Stjepan Radić

Stjepan Radić was born on June 11, 1871, in Desno Trebarjevo. Studying at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques in Paris, Radić and his brother Antun founded the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) in 1904, transforming the peasant majority into an organized democratic political force.

A passionate pacifist who warned against blindly entering royalist Yugoslavia in 1918, Radić mobilized millions for peasant rights and Croatian autonomy. On June 20, 1928, a radical Montenegrin deputy shot Radić on the floor of the Belgrade Parliament; he died of his wounds weeks later in Zagreb, mourned by hundreds of thousands.