From: josip@eng.umd.edu (Josip Loncaric)
Subject: Re: STARCEVIC on Croatian stamps (Was: Croatian postage stamps)
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 23:36:24 GMT
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park, College of Engineering
Summary: Knowledge dispells hate

In article <1992Apr10.075729.780@bernina.ethz.ch> mitrovic@tik.ethz.ch (Srdjan Mitrovic) writes:
>In article <1992Apr8.222301.2976@wuecl.wustl.edu> victor@jezebel.wustl.edu
>(Victor Wickerhauser) writes:
>
>>If it bothers you so much that Croatia is so "insensitive" as to
>>put Ante Starcevic's face on a stamp, why are you so quiet about Serbia
>>putting several thousand artillery rounds into the old town of Dubrovnik?
>>
>
>There are even worse things then shelling of Dubrovnik and you did
>not mention it neither. Putting a racist on a stamp has nothing
>to do with them. ...
> ......
>
>Please try to keep a decent intellectual level on SCY.
>
>
>Srdjan Mitrovic
>

Why don't you listen to your own advice?  Get informed before you start
spewing hate!  Starcevic was no racist.  In a nutshell, he was a proponent
of a free and independent Croatia, based on the historical right of the
"Croatian political people".  He was opposed to rule of either Vienna or
Budapest (in the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy of the 19th century), and
Serb-Croat conflicts which arose after his death have nothing to do with him.

Just like Vuk Karadzic believed ("Srbi svi i svuda") that Croats were
"catholic Serbs", Starcevic believed that Serbs were orthodox Croats.  To him,
the word "Serb" had been a fraud, a false name, derived from Latin "servus"
which means servant.  According to Starcevic, the only South Slav nations
were Croats and Bulgarians.  The word "Serb" and Serbian national feelings
were (to him) an undesirable success of anti-Croatian propaganda, which
had been aimed at dividing "Croats" by faith.  But, he could NOT despise
Serbian people because, after all, they were misguided Croats.  In fact,
his party (Croatian Party of Rights) had a substantial number of
christian orthodox followers in Croatia.

I repeat: to Starcevic, Serbs were Croats, and the word "Serb" was an 
invented term, a result of hostile anti-Croatian propaganda.

As for the links between Starcevic and Strossmayer's "Yugoslavs", there
were common views which developed towards the end of the 19th century.
In fact, late in his life Starcevic became more willing to accept the
word "Serb", if that's what the orthodox Croats wanted.  After his death,
his "Party of Rights" split into two factions: a group of progressives
which joined the followers of Strossmayer in 1903, and the group led by
Josip Frank, which became the "Pure Party of Rights".

Frank turned Starcevic's program of opposing Hapsburg rule on its head by
seeking accomodation with Vienna.  In doing so, Frank and his followers
became willing to attack Serbian minority in Croatia, by accusing it of
treason for their identification with Serbia proper.  This worsening of
Serb-Croat relations had always been avoided by Starcevic.  

Among other sources of Serb-Croat friction was a deliberate policy of
playing Serbs against Croats (in order to rule Croatia) by the
Hungarian-born governor of Croatia (Khuen-Hedervary, in power 1883-1903).

Starcevic was important.  His belief that Serbs were actually
orthodox Croats was just as wrong as Karadzic's that Croats were
catholic Serbs, or the Yugoslav idea about "one nation with three names".

But, all of this was happening OVER A CENTURY AGO.  Starcevic had been
born into a world where (1) neither Germany not Italy had yet been formed, 
(2) Americans saw little wrong with slavery, (3) Britain practiced colonialism
as "white man's burden", etc., etc.  PLENTY HAS HAPPENED SINCE THEN!!!

Ignorance which causes fear and hate needs to be overcome.  Serbs would
feel better if they learned more about Croatian history, culture, political
differences, etc.  Get a good history book, cease depending on hatemongers in 
Belgrade, read and think, and you may find the existance of Croatia easier
to accept.

Josip Loncaric