Mate Meštrović

Mate Meštrović
Meštrović in 2019
Croatia Ambassador to Bulgaria
In office
1997–2000
Preceded byNeven Jurica
Succeeded byTonči Staničić
Personal details
Born(1930-09-13)13 September 1930
Zagreb, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (modern Croatia)
Died30 December 2025(2025-12-30) (aged 95)
Zagreb, Croatia
Relations
Parent
Occupation
  • Journalist
  • academic
  • lobbyist
  • politician
  • ambassador
AwardsOrder of Merit of the Republic of Poland, Commander's Cross, 2019
Military service
AllegianceUnited States
Branch/serviceUnited States Army
Years of service1954–1956
RankLieutenant
Battles/warsKorean War
Academic background
Education
Academic work
DisciplineHistorian
InstitutionsFairleigh Dickinson University

Mate Meštrović (13 September 1930 – 30 December 2025), also known as Matthew Mestrovic (or Matthew Meštrović), was a Croatian-American journalist, lobbyist, politician and diplomat.

Life and career

Meštrović was born on 13 September 1930.[1] The son of Croatian-American sculptor Ivan Meštrović, he attended grade school in Zagreb before his family moved to Italy in 1942.[2] The family lived in Switzerland from 1943 to 1946 where he finished 'Ecole Internationale de Genève'.[3] The family moved to the United States of America the following year where his father continued his work as an artist and where Mate would spend most of his life.

He graduated from university in 1951[4] and the following year received a master's degree in history at the Syracuse University. From 1954 to 1956, he served as a lieutenant in the US Army PsyWar in the Pacific and is also a Korean War veteran.[3] He earned a PhD from Columbia University in 1957.[3] He worked as a Contributing Editor of TIME[5] and wrote many articles for American and European newspapers and magazines, including Commonweal, The New Leader, "The Intelligence Report" of The Economist, etc. He taught as Modern European history at Fairleigh Dickinson University and other United States universities from 1967 to 1991. In 1986, he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.[3]

Meštrović was active in the Croatian independence movement in Communist Yugoslavia. Meštrović led the Croatian National Congress. He visited Communist Yugoslavia for the first time in 1969.[6] During this visit he made contacts with members of Hrvatski književni list and Matica hrvatska.[6] From 1982 to 1990 he served as president of the Croatian National Council, an umbrella group of Croatian emigrant organizations which lobbied for Croatian independence.[7]

He wrote several books in English and Croatian, notably What you should know about Communism and why, The struggle for Croatia and In the whirlpool of Croatian Politics. In the U.S., he published Franjo Tudjman's book, Nationalism in Contemporary Europe, and Venko Markovski's Goli Otok – The Island of Death. He also authored several political tracts, notably Violations of Human and National Rights of the Croatian People in Yugoslavia and Croatian Response to the Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Science and Art.[8]

Meštrović returned to Croatia in the early 1990s.[3] He served as a deputy in the Croatian Parliament (1993–97), member of Croatia's delegation to the Council of Europe and the Inter-Parliamentary Union and ambassador in Bulgaria (1997–2000).[3] Meštrović died on 30 December 2025, at the age of 95.[9]

Honours

Notes

  1. ^ Meštrović, Mate, proleksis.lzmk.hr; accessed 8 August 2016. (in Croatian)
  2. ^ "Uz 50. godišnjicu smrti kipara Meštrovića" (in Croatian). Hrvatska matica iseljenika. Archived from the original on 23 December 2017. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Josip Jurčević, Crna knjiga komunizma u Hrvatskoj (Zločini jugoslavenskih komunista u Hrvatskoj 1945. godine), Počasni bleiburški vod, Zagreb, 2006; ISBN 953-7379-00-0, page 77. (in Croatian)
  4. ^ Ninoslav Kopač (2012). Svjedok histerije. Zagreb: Serb Democratic Forum. p. 113. ISBN 978-953-57313-2-0.
  5. ^ NOTES ON THE CONTRIBUTORS: MATTHEW MEŠTROVIĆ, studiacroatica.org; accessed 8 August 2016.
  6. ^ a b "Saradnici "Zlatnog popa"" (in Croatian). Archived from the original on 7 January 2005.
  7. ^ Hrvatska Politička Emigracija I Hrvatska Država Archived 5 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine, vjesnik.hr; accessed 8 August 2016. (in Croatian)
  8. ^ Google books: Hrvatsko stanovište o memorandumu Srpske Akademije Nauka i Umetnosti, books.google.com.au; accessed 8 August 2016. (in Croatian)
  9. ^ "Umro je Mate Meštrović. Plenković: Održavao je hrvatsku političku misao u emigraciji". Index HR. 31 December 2025. Retrieved 31 December 2025.
  10. ^ "Rodzina chorwackiego rzeźbiarza odznaczona Krzyżem Komandorskim Orderu Zasługi Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej - Polska w Chorwacji - Portal Gov.pl". Polska w Chorwacji (in Polish). 20 September 2019. Retrieved 26 February 2020.

References

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