COUNT JANKO DRASKOVIC

Count Janko Drašković Count Janko Drašković (Zagreb, 1770 - Radkersburg, 1856) was a Croatian politician active in the Croatian National Revival. After receiving a private education, he studied philosophy and law in Vienna. A highly educated polyglot, Drašković joined the Philanthropes réunis Freemasons Lodge in Paris in 1808. After he left the military in 1792, having sustained a leg injury, Drašković returned to active military service in the Napoleonic Wars, rising to colonel rank. Since 1792, he served as a Member of the Croatian Parliament. After 1825, he was elected as a Member of the joint Hungarian Parliament several times, where he stood up against Hungary’s efforts to restrict Croatia’s autonomy and force its language on Croatia. His most important work, Disertatia iliti razgovor [Dissertation or Discussion] (Karlovac, 1832) is the first political brochure written in the Croatian language, in the Shtokavian dialect, presenting the first comprehensive political, social, cultural and economic programme for a gradual transformation of the Croatian society, modelled on England and Hungary. Drašković advocated an independent Croatian government, territorial integrity of Croatia, the introduction of the Croatian language (Shtokavian dialect) as the official language in Croatia, and an educational reform to advance the feudal society. Young intelligentsia with an urban background embraced his conservative modernisation programme, making it the political, social and cultural programme of the Revival Movement, which Drašković defended as a Croatian representative in the Hungarian Parliament 1832-1836, and promoted among Croatian elites. Side by side with Ludevit Gaj, Drašković became one of the leaders of the Revival Movement, publishing several patriotic poems in its magazine, Danica ilirska. In Ein Wort an Illyriens hochherzige Töchter (1838), Drašković criticised upper-class Croatian women for accepting the German language and culture and urged them to raise their children as patriots and use the Croatian language. He participated in the development of the fundamental institutions of the Revival Movement, including the Illyrian Reading Room, the People’s Museum, the cultural society Matica ilirska, whose President he was 1842-1851, the People’s Theatre, and the Economic Society. Vlasta Švoger, PhD Croatian Institute of History, Zagreb