Jovan Ristić

Jovan Ristić (; 16 January 1831 – 4 September 1899) was a Serbian politician, diplomat and historian.

Biography Ristić was born in Kragujevac in a poor family where he attended elementary school. In 1842 he entered high school in Belgrade, and in 1847 the lyceum, where he studied until spring of 1849. As a high school student, Ristić participated in the Serbian movement in Hungary in 1848. He went to study in Germany as a state cadet, where he was s student at the University of Berlin under historian Leopold von Ranke. In 1852 Ristić obtained a doctorate degree from Heidelberg University, after which he went to Paris in where he was until 1854, studying French and attending courses at the Sorbonne University and examining old Serbian manuscripts at the National Library of France upon the invitation of the Society of Serbian Literature. Upon his return to Belgrade Ristić failed to obtain a professorship at Belgrade's Grandes écoles, he received a position in the Ministry of Education, from where he was later transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where he held various positions from a protocol clerk to a department head.

Works

He was the author of several major historical works: The External Relations of Serbia from 1848 to 1867 (Belgrade, 1887); Spoljašna odnošaja Srbije novijega vremena: 1868-1872 (U Štampariji KraljevineSrbije, Beograd, 1901); Istoriski spisci, Vol. I; Srbija i porta posle bombardovanja Beograda, 1862-1867 (Štampano u drzavnoj štampariji, 1881); Poslednja godina spoljavanje politike Mihaila (Štamparija kod Proslave, 1895); Jedno nammesnnistvo, 1868-1872 (Štampa Lj J. Bogojevića, 1894); Pisma Jovana Ristića Filipu Hristiću od 1870 do 1873 i od 1877 do 1880 (Srpska kraljevska akademija, 1931); Diplomatska istorija Srbije: Drugi rat 1875-1878 (Slovo ljabve, 1898) A Diplomatic History of Serbia (Belgrade, 1896). Die neuere Literatur der Serbien—published by F. Schuster & co. in 1852. Also, another German work, Kurze Charakteristik des geistigen u sittlichen Zustands von Serbien (H. Rieger, 1850).

Jovan Ristić was a member of the Serbian Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Serbian Learned Society in Belgrade.

Legacy The character of Ristich-Kudzhitsky in the novel Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy was based on Jovan Ristić.

He is included in The 100 most prominent Serbs.