Mihailo Polit-Desančić


Mihailo Polit-Desančić was a political figure, a journalist and a Serbian writer. He was a member of the Serbian Learned Society and the Serbian Royal Academy, predecessors of the current Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Biography

In Vienna, Mihailo Polit-Desančić graduated in jurisprudence and obtained another degree in Paris in political science. Polyglot and scholar, he became a close collaborator of Svetozar Miletić and, with him, one of the most important political figures of the Serbs of Vojvodina of the time, integrated in the possessions of the House of Austria. He then published the periodical Branik, from 1890 the organ of the Serbian Liberal Party in Hungary. He was a member of the parliaments of Croatia and Hungary and a member of Sremski Karlovci's Ecclesiastical and School Council.
After the dissolution of Svetozar Miletić's party, he was a member of the Radical Popular Party and a member of the People's Liberal Party and the leader of the liberals of Vojvodina.
He is buried in the Dormition Cemetery in Novi Sad, where his funerary monument is part of a set of 24 tombs of historical, cultural and other personalities inscribed on the list of protected cultural monuments of the Republic of Serbia.

Works

Among his works are Verenica Crnogorka, the historical drama Branivoj knez Zahumski, the travelogue Putne uspomene, books of memories like Kako sam svoj vek proveo, Uspomene iz 1848–1849, Pokojnici and four books entitled Besede.