Jakša Račić

Jakša Račić
Portrait of Račić by Amalija Bogdanović-Knežević, painted most likely sometime during the First World War.
35th Mayor of Split
In office 1929–1933
Preceded by	Josip Berković
Succeeded by	Mihovil Kargotić
Personal details
Born	(1868-08-05)5 August 1868 Vrbanj (Stari Grad), Kingdom of Dalmatia, Austro-Hungarian Empire
Died	23 August 1943(1943-08-23) (aged 75) Split, Governorate of Dalmatia, Kingdom of Italy
Political party	Yugoslav National Party
Spouse	Romilda Carstulovich
Occupation	Politician, medical doctor
Profession	Medical doctor

Jakša Račić (5 August 1868 – 23 August 1943) was the Mayor of Split between February 1929 and June 1933. An ethnic Croat in modern terms, he was a supporter of King Alexander I's unitarianist policies, and considered himself a Yugoslav and a Dalmatian. He was a medical doctor by profession and one of the few non-Serbian members of the Chetnik movement.

Račić was born on 5 August 1868 in Vrbanj (part of Stari Grad) on the island of Hvar in the Kingdom of Dalmatia and studied in Prague, Graz and Innsbruck, where he attained a doctorate in 1900. He was employed in Innsbruck as an assistant at the Institute for General and Experimental Pathology, undertook further training in Ljubljana and became Director of his own surgical sanatorium in Split in 1904, the Račić Sanatorium. He oversaw the start of hospital modernization in the city, and began the forestation of Marjan hill.

World War II and assassination

At the beginning of World War II Račić was appointed by Draža Mihailović as Chetnik Povjerenik ("trustee") for Dalmatia. Račić worked closely with Chetnik military commander Ilija Trifunović-Birčanin. Račić was executed for treason by the Partisans when, after the Italian capitulation in 1943, they temporarily liberated Split from Italian occupation.