Željko Karaula ( Bjelovar, June 26, 1973) is a Croatian historian and author. His scientific focus is on modern Croatian and Yugoslavian history, particularly the history of his hometown and the surrounding area. He promotes the development of Croatian-Montenegrin scientific-cultural values.

Early life

Željko Karaula was born in 1973 in Bjelovar, where he went to the School of Economics. After a year spent in the Faculty of Law in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

, he enrolled and graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Zagreb, gaining the title of professor of history and philosophy. After graduation he worked at Veliko Trojstvo Primary School near Bjelovar as a history teacher.

Career

He started his career as an author in 1997 by publishing a collection of songs titled ''Vodena krila'' (''Water Wings''). In 2006, he became a director of a marketing, service, and catering company called ALCA d.o.o. Bjelovar. He enrolled in postgraduate history studies in 2008 in the Croatian Studies department of the University of Zagreb. In 2011 he won a scholarship from the Montenegrin government for scientific research. His doctoral dissertation was ''Hrvatska seljačka zaštita u Kraljevini Jugoslaviji'' (''Croatian peasant protection in the

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 unt ...

''), defended under the mentorship of Dr. Ivica Miškulin in 2015. In 2016, he was named a scientific associate, and two years later he received the Pečat grada Bjelovara (Seal of Bjelovar) prize for science. That same year, 2018, he received a prize from the Montenegrin Faculty for Literature and Linguistics in

Cetinje Cetinje (, ) is a town in Montenegro. It is the former royal capital (''prijestonica'' / приjестоница) of Montenegro and is the location of several national institutions, including the official residence of the president of Montenegro ...

for his contributions in nurturing Croatian-Montenegrin scientific relations. He is an active associate of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Bjelovar, where he is the leader of the Povijest gradova Bjelovarsko-bilogorske županije (History of the Towns of the Bjelovarsko-bilogorska County) project. He studied at the Institute for History (Sarajevo) and the Ivo Pilar Institute in Zagreb and performed research for CASA Bjelovar and the Dukljanska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti (DANU), as well as for the Montenegrin community of Croatia in archives located in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, th ...

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, Podgorica,

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, and others. He is an associate of the DANU in Podgorica. Since 2016 he has been the main editor of a publication by the

Matica hrvatska Matica hrvatska ( la, Matrix Croatica) is the oldest independent, non-profit and non-governmental Croatian national institution. It was founded on February 2, 1842 by the Croatian Count Janko Drašković and other prominent members of the Illyri ...

branch in Daruvar titled ''Zbornik Janković'' and a vice-president of that branch. He is also a member of the editorial board of the publication ''Radovi Zavoda HAZU Bjelovar''. He is a member of the Družba Braća hrvatskog zmaja – Zmajski stol Bjelovar (League of Brothers of the Croatian Dragon – Dragon Table Bjelovar). The aims of this league are the spreading of patriotic, cultural, culturological, national, popular, scientific, and artistic values. He owns a large library of books and other publications of historical content. He was a participant in numerous international and domestic scientific gatherings. He has published ten scientific monographs and ten editorial books and held a series of public lectures.

Controversy

At the beginning of 2020, there was a dispute between Željko Karaula and the Catholic Church in Croatia because Karaula edited a transcript of diary entries by the Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac (1934-1945) created by

UDBA The State Security Service ( hr, Služba državne sigurnosti, sr, Служба државне безбедности; mk, Служба за државна безбедност; sl, Služba državne varnosti), also known by its original name ...

in the 1950s, which were kept in the Croatian State Archives and became publicly available around the end of 2017. Despot Infinitus published the book in Zagreb. The Church thought the diary to be the property of the archdiocese in Zagreb, to which Karaula responded that he only published archival materials from the Stepinac file kept in the archives: "These are publicly available materials for research, and it is not required to seek any permit by the archdiocese in Zagreb to publish such material."

Scientific monographs - selection

*HANAO - Hrvatska nacionalna omladina, Naklada Breza: Zagreb, 2011. *Moderna povijest Bjelovara 1871–2010. Od razvojačenja Varaždinske krajine do suvremenog Bjelovara, ALCA d.o.o.- Naklada Breza: Bjelovar, 2012. *Hrvoje, Petrić, Željko, Holjevac, Željko, Karaula, Povijest grada Bjelovara, HAZU Bjelovar-HAZU Zagreb: Zagreb-Bjelovar, 2013. (Ž. Karaula, 247.- 463.) *Mačekova vojska. Hrvatska seljačka zaštita u Kraljevini Jugoslaviji, Despot infinitus d.o.o.: Zagreb, 2015. *Rudolf Bićanić – intelektualac, ideolog, antifašist, ekonomist, HAZU - Zavod HAZU Bjelovar: Zagreb-Bjelovar, 2018. *Povijest Grubišnog Polja, HAZU Bjelovar – HAZU Zagreb: Zagreb-Bjelovar, 2019. *Političke prilike i Domovinski rat u Daruvaru (1990.-1995.), Ogranak MH Daruvar: Daruvar, 2020. *Ratni put 105. bjelovarske brigade HV, Udruga 105. brigade Hrvatske vojske, Bjelovar, 2020. *Sekula Drljević: 1884.-1945.: Politička biografija, Crnogorski kulturni forum - DANU, Cetinje, 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karaula, Zeljko Living people 1973 births 21st-century Croatian historians University of Zagreb alumni People from Bjelovar