Review article
Supporters from Podravina Help Stjepan Radić in 1923 to Flee the Country and Seek Help in Europe
Mira Kolar Dimitrijević
orcid.org/0000-0002-6050-5700
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb – Full Professor (retired)
Abstract
Due to his republicanism, as well as his verbal attacks on the royal house, Stjepan Radić was again threatened with prison term, after he had already served two and a half years in jail. As he knew his life was in danger, Radić decided to flee the country, planning to seek help for Croatia in diplomatic circles of Europe. Since all existing state border crossings over Drava (regions of Međimurje, Prekodravlje and Baranja) were heavily guarded, Radić decided to cross Drava and flee into Hungary the way people from Koprivnica and Podravina did for centuries. He turned to his longtime associate since 1905, Fran Škrinjar, who organized an illegal crossing into Hungary, using some people and connections that later turned into the Ustasha emitters’ connections. Stjepan Radić’s helpers in this were later imprisoned, questioned and sentenced to prison terms. However, they got off with short-term imprisonment, thanks to Dr. Vlado Malančec, who at the time was a county administration clerk. By helping them, Malančec showed sympathies for Radić’s Croatian Republican Peasants Party. In return, in 1928 this helped Malančec become the mayor of Koprivnica. At the same time, in 1935 being too close to a government party, it prevented him from further participation in political life of Podravina. This article shows the political situation along the border, people’s anxiety, how Serbia guarded the border and how the barrier between Croatia and Hungary grew larger.
Keywords
Stjepan Radić; Ivan Večenaj; Radić’s fleeing to Hungary in 1923
Hrčak ID:
78684
URI
Publication date:
1.11.2004.
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