Aleksandar Stojačković

Aleksandar Stojačković (Serbian Cyrillic: Александар Стојачковић; 25 May 1822 - 21 June 1893) was a 19th century Serbian historian, publicist and politician. He was a colleague of Jovan Sterija Popović, and taught Laza Kostić, and Ilarion Ruvarac.

Family, youth
He hails from an old, respectable Serbian family in Sombor from the time of the Military Frontier. His grandfather was Mihailo Stojačković. Father Luka Stojačković (1785-1864) was a prominent figure of the 19th century Sombor and Bačka. Luka distinguished himself from 1848 to 1849 when he was elected president of the District Bačka Board of the Serbian movement. A lawyer by profession, he was for a long time a member of the municipal board, a city senator and the manager of Serbian public schools in Sombor (since 1850). He had from his marriage (concluded in 1818) with Sofia née Djekić from Osijek, two sons - Aleksandar and Nikola, and two daughters. His farm near Sombor was burned down by the Hungarian revolutionaries in February 1849. The character and work of his father Luka, the "Great Serb", were described and published in 1882 by his son Aleksandar.

Aleksandar attended high school in Sremski Karlovci and Kecskemét. He also finished the seminary in Karlovac. He studied philosophy in Pecs and law in Pest.

Career
In 1847, he was elected professor of general history at the Karlovac High School. He represented Karlovac as a member of the May Assembly in 1848. During the Serbian People's Movement 1848-1849. he was the secretary of Duke Stevan Šupljikac. After the end of the revolution, he was a translator for the Serbian language in Timisoara, the administrative center of the Duchy of Serbia and the Tamis Banat. Then he was the mayor of Vršac for a short period. From 1860 he was the first headmaster, and then the secretary of the Hungarian vicarage in Budapest. From 1867 he worked in the Hungarian Ministry of the Interior, first as a secretary and then as a departmental adviser. He retired in 1883 and continued to live in Buda.

Academic
Professor Stojačković was appreciated in Serbia for his historiographical works. On 1 August 1848, he became a very young, corresponding (correspondent) member of the Society of Serbian Literature in Belgrade. He became a corresponding member, now of the Serbian Academic Society], on 29 July 1864. He became an honorary member of the Serbian Royal Academy on 15 November 1892.

Political engagement
At the Annunciation Assembly in 1861, he was a deputy of the city of Sombor and a parliamentary leader. He also took an active part in the Church-People's Assembly held in 1892. Previously, he chaired the Committee of Fifteen, which in 1891 discussed issues important for the Serbian church autonomy. On several occasions, he was a member of the Hungarian Parliament - as a representative of Sombor (1866-1869), Vršac (1884-1887) and the Bela Crkva constituency (1887-1892).

In the old days, he was the president of the Serbian Orthodox community in Buda for many years.

Scientific and journalistic work
He published his first paper in 1843 in the Serbian People's Gazette of Teodor Pavlović. He published a total of fifteen historical treatises in the aforementioned newspaper, as well as in the Letopi (Chronicle) of Matica srpska. Before the Hungarian revolution in 1847, he published the first book, about the Orthodox rite and promoting the Cyrillic alphabet, which he became famous for in Serbia proper.

For a year (1888-1889) he edited the Serbian daily (Српски дневник), "a paper for politics, education, economy, labour and trade".