Stjepan Radić

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Stjepan Radić (before 1924)

Listen to Stjepan Radić ? / i (born June 11, 1871 in Desno Trebarjevo near Sisak , Austria-Hungary , today Croatia ; † August 8, 1928 in Zagreb , Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes ) was a Croatian politician, writer, and people's and peasant leader. Audio file / audio sample

Radić was one of the founders of the Croatian Peasant Party ( Hrvatska seljačka stranka, HSS ), until his death its chairman and briefly Minister of Education in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

Childhood and youth

Stjepan Radić was born the ninth of a total of eleven children. His parents lived in poor conditions and worked in agriculture. Despite these conditions, the father Imbro Radić managed to become one of the richest farmers in the village within 20 years. He also made it possible for all of his children to attend the school three kilometers away.

At first his parents did not want to and could not send Stjepan Radić to a secondary school in Zagreb . They thought this would be pointless because of his short-sightedness; in addition, they had already sent his three years older brother Ante Radić to a further schooling. However, Stjepan Radić persuaded his brother to help him with further schooling. So his brother paid him the apartment, and he ate himself at a public meal. Despite these circumstances, Radić was an excellent student. So it happened that he was accepted into the poor house of the Archdiocese of Zagreb without his request . He studied law at the University of Zagreb since 1891 and caused a sensation with his nationalist activities: During the visit of Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1895, he set the Hungarian flag on fire together with like-minded students. He was therefore excluded from studying at all universities in the monarchy in the future and continued his studies at the École libre des sciences politiques in Paris .

Founding of the Croatian Peasant Party

Stjepan Radić in 1916

In 1904, together with his brother Antun Radić, Stjepan Radić founded the Croatian People's and Peasants' Party ( Hrvatska pučka seljačka stranka, HPSS ), later renamed the Croatian Republican Peasant Party ( Hrvatska republikanska seljačka stranka, HRSS ) and then the Croatian Peasant Party ( Hrvatskaja , HSS ). They set themselves the goal of representing the interests of the peasant population, who at that time made up the majority of the population of Croatia , but were hardly taken into account by the established bourgeois parties. In the period before the First World War , however, their success was initially limited. Due, among other things, to the census suffrage in force in Croatia-Slavonia at the time , she was only able to win a few mandates in Sabor .

When the National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs of the former Austria-Hungary decided in autumn 1918 to immediately unite the South Slavic countries of the former Habsburg Monarchy (the so-called SHS state) with the Kingdom of Serbia to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes , Stjepan Radić voted as the only member of the National Council against. He himself always advocated cooperation between all South Slavic as well as all Slavic peoples, but the independence of the individual peoples should be preserved. Instead of a centralized monarchy, he strove to form a federation of South Slav peasant republics. In his speech at the historic session of the National Council in Zagreb on November 24, 1918, Radić said:

“ If I take the floor anyway, it happens with the awareness that I am fulfilling an obligation and exercising my right, but then also to touch your conscience so that you cannot later use the excuse that it is if no one had shown you the abyss into which you are about to plunge all of our people, and especially the Croatian people. [...] The greatest mistake and at the same time an unforgivable sin of all these speakers is that they evidently learned nothing during the war, because as if they did not see the people, as if they knew nothing about the people, they are speaking the opposite of what our people want and need. [...] Your entire procedure here in the National Council is neither democratic, nor constitutional, nor just. It's also not wise. [...] Gentlemen, do not care in the slightest that our peasant in general, and especially the Croatian peasant, does not want to hear or know anything about the king and emperor, and the new state that has been forcibly imposed on him. Our farmer has the necessary maturity to know that the state and the fatherland exist in justice and freedom, in prosperity and culture. If you let this farmer beat up by gendarmes today , if you force him to obey you, to allegedly protect you against the Italians - then he will say or think to himself that you are in no way different from his former Hungarian and German oppressors [...] Maybe you can win the Slovenes, I don't know; maybe you can temporarily win over the Serbs. But I know for sure that you won't win the Croatians for it. And that's not because the whole Croatian peasant people are against your centralism , as against militarism , and for the republic as well as for the national understanding with the Serbs. [...] Today's meeting proves most clearly that you are completely ignoring the constitutionality, that you are not even keeping up appearances [...] so you did not convene the whole National Council, but only this committee. You know very well that not even the full National Council represents the people because it was not elected by the people [...] You did not do that because you know that your behavior is incorrect and that you will immediately would notice if the hearing were held in public and in front of a larger group. But how great is the unconstitutionality that you commit by circumventing our Croatian state sabor! [...] You will go to Belgrade and you will proclaim the unified state there without the Croatian people and against the will of these people ... and maybe you will also govern without laws, only through arbitrariness and based on violence. The people will see from this that you do not belong to them and it will no longer be for you. Wherever you call it, it will refuse to obey you. [...] The whole world recognizes the right of peoples to self-determination . We owe our liberation only to this right. [...] But this right belongs to all of our three peoples and especially to us Croats in Croatia, also with regard to the establishment and establishment of our common state. We are three brothers - the Croat, the Slovene and the Serb; but we are not one. [...] If you don't believe it, then may God let you experience the time - it won't be too long - when the Croatian people, in their sense of humanity, will sweep you all away just at the moment when you will believe that this people, that you have sat on your neck, have come to terms with his fate. Long live the republic! Long live Croatia! "

Stjepan Radić speaks at the Parliamentary Assembly in Dubrovnik on May 27, 1928.

