Zlatko Tomičić - Croatian Poet and Dissident

ZLATKO TOMIČIĆ, CROATIAN POET AND DISSIDENT


(Some Bio-bibliographical Data)

ANTUN NIZETEO

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Journal of Croatian Studies, XXI, 1980, – Annual Review of the Croatian Academy of America, Inc. New York, N.Y., Electronic edition by Studia Croatica, by permission. All rights reserved by the Croatian Academy of America.
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Zlatko Tomičić was born on May 26, 1930, in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, where his father, a tailor from Lika, and his mother, a civil servant from Slavonia, were then living. He completed his secondary education in Vinkovci, Slavonia, and graduated from the Philosophical Faculty of the Hrvatska Sveučilište (Croatian University) in Zagreb. Under other circumstances he would probably have become a professor of comparative literature and of the Czech and Slovak languages.

But, as Tomičić himself pointed out in a 1967 interview in Kerub, "the artist in a small nation like Croatia is not only an artist but also a self-sacrificing cultural worker. At any time that Croatian literature has threatened to become artificial, it has been revived through healthy struggle in the cultural field". Consequently, Tomičić was compelled from 1948 to 1954 to work as a journalist in Yugoslavia, but his dissident views made it ever more difficult for him to work for the government-controlled press. From 1954 to 1968 he made a living as a free-lance writer and through the publication of his literary works.

In 1968, two years after Tito's dismissal of Alexander Ranković --the Yugoslav Beria, long-time secret police chief notorious for his cruelty, especially toward the Croats— in an atmosphere of deceptive liberalization Tomičić and his associates of the literary circle TIN started to publish a monthly called Hrvatski kniževni list (The Croatian Literary Journal). Because it was the first independently published periodical in Yugoslavia since the establishment of the Communist regime in 1945, and also because of its dissident and Croatian nationalist views, Hrvatski književni list rapidly became a mass-circulation publication, pulling ahead of all government sponsored newspapers and magazines published in the Socialist Republic of Croatia. No doubt this was the reason that in 1969 the Communist authorities suppressed Tomičić's journal, although neither he nor his associates were charged with criminal violations at that time. However, following Tito's purges of 1971-72 Tomičić was arrested. Incidentally, the same destiny that befell Tomičić's Hrvatski književni list awaited Hrvatski tjednik (The Croatian Weekly), a biweekly issued by Matica hrvatska, the most prestigious Croatian national cultural institution and publisher, whose chief editor was Vlado Gotovac, another distinguished Croatian poet, philosopher, and dissident.[1]

After his arrest in 1972 Tomičić was held in prison for several months before he was brought to trial on various charges dating back to 1962. Among other things, Tomičić was charged with "seeking forcibly to overthrow the Yugoslav system and government", with having written the "Fourth Epistle to the Croats," in which he had "openly called for the separation of the Socialist Republic of Croatia from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia"; and furthermore, with having written and circulated an unpublished poem "Obećana zemlja" (The Promised Land); and finally, that he was in touch with and had received correspondence from various "enemy exiles from Croatia now living in the USA". As the result, on November 5, 1972, Tomičić was sentenced to three years in prison, but on March 15, 1973, the Supreme Court of Croatia found Tomičić guilty of additional charges and increased his sentence to five years at hard labor. The Supreme Court found "evidence" that the defendant Tomičić had "falsely alleged that a majority of the Croatian people wish to separate Croatia from Yugoslavia and establish their own independent Croatian Stare". The decision of the Supreme Court moreover asserted that through his contacts with the Croatian emigration Tomičić had encouraged the emigré press to attack the Yugoslav government.
 
Complete article in: http://www.studiacroatica.org/jcs/21/2101.htm

Call for Papers, Documents and Audiovisual Material

Call for Papers, Documents and Audiovisual Material


An Invitation to Prospective Contributors

In line with the intention of maintaining a high-level informative, and objective review, the editors of Studia Croatica – Institute for Croatian Culture – (since 1960) invite the following types of material in any language from prospective contributors: (1) critical articles—pertinent to Croatian history and culture—in the fields of literature, fine arts and music, sociology, history, economics, government and law, natural sciences, philology, philosophy and religion; (2) creative translations of standard Croatian short stories and poems; (3) reviews of recent books having a basic connection with Croatian matters; (4) unpublished documents of Croatian historical and cultural significance e.g. letters, diaries, and records — including documents for the Croatian Diaspora; (5) registers of documentation (published or unpublished) on particular questions of Croatian historical and cultural significance; (6) audiovisual material: photos, sound tracks, videos.

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Journal of Croatian Studies - Volume XX 1979

Journal of Croatian Studies - Volume XX 1979
Annual Review of the Croatian Academy of America, Inc

 Language and Politics in Today's Croatia (1979)

 Michael B. Petrovich: The Croatian Humanists: Cosm...
 Ante Kadić - Istria in Croatian Literature

 From Contemporary Croatian Poetry
 Dobrisa Cesaric - Poetry in Croatian and English
 Nikola Šop - Poetry in Croatian and English
 Dragutin Tadijanovic - Poetry in Croatian and Engl...
 Olinko Delorko - Poetry in Croatian and English
 Mak Dizdar - Poetry in Croatian and English
 Vesna Parun - Poetry in Croatian and English
 Boro Pavlovic - Poetry in Croatian and English
 Slavko Mihalić - Poetry in Croatian and English
 Josip Pupačić - Poetry in Croatian and English
 Vlado Gotovac - Poetry in Croatian and English

 Ante Kadic - Vjekoslav Kaleb
 Christopher Spalatin - In Memory of Ljudevit Jonke...
 Drago Šporer - Politics and Nationalism within the...
 The Constitution of thr Croatian Republican League...
 Book Reviews, by Ivo Banac
 The Croatian Academy of America - 25th Anniversary...
 Obituaries: Stjepan Gaži, Joseph Kraja, Bonifacije...

