Ujević Mate: Hrvatska enciklopedija I-V

Mate Ujević: Croatian encyclopedia I - V

The project of creating a general and national encyclopedia called the Croatian encyclopedia was initiated in the late 1930s in Zagreb by writer and publicist Mate Ujević. Although it was called "megalomaniac", the project received the support of the authorities and the Catholic Church after the creation of the Banovina Hrvatska, and the articles were written by many scientists from the University of Zagreb and other scientific centers of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The encyclopedia was conceived in 12 volumes, and the printing of the first one was completed on February 10, 1941, a little less than two months before the attack of the Axis Powers on Yugoslavia. The fifth volume, concluding with the term "Electricity", was published at the beginning of 1945. After the entry of partisan troops into Zagreb, almost all of its circulation was destroyed and today, unlike the first four, it is more difficult to find.

How unfair it is to condemn the project of publishing this encyclopedia as "Ustasha" is evidenced, for example, by the fact that in the article man (Vol. IV, 1942) a very clear and detailed condemnation of racist theories is given as unscientific and unfounded. It is pointed out, for example, that, in contrast to attempts to prove the superiority of a pure race, "it can often be established that prominent people are of mixed race". It was quite brave to announce this in a state (NDH) that itself accepted racist theories (Croats as an Aryan race). HIBZ was not subject to the then regulations on censorship until the end of 1944.

After the fifth volume, the project was discontinued, but many collaborators, among them the editor-in-chief Mate Ujević, participated in the production of the JLZ General Encyclopedia and other editions of the FNRJ Lexicographic Institute, which was founded in 1950 at the instigation of Miroslav Krleža. Today, it is called the "Miroslav Krleža" Lexicographic Institute and, in addition to other publications, has been publishing the new Croatian Encyclopedia since 1999.

The fifth volume of the Croatian Encyclopedia is the most sought-after Croatian book of all time. Namely, the first four volumes that were published in the period from 1940-1944 were published in large editions due to the great interest of the public at that time. The fourth volume was reprinted in 1944. The fifth volume was published on May 2, 1945, just six days before the collapse of the N.D.H. which at that time had under its control only the northwestern parts of Croatia. After entering Zagreb on May 8, 1945, the partisans destroyed almost all the copies of the fifth volume they came across. Allegedly, only 157 copies of the encyclopedia were distributed to subscribers.