Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SERBIAN STUDIES
PUBIJSHED BY THE NORTII AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR SERBIAN STUDIES
Dusan Puvacic
THE ECHOES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN IVO
ANDRIC'S PROSE 5
Edward Goy
THE PLAY TASANA BY BORISAV STANKOVIC 22
Andrei Simic
INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THE SOUTH
SLAVS: PROBLEMS IN CROSS-CULTURAL PERCEPTION 43
Vasa D. Mihailovich
JOVAN DUCIC IN AMERICA 70
Alex N. Dragnich
SERBIAN CULTURE IN KOSOVO IN PAST AND PRESENT
TIMES 88
REVIEWS
Tatyana Popovic
Prince Marko: the Hero of South Slavic Epic
Syracuse
Syracuse University Press, 1988
XVIIT + 221 pp.
(Biljana Sljivic-Sim~ic) 112
Vasa D. Mihailovich 55
Jovan Ducic was destined to live his last days in the United States
of America. As a student and, later, as a diplomat he spent practi-
cally all his adult life abroad, in various capitals of Europe and
Africa. When Yugoslavia was occupied by the Germans in April
1941, its embassy in Madrid, at which Ducic was the ambassador,
ceased to function and Ducic was forced to leave. He decided to go
to the United States of America because, among other reasons, he
had always wanted to visit this continent. He felt that if he did not
see America, his life would not be complete.
He arrived by boat in New York in August 19411 and proceeded
to join his relative, Mihailo Ducic, a well-known businessman in
Gary, Indiana. His first impressions of America fully justified his
curiosity, as he says,
Jovan Ducic spent the last twenty months of his life at the home
of his relative in Gary, where he died on April 7, 1943. He was first
Vasa D. Mihailovich 56
buried in Gary and in 1946 his remains were taken to the monastery
at Libertyville, Illinois, where they still lie, waiting for the fulfill-
ment of the poet's last wish to be buried in his native Trebinje.
Upon his arrival, his first desire was, as always, to continue his
literary activity. His literary output from his arrival to his death is
relatively large- the largest of any comparable periods of his life: a
good number of poems, collected in his last book of poetry Lirika
(Lyrics)l and scattered in various newspapers and journals 4 ; several
poems in prose, undoubtedly intended as a continuation of his Plave
legende (Blue Legends); a number of essays on literary figures and
subjects as well as on general topics, all collected in three new books,
futra sa Leutara (Mornings on the Leutar), Moji saputnici (My Fel-
low Travelers), and Staza pored puta (A Path by the Road)s; a long
historical-biographical work, fedan Srbin diplomat na dvoru Petra
Velikog i Katarine I, Grof Sava Vladislavic (A Serb Diplomat at the
Court of Peter the Great and Catherine the I, The Count Sava Vlad-
islavic)6; and several political articles and studies concerning the
current situation, especially the theme of Yugoslavia's fate and the
role of the Croats in it. Such feverish activity in the course of only
twenty months would suggest a renewed vigor in a writer approach-
ing seventy. A closer look, however, reveals that most of these works
were ·written before his arrival here; Ducic rushed their publication
so that the manuscripts would not be lost during the war. 7 Since
four fifths of these works do not reflect Ducic's state of mind and
emotions during his stay in America, they will not be treated here.
Only a handful of new poems and the political articles ·will receive
our attention.
This is not to say that other works-Lirika, essays, and Grof Sava
Vladislavic-cannot be considered an integral part of his "American
period," as critics in Yugoslavia like to say. After all, they were
published in the United States, either during his life or shortly after
his death. But aside from that, they have little in common with the
way Ducic thought and felt and with the problems and themes that
preoccupied him during his stay here. In Lirika, for example, even
though seven of twenty two poems (Pesma, Bogu, Noc, Putnik, Zvezde,
Povratak, Himera) had never been published before, they are of a
piece with other, previously published poems in theme, spirit, and
form; so much so, that they should be considered belonging to the
same, prewar, period. The same can be said of other works. Some
Vasa D. Mihailovich 57
heavenly kingdom. "I sad su nam groblja veca od gradova ..." ex-
claims the poet, underlining the martyrdom of the Serbs. 10
He would return to this theme again and again. His "Vecnoj Srbiji"
(To the Eternal Serbia) is an apotheosis of the indestructibility of
the Serbian nation and of its martyrdom, calling on his people to
stay on the historical path begun on Kosovo:
And in "Na obali Neretve" (On the Shores of the Neretva), Ducic
paints a judgement day picture of his native Herzegovina:
to be quoted in full.
survey of the seditious behavior of the Croats during the short life
of Yugoslavia, of which he will have more to say in the next study.
