place_of_birth riccardo zanella
___MASK36___ , officially the Republic ___MASK98___ ___MASK36___ , is a sovereign state between Central Europe , Southeast Europe , and the Mediterranean . Its capital city is Zagreb , which forms one ___MASK98___ the country ' s primary subdivisions , along with its twenty counties . ___MASK36___ covers and has diverse , mostly continental and Mediterranean climates . ___MASK36___ ' s Adriatic Sea coast contains more than a thousand islands . The country ' s population is 4 . 28 million , most ___MASK98___ whom are Croats , with the most common religious denomination being Roman Catholicism . ___MASK55___ ( see other names ) is the principal seaport and the third - largest city in Croatia ( after Zagreb and Split ). It is located on Kvarner Bay , an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128 , 624 inhabitants ( 2011 ). The metropolitan area , which includes adjacent towns and municipalities , has a population of more than 240 , 000 . The ___MASK64___ ___MASK98___ Fiume was an independent free state which existed between 1920 and 1924 . Its territory ___MASK98___ comprised the city ___MASK98___ Fiume ( now in Croatia and , since the end ___MASK98___ World War II , known as ___MASK55___ ) and rural areas to its north , with a corridor to its west connecting it to Italy . Riccardo Zanella ( 27 June 1875 - 30 March 1959 ) was the only elected president ___MASK98___ the short lived Free State ___MASK98___ Fiume . Zanella was born to an Italian father and Slovene mother in Fiume , Austria - Hungary ( present - day Croatia ) . He attended Hungarian Commercial School in Fiume and Budapest . Soon he was professor ___MASK98___ 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 ___MASK98___ the Kossuthist faction in Fiume . He became the leader ___MASK98___ the Autonomist Association , known also as Autonomist Party in Fiume , 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 ___MASK98___ the Kossuthists political style ) his popularity grew especially among the lower and middle classes , eventually becoming elected mayor ( Podestà ) ___MASK98___ Fiume in 1914 , but the nomination was vetoed by the Emperor Franz Joseph . During World War I , 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 ___MASK98___ 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 ___MASK98___ Fiume , Zanella led the Autonomist opposition to the D ' Annunzio ' s regime ___MASK98___ occupation and personal dictatorship . His chance came as D ' Annunzio ignored the Treaty ___MASK98___ Rapallo 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 ___MASK98___ the Free State ___MASK98___ Fiume 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 Zanella demanded the restoration ___MASK98___ the Free State as a sovereign entity , but failed to receive support for his idea at the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco . Nevertheless , he restated the request also to the London Council ___MASK98___ Foreign Ministers in September 1945 . Thereby he compared the Free State ___MASK98___ Fiume , `` submerged by an act ___MASK98___ Fascist aggression '' to that ___MASK98___ Albania and Ethiopia . Moreover , he denied its annexation to Croatia or Yugoslavia , where it never belonged , since it was a country ___MASK98___ the Holy Crown ___MASK98___ Hungary . Zanella ' s efforts proved utterly unsuccessful and he died in exile in Rome in 1959 . World War ___MASK10___ ( often abbreviated to WWII or WW2 ), also known as the Second World War , was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945 , although related conflicts began earlier . It involved the vast majority ___MASK98___ the world ' s nations  including all ___MASK98___ the great powers  eventually forming two opposing military alliances : the Allies and the Axis . It was the most widespread war in history , and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries . In a state ___MASK98___ " total war ", the major participants threw their entire economic , industrial , and scientific capabilities behind the war effort , erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources . Marked by mass deaths ___MASK98___ civilians , including the Holocaust ( in which approximately 11 million people were killed ) and the strategic bombing ___MASK98___ industrial and population centres ( in which approximately one million were killed , and which included the atomic bombings ___MASK98___ Hiroshima and Nagasaki ), it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities . These made World War ___MASK10___ the deadliest conflict in human history .