Stijepo Kobasica
Encyclopedia
Stijepo Kobasica, 1882–1944, Serbian
journalist, author and politician from Dubrovnik
. He was the editor of Srpski Glasnik.
in 1882, at that time a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
. As a youth Kobasica researched his forebears and determined that they sprang from Serbian Orthodox
stock from Herzegovina
who had migrated to the coastal area of the Župa (between Dubrovnik and Cavtat
in Dalmatia) during the time of Ottoman
domination of the interior. Since his family had converted to Roman Catholicism generations before, the young man found himself firmly identifying with both his Serbian ethnic roots as well as his Catholicism. It is important to understand this seeming contradiction to grasp the shape his career would take. Speakers of the Serbo-Croatian
language are usually conveniently divided by their religion into Croats
(Catholic) and Serbs
(Orthodox), so the idea of a "Serbian Catholic"
seems at first glance an oxymoron. However, in areas like Dalmatia, Lika
and particularly Dubrovnik, due to prior conversion, there were many families who retained an ethnic identity at seeming odds with their religion.
to continue his education. Unable to resist his drive to political activism, further articles led to his expulsion from there as well, and it was in Mostar
in the Bosnian military protectorate
that he finally graduated. He pursued a philosophy degree at the University of Graz
in Austria, and continued to write articles promoting the unification of the subjugated Slavic
populations. Overhearing an insult to the King of Serbia while at Graz
, he challenged the man to a duel from which he received a wound to his left arm.
Moving to Sarajevo
in Bosnia-Herzegovina
, a Habsburg
protectorate for several decades, he lent his journalistic talents to the cause of its unification with the Kingdom of Serbia
in a greater South Slav dominated state, becoming the editor of the Srpske Rieči (The Serbian Word) newspaper. For this in November 1906, the Imperial authorities arrested him for sedition and he was deported under guard to civic arrest in Dubrovnik, and forbidden to leave the town. At the time of his arrest in Sarajevo, the Serbian Journalist Association staged a rally in Belgrade
condemning the Bosnian (Habsburg) Government. In 1907 he escaped to Belgrade where he met and married Pelagia Trifunović, a daughter of the former King Milan IV Obrenović
by a Bulgarian opera singer, and they had a son together named after the child's royal grandfather Milan.
From 1912-1913, Kobasica published the "Srpski Glasnik", the organ of the Serb People's Radical Party in Croatia
and Slavonia
. He was also the author of three monographs entitled Srpsko-Bugarski Rat, "The Serbo-Bulgarian War
", Sarajevo, 1913, Finale, and Stjepan Radić
za vrijeme aneksione krize i svjetskoga rata "Stjepan Radić at the Time of the Annexation Crisis
and the World War" (1924).
At the outbreak of the First World War
, Kobasica brought his family back to Dubrovnik for their safety, but was promptly arrested again by the Austrian authorities and imprisoned in the fortress of Arad
(in modern Romania
) for the duration of the war.
After the war Kobasica returned briefly to Dubrovnik but found both his wife and son had died in his absence of tuberculosis. He then moved to Sarajevo and then to Belgrade where he was one of the editors of "Samouprava" (Self-government) in 1926 and subsequently an Avala News Agency journalist. Kobasica served as president of the Yugoslav Journalist Association Belgrade Section in 1925 and 1926. He also served the public, being elected for the county of Prnjavor
to the Skupština
(National Assembly) at Belgrade as a member of the Radical Party under the Pašic
government.
Kobasica married again, to Stojanka Nikolić and had a son, Aleksandar "Saša" with her, but both predeceased him, his son, a medical student, dying of tuberculosis aged 21. His two brothers were also prominent in their areas, Josip "Pepo" becoming a Supreme Court Judge at Sarajevo, and Marin, "Rinko", Director of the Dubrovnik Commercial Maritime Academy.
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...
journalist, author and politician from Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
. He was the editor of Srpski Glasnik.
Early life
Kobasica was born at Dubrovnik, in DalmatiaDalmatia
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....
in 1882, at that time a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
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...
. As a youth Kobasica researched his forebears and determined that they sprang from Serbian Orthodox
Serbian Orthodox Church
The Serbian Orthodox Church is one of the autocephalous Orthodox Christian churches, ranking sixth in order of seniority after Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Russia...
stock from Herzegovina
Herzegovina
Herzegovina is the southern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. While there is no official border distinguishing it from the Bosnian region, it is generally accepted that the borders of the region are Croatia to the west, Montenegro to the south, the canton boundaries of the Herzegovina-Neretva...
who had migrated to the coastal area of the Župa (between Dubrovnik and Cavtat
Cavtat
Cavtat ) is a town in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia. It is on the Adriatic seacoast 15 km south of Dubrovnik and is the centre of the Konavle municipality.-History:...
in Dalmatia) during the time of Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
domination of the interior. Since his family had converted to Roman Catholicism generations before, the young man found himself firmly identifying with both his Serbian ethnic roots as well as his Catholicism. It is important to understand this seeming contradiction to grasp the shape his career would take. Speakers of the Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
language are usually conveniently divided by their religion into Croats
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...
(Catholic) and 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...
(Orthodox), so the idea of a "Serbian Catholic"
Serbs in Dubrovnik
The Serbs of Dubrovnik made up 4.01% of the town's population according to the 2001 Croatian population census. Their number before the Croatian War of Independence was higher - in the 1991 census, 4,765 people in Dubrovnik municipality declared as Serbs...
seems at first glance an oxymoron. However, in areas like Dalmatia, Lika
Lika
Lika is a mountainous region in central Croatia, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. On the north-west end Lika is bounded by Ogulin-Plaški basin, and on the south-east by the Malovan pass...
and particularly Dubrovnik, due to prior conversion, there were many families who retained an ethnic identity at seeming odds with their religion.