In short, Yugoslavia and Yugoslavism were "a detour and impasse,
recklessness and suicide ... a political absurdity ... a cruel adven-
ture ... " ("stranputica i bespuce, vratolomija i samoub-
istvo ... politicki absurd ... svirepa avantura") -an idea which was
realized a century too soon. 43
His negative views about Yugoslavia and the Croats Ducic devel-
ops further, bringing them to a logical conclusion, in his last, and
longest, political essay, "Federalizam iii centralizam: lstina o 'spar-
nom pitanju' u bivsoj Jugoslaviji" (Federalism or Centralism: The
Truth about the "Contested Issue" in the Former Yugoslavia).4s It
was published posthumously and, perhaps for that reason, under
his name. 46 Ducic reiterates many points of his earlier essays, es-
pecially the lack of sincerity of the Croats in joining the Serbs and
Slovenes in the new state. The main new element is the theory that,
contrary to the common belief, it was the Croats who had endea-
vored to maintain the centralist form of government in postwar Yu-
goslavia, instead of a federalist one, which is usually ascribed to
them. And that the Serbs, though centralist by nature and historical
tradition, have nevertheless entered the union with a sincere intent
to help their South Slav brethren and not to follow the idea of Great
Serbia, of which they have often been accused. Ducic again cites
many historical facts concerning the frantic efforts on the part of the
leading Croatian politicians to prevent the Serbs from becoming the
leaders of all Yugoslav nationalities after World War I. For illustra-
tion, when The Supreme National Council (Vrhovno narodno vijece)
was formed in Zagreb in the last days of the war, its first note to the
Serbian government was to bar the Serbian army from crossing the
Sava and the Danube; this note was changed to an invitation to the
Serbian army to protect the Croatian people only after the Croats
had become aware that Italy might take any territory promised to it
by the London TreatyY Ducic again blames the Serbian politicians,
this time mostly the "precani," for not understanding the centuries-
old aspirations of the Croats and the true motivation in their dealings
with the Serbs. Ducic sees the axis of the Croatian history, national
goal, and political thinking in their constant struggle for "drzavno
pravo" (the state right), which they have developed during several
centuries of living under foreign domination and which they have
Vasa D. Mihailovich
brought into the union with other Southern Slavs-an attitude that
inevitably led to the eventual downfall of the new state. Three most
important Croatian leaders, Ante Starcevic, Stjepan Radic and Ante
Pavelic, have followed, in one form or another, this basic political
philosophy, with more or less the same results- hatred against the
Serbs; reliance on foreign powers, notably Austria, Hungary and the
Vatican; and the successful demolition of Yugoslavia.
Such attitude prevented Radic from accepting the truly federalist
constitution proposed by Stojan Protic, which would have given the
Croats equal rights, though not a total autonomy demanded by them.
Instead, he advocated a return to the status quo before December 1,
1918, hoping to negate the leading role of Serbia in the new state.
But when Nikola Pasic pushed through a new, centralist constitu-
tion, the so-called "Vidovdanski ustav," and when some Serbian
politicians themselves demanded the return to the pre-December 1
situation, which would have allowed Serbia to cash-in on its vic-
tories, Radic made an astounding turnaround, reconciled himself
with Belgrade, and promised support for the centralist constitution.
