THE ROLE OF VLADO GOTOVAC IN THE CROATIAN DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT

By ANTE KADIĆ

Journal of Croatian Studies, Volume XXI, 1980

"The poem's fate is becoming similar to our own"

(Gotovac)

Before I sketch Vlado Gotovac (1930) both as an essayist in the literary periodical Kritika (1968-71) and the main editor of the cultural and political weekly Hrvatski tjednik (1971), I will talk about him and his poetic output until the fatal autumn of 1971.

Gotovac belongs to that "middle" poetic generation (though already in their fifties), which appeared after Jure Kaštelan (1919) and Vesna Parun (1922), and which liberated postwar Croatian belles-letters from the prescriptions of socialist realism and espoused rather the West European models. From them really began the period of "liberation" and a gradual flowering of all branches of cultural life. This blossoming era, usually labelled as "the Croatian spring", was interrupted by Tito's drastic ukase, on December 1, 1971 (in Karadjordjevo, one of his sumptuous resorts.

Gotovac was born in Imotski, in that mountainous region of Dalmatia which gave birth to several good writers. As he himself narrates[1], he spent his early childhood in Bosnia (in Prnjavor), where he heard from an old Moslem woman many stories and fables. After secondary school in Split, he obtained his master's degree in philosophy from the University at Zagreb. He was for years employed as a journalist at the Zagreb television station.

Gotovac is a voracious reader. Besides the German philosophers, he has studied the Russian, French and English writers. He has sometimes been accused of being too much influenced by T. S. Eliot. He thinks that Marx is "unavoidable" if one tries to understand the present times, but recognizes that the Bible had exercised a decisive impact upon his mental outlook (Weltanschauung)[2]. He admits to be a socialist, but above all a humanist; instead of being considered a nationalist, he prefers to be viewed as a patriot in the country where his nation is oppressed.

Gotovac began to write at an early age. On account of his thematic novelty and unusual approach to poetry, at first the editors of various periodicals refused to publish his contributions. In Miroslav Vaupotić, a well-known critic and professor of Croatian literature, Gotovac found not only an admirer but also a fervent propagandist. Once the ice was broken, Gotovac's collections of poems came out regularly until 1971[3] when he was accused by the orthodox watch-dogs for counter-revolutionary tendencies and condemned to four years in jail. Since he was released, Gotovac has remained jobless and for ten years the publishing houses have refused to accept a single one of his books. Recently he himself has issued ("samizdat") a slender volume of his poems.[4]

Gotovac was interviewed several times by foreign correspondents, and therefore the Yugoslav authorities have initiated a new process against him.

Although Gorovac's poetry has certain similarities with that of his contemporaries and friends (e. g. Slavko Mihalić), it is unique to himself: so difficult and easy, deep and naive, covered with seven veils and sincere, that the connoisseurs would recognize it even if he did not sign it.

The poet wishes each his verse to be a whole; nevertheless, all of them together, like stairs, lead to his abode where in solitude he meditates over life in general and his own in particular:

The door of my house is made only for me

And only one flight of sirs leads to my room.

In this entire building is expressed the malice of solitude.

My house--a house without encounters.[5]

Most of the critics select certain among Gotovac's poems (such as the above quoted "My Portrait During One Day," "Lazar's Songs", the fragments from the collection The Echo, and "The Poem about a Youth who does not Like this World") as his best achievements. I side with those who prefer his really unique hymn "I Greet Life" ("ja domahujem životu," dedicated to his just-born daughter Anna):

...As long as I hold you in my arms I hold the world with my strength

And swaying you happily, I return the world to its carefreeness

And think if the stars collide the sound will be wonderful

And in hundreds of colors the flowers will crumble in space

As if the old gods march to coronation along a festive path

No I am not a magician but a simple worker

It is hard for me because they are real for the life of everyone

For even those who do not believe me use them

One could dream but it is better to work on what you dream

Rain sun winds and all necessary birds and insects

That bring fertility to fields after a sterile winter

All emanate from your small hands, all glow in your eyes

All rustle in your hair like the flight of the spirits

And the fruits have already conceived

I greet life[6]

