Nikolić Vinko: Bleiburg uzroci i posljedice (domovinsko izdanje)

Vinko Nikolić: Bleiburg causes and consequences (homeland edition)

*The book is underlined in places with a marker.

Explaining the reasons for which we published in 1996 a five-volume selection of works from the Croatian Review in Exile 1951-1990 (selected works I.-V): I. Vinko Nikolić IN THE SERVICE OF THE HOMELAND (studies, essays, portraits) II. CROATIA FOREVER (contributions to Croatian state-building thought) III. FATES AND DEEDS (literature, art, linguistics) IV. CVRČAK U BORIK (poetry and prose) V. Milan Blažeković BIO-BIBLIOGRAPHIC LEXICON OF CONTRIBUTORS OF THE CROATIAN REVIEW in the opening letter, among other things, we emphasized: "Following those efforts that strove to reflect on the Croatian reality from the whole of the Croatian spiritual space, its possibilities and tasks, we wanted to bring the previously unknown to the Croatian public, especially the younger school generations the horizons of Croatian spirituality."

The same reason motivated us to reissue certain titles from the Croatian Review Library. We arranged the printing of the first three titles (the collection Bleiburg - causes and consequences, Dušan Žanko: Witnesses, and the collection Razgovori o slobodi) with the late Vinko Nikolić, the unsurpassed editor of the Croatian Review and its Library.

He was particularly interested in reprinting the collection of works on Bleiburg. He promised to write a new introduction, an introduction in which he wanted to warn of the existence of new circumstances (the dream of the Bleiburg victims had come true - the Croatian state was created), then also of the need for a significantly different treatment of this metaphor of all Croatian Calvaries. Instead of the annual May pilgrimages to Bleiburg, now a bit like excursions, Nikolić considered it more appropriate and expedient, if at all possible, to transfer the remains of Croatian victims to the Croatian Mirogoj and to stop the ongoing political, sometimes political capitalization of one of the greatest Croatian tragedies. illusion, should once again, trusting in the incorruptible judgment of history and common sense, be left to qualified experts. Bleiburg, which he himself lived in countless dimensions, therefore seemed to Nikolić a productive challenge for a different, more rational – and therefore critical reflection on Croatian history in general. Without ideological (whichever side it comes from!) name and work innkeepers.
Unfortunately, the unforgettable, good and great šjor Vinko did not have time to write this introduction. All we have left are his ideas. Ideas that, even on this occasion, testify to how much this great man from Šibenik lived ahead of his time. If the respected reader might ask: why was this work published and not that, or the other work, we have to repeat: those who are no longer among the living have priority in the order, then those whose works have not been published in Croatia in recent decades. Of course, we did not touch the language. The editors had all this in mind when preparing this somewhat abbreviated edition.