Stjepan Radić

Stjepan Radić
Radić in the 1920s
President of the 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
Desno Trebarjevo, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, Austria-Hungary (modern Croatia)
Died8 August 1928(1928-08-08) (aged 57)
Zagreb, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (modern Croatia)
Resting placeMirogoj cemetery, Zagreb, Croatia
CitizenshipHungarian-Croatian (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 Croat politician and the co-founder of the 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 the serious stomach wound at the age of 57. 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.