Bogumil Vošnjak

Bogumil Vošnjak in the 1920s

Bogumil Vošnjak,also known asBogomil Vošnjak(9 September 1882 – 18 June 1955), was aSloveneandYugoslavjurist,politician,diplomat,author,andlegal historian.He often wrote under thepseudonymIllyricus.

Biography

He was born as Bogomil Vošnjak inCelje,then part of theAustro-HungarianDuchy of Styria,in the Slovene branch of the notable Styrian industrialist Vošnjak/Woschnagg family. His fatherMiha Vošnjak,native fromŠoštanj,was one of the founders of liberal-progressive peasantcooperativesinLower Styria.His uncleJosip Vošnjak,was the leader of theSlovene National Progressive PartyinLower Styria.He attended the elementary school in Celje and later inGraz,where he moved with his father. He later returned to Celje, where he enrolled to theFirst Celje Grammar School.In 1896 he moved toGorizia,where he attended theGorizia Grammar School,graduating in 1901. He then went toVienna,where he studiedlawat theUniversity of Vienna.After graduating in 1906, he continued his studies at theÉcole Libre des Sciences PolitiquesinParisand at theUniversity of Heidelberg.In 1912, he got employed as a lecturer at theUniversity of Zagreb.It was at this time that he started using theCroatianversion of his name, Bogumil.

During his student years, Vošnjak travelled extensively. He visitedPalestine,Egypt,Russiaand travelled throughout theBalkans.In 1902, he published histraveloguein Slovene under the titleZapiski mladega popotnika( "Notes of a Young Traveller" ).

In 1909, on the 100th anniversary of the establishment of theIllyrian Provinces,Vošnjak wrote his first scientificmonography,"The Constitution and Administration of theIllyrian Provinces",which was published the following year by the Slovene publishing houseSlovenska matica.During this time, he also campaigned for the establishment of a Slovene university inTrieste,together with his friend and professor from the Gorizia years,Henrik Tuma.

Upon the outbreak ofWorld War I,Vošnjak was mobilized in theAustro-Hungarian Armyand sent to theEastern FrontinGalicia.He took advantage of a discharge in April 1915 to visit Gorizia, from where he crossed the border withItalyand fled toVeniceand from there toSwitzerland.Already in May of the same year, he published a book in French, entitled "The Question of Trieste", in which he advocated the unification of the city with a futureYugoslav state.

In Switzerland, Vošnjak established contacts withAnte Trumbić,a Croatian emigrant fromDalmatia,and joined theYugoslav Committee,a political interest group formed bySouth Slavsfrom Austria-Hungary aimed at the unification of theSouth Slavic peoplesin an independent state. In 1917, he was among the signers of theCorfu Declaration,a joined political statement of the Yugoslav Committee and the representatives of theKingdom of Serbia,which was the first step in the creation of Yugoslavia.

After the end of War, Vošnjak moved toParis,where he worked for the Yugoslav delegation at theVersailles Peace Conference.In 1920, he returned to his homeland, and was elected to the constitutional assembly of theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Sloveneson the list of theliberalSloveneIndependent Agrarian Party.In the Assembly, Vošnjak strongly advocated acentralistandmonarchistframework of the new country, against most deputies fromSlovenia,CroatiaandDalmatia,who favouredfederalism.In February 1921, Vošnjak attacked theAutonomist Declaration,signed by some of the most prominent Slovene liberal and progressive intellectuals, who demanded cultural and political autonomy for Slovenia within Yugoslavia.

Between 1923 and 1924, he served as ambassador of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes toCzechoslovakia.In 1924, he settled inBelgrade.During theNazi Germanoccupation of Serbia between 1941 and 1944, Vošnjak supported theChetnikunderground network of generalDraža Mihajlović.

After theCommuniststook power inYugoslaviain 1945, Vošnjak emigrated to theUnited States.He worked at theColumbia UniversityLibraries and later as an expert for theHouse Un-American Activities Committee.Between 1952 and 1953, he lectured at theUniversity of California, Berkeleyon "Government and Politics in the Balkan Countries".

He died inWashington, D.C.,in 1955.

Major works

• Zapiski mladega popotnika( "Notes of a Young Traveller"; Gorizia, 1902)
• Na razsvitu: ruske študije( "In the Land on the Dawn: Russian Studies";Ljubljana,1906)
• Ustava in uprava Ilirskih provinc( "Constitution and Administration of the Illyrian Provinces"; Ljubljana, 1910)
• La Question de Trieste( "TheTriesteQuestion "; Geneva, 1915)
• Yugoslav Nationalism,with the preface byMichael Ernest Sadler(London, 1916)
• A Bulwark Against Germany(London, 1917)
• A chapter of the Old Slovenian Democracy,with the preface byNiko Županič(London, 1917)
• L'administration française dans les pays yougoslaves (1809-1813)( "The French Administration in the Yugoslav Lands (1809-1813)"; Paris, 1917)
• A Dying Empire: Central Europe, Pan-Germanism, and the Downfall of Austria-Hungary,with the preface byT. P. O'Connor(London, 1918)
• Les origines du Royaume des Serbes, Croates et Slovènes( "The Origines of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes"; Paris, 1919)
• La question de L' Adriatique: le comté de Goritz et de Gradisca( "The Adriatic Question: theCounty of Gorizia and Gradisca";Paris, 1919)
• U borbi za ujedinjenu narodnu državu( "The Fight for a Unified National State"; Ljubljana, 1928)
• Pobeda Jugoslavije: nacionalne misli i predlozi( "The Victory of Yugoslavia: National Thoughts and Proposals"; Belgrade, 1929)
• Tri Jugoslavije( "The Three Yugoslavias"; Ljubljana, 1939)

See also

• Milko Brezigar

Sources

• Božo Repe: From the Versailles Conference to the Osimo Agreements
• "Vošnjak, Bogumil" inSlovenski biografski leksikoned. byIzidor Cankar(Ljubljana: Zadružna gospodarska banka &Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts,1925–1990)
• Slovenska kronika XX. stoletja, 1900-1941(Ljubljana:Nova revija,1995)