Stjepan Radić

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Stjepan Radić
Croatian People's Peasant Party
In office
28 December 1904 – 8 August 1928
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byVladko Maček
Leader of the Opposition
In office
1 January 1921 – 8 August 1929
Minister of Education in Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
In office
November 1925 – February 1927
Personal details
Born11 June 1871
Mirogoj cemetery, Zagreb, Croatia
CitizenshipHungarian-Croatian[1] (1871–1918)
Yugoslav (1918–1928)
Political partyCroatian Peasant Party
Spouse
Marija Dvořák
​
(m. 1898)​
ChildrenMilica (1899–1946)
Miroslav (1901–1988)
Vladimira (1906–1970)
Branislava (1912–1983)
RelativesAntun Radić (brother)
OccupationPolitician

Stjepan Radić (11 June 1871 – 8 August 1928) was a

Croatian People's Peasant Party (HPSS), active in Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
.

He is credited with galvanizing Croatian peasantry into a viable political force. Throughout his entire career, Radić was opposed to the union and later

Serb hegemony in Yugoslavia and became an important political figure in that country. He was shot in parliament by the Serbian People's Radical Party politician Puniša Račić. Radić died several weeks later from a serious stomach wound at the age of 57.[2] This assassination further alienated the Croats and the Serbs and initiated the breakdown of the parliamentary system, culminating in the 6 January Dictatorship of 1929.[3]

Biography

Early life

Stjepan Radić was born in Desno Trebarjevo,

Monastery of the Caves where he remained for six weeks before returning to Croatia.[5]

In September 1891, he enrolled in law at the

École libre des sciences politiques in Paris, where he graduated in 1899.[8]

Lead up to the first Yugoslavia

After World War I he had opposed the merging of Croatia with the Kingdom of

geese into fog".[10][11] He was the lone member of the National Council's central committee to vote against sending a delegation to Belgrade to negotiate with the Kingdom of Serbia.[12] On 26 November, he was removed from the central committee.[12]

After the

Provisional Representation which served as a parliament until elections for the Constituent could be held. Radić refused participation which he saw as legitimizing the unification.[13]

Arrest

On 8 March 1919, the central committee passed a resolution penned by Radić that declared "Croatian citizens do not recognize the so called

Paris Peace Conference.[14] This act provoked a decision by the government to arrest Radić along with several other party members.[15]

He was to be held some 11 months until February 1920,

rally in front of 100,000 people in Zagreb.[19] Stjepan Radić and the CCPP held a meeting in which a motion was put forward and voted on that the party will not be part of parliamentary discussions before matters are first resolved with Serbia on the matters of governance, the most sticking issues being the minorisation of the Croatian people and the overt powers of the King with the central government in Belgrade.[citation needed] The party was subsequently renamed to the Croatian Republican Peasant Party, highlighting the party's official stance.[17] In December, ban of Croatia Matko Laginja was dismissed by the cabinet of Milenko Radomar Vesnić for allowing the rally to take place.[20]

The new Constitution

On 12 December 1920, the Parliament of SHS had their first sitting, without the representatives of CPP (50 representatives) and the Croatian Party of Rights (2 representatives). A total of 342 representatives presented their credentials out of a total of 419.

assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914.[24]

In the next parliamentary elections, which were held in March 1923, the stance of Stjepan Radić and the CPP against the central government managed to turn into extra votes. The results of the election were, 70 seats or 473.733 votes,[25][26] which represented the majority of the Croatian vote in Northern and Southern parts of Croatia, as well as the Croatian votes in Bosnia, as well as Herzegovina.[citation needed]

Second imprisonment

Radić still held on to the idea of an

independent Croatia, and kept the party out of parliament in protest. This in effect afforded Serbian prime minister Nikola Pašić the opportunity to consolidate power and strengthen his Serb-dominated government. Radić embarked on an unsanctioned overseas trip in 1923 in which he visited England, France, Austria, and the Soviet Union. On 1 July 1924, he proclaimed that his party would join the Krestintern as long as it was without Yugoslav representation and the Communist International denounced Yugoslav Unitarianism.[27] The party congress approved his party's ascension into the Krestintern on August 24 and thereafter, the centralists and monarchists accused him of communism and anti-state activities.[27] On 23 December, the central government declared that the political party CRPP was in contravention of the Internal security law of 1921 in the infamous Obznana declaration,[27] and this was confirmed by King Alexander on 1 January 1924.[28] Stjepan Radić was arrested on 5 January, along with several prominent members of his party.[28]

After the parliamentary elections in February 1925, the CRPP even with its whole executive team behind bars, and with only Stjepan Radić at its helm, CRPP managed to win 67 parliamentary seats with a total of 532,872 votes.[27][29] Even though the vote count was higher than at the previous election, the gerrymandering by the central government ensured that CRPP received fewer parliamentary seats. In order to increase his negotiating power the CRPP entered into a coalition with the Independent Democratic party (Samostalna demokratska stranka), Slovenian People's Party (Slovenska ljudska stranka) and the Yugoslav Muslim Organization (Jugoslavenska muslimanska organizacija).