In the course of 1919 the Croatian Peasant Party propagated the idea of ​​an independent “Croatian Peasant Republic”. With reference to the right of peoples to self-determination proclaimed by American President Woodrow Wilson , she demanded the recognition of a separate right of self-determination for Croatia and also for the other South Slav peoples. To express its rejection of the Serbian monarchy, the Croatian People's and Peasants 'Party was renamed the Croatian Republican Peasants' Party ( Hrvatska republikanska seljačka stranka, HRSS ). It won the support of a large part of the Croatian population for its politics. This was also due to the behavior of the Serbian army in Croatia, which, after unification, acted as a regulatory power in the name of the newly formed central state in Croatia, which had violently suppressed the peasant unrest that had spread since the collapse of Austria-Hungary and at the same time Croatian conscripts for military service in the southern parts of the new state, where she was fighting against Albanian insurgents. The idea of ​​not having to go to war again for a monarch who was perceived as a stranger after the end of the First World War had an extremely repulsive effect on the rural population of Croatia.

Stjepan Radić in Mostar (1925)

Although Stjepan Radić was temporarily imprisoned during the election campaign, the Croatian Republican Peasant Party was able to win an absolute majority of votes in the elections for the Constituent Assembly of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in the territory of Croatia-Slavonia. The political groups that dominated Croatia before the First World War were completely marginalized. The Croatian Republican Peasant Party interpreted this as well as the following election victories as a plebiscitary rejection of the newly created state order by the Croatian people. The “Croatian Peasant Movement” (the party and its affiliated organizations) saw itself as a democratically legitimized representative of the Croatians both vis-à-vis the Belgrade central power and abroad. The leadership role of the Croatian Peasant Party and its chairman, Stjepan Radić, had to be recognized by Croatia's other political forces in view of its repeated electoral successes.

Assassination and death

Puniša Račić during the assassination attempt on Stjepan Radić and other Croatian MPs in the Yugoslav parliament

On June 20, 1928, Stjepan Radić and four other Croatian MPs were shot by the Montenegrin MP Puniša Račić in the middle of a session of parliament in Belgrade . The two Croatian MPs Pavle Radić and Đuro Basariček were shot dead by the attacker. Seven weeks after the assassination, Radić died on August 8, 1928 from the injuries he had suffered. On August 12, 1928, he was buried in the Mirogoj cemetery in the Croatian capital Zagreb. His funeral turned into an impressive mass demonstration in which 200,000 people took part, more than the city of Zagreb had at the time. His political successor as chairman of the Croatian Peasant Party was Vladko Maček .

family

His brother Antun Radić was an ethnologist ,  publicist and also a politician . His mother Ana (called Jana), born in Desno Željezno near Sisak in 1836 as the daughter of Stjepan and Katarina Posilović, was a relative of the Archbishop of Zagreb Juraj Posilović and is said to have been quite intelligent (although illiterate) and to be intense and vocal for the peasant Community. On her own account, her commitment even went as far as the Ban Ivan Mažuranić and Emperor Franz Joseph I. According to the historian Branka Boban, she had a formative influence on the women's policy of her son Stjepan.

Trivia

"Although deeply pious himself , he hated the clergy and the church and used to practice his rallies with the cry," Praise be to Jesus and Mary - down with the priests ! " initiate. "

The likeness of Stjepan Radić can be found today on the Croatian 200 kuna banknote.

During the Croatian and Bosnian wars , Croatian military units of the Croatian Army and the HVO bore his name.

In many cities in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina , schools, streets and squares are named after Radić today.

Croatia awards the Stjepan Radić Order to deserving people.

Works (selection)

