Polet – a Myth That Resists Oblivion (4): Who is Actually Polet?

Recalling memories of “Polet”, I wanted to hear from some of the collaborators from that distant time, including Pero Kvesić, the first editor of “Polet” with whom I began to collaborate closely upon my arrival at CDD in early 1981. He was then the outgoing editor of “Pitanja”, but we collaborated for quite a long time on various projects. From our first meeting, we clicked and accepted each other, and that relationship has remained permanent. After my departure from CDD, we rarely spoke, even less often met. On this occasion, I wanted to evoke his memories of the beginnings of “Polet” and hear his perspective on that time.

Although we hadn’t spoken for years, we started the conversation as if we had just walked out of Savska 5 yesterday. The first thing he asked me was: Are you healthy? I said I was fine, approximately knowing his condition. He continued: You know, I am in a nursing home. I spent the last year in five hospitals. Now I am completely immobile, lying down. I can’t reach a glass of water if it’s 10 cm away from the bed. I can’t do anything with the computer. My only life goal now is to sit in a wheelchair so I can use the computer and move… What should I ask him after that about “Polet”, about books, about anything? But I ask, and with an apology for his slightly impaired speech, Pero responds with the same mental clarity and lucidity that I have known for decades. He enthusiastically talks about the preparations for the first issue of “Polet”, about the team he started with, about the concept, about individuals who positively or negatively influenced its creation.

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Naslovnica Poleta

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He tells me about a young scientist who studied in Budapest and wrote his doctoral thesis on the topic “Youth Press in Yugoslavia”. He discussed this topic with him about ten times. His name is Marko Zubak, I later found out, and he is employed, imagine, at Opatička 10, at the Croatian Institute of History. The book was published in English. He says it is a unique case in the world that newspapers for youth were created by young people. There were youth newspapers in the world, but they were edited and written by professional journalists. He tells me about a period in his life when he was stigmatized, in the mid-eighties, regarding the famous “White Book” and Stipe Šuvar. For those who do not know that story, I note that it was a discussion in the CK SK of Croatia on the topic of nationalism in Yugoslavia, which listed books, authors, and theater plays that promote nationalism. These materials were published in a book with white covers, and thus the fame of the “White Book” was born. Pero Kvesić collaborated with Šuvar on those materials and earned the label of a dogmatic censor of cultural creation. What a blasphemy. Kvesić played with all dogmas and expected outcomes in his books. The consequences were years without the possibility of employment, publishing, without income. The nineties for me began in the eighties, eight years without a steady income; there were days when I didn’t have money for coffee… I was an illegal in my own city…, he continued. Pero’s story haunts me for days. I know many mutual acquaintances from journalistic, literary, and political circles, so why did no one extend a hand to the man? We say goodbye after an hour of conversation. Pero is convinced that he will achieve his life goal, that he will sit in a wheelchair for his computer, with a note to send him a text about “Polet”. The story of “Polet” should be concluded with some summary, from the distance that decades have created beyond our will:

Founder

It is a respectable fact that sixty years ago, the then organization Saveza komunista i Saveza omladine recognized the importance of forming an institutional form for the ideological, theoretical, and research activities of young people. This was realized through the Center for Social Activities, which meant securing workspaces, hiring, and ensuring budgetary funds for all activities. This would last until 1990 and enable the development of all activities, including the publication of “Polet”. As we know, with the change of government in 1990, all of this would permanently disappear. No new party would organize any form of theoretical or professional activity; new leaders would know everything and decide on everything.

Publisher

The Center for Social Activities, initially organized as a working organization, is an institutional form for achieving the political and general social goals of the Socialist Youth League, which is its founder. They operate on the same platform, their goals are common. In real action, there is almost always a semblance of rivalry, the question of who is more important in the whole story. In essence, there was no serious rivalry or conflict. It was about young people trying to achieve their goals, each in their domain. Disagreements, individual animosities, discussions were logical and never called into question the cessation of funding for CDD activities. The dynamics of relationships are a natural characteristic of youth, and the claim about the decisive influence of politics on the activities of CDD and “Polet” is unfounded.

Changes of Editors

Frequent changes of the main editors of “Polet” are usually interpreted as an act of demonstrating power by youth leaders. In the fifteen years of publication of “Polet”, nine main editors changed. The circumstances of the changes vary from case to case; there are no unequivocal causes. I believe that the dynamics of changes in the main editors benefited rather than harmed the development and influence of the magazine. Each new main editor brought some new ideas, changes, and, importantly, gathered a new circle of collaborators. The dynamics of changes are important for readers, who are mostly young, always expecting what is current at a given moment in life. Let’s assume what would have happened to “Polet” if it had been edited by two or three main editors with permanent editorial teams during those 14-15 years of publication.

