Ivo Pilar
Encyclopedia
Ivo Pilar was a Croatia
n historian
, politician
and jurist
, considered the father of Croatian geopolitics
. His book The South Slav Question is a seminal work on the South Slav
geopolitical issues.
, where he graduated from high school. He completed the studies in law in Vienna
and attended lectures at the prestigious Ecole de Droit in Paris
. He was one of the ideologues of the Croatian modernism
and belonged to the group of the Croatian writers led by Silvije Strahimir Kranjčević
after 1900.
He went from Paris back to Vienna, where he worked as a secretary in an ironworks corporation. Then he left for Sarajevo
, where he was the secretary of the National Bank. He published essays and articles in Kranjčević's Nada and literary magazines in Zagreb. In 1905 he went to Tuzla
and opened his own legal practice. He stayed in Tuzla till 1920 and developed strong legal and Croatian patriotic activities. As he studied the conditions in Bosnia
, especially the position of the Croatian people
, he actively engaged in politics, believing that Croats should be more forceful in defending their interests in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He published the brochure Archbishop Štadler
and the Croatian National Community (Sarajevo, 1908), which was opposed by the clergy and provoked a political rift between him and the Archbishop of Vrhbosna
. In his brochure, Pilar concluded that the Catholic faith
had undoubtedly an exceptional role in preserving the national identity of Croats in Bosnia, but he believed there were certain differences between the interests of the people and the Church as an organization. In 1910 he founded the Croatian National Community, trying to politically awaken impassive Croatian Catholics and prepare them for the incoming portentous events. When World War I
started, he was still in Tuzla.
While many Croats eagerly awaited the dissolution of the hated Monarchy
, Pilar warned that it was the only guarantee for a Croatian identity and that the country had to be reformed, but not destroyed. He published the essay
World War and the Croats. An Attempt to Orient the Croatian People Even Before the War Ends in Zagreb
in 1915, under the pseudonym
dr. Jurčić. He was convinced that the Croatian political elite was lost in the contemporary events and that it was letting the Serbs
take the initiative, instead of clearly formulating the goals and the program of the fight of the Croatian people in the world war. The essay was recognized by well-informed readership, so there was a second edition in 1917.
The developments in the Transleithanian part of the Monarchy were going against Pilar's wishes and beliefs, so he published a booklet of 32 pages in Sarajevo in 1918. It was called Political Geography of the Croatian Lands. A Geopolitical Study and it was the founding stone of Croatian geopolitics
. Pilar was aware of its historical significance, since he said: We do not have any knowledge of any work on political geography of this kind in Croatian literature. (...) Therefore, this essay is the first of its kind in this area of our literature. In the essay, Pilar pointed out that the Croatian lands since 1908, i.e. since the Monarchy's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, were incorporated in a single strong state, which guaranteed Croatian survival and where "today's Croatian lands flourish like never before".
was: L.v. Südland, Die sudslavische Frage und der Weltkrieg. Ubersichtliche Darstellung des Gesamt – Problems (The South Slav Question and the World War. The Presentation of the Entire Problem). It was published in Vienna
in 1918.
The second edition (also published in Vienna), as stated by Pucek (see below) in his introduction to the Croatian translation, was heavily censored
, since such honest but formally mild criticism of the Austrian policy in the Croatian lands in the 19th century was not allowed by the Austrian government of the time. Pilar wrote the book in German because he intended it for the German linguistic area, especially the Austrian readers, but also the military and political circles of the embattled Monarchy.
But this major work in the area of South Slav
issues was immediately recognized by Serbs and other promoters of a South Slavic Union
, since the book warned Croats not to enter into states that would cause their ruin. They were buying its copies in Vienna and other cities of the Monarchy to destroy them. For this reason, it became a bibliographic rarity soon after its publication.
Dubravko Jelčić, an expert on Pilar, wrote: Over many years, Pilar's book was the only systematic and clear, historically objective analysis of the Greater Serbia
n imperialistic idea, its genesis, goals and method (…) At the time of WWI, when the Croatian people's destiny was being decided, Pilar alias Sudland promoted mature political concepts that opposed the tragic defeatism of Trumbić
and Supilo
.
