Stjepan Radić

Stjepan Radić (born July 11, 1871, Desno Trebarjevo, Croatia, Austria-Hungary [now in Croatia]—died Aug. 8, 1928, Zagreb, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes) was a peasant leader and advocate of autonomy for Croatia (within a federalized Yugoslavia).

With his brother Ante, he organized the Croatian Peasant Party in 1904. In March 1918 Radić began to cooperate with the National Council in Zagreb for the establishment of a Yugoslav union with equal rights for Croats and Serbs and with the recognition of Croatia’s traditional autonomy. Disagreement with the Belgrade regime led to his imprisonment in 1919–20. The elections of 1920 resulted in a period of sterile opposition for him. In July 1923 Radić went abroad to seek support for a Croatian peasant republic but returned disappointed to Zagreb in August 1924 and was imprisoned until July 1925. Accepting the 1921 centralist constitution, however, he entered the government in 1925 but returned to opposition in 1927. Then, unexpectedly collaborating with Svetozar Pribićević, a Serbian Democratic leader, he formed the peasant-democratic alliance that demanded a federalist reorganization of Yugoslavia. During a heated debate in the National Assembly on June 20, 1928, Radić was shot and mortally wounded.