Krsta Cicvarić
Krsta Cicvarić | |
---|---|
Born | September 14, 1879 |
Died | October 31, 1944 | (aged 65)
Occupation(s) | Social and political activist, journalist, writer, political philosopher |
Krsta Cicvarić (Serbian: Крста Цицварић) (September 14, 1879 – October 31, 1944) was a Serbian political activist, anarcho-syndicalist, antisemite and journalist.[1] He was shot on 31 October 1944 by the Yugoslav Partisans after the Belgrade Offensive.
Life
Cicvarić was born on September 14, 1879 in the village of Nikojevići, near Užice, then part of the Principality of Serbia.
He attended the Gymnasium in Užice. He refused to attend religious classes and claimed to be an atheist and an unbeliever.[2] Because of confrontations with his professor Nastas Petrović, a member of the People's Radical Party, who claimed Cicvarić's political views to be "demonic",[3] he dropped out of the Užice Gymnasium in 1896. He soon left the city altogether and moved to Belgrade where he completed the Gymnasium and enrolled at the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Philosophy. Subsequently, he enrolled in the University of Vienna, but decided to leave his studies and return to Serbia where he became a journalist and anarchist activist.
Cicvarić was arrested and imprisoned several times for his writings. In 1905 Vasilije Knežević, a member of Cicvarić's group the Equality Workers' Club (Radnički klub Jednakost) founded the anarchist newspaper Bread and Freedom (Hleb i sloboda). Soon after, Knežević started to pay heavy fines for the paper and was imprisoned due to his inability to cover his debts. In this period Cicvarić took over the paper. The paper had only three issues, and Knežević moved to Valjevo after serving his sentence, disillusioned with the anarchists Cicvarić and Petar Munjić.[4] Cicvarić and Munjić later founded the anarchist paper Worker's Struggle (Radnička borba) in 1907. The paper was closed down after the events related to the strike led by sugar workers in Čukarica in February 1907.[5] Cicvarić was imprisoned in Požarevac because of his writing and was later released during the Annexation Crisis in 1908.[6]
In 1911 Cicvarić met Nedeljko Čabrinović who was working on the printing press owned by Živojin Dačić, where Civarić's paper the New Age (Novo vreme) was being printed. Cicvarić gave Čabrinović many books including all of his own works. Čabrinović later smuggled the books to Sarajevo where some were burned by his mother, while some were kept safe and were given to his friends as gifts.[7][8]
Cicvarić was drafted during the Balkan wars. He is mentioned by Leon Trotsky in his war correspondence The Balkan Wars: 1912–13 as a "free anarchist" and leader of the paper the Guard (Straža), and outspoken critic of the Serbian Social Democratic Party. He writes "Since, in this little country, everyone knows everyone else and does not hesitate to poke his nose into the private lives of his political adversaries, the polemic against the leaders of Social Democracy is carried on in a form that would not bear translation into any European language".[9] He was drafted again in World War I, and surrendered, becoming a prisoner of war of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Neusiedl am See.
After World War I, he started writing for Belgrade Daily (Beogradski dnevnik), owned by Dušan Paranos and whose editor-in-chief was Mehmed Žunić. At first, he wrote introductory articles and was the chief polemicist. On 7 August 1922 he was signed as editor and director of the paper. From September 1922 on, the paper bore the title Krsta Cicvarić's Belgrade Daily (Beogradski dnevnik Krste Cicvarića).[6] His main target were the Radicals, as well as Nikola Pašić and Stojan Protić as heads of the party. Pašić was a "thug", "scumbag", "villain" and, ultimately, "the most corrupt person in the entire history of Serbia", and when his son Radomir was beaten, Belgrade Daily wrote that "this act of the youth of the nation in Novi Sad is understandable and must be fully approved". His journalistic writing style in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was inflammatory, and his scandalous articles were criticized by many, so much that he was even compared with the influential American newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst.[1]
In 1929 Cicvarić started working in Balkan, owned by Svetolik Savić. Beside journalism, he sold herbs used for treating cancer, tuberculosis, epilepsy and anthrax. Since Pašić had already died, Cicvarić's main target was president of the Croatian Peasant Party, Vlatko Maček who he calls a "Jewish bastard", and a "long-nose". In his text "To Serbs of the Faith of Moses" from 29 April 1936 Cicvarić writes that "the Jews have ruined our Slavic motherland, Russia, and have spread their evil across the world" and states support for Adolf Hitler.[2]
He spent the final years of his life living in Belgrade, almost completely blind. From May 1940 to March 1941, Savić and Cicvarić published the New Balkan (Novi Balkan), an antisemitic paper sympathetic to Hitler.[10] In 1944 he writes
What does the Jewish spiritual leadership mean in the case of Einstein? He is but a Jew from Hungary ... and besides, Einstein is a juggler mathematician. His famous theory (the so-called Theory of Relativity) is not sufficiently solid and there are strong objections against it. However, the struggle against him was not possible. Holding in their hands a large European press, his compatriots made him into a circus advertisement: they portrayed him as the greatest scientific genius ever born ... So the Jew from Pest became world famous and such an authority that his scientific congresses could not be objected to in his presence. In the scientific world in Europe at the time, there existed a state that can be called the Einstein Obsession. Hitler's revolution marked an end to that obsession in Germany and all across Europe.
