Franjo Rački Biography

Franjo Rački was a Croatian historian, politician and writer. Franjo Racki lived during the crest of the nineteenth-century’s wave of nationalism, and as his home land Croatia was threatened by Hungarian expansionism he sought a solution that could unite the Balkans instead of dividing them. As a historian, politician, and writer, Racki chronicled a number of old Croatian diplomatic and historical documents that shed light on the South Slav’s shared history, significantly among linguistic lines, while also expounding on Croatia’s own national significance. In this way he was both a forerunner in the Croatian national revival as well as a proponent of united Yugoslavia. His position as an ordained Catholic priest determined his presence at various places, and he took advantage of his time in Rome to write effectively on Croatia’s history. He became a key founder of the Yugoslavian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and founded university’s archives, library, dictionary, as well as several of its magazines. In the latter part of his life he became a member of the Croatian Parliament, during which time he brought public attention to his ideas on Croatia’s national revival and the realization of a united Yugoslavia