Leafing through Gotovac's collections, until the appearance of his Debatable Sandals (Sporne sandale, 1970), I seldom found any patriotic theme; then, since it was main topic of conversation, it has imposed itself upon Gotovac as it did upon the collective soul. The poet who listens carefully to the pulse of his time and his people, who writes about the issues which preoccupy his heart ("and heart is a flower in our bosom"), composed some poems which testify that his awareness of being a member of one nation was not a consequence of an a priori attitude, but it sprang out as a result of terrible injustices committed against those who were his relatives and friends, among whom he lived and whose discontent he shared.

To discover this new direction in Gotovac's poetry, one should peruse his poems published in the periodical Forum (in 1969)[7] and later extended into the collection called Debatable Sandals. There one can find his poem "Homeland and Thought," in which Gotovac tenderly speaks about his small Croatia, which is so seldom happy and whose simple heart is terribly upset; there is also a poem "My City and My Love", dedicated to dirty, dilapidated, smelly and abandoned Zagreb.

Like other poets, Gotovac is not successful with all his work. Certain of his patriotic verses bear signs of the speed with which they were written; in some of them we respect more the depth of feelings than the perfection of expression. However, even among those controversial or "debatable" (or as he calls them "sandals" which Empedodes left behind) there are those which amply testify that Gotovac has found a happy harmony between his thoughts and a concise, powerful wording. Thus in his "Appeal" ("Poziv") there is a combination of childlike simplicity and an almost mystical vision of the responsibility of the intelligentsia toward their native land:

Croatia, you call us without any explanation,

He who does not accept this—cannot serve you.

Only on the road you unveil yourself

And reveal what we did going behind you…

When, in the course of 1971, Gotovac's "Croatian Details" ("Hrvatske pojedinosti")[8] had appeared in Forum, Igor Mandić, a versatile critic but at that time very close to the official circles, attacked them as "trite phrases".[9] Mandić's blunt statement, motivated to a degree also by personal animosity against the popular poet, is unfair since among those "minutiae" there are some which are rightly considered good patriotic lyrics:

Croatia is a merciless homeland,

On each step she is dangerous.

Pain which she inflicts upon us

Makes of us the angels in heaven

And the refugees on this earth.

Only insensible hearts betray her....

I could write at great length about Gotovac's essays which appeared in Kritika but will limit myself to those of Gotovac's reflections in which he attacks and ridicules the chauvinists who claim as their own the Croatian linguistic heritage; these same centralists and unitarists continue to call the Croatian Renaissance and Baroque literary patrimony by all other names (Dalmatian, Ragusan, coastal, Yugoslav and even Serbian), but not by that one which corresponds to its national identity and real spirit.

This tragi-comedy has reigned for more than a hundred years. Its origin is the so-called Vienna agreement (1850) when politically motivated philologists stipulated that in the future the Croatian and the Serbian language should be called by one and the identical name. Gotovac comments: "A private conversation about the language the political mythmakers have transformed into a scientific event of a great importance. Thus small group of people led by political motives and totally ignorant of the essence of the language, opened an epoch of scandalous manipulation with language itself. All those who claim to follow the Vienna decree are interested more in political than linguistic considerations".[10]

The same unitarists invoke the name of Vuk Karadžić as sacred and expect that all discussion shall stop as soon as his opinion is quoted. To keep him in his mythological greatness, they do not reproach him with things that would discredit him in the eyes of an objective judge. Gotovac writes: "Thus one is supposed to overlook the fact that Karadžić has been a Serbian chauvinist, has slandered those whose hospitality he had enjoyed, was quite ignorant in many fields and unwilling to give credit to his teachers; above all one should not mention the medals which he had received from various kings and emperors". All this and many other things (e.g. his falsification of the Croatian songs) Karadžić's apologists consider insignificant details which interest only "the enemies of his great idea: Yugoslav unity".[11]

One should however recognize that in this glorification of Karadžić the leading role often was played by the non-Serbian careerists, ready to serve whatever regime.

