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Greatest Croatian

The Greatest Croatian () is an open-access poll, conducted over five weeks in 2003 by the Croatian weekly Nacional.

The public was invited to vote either via the magazine's website, text messages or postcards to determine the "Greatest Croatian" in history. Almost 8,000 votes were received during the course of the poll (6,507 via Internet, 520 text messages and 752 postcards), and the final results were published in the magazine's 6 January 2004 issue.

Final list

Due to the nature of the poll used to select and rank, the results do not pretend to be an objective assessment. The poll also had no rules on ethnicity or nationality of candidates, with readers free to send in votes for whomever they felt contributed to the history and society of modern-day Croatia.

In addition, Nacional published the list of people ordered by votes received, although two of these were listed twice in duplicate entries, which was likely due to tabulation error:

Without the two duplicates, the list would have had 96 entries, but since two of these involve pairs of notable people (17th-century noblemen Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan at no. 37, and 19th-century explorer brothers Mirko and Stjepan Seljan at no. 88) the list ends up having 98 individuals.

They are as follows:

  1. Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), revolutionary, statesman and president of Yugoslavia 1953–1980
  2. Nikola Tesla (1856–1943), electrical engineer and inventor, most people claim he was actually a Serb
  3. Ruđer Bošković (1711–1787), physicist, astronomer, mathematician and philosopher
  4. Miroslav Krleža (1893–1981), writer, playwright and poet
  5. Franjo Tuđman (1922–1999), statesman, President of Croatia 1990–99
  6. Dražen Petrović (1964–1993), basketball player, Olympic silver medalist
  7. Stjepan Mesić (b. 1934), President of Croatia 2000–10
  8. Ivo Andrić (1892–1975), novelist, Nobel Prize in Literature laureate who personally identified as Serb
  9. Tin Ujević (1891–1955), poet
  10. Stevo Karapandža (b. 1947), celebrity chef
  11. Tomislav of Croatia (?–928), 10th-century ruler of Croatia
  12. Rahim Ademi (b. 1954), Croatian Army general
  13. Stipe Šuvar (1936–2004), sociologist and politician
  14. Vlado Gotovac (1930–2000), poet and politician
  15. Ivan Meštrović (1883–1962), sculptor and architect
  16. Josip Juraj Strossmayer (1815–1905), Roman Catholic bishop, benefactor and politician
  17. Janica Kostelić (b. 1982), alpine ski racer, Olympic gold medalist
  18. Stjepan Radić (1871–1928), early 20th century politician
  19. Josip Jelačić (1801–1859), 19th-century Ban (viceroy) of Croatia
  20. Ante Starčević (1823–1896), 19th-century politician
  21. Alojzije Stepinac (1898–1960), Roman Catholic cardinal, Archbishop of Zagreb 1937–1960
  22. Branimir Štulić (b. 1953), singer, songwriter and poet
  23. Rade Šerbedžija (b. 1946), stage and film actor
  24. Matija Gubec (c. 1556–1573), 16th-century leader of a peasant revolt
  25. Mirko Ilić (b. 1956), graphic designer and comics artist
  26. Miroslav Radman (b. 1944), biologist
  27. Ivan Supek (1915–2007), physicist, philosopher, and writer
  28. Franjo Kuharić (1919–2002), Roman Catholic cardinal, Archbishop of Zagreb 1970–1997
  29. Branko Bauer (1921–2002), film director
  30. Ante Gotovina (b. 1955), Croatian army lieutenant-general
  31. Miljenko Smoje (1923–1995), writer and journalist
  32. Goran Ivanišević (b. 1971), tennis player, winner of Wimbledon
  33. Marija Jurić Zagorka (1873–1957), journalist and novelist
  34. Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (1874–1938), children's writer
  35. Ljudevit Gaj (1809–1872), 19th-century linguist, politician and writer
  36. Marko Marulić (1450–1524), 15th-century poet
  37. Petar Zrinski (1621–1671) & Fran Krsto Frankopan (1643–1671), 17th-century noblemen, leaders of the Magnate conspiracy
  38. Mile Dedaković (b. 1951), soldier, one of the Croatian commanders in the 1991 Battle of Vukovar
  39. Lavoslav Ružička (1887–1976), scientist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate
  40. Juraj Dalmatinac (1410–1473), medieval sculptor and architect
  41. Krešimir Ćosić (1948–1995), basketball player, Olympic medalist and Basketball Hall of Fame inductee