Return to Parliament

Immediately after the

Minister for Education,[30] whereas other CPP party members obtained ministerial posts: Pavle Radić, Nikola Nikić, Benjamin Šuperina, and Ivan Krajač. This powersharing arrangement was cut short after the passing away of the president of the Peoples Radical Party, Nikola Pašić
, on 10 December 1926.

Radić soon resigned his ministerial post in 1926 and returned to the opposition, and in 1927 entered into a coalition with

Austro-Hungarian Empire. With this arrangement, Stjepan Radić managed to obtain a parliamentary majority in 1928. However, he was not able to form a government. The Peasant-Democrat coalition was opposed by some of the Croatian elite, like Ivo Andrić, who even regarded the followers of the CPP as "...fools following a blind dog..." (the blind dog being Stjepan Radić). As he reached his mid to late 50s, Radić was nearly blind.[32]

Attempted Assassination in Parliament

Attempted Assassination in Belgrade
Stjepan Radić's grave in Mirogoj Cemetery

Parliamentary speaker). On the morning of 20 June 1928, Radić was warned of the danger of an assassination attempt against him and was begged to stay away from the Assembly for that day. He replied that he was like a soldier in war, in the trenches and as such it was his duty to go but he nevertheless promised not to utter a single word.[33]

In the

Antun Bauer of Zagreb. There was a massive turnout for his burial, and his death was seen as causing a permanent rift in Croat–Serb relations in the old Yugoslavia.[36]

Puniša Račić was convicted of the murders and sentenced to 60 years in prison, which was immediately reduced to 20 years. Račić spent most of his sentence under house arrest in a comfortable villa, where he was attended by three servants and was free to enter and leave at will. The leniency of his sentence likely came as a result of his connection with the Chetniks. He was released from house arrest on 27 March 1941. Račić was shot by the

liberation of Belgrade from the Axis powers.[37]

Following the political crisis triggered by the shooting, in January 1929, King Aleksandar Karađorđević abolished the constitution, dissolved the parliament, banned all ethnic, regional and religious political parties, and declared a royal dictatorship.[3]

Radić is buried in the

Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb.[38]

Legacy

Radić's violent death turned him into a martyr and an icon of political struggle for the peasantry and the working class, as well as an icon of Croatian patriots. The iconography of Stjepan Radić was later used not only by his successor Vladko Maček, but also by other political options in Croatia: right wing or left wing.

Monument to Stjepan Radić, Zagreb

The

Partisans on the other hand used this as a recruiting point with CPP members who were disillusioned with the Independent State of Croatia
, and latter had one brigade named after Antun and Stjepan Radić in 1943.

The image of Stjepan Radić was used extensively during the Croatian Spring movement in the early 1970s. There are many folk groups, clubs, primary and secondary schools which bear the name of Stjepan Radić. Many Croatian cities have streets and squares in his name. In 2008, a total of 265 streets in Croatia were named after him, making Radić the third most common person eponym of streets in the country.[39] Statues of Stjepan Radić are also common. His portrait was depicted on the obverse of the Croatian 200 kuna banknote, issued in 1993 and 2002.[40] Since 1995 the Republic of Croatia has awarded the Order of Stjepan Radić. In 2015 the Croatian Parliament declared 20 June to be the Memorial Day for Stjepan Radić and the June Victims.

In 1997, a poll in Croatian weekly Nacional named Stjepan Radić as the most admired Croatian historic personality.

