His name was Stjepan Radic. He was my great grandfather and the leader of the Croatian Peasant Party (CPP).
June 20, 1928. During the assembly of parliament, Punisa Racic, a representative of the Serbian People’s Radical Party, gave an inflammatory speech. His words evoked angry responses from the assembled members. Many of who rose, made violent gestures, and shouted insults. Stjepan, however, sat like an insect, watching and listening, but making no reply.
Ivan Pernar, a member of the Peasant-Democratic Coalition, furious, rose and shouted at Punisa Racic, “Thou plundered beys!” Translation: ‘You made a deal with the rich, elite intellectuals. Traitor!’ Pulling a revolver from his jacket, Punisa Racic shot Pernar. Then, swinging his weapon, shot Stjepan and three other CPP representatives. He would have shot more, but he ran out of bullets.
Everyone screamed and shouted. Five men lay dead or wounded. Blood had sprayed everywhere. A crimson pool formed beneath my great grandfather, who, upon being shot, had toppled from his chair to the floor. At first, Stjepan was assumed to be dead.
The police arrived. They summoned the military in case further violence broke out. Ambulances arrived outside the building. Finally, a doctor came. After closer examination by the doctor, Stjepan was discovered to still be alive. Shot in the stomach, his condition was critical. Still conscious, he was carried to the hospital, where the surgeons decided they could do nothing for him. He was released to return home.
There, he died.
100,00 peasants, from all parts of the Balkans, attended his funeral. 
Stjepan Radic
He had lived 57 years, and is now a permanent resident of Mirogoj Monumental Cemetery in Zabreb, Croatia.
My great grandfather, Stjepan Radic, has been accused of being a demagogue, a smooth operator, an opportunist, ready to switch sides whenever it might serve his self-interest. And that is all true. He chummied up to liberals, Serbs, Muslims and Communists. He adopted the flexible Jesuit philosophy “that the end justifies the means.” And Stjepan’s end was an independent Croatian nation.
He was guilty of opportunism. For he dreamed of a free, sovereign Croatia governed by Croatians. He was also guilty of bigotry because he despised the Serbs and their regime. Guilty, too, of political collaboration.
But he was not guilty of silence in the face of repression, or of apathy or of cowardice. In a strict, technical sense, I would suggest, he was true to his dream – the dream of becoming a free Croat.
Imprisoned more than once for his desire, in the end he died for it. Political assassination.
Ultimately, though, his dream became reality. For there now stands, since 1991, a free and independent Croatia – a country born out of guns, violence and blood.
Randall Radic is a former Old Catholic priest. After a midlife crisis, he spent time behind bars. Today, he has emerged a changed man. As the author of Gone To Hell: True Crimes of America’s Clergy (ECW Press/ Oct 2009), Radic aims to warn the public of the sins committed behind the walls of churches every day. Randall Radic is also author of A Priest in Hell: Gangs, Murderers and Snitching in a California Jail.
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