Viktor Novak

Viktor Novak (1889–1977), was a Yugoslav historian of Croat descent, Professor of the Belgrade University and full member of Serbian Academy of Science and Arts, an honorary member of Yugoslav Academy of Science and Arts.^[1]

While working at the Zagreb University, Novak was frequently attacked by Croatian nationalist for his balanced approach to the history of South Slavs and for his Yugoslav orientation. He was obliged to leave Zagreb and found refuge in Belgrade. Beside extensive research on both cultural and political foundations of the Yugoslav movement in the nineteenth century (on bishop Strossmayer, Franjo Rački, Natko Nodilo etc.), as well as on dynamic relations between Vuk St. Karadžić, the reformer of Serbian alphabet and Croat Illyrians, Viktor Novak dedicated many years to the extensive research of clericalism and extreme nationalism among Roman Catholic Croats in Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia.

Novak authored Magnum tempus,^[2] Magnum sacerdos^[3] and Magnum Crimen (The Great Crime - a half-century of clericalism in Croatia), a trilogy about the Roman Catholic Church in Yugoslavia and its relation to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Roman Curia, and Croatian clerical nationnalism including Ustashe supporters and World War II.^[4] From 1929 to 1959, he was a professor of Yugoslav history at the University of Belgrade. The Vatican Curia placed Magnum Crimen on their list of banned books Index librorum prohibitorum and named Viktor Novak "an enemy of Catholic Church".

As an ardent Yugoslav patriot and anti-Fascist activist, Viktor Novak was during the Second World War arrested and spent some time in the Nazi detention camp at Banjica, near Belgrade.

After Second World War, Viktor Novak continued teaching Yugoslav history and methodology of history at the Belgrade University, was elected member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (corresponding member in 1948 and full member in 1961) and head of the Department for Social Sciences of the Academy (1966-1969). Novak was among founders and first director of the Historical Institute of SASA (Istorijski institut SANU) from 1947 to 1954. He was also praised for his books on Latin paleography considered as the classical ones in Serbian historiography.

Magnum Crimen, considered as the main source of first-hand documents of close relation between Croatian clericalism and pro-Nazi Croatian ustashas that led to the genocide against the Serbs, Jews and Roma in Nayi satellite Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945) after first edition in 1948, was published in a shortened version in 1960, in Sarajevo, while the 1948 edition, reprinted several times in Belgrade after 1986, was highly acclaimed as a masterpiece left in oblivion. The 1948 first edition became very rare after some Catholic priest were buying and destroying the available copies of Magnum Crimen.

The English edition of his magnum opus - Magnumn Crimen was completed eventually in 2011 and published in two volumes on more than 1,300 pages, with two chapters that were omitted from the first edition in 1948, due to the communist censorship.

Viktor Novak was decorated many times, including the Order of Saint Sava by the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Selected Works

• Scriptura Beneventana s osobitim obzirom na tip dalmatinske beneventane, Zagreb 1920.
• Evangeliarium Spalatense, Split 1923.
• Franjo Rački u govorima i raspravama, Zagreb 1925.
• Maksimilijan Vrhovac, Bratstvo, Beograd 1928.
• Notae palaeographicae, chronologicae et historicae, Vjesnik Hrvatskog arheološkog društva, 1928.
• Aliquid de nominibus ducum Croatorum in antiquissimo evangeliario Cividalensi. Nota palaeographico-historica, Zbornik u čast Bogdana Popovića, Beograd 1929.
• Franjo Rački, Bratstvo, Beograd 1929.
• Masarik i Jugosloveni, SKG, Beograd 1930.
• Antologija jugoslovenske misli i narodnog jedinstva, Beograd 1930.
• Sveslavenska misao, Ljubljana 1930.
• Mihailo Polit-Desančić i Hrvati, LMS, Novi Sad 1932.
• Natko Nodilo, Novi Sad 1935.
• Le Roi Alexandre Ier Karageorgevitch et la Formation de l'Unité Nationale Yougoslave, Paris : Amitiés franco-yougoslaves, 1935.
• Rad Stanoja Stanojevića na srpskoj diplomatici, Glasnik Istorijskog društva u Novom Sadu, 1938.
• Dva antipoda. Štrosmajer i Mihanović, Beograd 1940.
• Magnum Crimen. Pola vijeka klerikalizma u Hrvatskoj, Zagreb 1948, Sarajevo 1960, Beograd 1986, Beograd 1994.
• Ferdo Šišić, Ljetopis JA, 1949, 54.
• Supetarski kartular, Djela JA, 1952, 43.
• Latinska paleografija, Beograd 1952, 1980 2nd edition.
• Vatikan i Jugoslavija, I, Belgrade 1953 (ed., na srpskohrvatskom, francuskom i engleskom jeziku).
• Outline of Jugoslav Historiography, Ten Years of Jugoslav Historiography, 1945–1955, Beograd 1955.
• Natko Nodilo, Zadarska revija, 1955.
• Paleografija i slavensko-latinska simbioza od VII–XV stoljeća, Istorijski časopis, Beograd 1957.
• Franjo Rački, Beograd, Prosveta 1958.
• Nikola Vulić, naučnik i čovek. Uvod u knjigu N. Vulića: Iz rimske književnosti, SKZ, Beograd 1959.
• Valtazar Bogišić i Franjo Rački. Prepiska (1866–1893), Zbornik za istoriju, jezik i književnost srpskog naroda, SAN, I od., vol. XXV, Beograd 1960.
• Pojava i proširenje karolinške minuskule u Dalmaciji, Glas SAN, vol. CCLV, Beograd 1963.
• Вук и Хрвати [Vuk and Croats]: примљено на VII скупу Одељења друштвених наука САНУ, 27. IX 1966, по приказу самог аутора, Београд, 1967.
• Magnum tempus : ilirizam i katoličko sveštenstvo : ideje i ličnosti 1830-1849, Beograd, Nova knjiga 1987.ISBN 86-7335-040-9
• Magnum Crimen : Half a Century of Clericalism in Croatia : dedicated to the known and unknown victims of clericalism. Vol. 1 [translation Ileana Ćosić], Jagodina, Gambit 2011, XLIII+682 p. ISBN 978-86-7624-048-7
• Magnum Crimen : Half a Century of Clericalism in Croatia : dedicated to the known and unknown victims of clericalism. Vol. 2 [translation Ileana Ćosić, Milica Borlja], Jagodina, Gambit 2011, pp. 693–1369; ISBN 978-86-7624-049-4
• Celokupna bibliografija: B. Telebaković-Pecarski, Zbornik filozofskog fakulteta u Beogradu, 1963 (Целокупна библиографија: Б. Телебаковић-Пецарски, Зборник филозофског факултета у Београду, 1963).

References

Bibliography

• Radovan Samardžić: „Novak, Viktor“, Enciklopedija Jugoslavije, 1. izdanje, Zagreb 1965.
• Vasilije Krestić: "Viktor Novak: Ecclesia militans ratuje s Tyrševom ideologijom и Libellus accusationis : dva izostavljena poglavlja iz knjige Magnum Crimen Viktora Novaka", Zbornik o Srbima u Hrvatskoj = Recueil des Travaux sur les Serbes en Croatie ISSN: 0353-5967.- Br. 5 (2004), Belgrade 2004, pp. 7–80