Kuznetsov Y. Gaining of Independence by Croatia and Its Social and Political Development between 1990 and 2005.

This thesis relies on an extensive range of materials to explore the topic of gaining of independence by Croatia and the country's development during 1990 - 2005. The extent to which this topic had been studied in historical science previously has been determined. It is indicated that this subject has not been sufficiently covered in Ukrainian and foreign historiography. This research work has examined the causes which led up to the armed conflict, the nature of the Serbo-Croatian war, the course of military operations as well as the participation of the international community in the peaceful settlement of the conflict. Major external and internal factors which affected the domestic and international policy of the Republic of Croatia have been explored. The causes, which led to coming to power of F. Tudzhman, the first president of the Republic of Croatia, and his party, the Croatian Democratic Union, have been ascertained. The domestic policy of Croatian government, the reforms in the process of transformation of the economy from planned to market and the negative consequences and economical crisis, which resulted from the lack of transparency in actions taken by the government in the process of privatization, have all been scrutinized in this Ph.D. thesis. The author describes the reforms in the domestic and international policy of the Republic after the parliamentary and presidential elections of 2000, when political opposition came to power, and the problems the new government had to solve in an attempt to bring the economy out of this crisis. The process of establishing good-neighborly relations between Croatia and other Republics of the former Yugoslavia and the country's abandonment of the policy of international isolation after new government came to power is described in detail.