Viktor Novak

Who was Viktor Novak?

Viktor Novak, 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.

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, 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, Magnum sacerdos and Magnum Crimen, 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.