Circulation

The circulation of “Polet” has been a nightmare for all of us in all periods. How to achieve a circulation that will self-finance through sales? This was never achieved, nor did it make sense to try. Various attempts were made, and numbers were constantly manipulated. The circulation is a special myth; in financial terms, it meant nothing, but it had an advertising effect for the promotion of the magazine. According to Krušel, the circulation only reached 70,000 in a few exceptional periods, but during that time, returns and losses were the highest. The actual readership of “Polet” was always more important than the number of printed copies. If we assess the real interests of young people in reading and following the press at that time, the realistic circulation can be estimated at 15,000 to 20,000 copies, and that number would be closest to the self-financing threshold. Even such a number of real readers is respectable, especially compared to today’s time, when only social networks on mobile phones are read.

One of the Covers of “Polet”

The authentic school of growing up, “Polet” represented an authentic school of journalistic and general maturation. We all grew up with “Polet”, but it had the greatest significance for young journalists and photographers, cartoonists, almost all authors. When a young journalist would come to some “big” editorial office, for example, “Vjesnik”, they would get an editor who would limit them within their frameworks, in every sense. For several years, they would report from markets or some meetings, and in short reports, they had to pay attention to the “pussy” implications, as the term “political” was humorously shortened by the masterful Tanja Torbarina. After a few years, they would become a copy of their editor. In “Polet”, a young journalist, photographer, cartoonist brought their authentic text or photograph, infused with personal experience, talent, and attitude. An editor belonging to the same generation practically did not influence the authenticity of the author. “Polet” appeared on newsstands alongside “Vjesnik” or “Večernji list”, with contributions from young authors, just like established journalists. In addition to the free development of talent and unrestrained expression, “Polet” also allowed young authors the freedom to choose topics that were not desirable for the “big” newspapers (e.g., social issues, sexuality, prostitution, etc.). Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to speak of a recognizable “Polet” journalistic and photographic school from which complete, formed authors emerged, who, upon arriving at larger editorial offices, invested their authorial personalities and brought new values. Many of these authors reached the most significant positions in various journalistic, radio, and television houses, and some even achieved foreign careers.

Who is Actually “Polet”?

In my opinion, the answer is clear and unequivocal. The authors of texts and photographs! A large circle of people participated in the creation of “Polet”, starting from politicians, directors, editors, printers, sellers, administration, but the only thing that remained in the archives and the memory of generations are the authors’ works, texts, and images. The authors, of whom over 2000 were listed in Krušel’s Playroom, carried, each according to their own sensitivity and authorial interest, stories and images from real life in a way that no newspaper or even less television practiced. They did this with the energy and sensitivity of the generation with which they lived daily, in the language they communicated with each other, and in the style they lived at that time. Since they brought stories that could not be discussed with parents, they gained the trust of readers. Therefore, the thesis about “Polet’s” freedom indeed exists. If we agree that “Polet” is actually the authors, I believe that they were only given space in time, and they, with their approach and works, conquered freedom, pushed boundaries, and broke taboos and stereotypes.

Readers, Audience.

The organic whole of “Polet”, besides the authors, consists of its readership, and that layer that was constantly with “Polet”. The authors of “Polet” and its core readership were actually a quiet, creeping, and non-violent opposition to a society that fell into a crisis from which it did not know how to find a way out. Together with critically thinking people from other social strata, they were the beginning of civil society at that time, and they are still the backbone of our civil society today. I believe that this is the most significant achievement of “Polet”. Unfortunately, at a crucial moment, it turned out that this layer of civil society was too thin.

End

“Polet” itself, and that is all of us ‘Polet’ people, extinguished and disappeared at the most crucial moment, at a time when it was most needed. It fell silent before the destructive call of blood and soil. When the Berlin and other walls in Europe were falling, we silently watched as impenetrable walls rose in the space of our youth and growing up, wars began that have lasted for more than 30 years and show no signs of ending. If we were honest in that time, and if we realistically assess the reality today, then we have been severely defeated. Should I list the arguments? Many have been mentioned in the book “Sources of a Catastrophe” by American diplomat Warren Zimmerman. “Polet” remains a beautiful story of a time and our youth, growing up in optimism and hope for a more humane society, a good place for every human being. You wouldn’t believe what we all believed, wrote the first ‘Polet’ person Pero Kvesić in one of his poems. So, since we believed, let us preserve the myth of “Polet”, it is anyway greater than reality. With greetings to all ‘Polet’ people, who are spread all over the world, I thank Pero Kvesić, Ivan Doroghy, Mišo Šajatović, Ivan Posavec, and Branko Čegec for the conversation regarding this text. Thank you to Željko Krušel for permanently preserving the history of “Polet” with his book. Finally, thanks to Boris Vrga, a doctor, poet, author of excellent artistic monographs, and publisher of the magazine “Kupa” who allowed me this interesting struggle to return to the past. “This is an important and intriguing topic,” he encouraged me in my doubts about giving up. A man had his apartment completely destroyed in the Petrinja earthquake, with pictures, a library, and everything else, yet he continues to publish the magazine himself, convincing me that it is important to record every memory of “Polet”. He must have believed and grown up with “Polet” too. I am bringing him this text to the container settlement in Mošćenica where he currently practices.