Name Duro Basaricek | Role Politician | |
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Died June 20, 1928, Belgrade, Serbia | ||
Duro Basaricek ([d͡ʑuːro basarit͡ʃek]; Zagreb, 13 March 1884 - Belgrade, 20 June 1928) was a Croatian politician, lawyer and social activist. He was a member of the Croatian Peasant Party from its founding in 1904. He was assassinated in the National Assembly of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in Belgrade in 1928.
Basaricek was the son of Stjepan Basaricek and Amalija (nee Pogacnik), natives of Durdevac. He finished elementary school, gymnasium and a law degree in Zagreb where he also received his doctorate in law in 1907. He served as a judge in Slavonski Brod and in Zagreb. He was active in relocating disadvantaged children from Istria and Bosnia and Herzegovina to more fertile areas, largely in Slavonia and Podravina. In 1919, Basaricek began his involvement in the colonization of Slavonia from areas such Gorski kotar and Lika, and continued with this cause until his death.
From the founding of the Croatian Peasant Party, Basaricek collaborated with its leader Stjepan Radic. Believing as Radic did that the Croats needed to embrace Pan-Slavism, Basaricek learned Czech and Russian. He was elected to the National Assembly of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes four times: in 1920, 1923, 1925 and 1927. In 1927 he addressed the assembly saying that "dark powers" were preparing a dictatorship which was "equally dangerous to the Croats and to Serbdom".
On 20 June 1928 Basaricek was assassinated by Radical representative Punisa Racic. In the attack Pavle Radic was also killed and Stjepan Radic was fatally wounded. The event led to King Alexander's proclamation of a dictatorship in the Kingdom on 6 January 1929 and the renaming of the country to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.