Andra Nikolić

Andra Nikolić was a Serbian politician, jurist, writer, literary historian and academic.

Biography

His parents were Josif Nikolić, a municipal clerk, and Natalija Marković the sister of politician Stefan Marković. Andra was brought up in a typical Serbian, late 19th-century middle-class environment. After completing his gymnasium, he studied law at Visoka škola in Belgrade where he graduated in 1873. His first published work "The Economic State of Serbia in 14th-Century" brought him immediate recognition and fame.
After entering the civil service, he formed an alliance with Stojan Protić and Lazar Paču and the trio became one of the closest political associates and personal colleagues in the Serbian government. The other leaders consisted of Nikola Pašić, Alexander Stanojević, and Lazar Paču.
Nikolić continued to keep good relations with a group of young Radicals who left the party to found their own Independent Radical Party in 1901, but he did not join them.
Andra Nikolić served in several governments, Lazar Dokić, Đorđe Simić, Nikola Pasić, Nikola Pašić and Petar Velimirović, subsequently acting many times over as Minister of Education, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Speaker of the National Assembly and the head of the diplomatic mission in Paris. As Minister of Education, he passed a law on 27 February 1905 making his alma mater the University of Belgrade.
Nikolić was one of the cosigners of the Treaty of London, which ended the Second Balkan War in 1913.
Andra Nikolić is remembered as the voice of reason and common sense in the Radical Main Committee since 1881.
He died in Paris on 28 September 1918. His remains were eventually transferred to Serbia in 1926.

Works

Nikolić was not only concerned with law and politics but in literature as well. He began to write aesthetic literary and theatrical reviews early in his career. His literary works were published in literary journals, Otadžbina, Rad, Delo, Odjek, Samouprava and many other such periodicals and magazines. In the journal Otadžbina, he edited a section called "Literary Review" from 1875 until 1881. He further distinguished himself by his literary works as an excellent expert in the Serbian language, it was no wonder that he was elected professor of History of Serbian Literature at the Grandes écoles in 1880, but declined the offer to remain in politics. He was a literary critic of great talent, fine observation, and great style even when he reviewed the work of his fellow politicians. He collaborated with Stojan Novaković and together published some editions of syntax books, and translations of the works by Taras Shevchenko. Nikolić also translated George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss into Serbian under the title Vodenica na flossi in 1893.