Vasilij Melik (b. on Jan. 17th, 1921 in Ljubljana) graduated in history and comparative literature in 1943. He worked in the City Archives and in the Slavic Library, as an assistant at the Historical Seminar of the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana, since 1952 he has been a lecturer in history of economy at the Faculty of Economics. In 1959 he was elected as an university teacher for history of Yugoslav nations (except Slovenes) from the 18th century till the First World War at the Faculty of Arts. As an extraordinary professor his venia legendi has been extended to the Slovene history for the mentioned period as well. He has been a full professor since 1974. His opus comprises nearly all time periods, the focus of his researches, however, is the Slovene history of the 19th century and the beginnings of the 20th. He works especially at political and cultural history, election systems and elections, prices and living standard in the 19th century, as well as at the towns trade. He covered a series of faculty functions (deputy dean, dean), he has been active in profession associations and has been editing the Historical Review for 18 years.