Svetozar Pribićević facts for kids

Svetozar Pribićević

Svetozar Pribićević (born October 26, 1875 – died September 15, 1936) was an important Croatian Serb politician. He lived during a time when the Austria-Hungary empire was changing, and later in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

At first, he strongly believed in Yugoslavism. This was the idea that all South Slavic people should unite into one country. This country later became Yugoslavia. However, over time, he became a strong opponent of the very policies promoted by King Alexander I.

Early Life and Political Beginnings

Svetozar Pribićević was born in 1875 in a town called Kostajnica. His family was ethnic Serb. When he was young, he studied math and physics in Zagreb.

He joined other young Croats and Serbs who were interested in politics. In 1897, they started a newspaper called Narodna misao. This paper said that Croats and Serbs were one nation and should work together in politics.

In 1903, Pribićević became the leader of the Serb People's Independent Party (Srpska narodna samostalna stranka). Two years later, in 1905, he and his party supported the Zadar Resolution. This agreement aimed for his party to work with Croatian political groups. Their goal was to create a stronger Croatian policy against the governments of Hungary and Austria.

Leading the Croat-Serb Coalition

From 1906 to 1918, Pribićević led the Croat-Serb Coalition. This political group grew out of the earlier agreements. The Coalition was very powerful in Croatian politics during this time.

Because the Coalition was strong and wanted to create a Yugoslav state, Austrian and Hungarian leaders tried to stop it. There were two famous legal cases in 1909 that showed these efforts:

• The treason trial: A court in Zagreb accused 53 Serbs, including Pribićević's brothers, of working against the government.
• The Friedjung trial: Pribićević and other Coalition members sued an Austrian historian, Heinrich Friedjung. They said he lied about them in his newspaper articles.

Until 1910, Pribićević shared leadership of the Coalition with Frano Supilo. After Supilo left that year, Pribićević led the Coalition by himself.

Creating the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes

In 1918, Svetozar Pribićević was the leader of the Croat-Serb Coalition. This was the main political party in the Croatian Sabor (Parliament).

When the Croatian Sabor voted to join the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, Pribićević became a vice president. This new state was formed by South Slavic regions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The empire had collapsed after losing the First World War.

As Italy started taking over parts of the new state's land, Pribićević urged for quick unification with Serbia. Many delegates from Dalmatia strongly supported this idea. On November 27, a group from the National Council went to Belgrade. A few days later, they officially created a new country: the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

Minister of Internal Affairs

Svetozar Pribićević became the Minister of Internal Affairs in the new kingdom. In this role, he believed a very strong, central government was needed. He thought this would keep the new country united.

His Croat-Serb coalition broke apart. Its members then joined with other political groups from the former Austria-Hungary. They tried to work with Nikola Pašić's Radical party, but talks failed.

Instead, they joined with the Serbian opposition, forming a group that became the Democratic Party in 1920. Even though Ljubomir Davidović was the official leader, Pribićević had a lot of influence on the party's policies.

In the elections for the Constituent Assembly, the Democratic Party did not do as well in the former Austria-Hungarian areas. This reduced Pribićević's power in the party. However, by working with the Radicals, the Democratic Party made sure the new constitution created a strong, central government. This was what Pribićević supported at the time.

In January 1920, Pribićević met secretly with Đuro Basariček. Basariček was from the Croatian Republican Peasant Party. He told Pribićević that his party would join elections and help prepare for the Constituent Assembly. However, King Alexander refused to approve this. Even though Pribićević remained friendly with the King, he started to doubt the King's decisions.

In December 1921, the Radicals caused a government crisis. They demanded the position of Minister of Internal Affairs. The Democratic Party refused, but their members secretly voted for Pribićević to step down. Pribićević then became the Minister of Education.

Elections during this time were often unfair. Police sometimes bothered voters or took away pamphlets. This affected the Democratic Party's success. Also, some opposition leaders, like Stjepan Radić, were put in prison. This actually made their supporters even more determined.

Independent Democrats and Later Life

In 1924, Pribićević and his supporters officially left the Democratic Party. They started a new party called the Independent Democratic Party.

When Nikola Pašić and Stjepan Radić made an agreement in 1925, Pribićević joined the opposition. He began to think that his earlier support for the Radicals had only helped Serbia dominate the country.

After the 1927 election, the Independent Democrats and the Croatian Peasant Party both became opposition parties. They decided to form a new group called the Peasant-Democrat Coalition.

In this coalition with Radić, Pribićević changed his mind about centralism. He had once supported a strong central government, but now he opposed it. In the spring of 1928, Pribićević and Radić strongly fought against a treaty with Italy. They managed to get a majority in parliament against it. This angered nationalist groups in Serbia and led to threats of violence.

In the summer of 1928, Stjepan Radić was killed in Parliament. The opposition parties then refused to attend parliament and demanded new elections.

In 1929, King Alexander started a royal dictatorship, known as the January 6th Dictatorship. Pribićević was held by the authorities in Brus, Serbia, for two years. In 1931, due to his health problems, he was allowed to leave the country.

Exile and Writings

While in Paris, in 1933, Pribićević published a book called "King Alexander's Dictatorship." In this book, he criticized King Alexander. He blamed the King for the political problems in Yugoslavia since 1918. He argued that Yugoslavia should be a federal republic, meaning power would be shared more evenly.

In the same year, he also wrote a "Letter to the Serbs." In this letter, he said that Serbs and Croats needed to understand each other and be equal. He wrote that "any other way and solution would mean eternal friction, mutual conflicts and wars, which would eventually end disastrously for both." In May 1933, Pribićević also had discussions with Branimir Jelić and Vlatko, the eldest son of Stjepan Radić.

Svetozar Pribićević died in exile in Prague in 1936.

Sources

See also

In Spanish: Svetozar Pribićević para niños