Juraj Krnjević

Juraj Krnjević (February 19, 1895 – January 9, 1988) was a Croatian politician who was among the leaders of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS). He was the party's General Secretary since 1928 and President since 1964. He also served as the Minister of social affairs of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes between 1925 and 1927.

Krnjević was born in Ivanić-Grad (Croatia, then part of Austro-Hungarian Empire). Mate Krnjević and Ana (née Marčinić) had two sons, Juraj and the five years younger Cvjetko. After primary schooling in Ivanić, both brothers went to the classical gymnasium in Zagreb. Juraj went on to study law, and Cvjetko, medicine.

In a country with an overwhelmingly peasant population – freed from serfdom only after 1845–only a tiny fraction, mainly of town-dwellers, had the right of vote. This was the context in which Stjepan Radić, towards the end of the century, created the agrarian movement for education and electoral emancipation of the peasants, as well as real autonomy for Croatia.

The Croatian situation in the dual monarchy made Juraj especially interested in constitutional law. This took him to Vienna, where, to his amazement, he found that the professor of constitutional law, knowing no Hungarian, was quite ignorant of the Hungarian version of the 1867 Compromise. Juraj therefore spent some months in Budapest, long enough to learn the language and find that, indeed, the Hungarian texts differed significantly – and to the Hungarians’ advantage.

By the end of the World War I, Croatia’s situation changed radically. It was free of Austria and Hungary; but, against Radić’s vehement opposition, a National Council of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, made up of local politicians from the defunct Empire, agreed to union with the Kingdom of Serbia in a new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later renamed Kingdom of Yugoslavia).

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