Serbian historiography

Serbian historiography (srpska istoriografija) refers to the historiography (methodology of history studies) of the Serb people since the founding of Serbian statehood. The development can be divided into four main stages: traditional historiography, Ruvarac's critical school, Communist–Marxist legacy, and the renewed Serbian national movement. Jovan Rajić (1726–1801) was the forerunner to modern Serbian historiography, and has been compared to the importance of Nikolay Karamzin to Russian historiography. The foundations of Serbian ecclesiastical historiography were laid by Bishop Nikodim Milaš (1845–1915). Ilarion Ruvarac (1832–1905) is regarded the founder of the critical school of Serbian historiography. Ruvarac's school clashed with that of Panta Srećković (1834–1903). Serbian historiography was mostly focused on national issues during the Society of Serbian Scholarship and Serbian Learned Society (1841–1886). A main contributor to Serbian historiography during the nineteenth century was diplomat Stojan Novaković, who compiled a voluminous bibliography and is regarded as the "father of the discipline of historical geography in Serbia" focusing on the Serbian people and state during the Middle Ages and the origins and development of the modern Serbian state. Serbian ecclesiastical historiography has coincided with nationalist perspectives contained within secular Serbian historiography. Orthodox Church tradition and early Serbian historiography through folk poetry based upon the Battle of Kosovo assisted in overcoming gaps and linking the old with the then new Serbian state. The nation and religion were closely connected within nationalist Serbian history in the early 19th century. Patriotic historiography viewed the Serbs as liberators from foreign oppression of their South Slavic brothers in the Balkan Wars and World War I. Serbian nationalists claim that in Communist historiography, Serbs were transformed into oppressors, the Chetniks of World War II branded as collaborationist as the Ustaše, and the massacres of Serbs were downplayed.