In the aftermath of the 1971 purge, the authorities began to pejoratively refer to the events that had transpired as the , a portmanteau of meaning "mass movement", as a reference to the politicisation of the masses with the aim of ensuring the involvement of actors beyond the SKH in Croatia's politics. The term Croatian Spring was coined retroactively, after the 1971 purges, by those holding a more favourable view of the events. The latter term was not permitted to be publicly used in Yugoslavia until 1989.
