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Vladimir Bakarić

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Vladimir Bakarić
Vladimir Bakarić by 1966
Member of the Presidency of Yugoslavia for SR Croatia
In office
15 May 1974 – 16 January 1983
Preceded byJakov Blažević
Đuro Kladarin
Milan Mišković
Succeeded byMika Špiljak
5th Speaker of the Croatian Parliament[a]
In office
December 1953 – December 1963
Prime MinisterJakov Blažević
Zvonko Brkić
Mika Špiljak
Preceded byZlatan Sremec
Succeeded byIvan Krajačić
President of the Executive Council of the People's Republic of Croatia
In office
14 April 1945 – 18 December 1953
PresidentVladimir Nazor
Karlo-Gašpar Mrazović
Vicko Krstulović
Zlatan Sremec
Preceded byPavle Gregorić
(as Minister for Croatia)
Succeeded byJakov Blažević
Secretary of the League of Communists of Croatia
In office
1948 – May 1969
PresidentVladimir Nazor
Karlo-Gašpar Mrazović
Vicko Krstulović
Zlatan Sremec
Himself
Ivan Krajačić
Jakov Blažević
Prime MinisterHimself
Jakov Blažević
Zvonko Brkić
Mika Špiljak
Savka Dabčević-Kučar
Preceded byAndrija Hebrang
Succeeded bySavka Dabčević-Kučar
Personal details
Born(1912-03-08)8 March 1912
Velika Gorica, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, Austria-Hungary
(now Croatia)
Died16 January 1983(1983-01-16) (aged 70)
Zagreb, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia
NationalityCroatian
Political partyLeague of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ)
^a The Speaker of the Parliament was the head of state of SR Croatia between 6 February 1953 and 8 May 1974.

Vladimir Bakarić (pronounced [ʋlǎdimiːr bǎkarit͡ɕ]; 8 March 1912 – 16 January 1983) was a Yugoslav and Croatian communist revolutionary and a politician. He served as the President of the Executive Council of the People's Republic of Croatia from 1945 to 1953 and Speaker of the Croatian Parliament from 1953 to 1963. In addition, he was Secretary of the League of Communists of Croatia for 2 decades from 1948 to 1969, where he became a close collaborator with President Josip Broz Tito.

Early life

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Bakarić was born on 8 March 1912 in Velika Gorica, which was then part of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia in Austria-Hungary.[1] His father was a local judge in Gospić.[2] After finishing his elementary education in Gospić, he attended secondary school in Ogulin and Zagreb.[3] He entered the University of Zagreb as a law student, where he quickly joined the Communist movement.[4] He participated in the revolutionary workers' movement there in 1932 and in 1933 officially joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.[4] In 1935, he was elected secretary of the party at the University of Zagreb, and graduated later that year.[5] Upon graduating, he worked in the courts as a defense lawyer from 1936 to 1941 while studying for his doctorate in law.[1]

Political career

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Bakarić helped to organise the partisan resistance in the Independent State of Croatia during World War II.[6] From 1948 to 1969, he was the chairman of the League of Communists of Croatia and as such was a close collaborator of President Josip Broz Tito.[6]

From 1964 to 1974, he was a member of the Council of the Federation, and since 1974 he has been a member of the Presidency of the SFRY, where he served as vice president from May 15, 1975, to May 15, 1976, and was re-elected to that position in May 1982.[6]

Together with Edvard Kardelj, he belonged to the more liberal wing of the Yugoslav political elite and was known for his statement on the need to "federate the federation" (federiranje federacije), a reference to the struggle between Yugoslav unitarists, who advocated giving more powers to the central government, and federalists, who wanted to shift power to the republics.[7] However, Bakarić was usually extremely careful in his public pronouncements on policy and wary of radical statements.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Roszkowski, Wojciech; Kofman, Jan (8 July 2016). Biographical Dictionary of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century. Routledge. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-317-47594-1. Retrieved 8 July 2025.
  2. ^ Bićanić, Nikola (1992). Vila Velebita: nacionalna borba Hrvata u Lici između dva rata (in Croatian). Hrvatsko književno društvo "sv. Ćirila i Metoda". p. 31. Retrieved 8 July 2025.
  3. ^ Danas (in Croatian). Danas. 1983. Retrieved 8 July 2025.
  4. ^ a b Socialist Thought and Practice. Aktuelna pitanja socijalizma. 1983. p. 25. Retrieved 8 July 2025.
  5. ^ Tito, Josip Broz (1980). The Party of the Revolution: Fifth Conference of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, 1940. Socialist Thought and Practice. p. 142. Retrieved 8 July 2025.
  6. ^ a b c "BAKARIĆ, Vladimir". Croatian Biographical Lexicon (in Croatian). Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography. 1983. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  7. ^ Tanner, Marcus (2010). Croatia: a nation forged in war (3rd ed.). New Haven (Conn.): Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-16394-0.
Political offices
Preceded by Speaker of the Croatian Parliament
December 1953 – December 1963
Succeeded by
Preceded byas Minister for Croatia President of the Executive Council of SR Croatia
14 April 1945 – December 1953
Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Secretary of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Croatia
1948 – 1969
Succeeded by