Summary
Milan Vuković: Ja, odvjetnik
Memoari "Ja, odvjetnik" komponirani su u tri dijela. U prvom se autor sjeća djetinjstva, obitelji iz koje potječe, školovanja, rata, odlaska u zbjeg u Italiji, početka odvjetničke karijere. In the second, central, most extensive and most important part, the most talk is about court cases in which he participated, mainly as a lawyer for those who were in conflict with the order. Vuković defended many Croatian intellectuals accused of "hostile activity", among others Šima Đodan, Smiljana Rendić, Fr. Karl Jurišić, Fr. Joza Zovko, Franjo Tuđman. Today, these mostly staged political processes are part of history, but at the time they were conducted, they had, in addition to the political, a dramatic human dimension. Reconstructing his role in the trials in detail, Vuković reveals many unknown details about the defendants, the victims, and the prosecutors who carried out "directed justice".
The reconstruction of the trial of the Croatian emigrant Antun Kikaš, who fell into the hands of the JNA with a load of weapons for the Croatian defenders, as well as the well-known trial of the Virovi people at the military court in Zagreb, is particularly interesting. In addition to political processes, the memoirist participated as a lawyer in numerous other intriguing lawsuits, and special attention will be drawn to those in which the protagonists are famous figures from Croatian culture, from the artists Zvonimir Mihanović, Ivan Kožarić, Slavko Šohaj, Dušan Džamonja, Vilim Svečnjak... to the writer Miroslav Krleža and his heirs. Vuković, for example, reveals what most interested anyone after Krležina's death, what anyone searched for in his legacy, what was found, and what is still "lost".
The third part contains memories of the stormy period of creating an independent Croatian judiciary in the 1990s, in which the memoirist played an extremely important role, and there are also memories of cultural events initiated and organized by Vuković. Ukratko, knjiga Ja odvjetnik uzbudljiva je memoarska literatura, ali i važna dopuna hrvatskoj povjesnici druge polovice XX. st.
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