The case of Viktor Novak is disgusting. No wonder that Gotovac addressed a bitter condemnation to this renegade from Donja Stubica (the Croatian Zagorje). Analysing Novak's book on the attitude of the Croatians toward Vuk (Vuk i Hrvati, 1967), Gotovac states that Novak writes about Croatian history which he does not want to understand but simply liquidate. Therefore he sees in everyone who defends Croatia and her interest a constant menace which could lead to catastrophic consequences. The Croatians are responsible, Novak thinks, for all failures which occurred in Yugoslavia. "Whatever is good in our (Croatian) heritage—we have received it from others. Unfortunately, we cannot keep it for long: soon we return to our real character. We are unable to remain on the same level with those who inspired us, awakened and elevated us... Therefore our disappearance is conditio sine qua non for healthy, strong and durable Yugoslavia".[12]

After the various official and semi-official philologists had "impoverished" the Croatians, trying to prove that the language which they speak today they had borrowed from their eastern neighbors, appeared a phalanx of researchers of the Dubrovnik (Ragusa) archives who insist that all those Catholic writers (the Benedictines, Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits and secular priests) were not the Croatians but the Serbs, because they had written in the ijekavian dialect, "which is without any doubt only a Serbian property".

In the "ghostly shadow" of Pavle Popović, who was the first to include the old Croatian literature into Serbian, two men became notorious: one was Jorjo Tadić, born on the island of Hvar, the spiritual cousin of Novak, and the other is Miroslav Pantić, a professor at Belgrade University.

To the hybrid animals, namely to the "Serbo-Catholics" and their coryphaeus, Jorjo Tadić, Gotovac has devoted a penetrating analysis[13]. He explains that the so-called "Serbo-Catholics" are those Croatians who had rejected their national identity and espoused, for pragmatic reasons—far away from any idealism, the idea of single Yugoslav nation... When our nations, after tragic disappointments, began to return to their past, the Serbo-Catholics became the renegades and remained with their dead souls and wicked hearts".

"Jorjo Tadić is chasing Croatia from Dubrovnik. Dedicated to this goal, he searches for proofs in the Dubrovnik archives. He is not interested in the spiritual values which originated in this city; he does not analyse literary works, their meaning and to which world they belong by their philosophy. Obstinately faithful to this chauvinistic purpose and to those whom he serves, Tadić assiduously looks for pieces of paper which for him are more significant than the centuries of the Dubrovnik cultural life. When faced with the crucial question to which nation Dubrovnik belongs, Jorjo Tadić finds a single business transaction more important than the entire cultural tradition of this city".

Tadić could be considered a gentleman when compared with Miroslav Pantić, an able, productive but totally biased man who has decided to deny to the Croatians not only the Dubrovnik cultural past, but also everything that was created in the entire territory of Dalmatia. No one knows when the first symptoms of this sickness (which has been aptly termed "Croatophobia") appeared, but this otherwise communicative and gregarious person (supposedly a friend of various friars and a frequent visitors to their monasteries) apparently cannot pronounce the adjective "Croatian" and therefore spontaneously replaces it with "Serbian"; when he too finds this device excessive, he uses various geographic connotations for the same thing that other people call by its Croatian name.

Gotovac has devoted a long article to this strange mental attitude and has come to the sad conclusion that for Pantić and some other "scholars" residing in the Yugoslav capital (not all of them, since a distinguished professor, Miodrag Popović, fights them), more important in evaluating the nationality of the Dubrovnik writers is a dubious text of Constantine VII Porphyrogenetes than their works written over a span of several centuries.[14]

Gotovac usually writes with verve and precision, but seldom was he so bitter and sarcastic as when he was squaring accounts with this professor who should know that the most important element, in deciding the nationality of a writer, is the milieu in which he creates.