— Krsta Cicvarić, the Serbian People, (6 May 1944)
Cicvarić was accused of collaborationism and shot without trial during the night between October 30 and 31, 1944. His burial site remains unknown.
Works
Cicvarić wrote only a couple of books in philosophy, and most of his works were political. He was a columnist in a lot of newspapers and was a fierce critic of the Serbian philosopher and scientist Branislav Petronijević. His entire life was devoted to writing books on anarchism and critique of the Western civilization. He was a fierce opponent of monarchism, communism, social democracy and imperialism.
- Iz аnаrhističkog progrаmа, Novа štаmpаrijа S. Rаdenkovićа i Brаtа, Belgrade, 1909.
- Plаvа knjigа o srpskom pitаnju, Gecа Kon i Komp., Cetinje, 1909.
- Socijаlisti nа vlаdi. Sv. 1, Štаmpаrijа D. Dimitrijevićа, Belgrade, 1909.
- Ideаlizаm ili mаterijаlizаm, s nаročitim pogledom nа filosofiju Brаnislаvа Petronijevićа, Štаmpаrijа Srbijа, Belgrade, 1909.
- Kаko ćemo pobediti Austriju, Nаumović i Stefаnović, Belgrade, 1909.
- Anаrhizаm i аnаrhisti, Nаumović i Stefаnović, Belgrade, 1909.
- Dаrvin ili Lаmаrk, pаd dаrvinističke doktrine, Štаmpаrijа Srbijа, Belgrade, 1910.
- Svetozаr Mаrković i birokrаtski sistem pred sudom Slobodаnа Jovаnovićа, B. Dimitrijević, Belgrade, 1910.
- Socijаlizаm i bаlkаnskа konfederаcijа ili Jedаn krupаn uspeh srpske socijаlne demokrаtije, Štаmpаrijа Srbijа, Belgrade, 1910.
- Srpskа socijаlnа demokrаtijа nа prekretu, Štаmpаrijа Petrа Munjićа i Komp., Belgrade, 1910.
- O Sаnjinu, odbrаnа i kritikа, Štаmpаrijа Srbijа, Belgrade, 1910.
- Demokrаtijа i socijаlizаm, kritički pogled nа njihovu prаksu i njihovu teoriju, Izdаnje piščevo, Belgrade, 1910.
- Štа je metаfizikа, Štаmpаrijа Srbijа, Belgrade, 1910.
- Stojаn Protić i nаš novi ustаv, Beogrаdski dnevnik, Belgrade, 1919.
Notes
- ^ a b Matić, Novica. "Ko je oklevetao Cicvarića". Srpsko nasleđe. Retrieved April 24, 2011.
- ^ a b Petrović, Momčilo (April 1, 2014). "Krsto Cicvarić, otac srpskih tabloida". blic.rs. Blic. Retrieved May 23, 2018.
- ^ Đerić, Aleksandar. "Novinar, anarhista i filozof Krsta Cicvarić". Užice.net. Archived from the original on January 18, 2013. Retrieved April 25, 2011.
{{cite web}}
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suggested) (help) - ^ Историски гласник. Научна књига. 1955. p. 26. Retrieved May 23, 2018.
- ^ Кнежевић, Реља (2014). Директаши: револуционарно-синдикалистичка струја унутар Српске социјалдемократске партије 1906-1912. pp. 55–82.
- ^ a b Barović, Vladimir (July 22, 2010). "Nekrunisani kralj »žute« štampe". Vreme. Retrieved May 23, 2018.
- ^ Dedijer, Vladimir (1966). The Road to Sarajevo. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 200. Retrieved May 23, 2018.
- ^ Bogićević, Vojislav (1954). Sarajevski atentat: izvorne stenografske biljes̆ke sa glavne rasprave protiv Gavrila Principa drugova, odrz̆ane u Sarajevu 1914 g. Sarajevo: Državni arhiv Narodne republike Bosne i Hercegovine. p. 29. Retrieved May 23, 2018.
- ^ Trotsky, Leon (1980). The Balkan wars, 1912-13 - The War Correspondence of Leon Trotsky. New York: Monad Press. p. 103. ISBN 0913460672. Retrieved May 23, 2018.
- ^ Goldstein, Ivo (2003). The Catholic Church in Croatia and the ‘Jewish problem’, 1918–1941. East European Jewish Affairs. p. 131. Retrieved May 23, 2018.
References
- 1879 births
- 1944 deaths
- People from Užice
- Serbian journalists
- Serbian anarchists
- Anarcho-syndicalists
- University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy alumni
- Royal Serbian Army soldiers
- World War I prisoners of war held by Austria-Hungary
- Serbia under German occupation
- Serbian anti-communists
- Serbian collaborators with Nazi Germany
- Serbian fascists
- Serbian military personnel of the Balkan Wars
- Serbian military personnel of World War I
- 20th-century Serbian people
- Executed Serbian people
- Executed Yugoslav people
- Conspiracy theorists