About Us

The Association for Croatian History, which was entered in the Register of Associations of the Republic of Croatia in 1998, is a legal successor of the Union of Croatia’s Historical Associations and the Historical Association of Croatia, which had been founded on 8 June 1947. Its roots go back as far as 1850, when Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski was one of the core founders of the Association for Yugoslav History, the first association of Croatia’s enthusiasts for the past and the ancient. The current name was adopted at the 1990 assembly, at the proposal of Dragutin Pavličević although, initially, the Association was not registered under that name. Fir this reason, in the first several years, the earlier name – the Union of Croatia’s Historical Associations – was added to this name. Since the 1990s, the Association has been active as a non-governmental, non-political and non-profit association in the fields of education, culture, science and research in the Republic of Croatia. The Association’s office was at the address of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Zagreb; and its address today is the one of the Croatian Institute of History in Zagreb. The Association has so far been led by presidents Petar Strčić (1988-1998), Franko Mirošević (1998-2002), Jasna Turkalj (2002-2006) and Željko Holjevac (2006-today).

The Association and its activities focus on bringing together scientists in the field of historical science and history teachers, as well as other persons interested in the historical profession, in promoting and improving the teaching of history in schools and universities, and the teaching of historical science at universities, public institutes and other scientific institutions. During the war year 1991, the Association organised scientific and cultural events and other activities; it also initiated a protest Plenum of Croatian historians in the Mimara Museum in Zagreb against the aggression on the Republic of Croatia. The Union of Croatia’s Historical Associations withdrew from the Union of Historical Associations of Yugoslavia; and Ivan Kampuš, President of this Union, and Petar Strčić, President of the Association of Archive Workers of Yugoslavia, resigned from their positions. An appeal to historians around the world was adopted, and the Plenum verified the earlier decision that the Union of Croatia’s Historical Associations would change its name into the Association for Croatian History. The Association publishes its journals annually: Historijski zbornik (since 1948) and Povijest u nastavi (since 2003). It used to publish journals Acta historico-oeconomica (until 2008) and Nastava povijesti (until 1992).

In the premises of “Školska knjiga” in Zagreb in 1998, a celebration was held to mark half a century of the activities of the Union of Croatia’s Historical Associations and half a century of the publication of Historijski zbornik. The then President Petar Strčić read a statement on the 50^th anniversary of the activities of the Union  i.e. the Association, while the then editor-in-chief of Historijski zborniki Ivan Kampuš spoke about its 50 issues. A comprehensive report was published in the jubilee issue of Historijski zbornik for the year 1997. The gathering on the occasion of the 150^th anniversary of the founding of the first association of Croatian historians in the year 2000 commemorated the tradition carried on by the Association for Croatian History, alongside the local historical societies which act independently.

Initially, Historijski zbornik was being edited for several decades by Jaroslav Šidak, and then Ivan Kampuš (1985-1997), Ivica Prlender (1998-2008), Damir Agičić (2008-2023) and Marica Karakaš Obradov (2023-today). Povijest u nastavi was being edited by Damir Agičić (2003-200.), Snježana Koren (2008-2014), Ida Ograjšek Gorenjak (2014-2018) and Dijana Dijanić Pleško (2018-today). Digitized annual editions of Historijski zbornik with a bibliography of texts and an online database are available on the portal of Croatian scientific and professional journals Hrčak. Since 1999, the Association has been cooperating with the Croatian National Committee for Historical Sciences (HNOPZ) in preparing and holding regular conferences of Croatian historians. HNOPZ was founded in 1992, within the Association for Croatian History, but during the preparation of the First Congress of Croatian Historians, held in late 1999 and spring 2000, it became an independent association. Since 2014, DHP (Association for Croatian History) has also been co-organising the Kliofest History Festival; and since 2015, it has been participating in the presentation of annual awards in the field of historiography. Over the years, there have been ideas that have not come to fruition, such as the initiative to establish the Association of Historical Societies of Croatia (around 2000) or the proposal to merge HNOPZ and DHP into the Croatian Historical Association (2009). During the Covid-19 pandemic, some activities of the Association were hindered or delayed; however, the Association continued with its regular activities. In 2025, the Historijski zbornik journal entered the bibliographic and citation database Scopus, which indexes scientific and professional sources from around the world and all fields of science. 

Over the past decades, the Association has organised and co-organised scientific and professional conferences, promoted and supported the education and professional development of its members, promoted the safeguarding of the interests of the profession and developed international cooperation programmes, e.g. within the framework of the International Cultural and Historical Symposium Mogersdorf, etc. In addition, the Association regularly cooperates with other historical societies and related associations, and assists in setting up associations and branches in Croatia, which have the same goals and purposes. The Association also promotes studying of the history of national minorities and ethnic communities, as well as local history, and organises the commemoration of anniversaries of the historical events which bear importance in the history of the Croatian nation. The Association continuously emphasises the importance of historical science and history teaching, and contributes to improving history teaching through its members’ participation in the design of the school curricula, writing textbooks and conducting training for history teachers; it also participates in the spreading of the knowledge of history and the raising of scientific historical awareness within the Croatian society.