Did you know that the biggest Croatian airport is named after the first Croatian president, historian and statesman Franjo Tuđman? During the Second World War, he participated in the anti-fascist resistance, and after the war, he worked as a scholar and researcher (as the head of the Institute for the History of the Croatian Workers’ Movement, today the Croatian Institute of History).

In 1972, after the suppression of the national reformist movement known as the Croatian Spring, he was prosecuted and imprisoned by the Communist authorities, as well as banned from carrying out public activities. In 1989, following the introduction of democratic reforms, he founded the Croatian Democratic Union. In 1990, the party won the first multi-party elections and Tuđman, elected President of the Presidency of the Socialist Republic of Croatia, became the first president of modern, democratic Croatia.

In 1992, he won the first direct elections for president of the Republic and again in 1997, holding this office until his death. He successfully spearheaded the process through which the Republic of Croatia gained its independence, especially during the aggression fuelled by Greater-Serbian ideology, which lasted from 1991 until the liberation of the entire territory of Croatia and the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube Region (1996 - 1998). He was particularly invested in securing the international recognition of the Republic of Croatia, as well as its acceptance and affirmation within European and global organisations. Today, many schools, streets, parks and squares in Croatia bear the name of its first president.