The third German edition of the book was printed in Zagreb in 1944, with all the faults of the censored second edition. It was finally translated to Croatian in 1943, a year before the third German edition, also with all the mentioned faults. It was translated, arranged and commented by the industrious South Slav expert Fedor Pucek and published by Matica hrvatska
. Two years later, in 1945, Pucek was summarily executed by the communist regime
. The second Croatian edition (1990) is just a reprint of the first.
[The Serbs] took from the Croats modern-day western Serbia, that is ancient Doclea
, and one the main forces that brought to today's war [First World War] , is the continuous seeking of the Serbs, to finally snatch away both Bosnia and Herzegovina too from the Croats.
in 1920. He was not actively engaged in politics any more. While working as a lawyer, he continued writing. In 1921, he was tried together with Milan Šufflay
in a fake political trial for high treason. He was brought to court without any concrete accusation, since his accusers simply resented his unmasking of Greater Serbia
n ambitions in his book South Slavic Question, and he successfully defended himself. He published expert and scientific works about philosophy and history (e.g. about the Bogumils). In 1933, he published the essay Serbia Again and Again in German, under the pseudonym of Florian Lichttrager, since he feared for his life.
Soon after that essay was published, Pilar was found killed in his apartment. The press in Belgrade claimed it was a suicide, but the open window of his apartment and the fact that Pilar never owned a weapon make his death suspicious. Even today, there are two theories about his death: the first, that Pilar was so depressed by the Yugoslav dictatorship that he killed himself; the second, that he was killed by Serbian secret agents like other Croatian patriots such as Milan Šufflay
(in 1931). He is buried in Mirogoj Cemetery
.
The Institute for Social Sciences in Zagreb was named after him.
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
and jurist
Jurist
A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...
, considered the father of Croatian geopolitics
Geopolitics
Geopolitics, from Greek Γη and Πολιτική in broad terms, is a theory that describes the relation between politics and territory whether on local or international scale....
. His book The South Slav Question is a seminal work on the South Slav
South Slavs
The South Slavs are the southern branch of the Slavic peoples and speak South Slavic languages. Geographically, the South Slavs are native to the Balkan peninsula, the southern Pannonian Plain and the eastern Alps...
geopolitical issues.
Early career
Pilar was born in ZagrebZagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, where he graduated from high school. He completed the studies in law in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and attended lectures at the prestigious Ecole de Droit in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. He was one of the ideologues of the Croatian modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
and belonged to the group of the Croatian writers led by Silvije Strahimir Kranjčević
Silvije Strahimir Kranjcevic
Silvije Strahimir Kranjčević was a Croatian poet. His reflexive poetry, reaching its zenith in the 1890s, was a turning point that ushered modern themes in Croatian poetry.-Early life:...
after 1900.
He went from Paris back to Vienna, where he worked as a secretary in an ironworks corporation. Then he left for Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
, where he was the secretary of the National Bank. He published essays and articles in Kranjčević's Nada and literary magazines in Zagreb. In 1905 he went to Tuzla
Tuzla
Tuzla is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the time of the 1991 census, it had 83,770 inhabitants, while the municipality 131,318. Taking the influx of refugees into account, the city is currently estimated to have 174,558 inhabitants...
and opened his own legal practice. He stayed in Tuzla till 1920 and developed strong legal and Croatian patriotic activities. As he studied the conditions in Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, especially the position of the Croatian people
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
, he actively engaged in politics, believing that Croats should be more forceful in defending their interests in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He published the brochure Archbishop Štadler
Josip Stadler
Josip Stadler was a Croatian priest, the first modern archbishop of Vrhbosna and the founded of the religious order of the Servants of the Infant Jesus . He is a candidate for sainthood....
and the Croatian National Community (Sarajevo, 1908), which was opposed by the clergy and provoked a political rift between him and the Archbishop of Vrhbosna
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vrhbosna
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vrhbosna is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in eastern Bosnia. Its episcopal see is the city of Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was elevated to an archdiocese on July 5, 1881. The Diocese of Vrhbosna is much older...
. In his brochure, Pilar concluded that the Catholic faith
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
had undoubtedly an exceptional role in preserving the national identity of Croats in Bosnia, but he believed there were certain differences between the interests of the people and the Church as an organization. In 1910 he founded the Croatian National Community, trying to politically awaken impassive Croatian Catholics and prepare them for the incoming portentous events. When World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
started, he was still in Tuzla.
