Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/9xn31cw2ky
The Party-of-Right Ideology in Relation to the Zrinski-Frankopan Martyrdom
Stjepan Matković
; Croatian Institute of History
*
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
Ante Starčević and Eugen Kvaternik, founders of the Party of Right, laid in their work and in their speeches foundations for the establishment of the Zrinski-Frankopan Cult. Since 1871, the Party of Right has been commemorating the decapitation of Ban Petar Zrinski and Count Fran Krsto Frankopan. Thereby, the role of the Habsburg dynasty and the subordination of the Croatian people in the state of Austro-Hungary has repeatedly been questioned in contemporary atmosphere. Though commemorating the victims bore a general national mark, the Party of Right was the one that managed to develop the Cult up to the beginning of the 20th century, using it for presenting its political programme addressing the need for the Croatian independence. By holding annual gatherings on the day of the execution, and writing diverse literary works (novels, poems, plays, etc.) addressing the topic of Zrinski and Frankopan, the Party-of-Right members awakened the interest of a wider public for the historical issue and the embedding thereof into collective memory. At the beginning of the 20th century, several among the political protagonists interpreted the Cult in a new fashion. It was first portrayed as a symbol of the Croatian-Hungarian cooperation in opposition against the centralism in Vienna; subsequently, the Cult acquired a Yugoslav mark, creating a connection between the fight against the state of Austro-Hungary and the establishment of the Yugoslav state on its ruins.
Keywords
Party of Right; the Zrinski-Frankopan Cult; collective memory
Hrčak ID:
316741
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2023.
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