Day two of the international conference saw lectures by Jure Vujić, Marin Knezović, Božo Vukušić, Anđelko Mijatović, Ivan Tepeš, Mislav Rubić, Krešimir Bušić, Vlatko Smiljanić and Jakov Žižić.
February 22nd, the second day of an international conference focusing on the history of politically motivated Croatian emigration in the twentieth century, opened with a lecture by Jure Vujić on the open questions surrounding the legitimacy of using violent means in the struggle of Croatians who moved out of their homeland for political reasons in the context of the Cold War. Following on this topic was Marin Knezović’s short lecture on violence as a means of political struggle among Croatian émigrés in the early twentieth century. Božo Vukušić spoke on this panel of the repressive activity of the secret service of Yugoslavia that targeted Croatian émigrés. Anđelko Mijatović rounded off the first panel discussion of the second day of the conference with his lecture on Bruno Bušić, one of the preeminent figures among our émigrés.
Ivan Tepeš spoke of the divergent perceptions of HSS (Croatian Peasant Party) leaders Vladko Maček and Juraj Krnjević among the broad range of Croatian emigrants. Marko Paradžik lectured on political organisations in the diaspora communities, focusing in particular on the Croatian Republican Party. In a thematic departure from the rest of the panel Vlado Glavaš spoke of the work of Hrvat Chicago Soccer Club.
Mislav Rubić spoke of Ante Ciliga’s work in the diaspora in the post-World War II period. Krešimir Bušić lectured on the layered life and work of professor Marko Čović, a Bačka region Croat and émigré. Stipe Ledić offered a lecture that departed from the core topic of the conference, but was no less interesting, on Josip Keresturi, a major figure of the Croatian and Central European enlightenment.
The sole presentation focusing on the impact of a woman on the overall activity of the émigré community was Vlatko Smiljanić’s presentation on the work of Mari Matočec in the diaspora wing of the Croatian Peasant Party. In his lecture Domagoj Novosel spoke of Nikola Holjevac, one of the lesser known figures of the émigré milieu. The final speaker at the conference was Jakov Žižić. He offered an excellent lecture on the émigré magazine Poruka slobodne Hrvatske (“The Message of a Free Croatian”).
By: Marin Knezović; Photography: Hrvoje Salopek
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