Anti-clericalism

Stjepan Radić was a Roman Catholic, but at the same time extremely anti-clerical. In a 1924 rally in Krašić, birthplace of the late Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac, he stated: "Priests or bishops are teachers of the faith and as such we are listening to them in church, and even outside the church. But when they mistake religion with politics, with such gentile politics of revenge, blood, arrogance and gluttony, they are not teachers, but destroyers of faith and church. (...) When our bishops write a political letter, and when they want to be political leaders to the Croatian people, then it is my and our duty to decipher it and if necessary, condemn it." In an interview for Nova revija in 1926 he stated that "clericalism means abuse of the most sacred feelings of religion in order to destroy the family, to demolish people in order to gain political power."[41] He would often repeat the slogan: Believe in God, but not in the priest. He supported the establishment of the Indigenous Croatian Catholic Church, and its separation from the Vatican. The secularist association "Voice of Reason - The Movement for a Secular Croatia" uses his portrait as its logo.

References

  1. ^ Kosnica, Ivan (2017). "Citizenship in Croatia-Slavonia during the First World War". Journal on European History of Law. 8 (1): 58–65.
  2. ^ Norman M. Naimark, Yugoslavia and its Historians: Understanding the Balkan Wars of the 1990s (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), 105, 127
  3. ^ a b Goldstein, Ivo (13 January 2019). "Prošlo je 90 godina od državnog udara kojim su trebali biti izbrisani i Hrvati i Srbi i Slovenci". Jutarnji list (in Croatian). Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  4. ^ Rychlik 2015, p. 92.
  5. ^ a b Očak, Ivan (1992). "Stjepan Radić i Rusija". Radovi Zavoda za hrvatsku povijest Filozofskoga fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu: Radovi Zavoda za hrvatsku povijest Filozofskoga fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu. 25 (1): 103–122.
  6. ^ a b Branka Boban, Mladi Stjepan Radić o Srbima u Hrvatskoj i odnosima Hrvata i Srba, Radovi Zavod za hrvatsku povijest, Vol 28, Zagreb, 1995.
  7. ^ Racko 1990, p. 244
  8. ^ "Radić, Stjepan". Croatian Encyclopedia (in Croatian). Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
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  10. ^ Dragnich 1983, p. 10.
  11. doi:10.31192/np.21.2.6
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  12. ^ a b Zlatko Matijević, Narodno vijeće Slovenaca, Hrvata i Srba u Zagrebu, Hrvatski institut za povijest.
  13. ^ Biondich 2000, p. 164.
  14. ^ Zlatko Matijević, Prilozi za političku biografiju dr. Ljudevita Kežmana: od "Memoranduma" za Mirovnu konferenciju u Parizu do odlaska u Sjedinjene Američke Države (1919.-1922.), Časopis za suvremenu povijest, God. 38., br. 3., 757.-778. (2006)
  15. ^ Dragnich 1983, p. 18.
  16. ^ Janjatović 1997, p. 102.
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  20. ^ Etudes Historiques, Volume 9. Académie des sciences de Bulgarie, Institut d'histoire. 1979. p. 204.
  21. ^ Dragnich 1983, p. 21.
  22. ISBN 9781317900177
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  24. ISBN 978-1-7802-3006-1
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  26. ISBN 978-0-2533-4656-8
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    ISBN 978-9-0042-6191-4
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  28. ^ a b Biondich 2000, p. 200.
  29. ^ Torbar, Josip M., ed. (1988). Radicéva politička baština i budućnost Hrvatske: simpozij Hrvatske Seljačke Stranke povodom 60. obljetnice Radićeve pogibije. Središnji odbor Hrvatske Seljačke Stranke. p. 20.
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  32. ^ C. Michael McAdams. "CROATIA: MYTH AND REALITY". CROATIA AND THE CROATIANS. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  33. ISBN 9780670853380
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  34. doi:10.1163/22116257-00601003
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  35. ^ a b Kulundžić, Zvonimir (1967). Atentat na Stjepana Radića. Stavrnost. pp. 360–372.
  36. ^ "YU Historija...::: Dobro dosli ... Prva Jugoslavija". www.yuhistorija.com. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  37. ^ Večernje novosti & 20 June 2013.
  38. ISBN 9781784770082
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  39. ISSN 1847-3911
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  40. ^ Croatian National Bank Archived 6 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Features of Kuna Banknotes Archived 6 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine: 200 kuna Archived 4 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine (1993 issue) & 200 kuna Archived 4 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine (2002 issue). – Retrieved on 30 March 2009.
  41. ^ Nova revija, no. 1, p. 67-68

Books

Journals

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stjepan Radić.
Assembly seats
Preceded by
 Member of Croatian Parliament for Ludbreg
1908–1918 		Succeeded by
Parliament abandoned
Party political offices
Preceded by
Post established
 President of the
Croatian People's Peasant Party

1904–1928 		Succeeded by
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