Stjepan Radić (stye'pän rä'dich), 1871–1928, Croatian politician.  Of peasant origin, he early became active in politics and founded (1905) the Croatian Peasant party.  In 1918 he opposed the union of Croatia with Serbia, Montenegro, and Slovenia (later Yugoslavia), fearing Serbian centralism, and favoring a Croat peasant republic.  After World War I, Radić dominated Croatian politics, and fought for a federal state structure within Yugoslavia and for Croatian autonomy, as well as for land reform and reduced peasant taxes.  Despite the electoral success of his party in Croatia, he refused to participate in the national parliament, thus allowing the premier, Nikola Pašić, to impose a centralized government on Yugoslavia.  Leaving Yugoslavia in 1923, he visited Moscow.  After his return to Yugoslavia he was imprisoned by Pašić because of his association with the Soviet Communists, and his party was disbanded.  Radić was soon released from prison and became (1925) Yugoslav minister of education.  Resigning in 1926, he returned to the opposition. He died of wounds inflicted by an assassin on the floor of parliament.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed.  2004, Columbia University Press.

Nikola Pašić (nē'kôlä pä'shich), 1845?–1926, Serbian statesman.  After studying engineering, he became interested in politics and was elected (1878) to the Serbian parliament.  In 1881 he founded the Radical party, which he led for the rest of his life.  An opponent of the government of King Milan, he lived in exile from 1883 to 1889.  After his return, he was (1891–92) premier of Serbia for the first of many times.  Exiled (1899) by King Alexander, he returned to power after the accession (1903) of Peter I and virtually controlled Serbia in the years preceding World War I.  Strongly pro-Russian and advocating the creation of a greater Serbia, he adopted a violently anti-Austrian policy after the annexation by Austria of Bosnia and Hercegovina.  The Austrian government accused him (1914), with cause, of having possessed knowledge of the plot against Archduke Francis Ferdinand, whose assassination precipitated World War I.  Pašić led Serbia throughout the war and in 1917 negotiated the union of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.  He was an important figure at the Paris Peace Conference and was premier of Yugoslavia for most of the time from 1921 until his death.  Favoring a greater Serbia in which Serbia would control the other sections through a centralized administration, he met bitter opposition from Stjepan Radić in Croatia.  Pašić and his party grew increasingly conservative in the latter part of his career.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed.  2004, Columbia University Press

Francis Ferdinand, 1863–1914, Austrian archduke, heir apparent (after 1889) of his uncle, Emperor Francis Joseph. In 1900 he married a Czech, Sophie Chotek. She was made duchess of Hohenberg, but because she was of minor nobility their children were barred from succession. Laboring to transform the dual Austro-Hungarian Monarchy into a triple monarchy including a Slavic kingdom under Croatian leadership, he won the enmity of both the Pan-Serbians and the Pan-Germans, and his support of the Christian Socialist campaign for universal suffrage brought the hostility of the Hungarian magnates. In 1913 he became inspector general of the armies. On June 28, 1914, while at Sarajevo on an inspection tour, he and his wife were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist. Francis Ferdinand's death was the occasion for the Austrian ultimatum, addressed to Serbia by Count Berchtold, that led directly to World War I.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed.  2004, Columbia University Press.