Miljenko Smoje
Encyclopedia
Miljenko Smoje was a Croatia
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 writer and journalist.

Smoje was born in Split
Split (city)
Split is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its wide port bay. With a population of 178,192 citizens, and a metropolitan area numbering up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and...

 in a family of poor labourers. The neighbourhood where he grew up was known for its support for anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...

, socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

 and other left-wing ideologies. This would later influence Smoje's work and help him develop a strong dislike of authorities and the establishment.

Smoje finished high school in Split in 1941, but his further education was interrupted by Axis
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...

 invasion of Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...

 and Split being occupied by Italy. Smoje joined Communist Party of Yugoslavia and took part in local resistance movement
Resistance movement
A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...

. However, due to his rebellious nature, he was expelled from the Party, but he survived that, as well as brief incarceration by Italian authorities. After the end of the war he finished college and worked as a teacher. In 1950 he took a job as a reporter for the Split daily newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija
Slobodna Dalmacija
Slobodna Dalmacija is a Croatian daily newspaper published in Split.The first issue of Slobodna Dalmacija was published on June 17, 1943 by Tito's Partisans in a cave on Mosor, a mountain near Split, which was occupied by the Italian army during that time. The paper was later published in various...

, where he would write until his formal retirement in 1979.

As a reporter, Smoje developed a specific style that included use of Čakavština
Chakavian dialect
Chakavian or Čakavian is a dialect of the Croatian language. The name stems from the word for "what?", which is "ča" in Čakavian...

 dialect in his articles. His specialty was articles about ordinary people and through the decades he travelled over Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....

 chronicling many aspects of its life. Later he used many of those experiences as the basis for his short stories, plays and novels. He liked to inject all of his work with a strong dose of humour, laced with elements of every-day tragedy. All this helped Smoje become one of the most respected and more popular writers of former Yugoslavia, as well as arguably the greatest humourist of Croatian literature
Croatian literature
Croatian literature is a definition given to the compilation of novels, dramas, short stories, poems and other various work of written kind entirely attributed to the medieval and modern culture of the Croats and the Croatian language....

.

It was the medium of television which helped Smoje become famous. In 1970 he wrote the script for Naše malo misto (also known as Malo misto), a mini-series chronicling three decades of life in small Dalmatian coastal town. The series featured many memorable characters that would later become part of local culture. Smoje also showed ability to use broad comedy as a way to criticise aspects of Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

. The series nevertheless became an instant hit and grew in popularity through the decades.

In 1980 Smoje tried to repeat the success with Velo misto, a more ambitious project chronicling life in Split between 1910 and 1947. The epic series, partly based on his novel, was less successful, mostly due to the script being too influenced by the Communist authorities. Velo misto, however, also became very popular and developed cult status of its own.

After his retirement Smoje continued to write for Slobodna Dalmacija and Nedjeljna Dalmacija
Nedjeljna Dalmacija
Nedjeljna Dalmacija is now defunct Yugoslavian regional weekly newspaper based in Croatia, published in the cities of Split and Zagreb.Nedjeljna Dalmacija started as special weekly edition of Split daily newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija in 1970s...

weekly. In the late 1980s and early 1990s he opposed Croatian nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

 and for that reason he was snubbed by the media controlled by Franjo Tuđman and his ruling Croatian Democratic Union
Croatian Democratic Union
The Croatian Democratic Union is the main center-right political party in Croatia. It is the biggest and strongest individual Croatian party since independence of Croatia. The Christian democratic HDZ governed Croatia from 1990 to 2000 and, in partial coalition, from 2003...

. When Tuđman's supporter Miroslav Kutle
Miroslav Kutle
Miroslav Kutle is a Herzegovinian Croat entrepreneur. He became notorious for his involvement in the Croatian privatization controversy and was since sentenced to jail time for embezzlement on two occasions.-Education:...

 took over Slobodna Dalmacija in 1993, Smoje began to write for the satirical weekly Feral Tribune
Feral Tribune
Feral Tribune was a Croatian political weekly magazine. Based in Split, it first started as a political satire supplement in Nedjeljna Dalmacija before evolving into an independent satirical weekly paper in 1993...

.

Semi-official snub of Miljenko Smoje ended in late 1990s when his shows were allowed to be aired on Croatian Radiotelevision
Croatian Radiotelevision
Croatian Radiotelevision is a Croatian public broadcasting company. It operates several radio and television channels, over a domestic transmitter network as well as satellite...

.

Smoje was married twice. He is buried in Žrnovnica
Žrnovnica
Žrnovnica is a settlement in Croatia, administratively part of the city of Split. The population is 2,524 .-References:...

near Split.

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