Obituaries: Stjepan Gaži, Joseph Kraja, Bonifacije Perović

Obituaries: Stjepan Gaži, Joseph Kraja, Bonifacije Perović

STJEPAN GAŽI

Stjepan Gaži, Professor of European History at Black Hills State College, Spearfish, South Dakota and a member of the Croatian Academy of America died on September 15, 1978.

Gaži was born on August 9, 1914 in Peteranec, Croatia. He obtained his law degree from the University of Zagreb in 1939. From 1942—1944 he studied at Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva, Switzerland and received a Ph.D in history from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. in 1962., His Ph.D. thesis was entitled Stjepan Radić and Croatian Question.

Gaži was a contributor to the Journal of Croatian Studies and to several Croatian-language periodicals and newspapers, especially to Hrvatski glas, published in Winnipeg, Canada. He edited Spomenica (Winnipeg, 1952) and was the author of Croatian Immigration to Allegheny County 1882-1914 (Pittsburgh, 1956) which was published by the Croatian Fraternal Union. His book A History of Croatia (New York, Philosophical Library 1973) is, as he indicated in the preface, a survey based on the texts of leading Croatian historians. "I wrote A History of Croatia with the intention to tell my children and their children's children the history of the land and people of their ancestors. It could only be done with the most scrupulous respect to the historically documented facts", Gaži said in the introduction.

Together with his wife Elizabeth, Gaži translated from Croatian into English the book In the Struggle for Freedom, by Vladko Maček, President of the Croatian Peasant Party (New York, Robert Speller & Sons, 1957).

He is survived by his wife Elizabeth and four children.

JOSEPH KRAJA

Joseph Kraja, a long-time member of the -Croatian Academy of America died in Youngstown, Ohio on November 16, 1979.

Kraja war born on March 7, 1891 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. He was trained at the Naval Academy for the service at sea. In 1907 he came to the United States to his father Nicholas, who was ill. When the father died, Kraja's family in Croatia urged him to remain in America.

As a very young man he began work at the printing plant in New York and immediately became active in Croatian affairs and in one way or another he will continue to be involved throughout his long lifetime. After New York he worked in printing plants in Chicago and Cleveland and became an expert in his trade. Being an erudite his interests widened beyond his specialty. In 1914 he settled down in Youngstown joining the leaders of several ethnic groups who formed the United Printing Co. Kraja's proficiency in several languages and his expertise made him extremely valuable for new enterprise. He worked there as a printer one year only to be promoted and placed in charge of the printing department. Several foreign-language weeklies were printed in the United Printing Co. Among them was a Croatian language paper, Hrvatska Štampa, published and edited by Kraja.

Complete article at: http://www.studiacroatica.org/jcs/20/2011.htm

The Croatian Academy of America - 25th Anniversary

THE CROATIAN ACADEMY OF AMERICA


TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY

The Croatian Academy of America celebrated its Twenty-Fifth Anniversary on November 4, 1978 at the Hotel Roosevelt in New York City.

President Ivo Vučičević in his opening addresses greeted all present and expressed his thanks for congratulatory telegrams and letters received for this occasion. He asked the audience to stand up for a moment of silence honoring the memory of all those who contributed to the existence and the success of the Academy, founders, former presidents and members who have passed away.

Vučičević said that the first president, Professor Clement Mihanovich, unfortunately could not come, but wished to let him know that all those assembled here deeply appreciate his pioneering work and all that he did to get us started twenty five years ago. Vučičević then greeted among those present the following founding members, whose names are listed in the Academy's Constitution: Dr. Jere Jareb, Nick Milosevich and Bruno Kolega M.D. He also greeted Antun Nizeteo, writer and poet, whose name is not printed among the signers of the Academy's Constitution, but who played a dominant role in founding our institution. Using his rich and convincing vocabulary he found the proper approach to sell the idea of the Academy to the late Professor Walter Reeve, who embraced it with limitless enthusiasm. The President added that he thinks no one else from those early days is present here except the editor of the Journal, Karlo Mirth. In conclusion Vučičević gave an outline of the program and introduced the speakers.

Retrospect and Prospect

Mrs. Maria Krocker-Tuškan, the Executive Secretary of the Academy in her presentation: "Croatian Academy of America—XXV Anniversary, Retrospect and Prospect," said that a quarter of a century in "the life of an individual or the institution is a respectable milestone: the growing pains of the early development are over, and the individual or the institution becomes a mature, energetic being or entity whose enthusiasm is tempered by experience, who has already a past but whose visions are very much directed toward the future".

She pointed out that the Academy is a unique organization in this hemisphere and to appreciate this uniqueness one has to understand men, times and circumstances which led to its founding. The Croatian immigrants who arrived to the United States after World War II had the decisive role in it: "In contrast to the earlier waves of Croatian immigrants, the post World War II immigrants were almost entirely an educated group. The first group arrived in the early fifties from different European refugee or DP camps and/or from some intermediate stations around the world, in which they had acquired another language and witnessed another culture from which they were excluded by virtue of their temporary residence. Another group came gradually over the years directly from the homeland. Despite these chronological differences in arrival, these immigrants shared a tremendous upheaval of their own lives and all wore fresh scars of the war and post-war tragedy of the Croatian nation. The arrival to the United States meant not only personal opportunity, it also provided them with a chance to actively master their earlier sense of loss and tragedy, by offering possibilities to make this country aware of Croatia, her history, her strengths and her difficult position.

See complete article at: http://www.studiacroatica.org/jcs/20/2010.htm