Radic, Stepan

Before the rise of Yugoslavia

Born into a peasant family in the village of Desno-Trebaryevo near Sisak (now the Martinska Ves community in Croatia). He was the ninth of twelve children ^[5] . Expelled from the gymnasium in Zagreb , Stepan Radic graduated from a real school in Karlovac . In 1888, he visited the Catholic Bishop Josip Juraj Strosmeier , the ideologist of Yugoslavism and Croatian self-determination, in Dyakovo. Bishop Strosmeier introduced the 17-year-old Radic to the Belgrade Metropolitan Mikhail, so that he would arrange for the young man a trip to the Russian Empire. Stepan was sent to a local teacher in Kiev , where the future Croatian politician spent six weeks in the caves of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra .

In 1891 he entered the legal department of the University of Zagreb . In 1893, he was elected to represent the student body at the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Battle of Sisak , in which the combined army, consisting mainly of Croats and Slovenian Slovenes , defeated the Turks. In his speech at the ceremony, Radić criticized the Croatian bath Karoy Kuen-Hedervari , calling him the "Magyar hussar." For this, he was first convicted and spent four months in prison in Petrinje . Radic was in a group of students who burned the Hungarian tricolor on October 16, 1895, during the visit of Emperor Franz Joseph to Zagreb.

In 1899, Radic graduated from the School of Political Sciences in Paris. Then he lived in Prague, worked as a journalist, collaborated in the Czech, Russian and French press. In 1896 he again visited Russia. In 1902 he returned to Croatia, to Zagreb. In 1904, Stepan, together with his older brother Ante Radic , already a well-known public figure, founded the Croatian Peasant Party. The party defended the principles of "peasant democracy" and "peasant law" (the unity of interests of the whole peasantry, its hegemony in political life, agrarian reform).

Even before the outbreak of World War I, he became famous as a public figure who opposed the annexation of Croatia, then part of Austria-Hungary, to the kingdom of Serbia without guarantees of Croatian autonomy. On November 24, 1918, at a meeting of delegates who were to decide on the fate of Croatia after the end of the war, he urged not to “race like drunken geese into fog” - he was afraid of discrimination against Croats in a state where Serbs played a leading role. In the second half of the 19th century, within the framework of the Illyric movement, attempts were made to create a single literary language of Serbs and Croats, however, despite the closeness of languages ​​and cultures, there was a strong clan and clan structure in the Balkans, so fears of national-religious discrimination were not unfounded.

Under the pressure of the Entente, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was created , and two members of the Radić party were appointed to the Temporary Representation, which was to serve as parliament until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly. However, party representatives refused to participate in the newly created body.

Arrest

On March 8, 1919, the Central Committee of the Croatian Peasant Party issued a resolution that stated:

" Croatian citizens do not recognize the so-called Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes under the rule of the Karageorgievich dynasty, since this kingdom was not proclaimed a Croat Sabor and without the consent of the Croatian people ."

The full text of the statement was translated into French and distributed in the foreign press. This resolution provoked the Yugoslav government to arrest Radic and a number of his supporters. Radic was imprisoned until February 1920, and was released shortly before the first parliamentary elections in the kingdom, which took place in November. In the election, his party received 230,590 votes, or 50 out of 41 seats in parliament. Before the first parliamentary meeting after a mass rally in Zagreb , where about 100,000 participants were present, Stepan Radic and the party leadership held an emergency meeting, at which it was decided that the party will not participate in parliamentary debates until the disagreements with Serbia have been resolved on the governance of Croatia, discrimination against the Croatian population and the king’s excessive power over the central government in Belgrade .

New Constitution

On December 12, 1920, the first meeting of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was held, but without the participation of representatives of the Croatian Peasant Party (50 deputies) and the Croatian Rights Party (2 deputies). On June 28, 1921, the Kingdom’s Constitution (Vidovdan Charter) was adopted by the votes of 223 deputies out of a total of 419.

At the next parliamentary elections in March 1923, Radic’s opposition to the Belgrade government provided him with additional votes, the party received 70 seats or 473,733 votes.

New Conclusion

Radic continued to uphold the idea of ​​Croatian independence, so his party did not participate in parliament in protest. This allowed Prime Minister Nicola Pasic to concentrate power in his hands and strengthen the influence of the Serbs in the government. In 1923, Radic made a long foreign trip, visiting the UK (5 months), Austria (5 months) and the USSR . In the Soviet Union, he spent 2 months; the result was his further rapprochement with the left and the entry of the Croatian Republican Party into the revolutionary ("red") Peasant International , associated with the Comintern , in 1924. After his return in 1924, Radic was arrested in Zagreb on charges of having ties to the Communists. The purpose of the trip was the international propaganda of the requirements of Croats to the government of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

After his release, Radic returned to politics, but ran into problems. On December 23, the Serb-dominated government announced that the Croatian Republican Peasant Party did not comply with the Internal Security Act of 1921 (the party’s main motives were anti-monarchist attitudes), and on January 1, 1924, King Alexander I Karageorgievich made a similar statement. Following the king’s statement, the party’s leaders, including Radich, were arrested.

