Kramár, Karel

Born Dec. 27, 1860, in Vysoké nad Jizerou; died May 26, 1937, in Prague. Czech government and political figure. Born in a well-to-do bourgeois family, he was a lawyer by education.

In 1890, Kramář became a member and one of the leaders of the Young Czech Party. From 1891 to 1914 he was a deputy to the Austrian Reichsrat. While pursuing a policy of cooperation with the Viennese court, he was at the same time an adherent of Russian tsarism and favored rapprochement between Austria-Hungaryand Russia. In 1915 he was arrested by the Austrian authorities and accused of treason; in 1917 he was amnestied and released. In 1918 he headed the Czech National Committee and was one of the founders of the rightist National Democratic Party (1918). He was premier of the first Czechoslovak government in 1918–19. From 1918 to 1931 he was a deputy in the parliament. He advocated military intervention in Soviet Russia and actively assisted A. I. Denikin. In 1935–37, Kramářr was one of the leaders of the reactionary National Unification Party.