Gotovac rightly stresses that, on the basis of historical, cultural, literary and ethical criteria, the Dubrovnik and Dalmatian writers belong to Croatian belles-lettres. As regards those who cannot accept this fact, he thinks that in their case it is not a question of scholarship but of a deeply rooted, almost uncontrollable and pathologic hatred.[15]

III

Hrvatski tjednik, a weekly for cultural and social questions, first appeared on April 16, 1971. Until its twelfth issue the main editor was the writer Igor Zidić, who was then replaced by Vlado Gotovac. The new editor tried to explain why the previous board has been replaced.[16] He said that they were energetic, but lacked the necessary experience; he remarked that to work for modern Croatia is more than to shout and propose toasts at parties. The society is faced with tedious and long-term problems, such as the working class abroad, the distribution of hard currency, commerce with foreign countries, and above all with the arbitrary attitude of the Party apparatus. This first "explanation" Gotovac concluded with the pronouncement that his collaborators were people who fully accepted the responsibility for the world in which they live, because without this responsibility nothing could be done.

During the summer months of 1971 Gotovac wrote many articles, which in this brief discussion I will skip over and concentrate on the political climate which became extremely "hot" at the beginning of October of that year.

The owner and publisher of Hrvatski tjednik was Matica hrvatska, the most important Croatian cultural institution. All those who were opposed to the new liberal trends, who did not want to see Yugoslavia decentralised and the workers take charge in the factories, attacked as the number one enemy this honorable and focal organization. Gotovac was right when he stressed in his article "We demand the Proofs" (no. 24, October 1) that Maim was "outlawed" because those with vested interests were allowed to speak against it.

As one of the leading figures in this orchestrated attack was Jure Bilić, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Croatia; he had declared that Matica had become a center of the counterrevolutionary forces. What this meant in a totalitarian system it is not necessary to explain. Then Gotovac, as the main editor of Matica's organ, challenged Bilić to come out with concrete proofs; if his accusations remained unjustified, then Bilić would be denounced as a slanderer.[17]

Gotovac had naively believed that after the plenary meeting at the island of Brijuni (1966) the Yugoslav political situation had really changed and therefore there was no more possibility for unproved accusations, brutal threatening, permanent anxiety, total control by the police and general denunciation.[18] Only two months later he became convinced that there had been much ado about nothing, that he together with the masses had accepted at face value the new slogans, but the secret agents were waiting for their moment and in the meantime were accumulating evidence against all "undesirable" elements. When the supreme commander finally accepted the point of view of the Soviet emissaries, the Serbian generals and Croatian turncoats, then it was evident that in "the rotten kingdom of Denmark" changes were impossible—otherwise the system itself would disappear.

Already toward the middle of October the political sky was darkening; it was becoming apparent that official Belgrade was adopting the views of those circles which had never accepted the idea of brotherhood and unity, who were panicky when it seemed that the Croatians could rule on their territory. The centralists and opportunists together launched vicious propaganda against the Central Committee of the Croatian Communist Party. Though they had once fought in the partisan ranks, they were depicted as the stooges of the bourgeoisie, the enemies of the working man, and most probably, in the service of foreign powers.

About this "hatred, trickery and brutality" Gotovac wrote an article ("Tri puta Hrvatska"),[19] in which he bitterly criticized the small souls who were destroying his "Revolution" on its thirtieth anniversary (it began its military operations in July of 1941).

First, Gotovac points out, there had appeared article in Jež, the Belgrade humoristic weekly, In which all the Croats were identified with the wartime ustashis, whom Yugoslavia (if it wishes to exist) "must liquidate." Then a correspondent from Zagreb wrote in Nin that there is in process of preparation a Croatian constitution which would limit the rights of all Serb who lived in its territory.

