Željko Karaula is a Croatian historian and author. His scientific focus is primarily researching newer Croatian and Yugoslavian history and he deals in detail with shedding light on numerous questions tied to the history of his hometown and the surrounding area. He is a highlighted activist in the nurturing of Croatian-Montenegrin scientific-cultural values.
In the beginning of his career as an author, in 1997, he published a collection of songs titled “Vodena krila”. In the year 2006, he became a director of a marketing, service, and catering company called ALCA d.o.o. Bjelovar. He enrolled in the postgraduate history studies in 2008 at the Croatian Studies of the University of Zagreb and went on to defend his doctoral dissertation “Hrvatska seljačka zaštita u Kraljevini Jugoslaviji” under the mentorship of dr.sc. Ivica Miškulin in 2015. In 2016 he gained the scientific title of scientific associate, and two years later he received a prize for science “Pečat grada Bjelovara”. That same year, 2018, he received a prize from the Montenegrin Faculty for Literature and Linguistics in Cetinje for his scientific contribution in nurturing Croatian-Montenegrin scientific relations. He is an active associate of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Bjelovar, where he is the leader of the “Povijest gradova Bjelovarsko-bilogorske županije” project. He gained scientific training at the Institute for History and the “Ivo Pilar” Institute in Zagreb. As a doctoral student of the Croatian Studies of the University of Zagreb, he is the winner of a scholarship by the Montenegrin government for scientific research in 2011. He performed research on projects of CASA Bjelovar and the Dukljanska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti as well as the Montenegrin Community in Croatia in the archives of Vienna, Budapest, Maribor, Belgrade, Podgorica, Cetinje, Prague, and others. He is also an associate of the DANU in Podgorica. He is the main editor of the publication by the Matica hrvatska branch in Daruvar titled Zbornik Janković since 2016, a vice-president of that same branch and a member of the editorial board for the publication Radovi Zavoda HAZU Bjelovar. He is a member of the Družba Braća hrvatskog zmaja – Zmajski stol Bjelovar. The aims of this league are the spreading of patriotic, cultural, culturological, national, people, scientific, and artistic values and the moto of the league is the following – Pro aris et focis, Deo propitio and domestic scientific gatherings. He has, so far, published 10 scientific monographs and 10 editorial books and held a series of public lectures. His bibliography encompasses over 300 scientific articles and reviews.
Controversy
In the beginning of 2020, there was a dispute between Željko Karaula and the Catholic Church in Croatia because Karaula edited a transcript of diary entries by the Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac 1934-1945 created by UDBA in the 1950s and which were kept in the Croatian State Archives and became publicly available around the end of 2017. The book was published by the “Despot infinitus” publisher in Zagreb. The Church thought the diary to be property of the archdiocese in Zagreb, to which Karaula responded that he only published archival materials from the “Stepinac file” kept in the archives: “These are publicly available materials for research and it is not required to seek any permit by the archdiocese in Zagreb to publish such material.”
Scientific monographs - selection
HANAO - Hrvatska nacionalna omladina, Naklada Breza: Zagreb, 2011.
Moderna povijest Bjelovara 1871–2010. Od razvojačenja Varaždinske krajine do suvremenog Bjelovara, ALCA d.o.o.- Naklada Breza: Bjelovar, 2012.
Hrvoje, Petrić, Željko, Holjevac, Željko, Karaula, Povijest grada Bjelovara, HAZU Bjelovar-HAZU Zagreb: Zagreb-Bjelovar, 2013.
Mačekova vojska. Hrvatska seljačka zaštita u Kraljevini Jugoslaviji, Despot infinitus d.o.o.: Zagreb, 2015.