Stjepan Radić's grave in the arcades of the Mirogoj Cemetery in Zagreb
  • Slovnica i čitanka češkog jezika . Zagreb, 1896.
  • Rječnik (češkog jezika) za Hrvate . Zagreb, 1896.
  • Současne Chorvatsko . Prague, 1900.
  • Najjača stranka u Hrvatskoj . Rijeka, 1902.
  • Hrvati i Srbi: hrvatski odgovor na članak "Srpskoga Književnog Glasnika" od August 1st, 1902. pod naslovom "Srbi i Hrvati" . Zagreb, 1902.
  • Slovanska politika v Habsburgske momarchii . Prague, 1902.
  • Uzničke uspomene I dio . Novi Sad, 1902.
  • Uzničke uspomene II dio . Novi Sad, 1903.
  • Stjepan Radić pred mitrovačkim Sudbenim stolom . Zagreb, 1903.
  • Kako ćemo iz zla u dobro: Prijateljska rieč hrvatskom seljaku . Ljubljana, 1903.
  • Za jedinstvo hrvatske opozicije na narodnjačkom, demokratskom i slavenskom osnovu . Zagreb, 1903.
  • Dvije studije o školstvu . Zagreb, 1903.
  • K osnivanju Hrvatske seljačke stranke . Zagreb, 1904.
  • Moderna kolonizacija i Slaveni . Zagreb, 1904.
  • Hrvatska pučka seljačka stranka. HPSS Zagreb, 1905.
  • Hrvati i Madžari . Zagreb, 1905.
  • Jak se Čech brzo nauči Chorvatsky? Kako se Čeh brzo nauči hrvatski . Zagreb, 1906.
  • Dolje Khuen II! Pod optužbu s Rakodczayem . Zagreb, 1907.
  • Jakost i temelj Hrvatske . Zagreb, 1907.
  • Što je i što hoće Hrvatska pučka seljačka stranka. Zagreb, 1908.
  • Današnja financijalna znanost . Zagreb, 1908.
  • Gospodarstvo, prosvjeta i politika . Zagreb, 1910.
  • Federalizam naše carevine i narodno oslobođenje . Zagreb 1910.
  • Češki narod na početku XX. stoljeća . Zagreb, 1910.
  • Hrvatska seljačka politika prvi put u hrvatskom državnom saboru . Zagreb, 1911.
  • Savremena ustavnost: Temelj, načela, jamstvo, obilježje . Zagreb, 1911.
  • Češka vježbenica . Zagreb, 1911.
  • Devet seljačkih zastupnika . Zagreb, 1912.
  • Hrvatski politički katekizam . Cleveland, 1913.
  • Seljačko pravo u sto pitanja i sto odgovora . Zagreb, 1913.
  • Za lakši i bolji seljački život . Zagreb, 1913.
  • Javna politička poruka probuđenoj seljačkoj braći: naročito u Americi i po ostaloj tuđini . Zagreb, 1913.
  • Za hrvatsku državu i za hrvatski seljački narod . Zagreb 1915.
  • Me, pravica i sloboda . Zagreb, 1917.
  • Temelji za budućnost Hrvatske, Habsburške monarhije i ciele Evrope . Zagreb, 1917.
  • Obnovljena Bugarska: od 1878. do 1913 . Zagreb, 1918.
  • Nauk i program: Hrvatske pučke seljačke stranke . 1919.
  • Gospodska politika bez naroda i proti narodu. Govor predsjednika Hrvatske seljačke stranke nar. zastupnika Stjepana Radića na noćnoj sudbonosnoj sjednici Narodnog Vieća dne 24th studena 1918 . Zagreb, 1920.
  • Stjepan Radić: književnik, narodni zastupnik na Hrvatskom državnom saboru i predsjednik Hrvatske seljačke stranke pred sudom kao veleizdajnik Kraljevstva SHS . Zagreb, 1920.
  • Ustav neutralne seljačke republike Hrvatske . Zagreb, 1921.
  • Seljačka sviest i narodna volja. Put seljačkoj republici . Zagreb, 1923.
  • Moj politički životopis . Buenos Aires, 1928.

See also

literature

  • Michel Bankovitch: Stjepan Radić. A psychoanalytic study . Lhotzky, Vienna 1928
  • Balduin Saria: Radić, Stefan . In: Hans Herzfeld (Ed.): History in Gestalten IV. RZ . Fischer Bücherei, Frankfurt am Main 1963, p. 10 (The Fischer Lexikon special volume 40)
  • N. Stančić:  Radić Stjepan. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 8, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-7001-0187-2 , p. 372 f. (Direct links on p. 372 , p. 373 ).
  • Mark Biondich: Stjepan Radić, the Croat Peasant Party, and the politics of mass mobilization, 1904-1928 . University of Toronto Press, Toronto 2000 Excerpt in google books .
  • Tihomir Cipek: Ideja hrvatske države u političkoj misli Stjepana Radića . Alinea, Zagreb 2001, ISBN 953-180-083-9 .

Web links

Commons : Stjepan Radić  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ljerka Racko: Spaljivanje mađarske zastave 1895. godine u Zagrebu. Radovi Zavoda za hrvatsku povijest 23 (1), p. 244 (Croatian, PDF), accessed on August 25, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Ante Pavelić : From the struggle for the independent state of Croatia: some documents and pictures . Croatian correspondence "Grič", Vienna 1931, p. 40 ff .
  3. ^ The Times (London), August 13, 1928
  4. ↑ Radić, Antun | Hrvatska enciklopedija. Retrieved August 12, 2017 (Croatian).
  5. ↑ Zadarska smotra . Matica Hrvatska, Zadar 1997 (Croatian, limited preview in the Google book search).
  6. ↑ Branka Boban: Materinsko Carstvo . Vlado Gotovac Institute: Ženska infoteka, Zagreb 2004, ISBN 953-6860-26-0 (Croatian).
  7. ^ Marie-Janine Calic : History of Yugoslavia in the 20th century . CHBeck, 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-67757-1 ( full text in the Google book search).
personal data
SURNAME Radić, Stjepan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Founder of the Croatian Peasant Party
DATE OF BIRTH June 11, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Trebarjevo Desno
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1928
Place of death Zagreb