Branko Radičević

• Name — Aleksije Branko Radičević Алексије Бранко Радичевић • Pen Name — Branko • Birth Name — Aleksije Radičević • Born — 28 March 1824 • Birthplace — Slavonski Brod, Austrian Empire (modern-day Croatia) • Died — 1 July 1853 (aged 29) • Place of death — Vienna, Austria-Hungary (modern-day Austria) • Occupation — Poet • Education — Gymnasium of Karlovci • Movement — Romanticism • Notable Works — Đački rastanak Kad mlidijah umreti

• Illustration — House of Branko Radičević in Slavonski Brod Branko Radičević was born in Slavonski Brod on 15 March 1824. Aleksije was his baptismal name before he changed it to Branko, a more common Serbian name. He finished high school in Sremski Karlovci, the setting of his best poems. He then studied in Vienna. In 1847 Radičević's first book of poetry appeared, launching a new era in Serbian poetry. He went to Serbia but soon returned to Vienna to study medicine, where he was surrounded by Serb intellectuals, either living in the city or passing through, including his lifelong friend Bogoboj Atanacković, Vuk Karadžić, Đuro Daničić, Milica Stojadinović-Srpkinja and Petar II Petrović-Njegoš. Radičević's second collection of poetry is considered weaker than his first. Near his death he wrote a notable poem titled Kad mlidijah umreti (As I Thought of Dying). He was one of the first authors to write poetry in the simple language of the common folk. He attempted to recreate the rhythm of the folk song, thus supporting the belief of Vuk Karadžić that even poetry can be written in the newly reformed Serbian language. Radičević proved to be very important to Vuk Karadžić's victory because he gathered his generation of young writers and poets around the cause of language reform. Skerlić writes in his History of New Serbian Literature that Branko Radičević had a significant influence on Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, Bogoboj Atanacković, Kosta Ruvarac, Jovan Grčić Milenko, and other Serbian poets and writers of the period. Radičević died of tuberculosis in Vienna 1853 and in 1883 his remains were buried in Stražilovo.

• Illustration — House of Branko Radičević in Sremski Karlovci Đački rastanak (The Parting of Schoolfriends) is the most popular of his works. In it, Radičević portrayed the life of college students. For a time he gives himself up to the fleeting impressions of the moment. In Put (A Journey), a magnanimous allegory, Radičević shows a skill in satirical nomenclature by stigmatizing Vuk Stefanović Karadžić's adversaries who disapproved the reforms of language and orthography. With Bezimena he changed his style, from the influences by Byron and Romanticism, towards Pushkin's Eugene Onegin and Vissarion Belinsky's essay of 1843 about Pushkin and Realism. His work gave an important contribution to Vuk's victory in the cultural battle for language reform. The collected works of Branko Radičević were published in 2025 by Matica srpska and the Serbian Literary Cooperative.

• Kad mlidijah umreti (As I Thought of Dying) • Tuga i opomena (Sadness and Warning) • Đački rastanak (The Parting of Schoolfriends) • Put (A Journey) • Bezimena (Unnamed) • Utopljenica • Osveta