While many Croats eagerly awaited the dissolution of the hated Monarchy
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
, Pilar warned that it was the only guarantee for a Croatian identity and that the country had to be reformed, but not destroyed. He published the essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
World War and the Croats. An Attempt to Orient the Croatian People Even Before the War Ends in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
in 1915, under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
dr. Jurčić. He was convinced that the Croatian political elite was lost in the contemporary events and that it was letting the Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
take the initiative, instead of clearly formulating the goals and the program of the fight of the Croatian people in the world war. The essay was recognized by well-informed readership, so there was a second edition in 1917.
The developments in the Transleithanian part of the Monarchy were going against Pilar's wishes and beliefs, so he published a booklet of 32 pages in Sarajevo in 1918. It was called Political Geography of the Croatian Lands. A Geopolitical Study and it was the founding stone of Croatian geopolitics
Geopolitics
Geopolitics, from Greek Γη and Πολιτική in broad terms, is a theory that describes the relation between politics and territory whether on local or international scale....
. Pilar was aware of its historical significance, since he said: We do not have any knowledge of any work on political geography of this kind in Croatian literature. (...) Therefore, this essay is the first of its kind in this area of our literature. In the essay, Pilar pointed out that the Croatian lands since 1908, i.e. since the Monarchy's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, were incorporated in a single strong state, which guaranteed Croatian survival and where "today's Croatian lands flourish like never before".
The South Slav Question
Both essays were just a preparation for Pilar's magnum opus, best known under the title The South Slav Question. Pilar wrote it under the pseudonym of L. v. Südland. The full original title of the work in GermanGerman language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
was: L.v. Südland, Die sudslavische Frage und der Weltkrieg. Ubersichtliche Darstellung des Gesamt – Problems (The South Slav Question and the World War. The Presentation of the Entire Problem). It was published in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
in 1918.
The second edition (also published in Vienna), as stated by Pucek (see below) in his introduction to the Croatian translation, was heavily censored
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
, since such honest but formally mild criticism of the Austrian policy in the Croatian lands in the 19th century was not allowed by the Austrian government of the time. Pilar wrote the book in German because he intended it for the German linguistic area, especially the Austrian readers, but also the military and political circles of the embattled Monarchy.
Book's reception
The interest for the book was below expectations, however. Still, for prevention's sake, as Pucek said, it was being confiscated. The Croatian politicians and intellectuals showed even less interest, since they were intent on the future union with the Serbs. At first, the book could not promote the mission of its author.But this major work in the area of South Slav
South Slavs
The South Slavs are the southern branch of the Slavic peoples and speak South Slavic languages. Geographically, the South Slavs are native to the Balkan peninsula, the southern Pannonian Plain and the eastern Alps...
issues was immediately recognized by Serbs and other promoters of a South Slavic Union
South Slavic Union
The South Slavic Union was a late 19th to early 20th century idea of a federation encompassing all South Slavic states.- History :Following the weakening of the Ottoman Empire prior to World War I, Serbia and Bulgaria had gained independence and were looking to form a greater entity that would...
, since the book warned Croats not to enter into states that would cause their ruin. They were buying its copies in Vienna and other cities of the Monarchy to destroy them. For this reason, it became a bibliographic rarity soon after its publication.
Dubravko Jelčić, an expert on Pilar, wrote: Over many years, Pilar's book was the only systematic and clear, historically objective analysis of the Greater Serbia
Greater Serbia
The term Greater Serbia or Great Serbia applies to the Serbian nationalist and irredentist ideology directed towards the creation of a Serbian land which would incorporate all regions of traditional significance to the Serbian nation...
n imperialistic idea, its genesis, goals and method (…) At the time of WWI, when the Croatian people's destiny was being decided, Pilar alias Sudland promoted mature political concepts that opposed the tragic defeatism of Trumbić
Ante Trumbic
Ante Trumbić was a Croatian politician in the early 20th century. He was one of the key politicians in the creation of a Yugoslav state....
and Supilo
Frano Supilo
Frano Supilo was a Croatian politician and journalist. He was a major political figure in the twenty years preceding World War I....
.
