The historic Croatian coat of arms, known as the šahovnica, is a checkerboard pattern of red and white squares. Despite it being a part of Croatian historic heraldic tradition, part and parcel of communist oppression and lies, that continued even after Croatia’s independence in the 1990’s, the version of it that starts with the white instead of the red square has falsely associated it exclusively with the WWII-era Ustasha regime, leading to its cruel stigmatisation. All who held dear the historic coats of arms beginning with the white field have been labelled fascists, Nazis … by those who attached themselves to communist Yugoslavia and loathed those who in WWII fought for an independent Croatia despite the fact that white-first square version predates the WWII Independent State of Croatia and has been used in various historical contexts throughout Croatian history.

Big news hit the Croatian and world’s public scene on June 5, 2025. After decades of silence, Croatian academics finally proclaimed the Declaration on the Croatian Historical Coat of Arms at the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts conference on the Croatian Historical Coat of Arms, which declared the scruple between the first white or red field false, and both coats of arms equally valuable, thus demanding an end to the stigmatisation of the coat of arms with the initial white field.

It is to be hoped, for peace’s sake and political stability in Croatia, that the historic salute “Za dom spremni!” (“For the Homeland, Ready!”), for utterance or display of which many have been subjected to criminal manhunt and arrests during recent times, will receive the same overdue courtesy in Croatia as the coat of arms did. This would, I am sure, finally silence to a great extent and incapacitate persecutions by the Yugoslav and Greater Serbian provocateurs.

D E C L A R A T I O N June 5, 2025, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts  – translation into English:

“In numerous scientifically supported heraldic studies, domestic and foreign authors have answered questions about the genesis, development and appearance of the Croatian checkered coat of arms throughout history. The checkered coat of arms of Croatia is a stylised depiction of a fortress, fortification or rampart. Towards the end of the 15th century, it was designed according to the then metaphor of Croatia as a fortress, rampart or the rampart of Christianity (Antemurale Christianitatis), most often in a variant with an initial silver (white) and a final red field (when there is an even number of fields). Checkered coats of arms of Croatia with an initial silver (white) or red field have been present and used almost equally since the beginning of the 16th century. Therefore, the disputes related to the initial field (white or red) – which implies that the use of one variant would exclude the other – are a false dilemma.

Historiographical insights are confirmed by the centuries-old practice of highlighting different variants of the checkered coat of arms. All of this refutes recent theses about the special meaning of the initial field of our coat of arms, so they can be considered pseudoscientific and political.

Namely, since the beginning of the 21st century, these theses have begun to impose themselves on the public by repeating incorrect claims and drawing false conclusions from them. These are mostly malicious media problematisation of the initial silver (white) field of the Croatian historical coat of arms, which link it exclusively to the period of World War II. In doing so, the version with the initial silver field is incorrectly declared the coat of arms and symbol of the Independent State of Croatia.

The historical Croatian coat of arms with the initial silver field is thus ideologised and serves daily political needs. Such an ahistorical approach also reduces the diversity of the centuries-long continuous use of the coat of arms with checkered fields and excludes the five hundred years of history of equal use of the versions of this Croatian heraldic symbol. The false problem with the initial fields of the checkered coat of arms can also be viewed as an example of the historical tension between the permanence of symbols and the changeability of context, or as evidence of the irrational dimension that contemporary manipulation of symbols has taken on.

The imposition of a tendentiously ideological debate aimed at narrowing and contaminating the symbols of Croatian identity requires the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts to clearly separate historical facts from malicious forgeries.

The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts believes that such debates about the Croatian coat of arms, especially about the colour of the initial field on it, are not motivated by scientific, historical, and cultural goals, but by political and politicised ones. For all of this, with this Declaration, the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts announces an end to the stigmatisation of various variants of the Croatian historical coat of arms and the contemporary ideologization of historical symbols in general.

The official coat of arms of the Republic of Croatia is prescribed by law and has no variants, but the Croatian historical coat of arms in private and public use, with reason and pride, can and should be displayed in the way that Croats have displayed, respected and considered their own throughout history, regardless of whether its initial field is white or red.”

Hallelujah! Finally! Ina Vukic