Stjepan Radi？ and Dalmatia

Sa？etak Relying on the results of previous research projects and the newspapers of the time, the author describes the political activity and the lesser known processes of the appearance and the struggle of the Croatian (republican) Peasant Party in Dalmatia during the period between 1918 and 1929. The inroads Radi？ made into Dalmatia and the powerful echo of Croatian nationalism amongst the peasants after 1923 gradually but thoroughly undermined the tenets of the unitary Yugoslav option which had proferred itself as a redemptive idea immediately before the end of W. W. I. It was within this context of opposition to the rigid greater Serbian centralism that a federalist and antihegemonic resistance to Belgrade profiled itself in Dalmatia which with the appearance of Stjepan Radi？ steered the H(R)SS peasant movement from the margin towards republican ideas and a state where the different nationalities would have equal treatment. The dangerous Orjuna movement had to be overcome and the agents of an aggressive Yugoslav nationalism, who crying out against Radi？'s supposed separatism and Italian irredentism occupied positions of political power, had to be dismantled before the final victory of the Croatian idea within the cities and throughout the countryside. The 1925 parliamentary elections and especially the 1926 municipal elections marked the crucial years for the affirmation of HSS in Dalmatia. The party's critical position grew in power after the breakup of the short-lived agreement with the Radical Party and during its subsequent association with Pribi？evi？'s independent democrats in 1927. Stagnating political circumstances led to the further deterioration of relations with Serbian parties and to the demands made by the SD coalition to contain greater Serbian hegemony. All of this came to a head with the assassination in the parliament and the killing of Stjepan Radi？. The municipal elections in 1928 marked the final defeat of Serbian parties in Dalmatia and their retreat before the unified Croatian corpus whose radical demands for the transformation of the country were blocked by the king's dictatorship