Ljubomir Kovačević

Ljubomir Kovačević (4 January 1848 – 19 November 1918) was a Serbian writer, historian, academic, and politician. He is one of the early creators of the Serbian critical historiographical school and fighters for the separation of historical science from tradition. Kovačević directly influenced the political and cultural activity of Serbia at the end of the nineteenth century. He and Ljubomir Jovanović were the authors of the well-known two-volume "Istorija srpskog naroda za srednje škole" (History of the Serbian People for the Secondary Schools) in the Kingdom of Serbia. Both Kovačević and Jovanović were Ministers of Education at one time and, as historians, using a wealth of verified information, professionally and convincingly refuted many myths that were past down through the ages.

Biography

Kovačević was born in the village of Petnica in the Principality of Serbia on 4 January 1848. His father was Mihailo Kovačević, the Serbian Orthodox parish priest of Petnica, and his mother Vasilija was the daughter of professor Janićije Popović. Kovačević was educated at the Gymnasium of Šabac and the Belgrade Great School; he took his degree in 1870, afterwards was employed as lecturer at a college in Negotin and a year later he joined the staff of a teacher's college in Kragujevac before it was relocated to Belgrade. Later, he became a professor of history at his alma mater and rector of the University of Belgrade (former Great School). Kovačević chose to specialize in history because of his desire to be involved in the developing field of critical historiography.

Kovačević had five daughters and a son, Vladeta Kovačević (1882-1912), former student of the University of Paris. At the Battle of Kumanovo, where he commanded the Mitrailleuses (machineguns), Vladeta was killed. His body was brought back to Belgrade. On the day of the funeral his mother and five sisters wept and groaned aloud. At the grave the old father without a tear made a moving speech :

My son, depart in peace. You have done your duty. My son, I do not weep: I am proud of you. You have joined the heroes whose sufferings and death of old saved by millions the lives and souls of our nation. Tell the heroes of Kosovo, Dušan and Lazar and all the martyrs of former days, that today Kosovo is avenged.

Kovačević fought in the Serbian–Ottoman War (1876–78). He died at Vrnjačka Banja on 19 November 1918.

Works

In 1888 Ljubomir Kovačević wrote a treatise on "Vuk Branković, 1372-1398" while Ilarion Ruvarac, coincidence would have it, wrote a treatise on "Prince Lazar" at the same time. Both of them, through a scholarly analysis of the sources and by applying existing principles of historiographic critique, omitted anything that was not verifiable by well-informed sources close to the event under study. In this manner, the story of the Battle of Kosovo was stripped of many picturesque details, the most important among them being the betrayal of Vuk Branković (Ćirković 1990: 115-116). These two scholars, independently of one another, came to the conclusion that Vuk Branković had not been a traitor in Kosovo, after all. A polemic soon arose between Panta Sreckovic and Russian Vladimir Kacanovski who defended the thesis that historical truths should have other tasks besides purely scientific ones. In the end, Kovacevic and Ruvarac succeeded to tear down the ruling school of Panta Srečković and Russian Vladimir Kačanski with the aid of Konstantin Jiriček who also proved that Vuk Branković was not a traitor, and that Uroš died three months after King Vukašin, in December 1371, all thanks to the archives of Dubrovnik. These were but a few of the many myths that were put to rest, finally.

Kovačević also wrote Nekoliko Hronološki Popravka U Srpskoj Istoriji (1880) among a score of other scholastic and academic works.

References

• Translated and adapted from Serbian Wikipedia: Љубомир Ковачевић

External links

Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences: http://www.sanu.ac.rs/English/Clanstvo/IstClan.aspx?arg=251,