History of the Croatian Peasant Party
The Croatian Peasant Party ranks among the most important political organizations in Croatian history. It championed the democratization of Croatian society as a whole and a complete solution to the Croatian national question, and in the first half of the twentieth century no political party had wider support among Croats. It was founded in 1904 by the brothers Antun and Stjepan Radić.
Stjepan Radić
The party was established on December 22, 1904, under the name Croatian People’s Peasant Party. It was a progressive people’s party, and it regarded the Croatian peasantry, at the time the overwhelming majority of Croatian society, as the backbone of the Croatian nation. In 1920 it became the Croatian Republican Peasant Party, and later, under pressure from the authorities, it adopted the name it still bears today: the Croatian Peasant Party. Stjepan Radić led the party from its founding until his death on August 8, 1928.
Following Radić’s death, Vladko Maček was elected president of the party, and he held that office until he died on May 15, 1964.
After Maček’s death, the party convention of 1965 elected Dr. Juraj Krnjević as president, and he remained in the post for the rest of his life. He died in London on January 9, 1988.
Once Croatia had become an independent state, and after many misunderstandings and the emergence of various factions, a unifying assembly was held in Canada on May 20, 1991. In Croatia, Drago Stipac was elected president; he served until 1994, when ill health forced him to resign. Zlatko Tomčić took over as president in 1994, followed by Josip Friščić from 2005 to 2012, Branko Hrg from 2012 to 2016, and Krešo Beljak from 2016 to the present day.
History of HSS in Canada
On June 20, 1928, in the National Assembly of Yugoslavia, the Radical deputy Puniša Račić shot dead Đuro Basariček and Pavle Radić and wounded Ivan Pernar, Ivan Granđa and Stjepan Radić, who died of his injuries on August 8 of that year. King Alexander I Karađorđević seized on the assassination as an excuse to proclaim the dictatorship of January 6 and outlaw every political party.
In the wake of these events, a number of leading HSS members left Yugoslavia, among them the general secretary of HSS, Dr. Juraj Krnjević. He first addressed Croatian immigrants in Canada at the end of 1929 through “Hrvatski glas” (The Croatian Voice), which Petar Stanković had started in Winnipeg in March of that year. The contacts and correspondence that Dr. Juraj Krnjević and Ing. August Košutić kept up with Croats abroad gave rise to the idea of a Croatian peasant organization among the emigrants, through which the fight for Croatian national interests could carry on. Such organizations appeared first in the United States and, shortly afterwards, in Canada.
The first Croatian peasant organization in Canada was founded in Toronto. The city had the largest Croatian community in the area, and it included some well-known members who had taken an active part in the Croatian peasant movement before leaving home. The chief organizer was Franjo Duralija, a native of Žumberak and a former regional representative of HSS. At a meeting held at the end of 1929, those present decided to call a public founding assembly of HSS. It met on January 5, 1930, set up the HSS organization in Toronto and chose Franjo Duralija as president. The Toronto branch had been at work for a year before the organization in Noranda was founded, and the Noranda organization proved so energetic that in its very first year it managed to build a handsome “Croatian National Home.”
To spread the ideas of the Radić brothers more widely, the Toronto organization formed a special committee whose job was to found HSS branches in other parts of Canada. The committee began touring the Croatian communities of southern Ontario, and its visits produced new branches in Cooksville, Hamilton, Welland, Windsor and Sudbury, soon followed by organizations in Kirkland Lake, Schumacher, Port Colborne and Winnipeg. Organizations were then also founded in Vancouver, BC, Huntsville, ON, and Stellarton, NS, and in 1934 in Flin Flon, MB, and Iron Springs, Alta.
With ten HSS branches already active in Canada, and at Dr. Krnjević’s suggestion, the Toronto organization was given the task of calling the first general assembly of the Canadian HSS organizations.
The first HSS convention in Canada met in Toronto on January 24, 25, 26 and 27, 1932. Its work was marked by the protest of Canadian Croats against the violence of the Belgrade regime toward the Croatian people, and its mission was to get Croatian peasant organizations started all over Canada. This convention also elected the first Main Committee of HSS Canada: Franjo Duralija, president; Ivan Krznarić and Adam Žunac, vice-presidents; Stanko Laus and Ivan Herceg, secretaries; and Kuzmo Krušelj and Stjepan Bradica, treasurers. Petar Stanković was elected commissioner for propaganda, and “Hrvatski glas” became the official newspaper of HSS Canada.
The second convention of HSS Canada was held in Hamilton on April 6, 7 and 8, 1933. It adopted the “Rules of the HSS Organizations in Canada,” which took effect at once. They were modelled on the rules of “Seljačka sloga” (Peasant Concord) and drafted to comply with Canadian law. A new Main Committee was elected, with Zvonimir Restek as president.
The third convention, held in Welland on April 4, 5 and 6, 1935, dealt with all of HSS’s organizational questions. It resolved to support by every available means the Croatian people’s struggle for free self-determination, and declared that the members stood unwaveringly behind Vladko Maček, leader and president of the Croatian people.
With the structure of the HSS organizations in Canada now complete, new branches kept being founded across the country, and conventions were held every three years.