Journalistic career
When in high school in Dubrovnik, Kobasica submitted an article to a local paper that was strongly critical of the régime. He was promptly expelled and had to move to KotorKotor
Kotor is a coastal city in Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Gulf of Kotor. The city has a population of 13,510 and is the administrative center of the municipality....
to continue his education. Unable to resist his drive to political activism, further articles led to his expulsion from there as well, and it was in Mostar
Mostar
Mostar is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the largest and one of the most important cities in the Herzegovina region and the center of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation. Mostar is situated on the Neretva river and is the fifth-largest city in the country...
in the Bosnian military protectorate
Bosnia and Herzegovina (Austro-Hungarian condominium)
The Austro-Hungarian condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina was a condominium established after the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary in 1908, following its occupation in 1878 under the terms of the Treaty of Berlin.-History:...
that he finally graduated. He pursued a philosophy degree at the University of Graz
University of Graz
The University of Graz , a university located in Graz, Austria, is the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria....
in Austria, and continued to write articles promoting the unification of the subjugated Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
populations. Overhearing an insult to the King of Serbia while at Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
, he challenged the man to a duel from which he received a wound to his left arm.
Moving to Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
in Bosnia-Herzegovina
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...
, a Habsburg
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
protectorate for several decades, he lent his journalistic talents to the cause of its unification with the Kingdom of Serbia
Kingdom of Serbia
The Kingdom of Serbia was created when Prince Milan Obrenović, ruler of the Principality of Serbia, was crowned King in 1882. The Principality of Serbia was ruled by the Karađorđevic dynasty from 1817 onwards . The Principality, suzerain to the Porte, had expelled all Ottoman troops by 1867, de...
in a greater South Slav dominated state, becoming the editor of the Srpske Rieči (The Serbian Word) newspaper. For this in November 1906, the Imperial authorities arrested him for sedition and he was deported under guard to civic arrest in Dubrovnik, and forbidden to leave the town. At the time of his arrest in Sarajevo, the Serbian Journalist Association staged a rally in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
condemning the Bosnian (Habsburg) Government. In 1907 he escaped to Belgrade where he met and married Pelagia Trifunović, a daughter of the former King Milan IV Obrenović
House of Obrenovic
The House of Obrenović was a Serbian dynasty that ruled Serbia from 1815 to 1842, and again from 1858 to 1903. They came to power through the leadership of their progenitor Miloš Obrenović in the Second Serbian uprising against the Ottoman Empire, which led to the formation of the Principality of...
by a Bulgarian opera singer, and they had a son together named after the child's royal grandfather Milan.
From 1912-1913, Kobasica published the "Srpski Glasnik", the organ of the Serb People's Radical Party in 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 ...
and Slavonia
Slavonia
Slavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...
. He was also the author of three monographs entitled Srpsko-Bugarski Rat, "The Serbo-Bulgarian War
Serbo-Bulgarian War
The Serbo-Bulgarian War was a war between Serbia and Bulgaria that erupted on 14 November 1885 and lasted until 28 November the same year. Final peace was signed on 19 February 1886 in Bucharest...
", Sarajevo, 1913, Finale, and Stjepan Radić
Stjepan Radic
Stjepan Radić was a Croatian politician and the founder of the Croatian Peasant Party in 1905. Radić is credited with galvanizing the peasantry of Croatia into a viable political force...
za vrijeme aneksione krize i svjetskoga rata "Stjepan Radić at the Time of the Annexation Crisis
Bosnian crisis
The Bosnian Crisis of 1908–1909, also known as the Annexation crisis, or the First Balkan Crisis, erupted into public view when on 6 October 1908, Austria-Hungary announced the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Britain, Italy, Serbia, Montenegro, Germany and France...
and the World War" (1924).
At the outbreak of the First World War
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...
, Kobasica brought his family back to Dubrovnik for their safety, but was promptly arrested again by the Austrian authorities and imprisoned in the fortress of Arad
Arad, Romania
Arad is the capital city of Arad County, in western Romania, in the Crişana region, on the river Mureş.An important industrial center and transportation hub, Arad is also the seat of a Romanian Orthodox archbishop and features two universities, a Romanian Orthodox theological seminary, a training...
(in modern Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
) for the duration of the war.
Prnjavor
Prnjavor is a town and municipality in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in the northern part of the Republika Srpska entity. The municipality is near the town of Banja Luka, which is located to the west of Prnjavor....
to the Skupština
Skupština
Skupština is a Serbian and Croatian word for assembly, referring to Parliament. As such, it is used in the name of the following assemblies:* National Assembly of Serbia* Parliament of Montenegro* Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro...
(National Assembly) at Belgrade as a member of the Radical Party under the Pašic
Nikola Pašic
Nikola P. Pašić was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician and diplomat, the most important Serbian political figure for almost 40 years, leader of the People's Radical Party who, among other posts, was twice a mayor of Belgrade...
government.
Kobasica married again, to Stojanka Nikolić and had a son, Aleksandar "Saša" with her, but both predeceased him, his son, a medical student, dying of tuberculosis aged 21. His two brothers were also prominent in their areas, Josip "Pepo" becoming a Supreme Court Judge at Sarajevo, and Marin, "Rinko", Director of the Dubrovnik Commercial Maritime Academy.