  42. Slavoljub Penkala (1871–1922), engineer and inventor, created the mechanical pencil
  43. Vladimir Nazor (1876–1949), author and politician
  44. Ivan Gundulić (1589–1638), baroque Ragusan poet
  45. Arsen Dedić (1938–2015), singer-songwriter, composer and poet
  46. Marin Držić (1508–1567), renaissance Ragusan playwright
  47. Tarik Filipović (b. 1972), actor and television personality
  48. Goran Bregović (b. 1950), musician and composer
  49. Mate Ujević (1901–1967), poet and lexicographer
  50. Savka Dabčević-Kučar (1923–2009), politician, one of the leaders of the Croatian Spring movement
  51. Miroslav Blažević (1935–2023), association football coach, led Croatia to third place in the 1998 FIFA World Cup
  52. Dušan Vukotić (1927–1998), cartoonist, winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
  53. Severina Vučković (b. 1972), pop singer and actress
  54. Ivica Račan (1944–2007), politician and prime minister of Croatia 2000–2003
  55. Marko Perković Thompson (b. 1966), pop singer
  56. Ivan Goran Kovačić (1913–1943), poet and writer, killed in World War II
  57. Vladimir Prelog (1906–1998), scientist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate
  58. Branko Lustig (1932–2019), film producer, two-time Academy Awards winner
  59. Dražen Budiša (b. 1948), politician, one of the leaders of the Croatian Spring movement
  60. Mate Parlov (1948–2008), boxer, Olympic gold medalist
  61. Vatroslav Lisinski (1819–1854), 19th-century composer
  62. Faust Vrančić (1551–1617), polymath and inventor, best known for his 16th-century parachute design
  63. Boris Dvornik (1939–2008), actor
  64. Vlaho Bukovac (1855–1922), painter
  65. Andrija Štampar (1888–1958), promoter of social medicine
  66. Bernard Vukas (1927–1983), footballer, best known for his two spells at HNK Hajduk Split
  67. Zinka Kunc (1906–1989), opera soprano, performed at New York's Metropolitan Opera and Milan's La Scala opera houses
  68. Antun Mihanović (1796–1861), poet, best known for penning the lyrics to the Croatian anthem
  69. Fabijan Šovagović (1932–2001), actor
  70. Slavenka Drakulić (b. 1949), writer and journalist
  71. August Šenoa (1838–1881), 19th-century novelist
  72. Andrija Maurović (1901–1981), comic book artist, known as the "father of Croatian comics"
  73. Antun Augustinčić (1900–1979), sculptor
  74. Ante Topić Mimara (1898–1987), art collector, founder of the Mimara Museum
  75. Edo Murtić (1921–2005), painter
  76. Ivo Pogorelić (b. 1958), pianist
  77. Bruno Bušić (1939–1978), promoter of Croatia's independence, assassinated in exile in 1978
  78. Frano Supilo (1870–1917), politician and journalist, founder of Novi list daily
  79. Goran Višnjić (b. 1972), actor, best known for starring in the American TV series ER
  80. Vlaho Bukovac (duplicate entry, see #64)
  81. Andrija Hebrang (1899–1949), politician
  82. Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger (1856–1936), paleontologist, discovered the Neanderthal site near Krapina
  83. Juraj Križanić (1618–1683), 17th-century Catholic missionary
  84. Marin Getaldić (1568–1626), Ragusan scientist, best known for his work in optics
  85. Antun Gustav Matoš (1873–1914), poet and essayist
  86. Franjo Šeper (1905–1981), Roman Catholic cardinal, Archbishop of Zagreb 1960–1970
  87. Oliver Mlakar (b. 1935), television presenter
  88. Mirko Seljan (1871–1913) & Stjepan Seljan (1875–1936), explorers best known for their travels in South America and Africa
  89. Ivan Lupis (1813–1875), officer of the Austrian Navy, credited as the inventor of the torpedo
  90. Ante Trumbić (1864–1938), politician
  91. Franjo Trenk (1711–1749), Austrian officer, known as "father of the military band"
  92. Ivo Robić (1923–2000), singer and songwriter
  93. Ivan Generalić (1914–1992), naïve art painter
  94. Lovro pl. Matačić (1899–1985), conductor
  95. Slava Raškaj (1877–1906), 19th-century deaf woman painter
  96. Vladimir Prelog (duplicate entry, see #57)
  97. Branko Gavella (1885–1962), theatre director and essayist
  98. Krešo Golik (1922–1996), film director and screenwriter
  99. Bartol Kašić (1575–1650), linguist, wrote the first Croatian grammar and translated the Bible into Croatian
  100. Marko Turina (b. 1937), cardiac surgeon, first surgeon to operate a congenital heart defect on a newborn

See also

References

External links