This Trojan horse in the heart of Croatia, which from the times of the governor Khuen-Hedervary (1883-1903) had always sided with the enemies of the Croatian people, was becoming irritated whenever Croatian statehood was mentioned or the injustices committed against the Croatians were pointed out.

This privileged group became so powerful and arrogant about the autumn of 1971 that it requested the authorities to forbid the Croatian hymn because "'it is too romantic and does not express our true condition". They were annoyed that the last verse of this peaceful hymn mentions only the Croatians: in their judgement it was too narrow a concept. Gotovac concluded his article by protesting against such "a demand they put to the Croatians in their own homeland".[20]

When this "fifth column" criticized the editors of Hrvatski tjednik of being too much concerned with the Croatian past, Gotovac answered that this happened because their weekly began to appear in the year of various centenaries (Zrinski-Frankopan, 1671; Kvaternik and Radić, 1871) "which we could not ignore; moreover, we are convinced that in the past exist the proofs, explanations and reasons for the present times".[21]

One of these Serbs, Čedo Grbić, a member of the Croatian central committee, had accused them at a public meeting of being separatists, petty-bourgeois and without any revolutionary tradition. He said that he agreed with their criticism of the ruling class, but that he could not accept their motive for doing this: if the critics of the present order wanted to improve existing conditions, he would have nothing against them, but with all their amendments they proved beyond doubt that they were not a constructive element but true saboteurs.[22]

These centralist and opportunists were pointing to the counter-revolution where it did not really exist! Their target had become the naive idealists who still believed that there was a possibility for communism with a human face.

What to do, whom to ask for the protection, when Tito, who at first sided with them, suddenly switched his position toward their prosecutors?

Although the "lifetime" President had given (December 1, in Karadjordjevo) permission to his executioners to install a dictatorship in Croatia, nevertheless, two days later there appeared Gotovac's last editoral ("Trenutak pojedinca")[23]. This fiery playdoyer may be divided into two parts: in the first he depicts "the Furies" which devour the body of entire Croatia for the declarations (and possible sins) of certain individuals; in the second we read the confession of a visionary and brave patriot whom no dictator will silence, because through him speaks the awakened human conscience.

Gotovac protests against the utter nonsense by which each individual by his declarations may discredit Croatia. By this strange logic the entire nation is responsible for the utterances of either a madman or an ordinary provocateur. "We are condemned", Gotovac writes, "to permanent political scandals and subsequent tedious explanations... Each mistake of any Croatian is exaggerated out of all proportion".[24]

The main editor of Hrvatski tjednik had rightly guessed that he would have no more opportunity to say what the goal of the people around Matica hrvatska was, and for this reason he summarized their position:

"We love Croatia! For the integralists this love of ours is a ghostly spectacle from the past century, a symptom of fanatic nationalistic pettiness. For us, on the contrary, the Croatian question is a question of freedom and socialism both in Yugoslavia and the world Croatia for us is the land of free men and a just society.

"We wish that Croatia will become to each of its inhabitants a dear homeland. This is the only dream worthy of being dreamt about this land. Dulcinea exists, though no one knows who she is and how she looks. Such is the fate of Croatia in our love.

"We are rebels (dissidents), because we are surrounded by dogmatists, mythmakers and apologists, all of them fallen spirits who do not know the meaning and delight of a revolutionary and poetic vision.

They are conceited and cruel when speaking as the representatives of power, but otherwise they are ridiculous and empty. They are afraid of our freedom, for they conceive it as their own catastrophe. Therefore they are alarmed. For all of this Croatia is not guilty; the blame will fall upon them".[25]

During these past ten years nothing has changed: "the old man" has gone, that is all.

The Yugoslav authorities are still sounding the alarm; they watch carefully over "their promised land", putting the citizens into jail and expelling the foreigners not only for their written but also privately spoken criticism.

