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Yugoslav Camp Literature: Rediscovering the Ghost of a Nation's Past-Present-Future

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Oskar Gruenwald
Oskar Gruenwald*
Affiliation:
Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, Santa Monica, California
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Extract

They [prison and camp authorities] wanted to lower men to the animal level. And they succeeded. There, I realized that life should not be lived for its own sake. Life should be lived for the sake of a goal, faith, freedom, and truth.

Radoslav Kostić-Katunac, Look, Lord, To the Other Side: Yugoslavia's Gulag

Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn has immortalized Soviet camp literature. In contrast, Yugoslav prison and camp literature is virtually unknown. Yet, if literature indeed mirrors the human soul and even a nation's conscience—as Solzhenitsyn intimates— then it may also convey the human experience across time and space, language and culture. The question arises: Is camp and prison literature merely a sigh of wronged souls or is it a literary genre in its own right? If it is a genre, is it accessible at all to those not initiated in the Sisyphus-like context of human suffering etched into the world's Gulag archipelagos of prisons and forced labor camps? Let us assume for the sake of argument that it is, indeed, accessible to outsiders. The question still remains: Why bother with prison or camp literature— those heavy sighs of distraught creatures—rhyme or not? The answer is that if we forget camp literature, we might forget our own selves.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 46 , Issue 3-4 , Fall/Winter 1987 , pp. 513 - 528
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1987

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References

1. Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I., Solzhenitsyn: A Documentary Record, ed. Labedz, Leopold (Bloomington: Indiana University Pjess, 1973, pp. 311–312 Google Scholar.

2. This major theme runs through all of Solzhenitsyn's works from his Lecture, Nobel to The Gulag Archipelago, 1918–1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, 3 vols. (New York: Norton, 1974–1978)Google Scholar. See also Oskar Gruenwald, “The Essential Solzhenitsyn: The Political Nexus or TheRussian Connection,” Thought 55 (June 1980): 137–152

3. See International, Amnesty, Yugoslavia: Prisoners of Conscience (London: AI, February 1982), pp. 1–44Google Scholar; U.S. Helsinki Watch Committee, Yugoslavia: Freedom to Conform (New York: USHWC, 1August 1982), pp. 1–28Google Scholar; Gruenwald, Oskar, The Yugoslav Search for Man: Marxist Humanism in Contemporary Yugoslavia (South Hadley, Mass.: Bergin and Garvey, 1983), pp. 268–287Google Scholar; and OskarGruenwald and Karen Rosenblum-Cale, eds., Human Rights in Yugoslavia (New York: Irvington, 1986), esp. pp. 561–648Google ScholarPubMed.

4. This admittedly broad conceptualization of camp and prison literature has the virtue of drawing the western reader's attention to the ideological linchpin of Communist party states that continue to treat independent thought as a crime (délit d'opinion). Thus, a Yugoslav citizen may write prison andcamp literature even outside the country. For instance, Milan Nikolić, one of the Belgrade Six, who was charged in November 1984 with conspiring to overthrow Yugoslavia's Communist system, wasprosecuted primarily for a paper he had written while a graduate student at Brandeis University. Hewas sentenced to eighteen months’ imprisonment (reduced to eight months on appeal). See Vera Rich, “3 Intellectuals in Yugoslavia Draw Sentences for Dissemination of‘Hostile Propaganda',” Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 February 1985, p. 45.

5. Momčilo Selić, “Contents,” Freedom Appeals, no. 5 (May-June 1980), pp. 15–19; the original was published in the under ground journal, Časovnik [The Clock], banned in 1979. Selić's sentence was later reduced to three years; he was released in May 1982. Selic emigrated to Canada, where herequested political asylum, and later to the United States. He is a co-chairman of the New York-based Democracy International Committee to Aid Democratic Dissidents in Yugoslavia (CADDY); theother co-chairmen are Mihajlo Mihajlov and Franjo Tudjman. Selic was imprisoned from 1980 to1982.

6. Djilas, Milovan, Tito: The Story From Inside (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980 Google Scholar.Djilas was imprisoned from 1957 to 1961 and again from 1963 to 1967.

7. Gojko Djogo, Vunena vremena, banned in 1982, was reprinted by Nasa Rec (London), 1982.

8. Consult Gruenwald and Rosenblum-Cale, eds., Human Rights in Yugoslavia, pp. 548–560.

9. Dedijer, Vladimir J., Noviprilozi za biografiju Josipa Broza Tita, vols. 1 and 2 (Zagreb: Mladost;Rijeka: Liburnija, 1981)Google Scholar. For a comprehensive review, see Stevan K. Pavlowitch, “Dedijer as a Historianof the Yugoslav Civil War,” Survey 28 (Autumn 1984): 95–110. Vol. 3, which covers the period1945–1955, was released in Belgrade by Rad in 1984.

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16. Leković, Miša, Martovski pregovori 1943 (Belgrade: Narodna knjiga, 1985 Google Scholar. For a criticalreview, see Mihajlo Mihajlov, “Throwing Light on an Enduring Myth,” The World & I, no. 9 (1986), pp. 68–69.

17. “Sudjenje univerzitetskom profesoru Dragoljubu M. Petroviću” [The trial of University professor Dragoljub M. Petrovic], Naša reč 39 (February 1986), p. 6.

