Andrija Hebrang (father)
| Andrija Hebrang | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Andrija Hebrang wearing a Partisan cap | |
| 4th Secretary of the Communist Party of Croatia | |
| In office 1942 – October 1944 | |
| President | Vladimir Nazor (1943 on) |
| Preceded by | Vlado Popović |
| Succeeded by | Vladimir Bakarić |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 22 October 1899 Bačevac, Croatia-Slavonia, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 1949 (aged 50) Maruševec, Yugoslavia |
| Political party | Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) |
| Spouse(s) | Olga Hebrang (née Strauss) |
| Children | Andrija Hebrang Branko Hebrang |
| Occupation | Politician |
Andrija Hebrang (22 October 1899 – c. 1949[1]) was a Croatian and Yugoslav communist politician. A member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia until his dismissal, he served as the 4th Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Croatia.
Early life
Andrija Hebrang was born in Bačevac (part of Gradina) to Andrija Hebrang and Cela Strasser. His mother was Jewish.[2] During World War I, he was stationed for a time in Osijek, Zagreb, and finally the battlefields in Gorizia, Italy where he stayed until the end of the war. Not long after in 1919, he joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and became heavily involved in socialist political causes. He was arrested in 1924 for his involvement in protests for trade union rights.[2]
Political involvement
By the late 1920s, Hebrang had risen to high ranks in the Communist Party, and was several times arrested and jailed for his various activities. It was during this time that he became acquainted with Josip Broz Tito. He was in 1929, along with several other communists, arrested in Belgrade for communist activities, and was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment and hard labor in Lepoglava prison and Sremska Mitrovica prison. He was released from prison in February 1941, and when World War II began in Yugoslavia, he joined the Partisans and became the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Croatia.
In 1942 Hebrang was captured by the Ustashe and sent to Stara Gradiska concentration camp, where he was later exchanged along with his future wife, Olga, for several Ustasha officials.[3] He then traveled to Bihać to attend the Anti-fascist Council of the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ). He also helps form the State Antifascist Council of the National Liberation of Croatia (ZAVNOH) and serves as the vice-president.[3] On 20 September 1943, ZAVNOH unilaterally issued a declaration that Istria, Rijeka, and Italian-occupied Dalmatia were part of Croatia without the prior approval of the national AVNOJ. This angered Yugoslav leader Josip Broz.[3]
At the 3rd session of ZAVNOH, held May 8–9 in Topusko several resolutions were adopted which further angered Broz. This included an openness to continue religious education in schools, as well as overtures to a free press.[3] In September 1944, the Executive Board of ZAVNOH established the Telegraphic Agency of Croatia (TAH). Broz immediately sent a telegram to Hebrang on September 17:
Immediately stop with the work of this so-called telegraph agency - TAH. What does this even mean? You're sliding with full force into separatism. Don't you realize that even federal states have a single telegraph agency. Let your example be the Soviet Union if no other.[4]
The following day Broz also sent a telegram to Edvard Kardelj: Urgently travel to Croatia. They're creating some unbelievable idiocy. First, ZAVNOH adopted a resolution according to which religious education is a mandatory subject in schools. Second, they've founded some telegraph agency - TAH. This all demonstrates that separatist tendencies are fairly strong and this is true of our comrades. With this there is no kidding, for we will have to undertake the sharpest measures. For all this I blame Andrija. Make inquiries and if Andrija is not of this opinion, we will have to immediately remove him from the post of secretary of the CC [Central Committee].[4]
He was relieved of his duties in October 1944 due to his aspirations for Croatian autonomy in Yugoslavia. Nevertheless, in 1945 he was leading a Yugoslav delegation to the Soviet Union with Sreten Žujović, where they secretly affirmed their Stalinist views.
Downfall and death
Around the beginning of the Tito-Stalin split in 1948, Hebrang became Stalin's prime candidate for replacing Tito. Because of that, Hebrang was being blacklisted within the Yugoslav Communist Party, and was subsequently thrown out. By March his phones were tapped, and in April he was placed under house arrest, relieved of all official duties. In May he was accused of collaborating with the Ustashe and the Gestapo in order to sabotage Yugoslavia and spy for the Soviets after Tito broke with Joseph Stalin.
He was arrested in Belgrade by UDBA agents and accused of numerous treasons, while his wife and small children were put under house arrest. Andrija Hebrang disappeared under suspicious circumstances; UDBA official Milorad Milatović who was in charge of the Hebrang case claimed in 1952 that he committed suicide in prison on 11 June 1949, but his body was never recovered and no official death certificate was filed. In the late 1980s, historians Milatovic and Ivankovic-Vonta revealed that Hebrang was assassinated in his Belgrade prison cell for political reasons.[5]
Afterwards
Not long after Hebrang's arrest, his wife Olga was sentenced to twelve years in prison, and his children were sent to live with his sister, Ilona, in Zagreb. Hebrang's family were forced to change their surname as the government blacklisted anything to do with the name Hebrang.
In 1992, the government of the Republic of Croatia rehabilitated Hebrang and declared him a "victim of communism". His sons Andrija and Branko were active in the efforts to rehabilitate their father and return his remains.[6]
See also
References
- ↑ Banac, Ivo. With Stalin against Tito: Cominformist splits in Yugoslav Communism p. 122.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Vjesnik:Medijsko podgrijavanje mrznje
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Tanner (1997), p. 164
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Novak, Božidar (2006). "O ulozi i važnosti Hine u hrvatskome medijskom prostoru". Medijska istraživanja 12 (1): 117–121.
- ↑ Lukic, Rénéo and Lynch, Allen. Europe from the Balkans to the Urals: the disintegration of Yugoslavia, page 75.
- ↑ Rehabilitiran Andrija Hebrang, arhiva.net.hr; 13 April 2009; accessed 25 April 2015.
- Tanner, Marcus (1997). Croatia: A Nation Forged in War. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07668-1.
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Vlado Popović |
Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Croatia 1942 – October 1944 |
Succeeded by Vladimir Bakarić |
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