Riccardo Zanella (27 June 1875 – 30 March 1959) was the only elected president of the short lived

Free State of Fiume The Free State of Fiume () was an independent free state that existed between 1920 and 1924. Its territory of comprised the city of Fiume (today Rijeka, Croatia) and rural areas to its north, with a corridor to its west connecting it to the Ki ...

Biography

Zanella was born to an Italian father and Slovene mother in

Fiume Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primorj ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

(present-day

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

). He attended Hungarian Commercial School in Fiume and

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

. Soon he was professor of bookkeeping in the same school in Fiume, but year later he resigned. During the clash between Liberalism and radicalism in Hungary, Zanella emerged as the local leader of the Kossuthist faction in

. He became the leader of the

Autonomist Association The Autonomist Association ( it, Associazione Autonoma, Partito Autonomo; hr, Autonomna stranka, Autonomaška stranka) was a political party in Fiume, that existed continuously from 1896 to 1914. Its goal was to maintain the autonomy of the ...

, known also as Autonomist Party in

, after Michele Maylender resigned in 1901. With Zanella the party abandoned its liberal stance and turned to the Kossuthist independence party for support. Embracing a staunch Italian nationalist stance (in its vehemence typical of the Kossuthists political style) his popularity grew especially among the lower and middle classes, eventually becoming elected mayor (Podestà) of Fiume in 1914, but the nomination was vetoed by the Emperor

Franz Joseph Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until hi ...

. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Zanella fought in a Hungarian unit on the Russian front where he promptly deserted to the Russians. In 1916 he arrived in Rome where he started an agitation campaign for the Italian annexation of Fiume. After the War ended in 1918 he came back to Fiume where he was greeted as a hero, but quickly distanced himself from the Italian National Council in Fiume that assumed the powers in the city. After Gabriele D'Annunzio on September 12, 1919, seized the city of Fiume, Zanella led the Autonomist opposition to the D'Annunzio's regime of occupation and personal dictatorship. His chance came as D'Annunzio ignored the

Treaty of Rapallo Following World War I there were two Treaties of Rapallo, both named after Rapallo, a resort on the Ligurian coast of Italy: * Treaty of Rapallo, 1920, an agreement between Italy and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (the later Yugosla ...

and declared war on Italy itself, finally surrendering the city in December 1920 after a bombardment by the Italian navy. Zanella served in office as president of the

from 5 October 1921 to 3 March 1922, when his term was cut short due to Italian occupation, following a fascist putsch. Italy formally annexed the territory on 16 March 1924. During 1930's Zanella resided mainly in exile in Belgrade. Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Zanella demanded the restoration of the Free State as a sovereign entity, but failed to receive support for his idea at the

United Nations Conference on International Organization The United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO), commonly known as the San Francisco Conference, was a convention of delegates from 50 Allied nations that took place from 25 April 1945 to 26 June 1945 in San Francisco, Cali ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. Nevertheless, he restated the request also to the London Council of Foreign Ministers in September 1945. Thereby he compared the

, "submerged by an act of Fascist aggression" to that of Albania and Ethiopia. Moreover, he denied its annexation to Croatia or Yugoslavia, where it never belonged, since it was a country of the

Holy Crown of Hungary The Holy Crown of Hungary ( hu, Szent Korona; sh, Kruna svetoga Stjepana; la, Sacra Corona; sk, Svätoštefanská koruna , la, Sacra Corona), also known as the Crown of Saint Stephen, named in honour of Saint Stephen I of Hungary, was the ...

. Zanella's efforts proved utterly unsuccessful and he died in exile in Rome in 1959.

Biography

References

See also