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New data for the biography of the writer Vladan Desnica
Nikica Barić
; Hrvatski institut za povijest, Zagreb
Sažetak
The article gives new data for the biography of a famous Vladan Desnica (1905—1967), especially during World War II. Vladan Desnica was a descendant of a distinguished and influential Serb family from northern Dalmatia. He is most famous for his novels and other literary work published after World War II. Nowadays ethnic Serb community in Croatia considers Vladan Desnica as one of their important representatives. But there are controversies regarding his activities during World War II. During 1950s his literary work was criticized by some communist circles for not adhering to the revolutionary line. There were also allegations that during
World War II he cooperated with the Italian authorities in Dalmatia and that he was connected with the royalist Chetnik movement. Undoubtedly in the final period of war Vladan Desnica joined Partisan movement and worked, as a lawyer, in the Antifascist Council of Peoples' Liberation of Croatia. After the war Vladan Desnica claimed that he had cooperated with the Partisan movement already since 1942. In recent years Desnica and his work has received attention in Croatia and there is also an annual international interdisciplinary conference held in his honor. But, interestingly, it seems that Desnica's biography during World War II has still not been completely researched and explained. Those who research Desnica still claim that during the war he collaborated with and later joined Partisan movement and neglect the possibility that Desnica collaborated
with Italians and Chetniks. This article presents new sources pointing out that, before joining the Partisans, Desnica indeed did collaborate with the Italian authorities from 1941 to 1943 and that he had connections and participated in the Chetnik movement before he joined the Partisans in late 1944. It is completely understandable that during the Communist rule Desnica denied any connections with the Italians and the Chetniks. Nevertheless it is interesting that even recent research of Desnica omitted to clear out all controversies connected with his biography during World War II. Why is that so? Maybe those who research Desnica think that it would not be good for his reputation to mention his collaboration with Italians and Chetnik movement because they consider that Desnica is only "acceptable" as a member of Partisan movement and only this can give him desirable "antifascist" legacy. Obviously his involvement with the Mussolini's
Italian authorities in Dalmatia and participation in the Serb nationalist Chetnik movement would hurt the desired image of Vladan Desnica and make him less acceptable as one of cultural symbols of contemporary Serb community in Croatia.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
123198
URI
Datum izdavanja:
1.1.2014.
Posjeta: 2.569 *