Branko Petranović
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Branko Petranović (31 October 1927, Cetinje — 17 June 1994, Belgrade) was a Serbian historian and a Belgrade University professor specializing in history of Yugoslavia.Бранко Петрановић, Istorijska bibloteka (Branko Petranović biography in Serbian)
/ref>Dimić, Ljubodrag: Foreword: Branko Petranovic (1927-1994) in Branko Petranović: The Yugoslav Experience of Serbian National Integration, Issue 586 of East European monographs, East European Monographs, 2002, page vii-xxi


Career

Branko Petranović was born 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 ...
,
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...
. Primary and secondary school education he finished in
Kotor Kotor (Montenegrin Cyrillic: Котор, ), historically known as Cattaro (from Italian: ), is a coastal town in Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Bay of Kotor. The city has a population of 13,510 and is the administrative c ...
,
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 ...
and
Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
. From January 1944 he joined Tito's partisans. He finished undergraduate studies at
Belgrade University The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-ba ...
: at the Faculty of Law in 1950 and at the Faculty of Philosophy in 1956. From 1958 he dedicated himself to historiography and started his academic career as a researcher at the History Department of the Institute of Social Sciences (May 1958-August 1963). He earned his PhD degree at the
Belgrade University The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-ba ...
Faculty of Law in 1962. As a researcher he worked at the Department for the History of the Yugoslav Workers' Movement of the Workers' Movement Research Institute (September 1963-January 1969) and the Institute of Contemporary History (January–November 1969). From 1969, he was an associate professor and from 1975 a full professor at the
Belgrade University The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-ba ...
Faculty of Philosophy, Department of History. Petranović was also a member of editorial and advisory boards of numerous historical journals and anthologies (''Istorija XX veka'', ''Istorijski glasnik'', ''Vojnoistorijski glasnik'', ''Jugoslovenski istorijski časopis'', etc.). During his academic career he advised 28 MSc and 19 PhD students.Stanković, Đ., Dimić,L., Mira Radojević, M.: Istorija, a ne politika , Politika, April 21, 2008 Petranović never retired. He died on 17 June 1994 and was buried in
Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
.


Historiography

Petranović published 32 books in 38 volumes, 314 scientific papers in conferences proceedings and scientific journals and 259 surveys in scientific journals. He authored two TV documentaries dedicated to the history of
Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
. He was a 20th-century historian who Yugoslav and foreign academics dedicated 296 articles to. His academic archives, found after his death, were source for additional six books (out of which one was published in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
) and ten new scientific papers. He contributed to the transformation of the
Yugoslav Communist Party The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, mk, Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na komunistite na Jugoslavija known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, sl, Komunistična partija Jugoslavije mk ...
institutions from party services into serious research institutes. As a historian he fought against fanaticism, fatalism, and taboo creation in historiography i.e. fought against historian being a privileged liar of the rulers. Most his academic research and career was dedicated to the 20th century epoch and to Yugoslavia. Historian
Ljubodrag Dimić Ljubodrag Dimić ( sr-cyr, Љубодраг Димић; 20 February 1956, Zemun) is a Serbian historian, university professor and since 2012 member of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. His primary fields of study are: history of former Yugosla ...
, in his ''Foreword'' to ''Branko Petranović: The Yugoslav Experience of Serbian National Integration'', stressed that the twentieth century epoch in Yugoslavia was not inclined to the historian, especially not to the one who was trying to gain rational knowledge about the history of the Yugoslav state and society. In the first years following the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, ideological and political conditions were not favorable for the study of history. The knowledge of history was considered to be unnecessary and, quite often, undesirable. The interests of the revolution, the people, the state and the working class were colliding with the postulates of the profession. These, for a historian, unfavorable social conditions were something he faced and understood as a dictature. Even when his works were influenced by the ruling
communist ideology Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
and its phraseology, the same works provided numerous insights into main problems of the historic development of Yugoslav state. As a historian, he was led by his principle stating that a historian cannot dedicate himself to the history of his times without confronting his own work and results to other historians research.Perišić, Miroslav: Branko Petranović (In memoriam) in ''Jugoslovenski istorijski časopis, Issues 1-2'', Savez društava istoričara Jugoslavije, Belgrade, 1999., page 297-301 He thought that the disintegration of socialist Yugoslavia was a tragic event and, as a historian, he tried to thoroughly examine the multiple causes hidden behind the politics which led to the disintegration of both iterations of the nation. He stated that Yugoslavia was the only state keeping all
Serb The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
s inside the same state and that both iterations disintegrated due to the fact that they were dictatorships with no democratic alternative. He stated that the dictatorships weren't able to counter taboos, religious intolerance and divisions, the uneven economic development of Yugoslav regions, and the influence and interest of great powers. His overall research can be summarized by the twentieth century themes *Kingdom of Yugoslavia *History of Serbia in WWII *Communist Yugoslavia *WWII resistance movement in Europe *role of a historian in contemporary epoch Petranović influenced a group of his students who became later historians at Belgrade University: Ljubodrag Dimić, Desanka Pešić,
Latinka Perović Latinka Perović ( sr-Cyrl, Латинка Перовић; 4 October 1933 – 12 December 2022) was a Yugoslav communist leader, historian and politician. During the existence of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Perović was a secre ...
, for example. He advised his graduate students not to be historians of a single subject, rather historians of a century. He taught his students to think about a single event as an event in the context of the world history process within local environment.Ljubodrag Dimić: Eksplozija istorije (in Serbian)
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Selected works

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References


External links


Petranovic about destruction of two Yugoslavias (in Serbian)T. Kuljić about historic revisionism in Petranović's works
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petranovic, Branko 1927 births 1994 deaths 20th-century Serbian historians Academic staff of the University of Belgrade Writers from Cetinje University of Belgrade Faculty of Law alumni University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy alumni Yugoslav historians