Nevertheless, the intellectual rebels, not only in Croatia but also in other republics, do not vanish: in the place of those who became hesitant and withdrew either into silence or sometimes even collaboration, come many other powerful minds and steady characters.

Vlado Gotovac remains in the first ranks of these dissidents. Though Damocles' sword hangs over his head, he is like a pillar which shines in the darkness of "socialist democracy" and shows to the brave men how to behave. Gotovac proves to have both tremendous courage and a sense of moderation: in a country where extreme positions are so readily taken, he never forgets that he is above all a socialist and democrat,[26] that as a poet he must be leader in the fight of all citizens for a decent human existence. Neither jail nor unemployment nor his status of non-person has changed his original positions. No wonder that in Western Europe, which is better informed about what is going on in Yugoslavia than the United States, Gotovac is esteemed as one of the leading Croatian and South Slav dissidents.

This gifted, reasonable and moderate socialist-patriot as well as rebellious poet believes (as do Professor Ivan Supek, Dr. Marko Veselica and other "heretics on the left")[27] that it is his sacred duty to point out the corruption of the system[28] in the country which he loves from the bottom of his hearth.

[1] Gotovać's interview with Vlatko Pavletić was published in Kritika, 1970, no. 13, and Kolo, 1970, no. 12.

[3] They appeared in this order: Pjesme od uvijek (Poems from All Times, 1956); Jeka (The Echo, 1961); Opasni prostor (The Dangerous Space, 1961); I biti opravdan (And to be Justified, 1963); Osjećanje mjesta (A Feeling of Place, 1964); Cujem oblake (I hear the Clouds, 1965); Približavanje (Getting Nearer, 1968); Čarobna špilja (The Magic Cave, 1970); Sporne sandale (Debatable Sandals, 1970).

[4] Its title is Slučaj, I ("A Case," for the author hopes that his benefactors could make possible the publication of similar "cases").

[5] This fragment is taken from Gotovac's poem "Moj portret u jednom danu" ("My Portrait during one Day"), translated by A. Nizeteo and M. Tatum, Journal of Croatian Studies, XX (1979), 100.

[6] This translation was done by V. Mihailovich and R. Moran, The Bridge (Zagreb), 1970, nos 19-20, p. 56.

[9] lgor Mandić, "Mitologija privatnog" ("A Mythology about one's own Feelings"), in Gola masa (A Naked Pile), Zagreb 1973, p. 193-95.

[10] Kritika, no 4, January-February 1969, 72-73.

[13] Kritika, no 8, September-October 1969, 556-57.

[16] "Objašnjenje promjena", Hrvatski tjednik, July 9, 1.

[17] "Tražimo dokaze", Hrvatski tjednik, October 1, 1.

[20] "Zahtjev postavljen nama, u našoj vlastitoj domovini " (Hrvatski tjednik, October 22, 1).

[21] "Popis našin grijeha" ("A List of our Sins"), Hrvatski tjednik, no 30, November 2, 1.

[24] "Svaka politička pogreška svakog Hrvata napuše se do zmčajne, do fatalne osobe" (Hrvatski tjednik, December 3, 1).

[25] "Oni su zaprepašteni našom slobodom, jer je mogu zamisliti jedino kao katastrofu. I zato pozivaju na uzbunu. Ali krivnja koju oni vide ne pada na Hrvatsku nego na njih" (Hrvatski tjednik, no 33, December 3, 1).

[26] He has declared to a Dutch correspondent that his political views are very dose to those of the Spanish, Swedish and British socialists (cf. Naša reč, no 318, October 1980, p. 3-4).

[27] This is the title of Supek's book: Krivovjernik na ljevici, which was published by BC Review, Bristol, 1980.

[28] In the above mentioned interview he defined the communism as "a dictator-ship with great military force and enormous police apparatus ... The communists are obsessed with the idea of power" (Naša reč, p. 3).