Croatian translation
When the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was created, any book's new edition became a problem. The first two parts of Pucek's Croatian translation were published in the youth magazine Hrvatska mladica, edited by Mile Starčević and Rikard Flogel, in 1928, but as the translator said, "the dictatorship of 6 January terminated Hrvatska mladica and this translation".The third German edition of the book was printed in Zagreb in 1944, with all the faults of the censored second edition. It was finally translated to Croatian in 1943, a year before the third German edition, also with all the mentioned faults. It was translated, arranged and commented by the industrious South Slav expert Fedor Pucek and published by Matica hrvatska
Matica hrvatska
Matica hrvatska is one of the oldest Croatian cultural institutions, dating back to 1842. The name is somewhat idiosyncratic, best translated as "The Croatian Centre" . It is the largest publisher of Croatian language books...
. Two years later, in 1945, Pucek was summarily executed by the communist regime
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
. The second Croatian edition (1990) is just a reprint of the first.
Quotations
Hrvatima oteše današnju zapadnu Srbiju, nekadašnju Duklju, a jedna od glavnih sila koja je dovela do današnjeg rata (Prvi svjetski rat - S.T.), jest zagriženo nastojanje Srba, da Hrvatima konačno otmu i Bosnu i Hercegovinu[The Serbs] took from the Croats modern-day western Serbia, that is ancient Doclea
Duklja
Doclea or Duklja was a medieval state with hereditary lands roughly encompassing the territories of present-day southeastern Montenegro, from Kotor on the west to the river Bojana on the east and to the sources of Zeta and Morača rivers on the north....
, and one the main forces that brought to today's war [First World War] , is the continuous seeking of the Serbs, to finally snatch away both Bosnia and Herzegovina too from the Croats.
Later years and death
Pilar moved to ZagrebZagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
in 1920. He was not actively engaged in politics any more. While working as a lawyer, he continued writing. In 1921, he was tried together with Milan Šufflay
Milan Šufflay
Milan pl. Šufflay was a Croatian historian and politician. He was one of the founders of albanology and the author of the first Croatian science fiction novel.-Life:...
in a fake political trial for high treason. He was brought to court without any concrete accusation, since his accusers simply resented his unmasking of Greater Serbia
Greater Serbia
The term Greater Serbia or Great Serbia applies to the Serbian nationalist and irredentist ideology directed towards the creation of a Serbian land which would incorporate all regions of traditional significance to the Serbian nation...
n ambitions in his book South Slavic Question, and he successfully defended himself. He published expert and scientific works about philosophy and history (e.g. about the Bogumils). In 1933, he published the essay Serbia Again and Again in German, under the pseudonym of Florian Lichttrager, since he feared for his life.
Soon after that essay was published, Pilar was found killed in his apartment. The press in Belgrade claimed it was a suicide, but the open window of his apartment and the fact that Pilar never owned a weapon make his death suspicious. Even today, there are two theories about his death: the first, that Pilar was so depressed by the Yugoslav dictatorship that he killed himself; the second, that he was killed by Serbian secret agents like other Croatian patriots such as Milan Šufflay
Milan Šufflay
Milan pl. Šufflay was a Croatian historian and politician. He was one of the founders of albanology and the author of the first Croatian science fiction novel.-Life:...
(in 1931). He is buried in Mirogoj Cemetery
Mirogoj Cemetery
The Mirogoj Cemetery is considered to be one of the most beautiful cemetery parks in Europe and, because of its design, numbers among the more noteworthy landmarks in the City of Zagreb....
.
The Institute for Social Sciences in Zagreb was named after him.
Works
- Nadbiskup Štadler i Hrvatska narodna zajednica (Archbishop Štadler and the Croatian National Community), Sarajevo, 1908
- Svjetski rat i Hrvati. Pokus orijentacije hrvatskoga naroda još prije svršetka rata (World War and the Croats. An Attempt to Orient the Croatian People Even Before the War Ends), Zagreb, 1915 (as dr. Jurčić)
- Politički zemljopis hrvatskih zemalja. Geopolitička studija (Political Geography of the Croatian Lands. A Geopolitical Study), Sarajevo, 1918
- Die sudslavische Frage und der Weltkrieg. Ubersichtliche Darstellung des Gesamt – Problems (The South Slav Question and the World War. The Presentation of the Entire Problem), Vienna, 1918 (as L.v. Südland); Croatian translation in 1943 and 1990 (reprint).
- Immer Wieder Serbien (Serbia Again and Again), Zagreb, 1933 (as Florian Lichttrager); Croatian translation in 1994.