Ivan Avakumović Explained

Ivan Avakumović
Birth Date:	22 August 1926
Birth Place:	Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Death Place:	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Nationality:	Canadian
Alma Mater:	University of Oxford (B.A.) University of London (M.A.) University of Oxford (PhD)
Occupation:	Professor emeritus of History

Ivan Avakumović (also spelled Ivan Avakumovich; 22 August 1926 – 16 July 2013) was a Serbian-Canadian historian who was Professor Emeritus of History at the University of British Columbia.

Biography

Avakumović was born on 22 August 1926 in Belgrade, Serbia, then part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.^[1] His father was a Yugoslav diplomat.^[2] Following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941, his family moved to England. He studied at King's College in Cambridge, earning an honours degree in economics and history in 1947.^[3] He then attended the University of London where he received an M.A. in History in 1954 before studying at Nuffield College at the University of Oxford where he obtained his PhD in 1958.

Avakumović briefly taught at the University of Aberdeen in 1957 before immigrating to Canada in 1958 where he began teaching at the University of Manitoba. In 1963, he joined the University of British Columbia's faculty, initially teaching Political Science and then History beginning in 1969 until he retired in 1991.

Avakumović died on 16 July 2013 in Vancouver, British Columbia. He married his wife, Solange, in 1957; together they had one daughter named Fiona.

Research interests

Avakumović's research interests lied in social and political movements in Europe and Canada since the late 19th-century, with a focus on radical left-wing movements. His studies were "mostly concerned with radical forms of social critique in culturally and ethnically divided societies".^[4] His writings on politics were influenced by the works of Donald Cameron Watt, Hugh Seton-Watson and E. H. Carr.

Books

• The Anarchist Prince: A Biographical Study of Peter Kropotkin, co-authored with George Woodcock. (London; 1950)
• History of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, Volume I (Aberdeen; The Aberdeen University Press, 1964)^[5]
• The Doukhobors, co-authored with George Woodcock. (Oxford University Press, 1968; Toronto; repub McClelland and Stewart, 1977).^[6]
• Mihailović prema nemačkim dokumentima (London; Savez Oslobodjenje, 1969).^[7]
• The Communist Party in Canada: A History (Toronto; McClelland and Stewart, 1975).^[8]
• Socialism in Canada: A Study of the CCF-NDP in Federal and Provincial Politics (Toronto; McClelland and Stewart, 1978).^[9]
• Détruire le PCF: Archives de l'Etat français et de l'occupant hitlérien 1940–1944, co-authored with Roger Bourderon. (Paris; Messidor/Editions sociales, 1988)^[10]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Ivan Avakumović Obituary . remembering.ca . 16 November 2013.
2. Web site: Friedrichs . Chris . Prof. Ivan Avakumovic, noted historian of 20th-century political movements, dies at 86 . history.ubc.ca . University of British Columbia.
3. Web site: Ivan Avakumovic Bio . history.ubc.ca . University of British Columbia.
4. Web site: Smith . Allan . Ivan Avakumovic: 1926-2014 . historians.org . American Historical Association . 1 October 2014.
5. Cattell . David T. . Book Reviews : History of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, Volume I. By Ivan Avakumovic. (Aberdeen; The Aberdeen University Press, 1964. Pp. xii, 207. 60s.) . Western Political Quarterly . 1 September 1965 . 18 . 3 . 694 . 10.1177/106591296501800315 . 153942695 .
6. Book: Donskov . Andrew . Leo Tolstoy in Conversation with Four Peasant Sectarian Writers: The Complete Correspondence . 2019 . University of Ottawa Press . 978-0-77662-781-6 . 423 .
7. Book: Pavlović . Vojislav G. . The Balkans in the Cold War: Balkan Federations, Cominform, Yugoslav-Soviet Conflict . 2011 . Balkanološki institut SANU . 978-8-67179-073-4 . 233 .
8. Jacek . Henry J. . Ivan Avakumovic, The Communist Party in Canada: A History. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1975, pp. x, 309 - Joseph R. Starobin, American Communism In Crisis, 1943–1957. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975, pp. xvii, 331 . Canadian Journal of Political Science . 4 December 1976 . 9 . 4 . 695–696 . 10.1017/S0008423900044802 . 154897639 .
9. Book: Avakumović . Ivan . Socialism in Canada: A Study of the CCF-NDP in Federal and Provincial Politics . 1978 . McClelland and Stewart . 978-0-77100-978-5 .
10. Wall . Irwin M. . Roger Bourderon and Ivan Avakoumovitch. Détruire le PCF: Archives de l'Etat français et de l'occupant hitlérien 1940–1944. Paris: Messidor/Editions sociales. 1988. Pp. 274. 120 fr . The American Historical Review . 1 April 1992 . 97 . 2 . 10.1086/ahr/97.2.566 .