In the early 1920s, the Yugoslav government of N. Pasic exerted political pressure on voters and ethnic minorities, confiscated opposition pamphlets ^[6] and took other measures so that the opposition remained in the minority in parliament. ^[7] Pasic believed that the Kingdom of CX should be centralized as much as possible, and Greater Serbia should be created instead of regional governments. ^[8]

After the parliamentary elections in February 1925, the Radich party, even though the entire leadership was arrested, won 67 seats in parliament, receiving 532,872 votes. The party entered into a coalition with the Democratic Party (Demokratska stranka), the Slovenian People’s Party (Slovenska ljudska stranka) and the Yugoslav Muslim Organization (Jugoslavenska muslimanska organizacija).

Return to Parliament

Immediately after the parliamentary elections in March 1925, the Croatian Republican Peasant Party changed its name, becoming the Croatian Peasant Party. With the support of coalition partners, the KHP entered into an agreement with the main conservative Serbian party, the People’s Radical Party (Narodna radikalna stranka), as a result of which it was possible to reach agreement on the separation of powers, as well as to achieve the release of several KKP leaders from prison. As a result, the KHP made a number of concessions, such as recognition of the central government and the authority of the monarch, as well as the Vidovdan constitution at a parliament meeting on March 27, 1925. Radic was appointed Minister of Education, other party leaders also received ministerial posts. However, this agreement collapsed after the death of the leader of the Serbian radical party N. Pasic on December 10, 1925.

Soon Radic resigned as minister in 1926 and returned to the opposition, and in 1927 formed a coalition with Svetozar Pribicevic , chairman of the Independent Democratic Party, the leading Serb party in Croatia. For a long time before that, the democrats were opponents of the peasant party, but they were disappointed with the monopoly of radicals on power. Thanks to such a coalition, Radic received a parliamentary majority in 1928, but was unable to form a government. The coalitions of the peasant party and the Democrats were opposed by some prominent representatives of the Croatian elite, such as the writer Ivo Andric , who called the party’s supporters “fools who follow a blind dog” (that is, Radic).

Murder in Parliament

A stalemate arose in parliament - the radicals lost power, and their opponents, the Radic-Pribichevich coalition, could not form a government. Provocations began, mainly along ethnic lines. Radic was repeatedly warned about the danger of murder.

In parliament, the Serbian nationalist deputy from Montenegro, a member of the People's Radical Party, Punisa Racic, pronounced a provocative speech, which caused a stormy reaction of the opposition, however Radich himself remained silent. In the end, Croatian MP Ivan Pernar shouted an insult to Racic, accusing him of corruption, in response to which Racic snatched up a revolver, shot Pernar and continued firing on Croatian deputies. ^[9] Radic was mortally wounded and died a few weeks later. A lot of supporters came to his funeral, and his death created a serious split between the Serbs and Croats.

Punisa Racic , the murderer of Radic and other Croatian deputies, was sentenced to imprisonment, which he “served” in a luxurious villa in Serbia with a large number of servants. He was released in 1941, led a prosperous life in Belgrade occupied by the Nazis, but was kidnapped and executed by the Yugoslav partisans in 1944.

Shortly after the political crisis surrounding the murder, on January 8, 1929, King Alexander I Karageorgievich abolished the constitution, dissolved parliament and declared a royal dictatorship, changing the name of the country to “Yugoslavia” and starting to suppress national movements.

Radic is buried in the Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb .

Death at the hands of the killer turned Radić into a martyr, his name in the political struggle was made not only the new party leader Vladko Machek , but also representatives of other Croatian parties, both right and left.

Ustashi used the death of Radic as evidence of Serbian hegemony and as an excuse for their terrorist activities against the Serbs. Despite this, the Ustashi killed or sent to prison many leaders of the Peasant Party, including its new leader V. Machek . On the other hand, the Yugoslav partisans-Titovites used the authority of the former Peasant Party to recruit new members from people disappointed with Ustasha’s policies, and in 1943 they assigned one of the brigades the names of Antun and Stepan Radichi.

The name Stepan Radic was repeatedly used during the events of the Croatian spring in the early 1970s. Many institutions and streets in Croatia bear his name, and his portrait is depicted on a 200 kuna banknote.

• Kukharenko V.N. Stepan Radich: a political portrait (1918-1928) // Russian and Slavic Studies Journal, Vol. 4 - 2009
• Stjepan radić
• Another Biography of Radić
• The history of the Croatian Peasant Party
• Picture of Radić
• The Croatian 200 kn bill with Stjepan Radić