Vladko Maček

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Vladko Maček (June 20, 1879 – May 15, 1964) was a Croatian politician from the first half of the 20th century. He led the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) after Stjepan Radić and through World War II.

Maček was born in village of Kupinec near Jastrebarsko, southwest of Zagreb. In 1903 he earned a law degree at University of Zagreb. After clerking at various Croatian courts he opened private law practice in 1908 in Sv. Ivan Zelina.

Maček joined Croatian Peasant Party since its founding. After World War I, during which he had served in Austro-Hungarian Army, he became close associate of Stjepan Radić. In 1925, after Radić's visit to Moscow and Croatian Peasant Party joining Peasants International, he was arrested by Royal Yugoslav authorities. While in jail, he was elected to the National Assembly. A few months later HSS joined the government, paving the way for Maček to be released.

Maček became the leader of party following Radić's assassination. He quickly became one of the main opponents of King Alexander and his dictatorship. For that he was again arrested in 1933 and released following Alexander's assassination in 1934. His stated aim during that period was to transform Yugoslavia from unitary state, dominated by ethnic Serbs, into new form of state organization in which Croatia would have its statehood, lost in 1918, restored. Maček's ideas appealed to large numbers of Croats and Croatian Peasant Party gradually gained supporters among all classes and followers of all ideologies. Maček also nurtured close relations with other opposition parties in Yugoslavia and although his coalition lost elections in 1938, it remained the force to be reckoned with.

Maček's persistence and political skills finally paid off in August 1939 with Cvetković-Maček Agreement and creation of Banate (Banovina) of Croatia, a semi-autonomous entity which contained Croatia and large sections of today's Bosnia and Herzegovina. HSS became part of the coalition government while Maček himself became deputy prime minister of Yugoslavia.

This triumph proved to be short-lived, because Banovina collapsed together with Yugoslavia following Axis invasion in April 1941. Maček was offered the opportunity to become prime minister of newly proclaimed Independent State of Croatia, but he refused, being one of the few Croatian (and European) politicians at the time to believe that the Axis would ultimately lose the war. Instead, his main aim was to preserve Croatian people from war and unnecessary suffering. He called supporters of HSS to respect and co-operate with the new regime of Ante Pavelić, while at the same time he delegated Juraj Krnjević to represent Croatian people in Yugoslav government-in-exile.

Maček's strategy proved to be detrimental for his party and himself. In October 1941 he was arrested and put in Jasenovac concentration camp. A few months later he was put into house arrest at his home in Kupinac. In the meantime, HSS began to fracture itself on ideological lines - some of its members joined Ustashas while other joined Tito's Partisans. Although bitterly opposed to the former, he was equally distrustful to the latter and in 1945 he emigrated, first to France, than to USA.

He died in Washington D.C. His remains were brought to Croatia in 1996 and buried at the Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb.

Vladko Maček is arguably one of the most ignored historical figures in modern Croatia, which could be attributed to his policies and legacy not fitting into two dominant ideological patterns of Croatia in second half of 20th Century. After the war, victorious Communists treated him as a reactionary. After Croatian independence and the Yugoslav wars, radical Croatian nationalists didn't have much understanding for his peaceful approach in fighting for Croatian interests.