There is no need to go into many other details of the diplomatic
history Ducic discusses here, such as the sinister role of Ante Truro-
hie; various unfavorable treaties signed by Croatian diplomats of
Yugoslavia with other states; the role of Anton Korosec; the Con-
cordat episode; and the unsuccessful efforts of Nikola Pasic to form,
from the outset, a strong Serbian state that would unite all Serbs
and reward them for their victories, suffering, and sacrifices. The
gist of all this-and of all Ducic's writing about Yugoslavia-is the
fact that throughout history Croats and Serbs have been more often
enemies than friends, that the Croats have never wanted a union on
even terms with Serbs, and that the tragic events of the Second
World War have made any future union between Croats and Serbs
impossible. Ducic concludes with a paraphrase of Shakespeare's words
to Lady Macbeth, "All perfumes of Arabia cannot wash your bloody
hands." 48
In conclusion, it is not easy to evaluate these political tracts. To
say that Ducic showed immense animosity toward the Croats would
be a gigantic understatement. Any competent historian could point
at many exaggerations, flippant remarks, poetic license, and even
some untruth in Ducic's statements. Personally, I am not convinced
that he thought some of his arguments through, and I suspect that
Vasa D. Mihailovich 66
•Jovan Du~ic, Sabrana deJa, knjiga VII-IX (Chicago: Srpska narodna odbrana, 1951).
•Jovan Dul':ic, fedan Srbin diplomat na dvoru Petra Velikog i Katarine I, Grof Sava
Vladislavic. Sabrana deJa, knjiga X (Belgrade & Pittsburgh: Amerikanski Srbobran,
1942).
7
Lirika, p. 85.
•Jovan Dul':ic, Sabrana djela, knjiga 5 (Sarajevo: Svjetlost, 1969), p. 381.
•Amerikanski Srbobran (28 October, 1941), p. 1.
10
Ibid. (17 September, 1942), p . 3. This poem was used several times in an adver·
tisement appeal in Amerikanski Srbobran for helping the Serbian poor.
11
Ibid. (28 December, 1942), p. 1.
12
lbid. (11 January, 1943), p. 1.
"Ibid. (20 October, 1943), p. 2.
14
fbid. (13 September, 1943), p. 1.
15
lbid. (30 December, 1942), p. 1.
••The Gary Post Tribune. Reprinted in American Srbobran (14 November, 1941),
p. 3.
17
Amerikanski Srbobran (18 December, 1941), p. 2.
••The Gary Post Tribune (16 September, 1941). Reprinted in American Srbobran
(23 September, 1941), p. 2. Also Amerikanski Srbobran (14 January, 1942), p. 2.
••Amerikanski Srbobran (18 January, 1943), p. 2.
20
Zivorad Stojkovic, "Uz Sabrana dela Jovana Dul':ica." Sabrana djela, knjiga 6
(Sarajevo: Svjetlost, 1969), p. 18.
21
Amerikanski Srbobran (30 January, 1942·9 February, 1942).
22
/bid. (30 January, 1942). p. 1.
23
/bid. (3 February, 1942), p. 2.
24 /bid.
25
/bid. (4 February, 1942), p. 2.
••Ibid. (6 February, 1942). p. 2.
27
Ibid.
••Ibid. (4 February, 1942), p . 2.
••Ibid. (31 March, 1942), p. 1.
30Ibid.
31
Ibid. (9 March, 1942·20 March, 1942).
32
!bid. (9 March , 1942), p. 1.
33
/bid., p. 2.
••Ibid. (10 March, 1942), p. 1.
" Ibid., p. 2.
36/bid.
37
/bid. (11 March, 1942), p. 2.
38 /bid. (12 March, 1942), p. 1.
••Ibid. (16 March, 1942), p. 1.
40
Ibid.
41
Ibid. (17 March, 1942), p. 1.
••Ibid., p. 2.
43 Ibid.
44
Ibid. (20 March, 1942), p. 1.
45
Ibid. (25 October, 1943·16 December, 1943).
••Other articles were published anonymously presumably because Dul':ic was tech·
nically still in the diplomatic service of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
47
Amerikanski Srbobran (26 October, 1943), p. 2.
••Ibid. (15 December, 1943), p. 1.
49
Jovan Ducic Izabrana deJa. 5 knjiga (Belgrade: Slovo ljubve, 1982).
Vasa D. Miliailovich 69
•0A recent book, Istina o Duticu (Belgrade: Knjizevne novine, 1982) by Radovan
Popovi~. offers an objective survey of Du(:ic 's life and activities, based on facts and
solid arguments, while a series of feuilletons in Politika (14 to 21 June, 1983), entitled
"Knjiievna desnica," by Radivoj Cveti~anin and Sava Dautovic, treads the stale waters
of bias and misunderstanding.