem "Lijepa naša domovino", which were in turn followed by a few lines from the traditional Slovenian anthem "Naprej zastava slave". The anthem finished with some lines from the Serbian anthem again.
It was officially used between 1919 and 1941; there was no official document that declared it invalid or void. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was not in effect after the April capitulation.
