Ivan Lorković

Ivan Lorković
Lorković, c. 1920s
Born(1876-06-17)17 June 1876
Died24 February 1926(1926-02-24) (aged 49)
Occupationpolitician

Ivan Lorković (Croatian pronunciation: [ǐʋan lǒːrkoʋit͡ɕ]; 17 June 1876 – 24 February 1926)[1] was a Croatian politician from Zagreb who was a prominent member of the Croat-Serb coalition, a supporter of the Republican organization, and a member of the United Croatian and Serbian academic youth organization. He was the leader of the Croatian Federalist Peasant Party from 1926 to 1929.

Biography

Between 1902 and 1905, Ivan Lorković was the editor of the Osijek opposition newspaper, National Defense (Croatian: Narodna Obrana).[1][2] The paper's goal was to help the middle class and youth of the Osijek region to think politically. In 1905, he became one of the co-founders of the Croatian National Progressive Party (Hrvatska narodna napredna stranka, NNS).[citation needed]

In the 1913 Croatian parliamentary election, he was elected s a member of the Croatian Republican Peasant Party representing the constituency of Valpovo.

In 1914, Lorković visited Rome to attend a meeting that included politicians from all South Slavic lands within the Monarchy. He arrived with a controversial memorandum on how to break the Austro-Hungarian Empire and preserve the continuation of Croatian statehood. [citation needed] His proposal met with opposition, most notably from Thomas G. Masaryk (founder and first president of the State of Czechoslovakia), who was skeptical of the plan since he did not believe that Britain and France would accept the idea of the total abrogation of the Empire, and therefore was in favor of a confederation.[3]

Lorković, seated at the far right, with members of the State Council in November 1918

In 1918, due to disagreements over the Yugoslav issue, Lorković left the Croatia-Serb coalition and joined the newly founded Croatian Union political party in 1919. Along with Stjepan Radić and others, he entered the Croatian Bloc (Croatian: Hrvatski blok), formed on 14 January 1922, when the Croatian Republican Peasant Party, the Croatian Union, and the Party of Rights formed a coalition. It existed until November of that year.

On 13 September 1925, at a conference of Croatian Union representatives and dissidents from the Croatian Peasant Party in Split, the Croatian People's Federalist Union was founded. On 11 January 1926, the Croatian Federalist Peasant Party was founded in Zagreb and Lorković became the head of its Presidency.[4] Following the 1928 assassination of Stjepan Radić, the party started to support the opposition Peasant-Democratic Coalition.[5] As part of the 6 January Dictatorship, the party was formally banned on 20 January 1929.[6]

Ivan's father was Blaž Lorković, a prominent economist and lawyer who is often credited with the development of the Croatian political economy. He also had two sons; his son Mladen was an Ustaša minister for the fascist and Nazi-collaborationist Independent State of Croatia, notable for his involvement in the Lorković–Vokić plot, and his son Zdravko was a prominent entomologist and cytotaxonomist, notable for his work on butterfly chromosomes.

Bibliography

  • Banac, Ivo, The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics, Ithaca: Cornell University Press (1984), p. 172
  • Antić, Ljubomir (October 1982). "Hrvatska federalistička seljačka stranka". Journal - Institute of Croatian History (in Croatian). 15 (1). Faculty of Philosophy, Zagreb, FF press. ISSN 0353-295X. Retrieved 2013-02-13.

References

  1. ^ a b "Lorković, Ivan". Hrvatska enciklopedija (in Croatian). Zagreb: Leksikografski zavod Miroslav Krleža. 2021. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
  2. ^ "Dr. Ivan Lorković, urednik Narodne obrane u Osijeku od 1902-1905. Prilog za biografiju" [Dr. Ivan Lorković, Editor of "Narodna obrana" in Osiek from 1902-1905; enclosure to the Biography]. Croatian scientific bibliography. Ruđer Bošković Institute Library. 2004. Retrieved 2010-11-22.
  3. ^ Masaryk on Croatian separatist movement
  4. ^ Antić 1982, pp. 171–174.
  5. ^ Antić 1982, pp. 201–205.
  6. ^ Antić 1982, pp. 207–210.
Party political offices
Preceded by
none
Leader of the Croatian Federalist Peasant Party
1926 – 1929
Succeeded by