| Vladimir Ćorović | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 27, 1885 Mostar |
| Died | April 12, 1941 (aged 55) Greece |
| Alma mater | University of Vienna (Ph.D., History, 1908) |
| Occupation | Historian, Professor |
| Honors |
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Vladimir Ćorović (Serbian: Владимир Ћоровић ; October 27, 1885, Mostar - April 12, 1941, Greece) was a 20th-century Serbian historian, member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU). He is best known for his many acclaimed works on the history of Serbs and Yugoslavia.
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Vladimir Ćorović was born in Mostar in Herzegovina, then under Ottoman sovereignty but under Austro-Hungarian administration, to an Orthodox, Serb family involved in business.
Having finished primary school and the Gymnasium in Mostar, in which he was one of many future intellectuals, among whom were also his brother, Svetozar Ćorović. He continued his studies at the University of Vienna in 1904, studying Slavic Archaeology, History and Philology. He was active in the Serbian academic group „Zora“. He gained a Ph.D. in 1908 with a thesis on Lukijan Mušicki. His professors at Vienna were Vatroslav Jagić, Konstantin Jireček, and Milan Rešetar. In 1908 he went to Munich for specialized studies with Karl Krumbacher.
He spent some time in Bologna and Paris, exploring Old Slavic manuscripts. He moved to Sarajevo in September, 1909, and worked as a custos and later administrator at the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, this period started his intensive years of working. He was a contributor to many known Serbian papers, such as „Bosanska vila“, „Srpski književni glasnik“ and „Letopis Matice srpske“. He was also a secretary of the Serbian cultural society „Prosvjeta“ and organizer of its calendar of 1911.
After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on June 28, 1914, Austro-Hungarian authorities arrested Ćorović. He was indicted in the Banja Luka process (Бањалучки процес, November 3, 1915 - April 22, 1916) where he was first sentenced to 5 years, but the high court increased it to 8 years because of his work at „Prosvjeta“. The new Austro-Hungarian King, Charles I of Austria, after international pressure, released political prisoners in 1917 - giving them amnesty; Ćorović was released from Zenica, where he had spent the most time in prison.
He then went to Zagreb, where he together with several Yugoslav writers (Niko Bartulović, Ivo Andrić and Branko Mašić) established the „Književni Jug"-paper. At this time he worked closely with other Yugoslav politicians in different countries, especially in Austro-Hungarian territories. He wrote the "Black Books" (Beograd-Sarajevo, 1920), about the persecution and murders of Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was present at the proclamation of the formation of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in Belgrade on December 1, 1918.
He was professor of Serbian history at the University of Belgrade since 1919, and Rector of the University in the 1934/35 and 1935/36 academic years.
His scientific work includes interpretations of ancient Greek and Serbian records, medieval historiography and monographs about the Serbian monasteries of Bosnia (Tvrdoš, Duži, Zavala) to the relations between the Serbs of Montenegro and Muslims in Albania.
The Holy Mountain and Chilandar was published by the Chilandar brethren in 1985. Ćorović did not manage to finish this manuscript or to do the pre-press because World War II started and while trying to flee the country he was killed in a plane crash on 12 April 1941 somewhere in Greece. Since Ćorović's unfinished manuscript was untitled, the monks of Hilandar monastery decided to use the variant of the descriptive exactness of the manuscript itself (Holy Mountain and Chilandar until the 16th Century), although bibliographies show the abridged title.