ABSTRACT
One of the chief aims of the governing groups of Yugoslavia in providing schooling for peasants was to create Yugoslav patriotism and solidarity. Composed as Yugoslavia was of so many fragments of territory which had never been united before, unity of feeling could not be expected to spring instantly into existence. On the one hand there were the enthusiasts to whom the idea of Yugoslavia, the country of the South Slavs, was an inspiration and the realization of an ideal. On the other hand there were large numbers whose loyalty was limited to their racial or denominational group, and even a proportion, especially amongst the more backward peasants, to whom the whole concept of the close relation between the state and its citizens was unfamiliar.