18. CADDY Bulletins, no. 34 (1986), p. 2, and no. 35 (1986), p. 4.

19. Branko Hoffman, Noć do jutra (Ljubljana, 1981).

20. Antonije Isaković, Tren 2 (Belgrade: Prosveta, 1982).

21. Slobodan Selenid, Pismo-glava (Belgrade, 1982).

22. Djilas, Tito; others, who had nothing to do with Stalin or Stalinism, were sent to Goli Otokas well: see Eva Lapuh, “Chronicler of a Critical Time,” Index on Censorship 9 (April 1980): 42–45;and IsakovićTren 2.

23. “Dokumenti o Golom Otoku, jednom od jugoslavenskih logora” [Documents on the NakedIsland, one of the Yugoslav camps], Hrvatska Revija [Munich] 26 (March 1976): 152–155.

24. Amnesty International, Yugoslavia, p. 30; U.S. Helsinki Watch Committee, Yugoslavia, p. 9.

25. Lapuh, “Chronicler of a Critical Time,” pp. 42–45.

26. Zupan, Vitomil, Levitan (Žagreb: Globus, 1983 Google Scholar. Excerpted in Index on Censorship 9 (April 1980): 45–48.

27. Djilas, Tito; Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1: 174.

28. Župan, Levitan, in Index on Censorship, p. 48.

29. Gojko Nikoliš, “Sekretaru Sedme Osnovne Organizacije SKJ, Mesne Zajednice Dedinje, drugu LjubiSi Radosavljevicu” [To Comrade Ljubiša Radosavljeviču, secretary of the Seventh Basic Organization of the LCY, local community Dedinje], Naša reč ( 38 (August-September 1985): 4–6. Nikolis, a member of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, is one of the founders of the Committee forthe Defense of Freedom of Thought and Expression. See Gruenwald and Rosenblum-Cale, eds., Human Rights in Yugoslavia, pp. 644–648.

30. Vidovć, Mirko, Sakrivena strana mjeseca: Zapisi o Titovim tamnicama [The hidden side ofthe moon: notes on Tito's prisons], 2nd ed. (Munich: Hrvatska Revija, 1978, p. 363 Google Scholar. Vidovic was imprisoned from 1971 to 1976.

31. Ibid., p. 61.

32. Musa, Vladislav, U Titovim pandŽama [In Tito's claws] (Munich: Samizdat, 1973, p. 42 Google Scholar. Musa was imprisoned from 1967 to 1970.

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34. Radoslav Kostić-Katunac, “The Umbilical Cord: A Story” in Human Rights in Yugoslavia, pp. 130–165; R. Oraški [pseud.], Panonija: Titu u gostima [Panonia: Tito's guest] (Mainz: Samizdat, 1976), p. 95–97, 115. OraSki was imprisoned from 1945 to 1960.

35. Kostic-Katunac, Pogledaj, Gospode, p. 160.

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38. Thus, Rev. Sava Nedeljković, a Serbian Orthodox priest, was sent to prison once more forthe same offense, this time for twenty days in July 1986, for hearing confession and administeringCommunion to a dying parishioner at her home. See CADDY Bulletin, no. 37 (1986), p. 7.

39. Hobbes, Thomas, Leviathan (New York: Collier, 1962, p. 100 Google Scholar.

40. Damir GrubiSa, “Staljinizam kao‘istočni grijeh’ naše Partije” [Stalinism as the “originalsin” of our party], Komunist 42 (17 February 1984): 21. The economic situation continues to deteriorate: In 1986, inflation reached 80 percent.

41. See special issue “Idejna borba u kulturi i umjetnosti,” Naše teme [Zagreb] 28, nos. 7–8 (1984): 1, 091–1, 250, 1, 447–1, 448.

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43. “A Show Trial of Dissidents?” Newsweek (7 January 1985), p. 29; CADDY Bulletin, no. 27 (1985), p. 1; no. 31 (1985), p. 2; and no. 39 (January 1987), p. 4.

44. CADDY Bulletin, no. 37 (1986), p. 7. Vojislav Šešelj's unpublished essay, “Š;ta da se radi?” [What is to be done?], echoing Lenin's title, was requested, but never received, by the editor ofKomunist and was used as the main charge by the prosecution. It has been released as a pamphlet bythe London-based Naša Reć.

45. Rich, “3 Intellectuals in Yugoslavia,” p. 45.

46. Vera Rich, “Yugoslavs Step Up Drive Against Dissent, Try Sociologist on PropagandaCharges,” Chronicle of Higher Education, 11 July 1984, p. 32.

47. “Yugoslavia Jails Lawyer for a Dissident,” Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 March 1985, p. 32; CADDY Bulletin, no. 32 (1985), p. 2.

48. CADDY Bulletin, no. 34 (1986), pp. 6–7.

49. Ibid., no. 37 (1986), p. 7.

50. Inicijativni odbor Fonda Solidarnosti, “Saopštenje Broj 5” (20 October 1986), NaSa red 40 (February 1987): 10–11.

51. Inicijativni odbor Fonda Solidarnosti, “Saopštenje br. 7 Jugoslovenskoj javnosti” (19 November 1986) in ibid., p. 11.

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53. “Petition to the Interior Minister Concerning the Death of Radomir Radovic, 1984,” inHuman Rights in Yugoslavia, ed., Gruenwald and Rosenblum-Cale, pp. 617–621.

54. CADDY Bulletin, no. 38 (1986), pp. 1–2.

55. Ljubiša Veselinović, “Nepotpuno oproStajno pismo” [Incomplete parting letter], NaSa reH 39 (June-July 1986): 16–17.

56. Mihajlo Mihajlov, “Democracy and Human Rights in Post-Tito Yugoslavia,” in Human Rights in Yugoslavia, ed., Gruenwald and Rosenblum-Cale, pp. xv-xviii.