Current Relevance of Dragiša Vasić’s Work

After World War II, a great number of representatives of Serbian cultural, literary, and political thought of the interwar period were tendentiously forgotten by the new representatives of Serbian art and literature. The wave of influence of political manipulation affected one of the most representative and active Serbian thinkers, Dragiša Vasić. He was not only cast aside as a writer but also declared a traitor and completely ignored by the circles of which he had been and should have remained a part, for example, the Serbian Academy of Science and Art. His life also ended tragically, under still unexplained circumstances. Therefore, we can genuinely say that when we talk of Vasić we are confronted with a double irreplaceable loss of both this intellectual and the recognition of his work.

Dragomir Vasić, the son of Vićentije, better known to us as Dragiša Vasić, was born in Gornji Milanovac on October 3, 1884, according to the school documents.¹ However, other dates have also been suggested, for example, according to Dragan Subotić of the Institute for Political Studies, Dragiša Vasić was born on September 2, 1885.² More general sources list his birth date as November 2, 1885.³ Dragiša Vasić completed primary school and the first grade of secondary school in his hometown, second grade in Čačak, and graduated from the Second Grammar School in Belgrade. In June 1907, he received his law degree from the faculty of Law at Belgrade University. After serving in the army, on September 18, 1908 he was appointed to the post of a second class clerk in the High Court of Čačak. In 1909, he was transferred to the High Court of the Belgrade area, but at the end of 1910 he was again transferred to the High Court of Čačak where he worked as a lawyer’s assistant. He received his lawyer’s license in the Court of Annulment on May 28, 1912. On the 26 July of the same year he was posted to the High County Court of Gornji Milanovac. He was a reserve officer in the infantry regiment of the army. Subsequently, he participated in the Balkan Wars (1912–13) at Kumanovo and Bregalnica. In 1913, he married Radojka who was ten years younger and the daughter of Stojan Ribarac, a well known Serbian politician and one of the best speakers in the Serbian National Assembly in the history of Parliament. They had a daughter, Branislava-Brankica, born 7 August 1914. Radojka Vasić died in 1917, in Gornji Milanovac.

During the First World War Vasić was promoted to First Class Captain of the Infantry Regiment. After the war Vasić spent a short time in his home-town. At the end of December 1919 after closing his firm in Gornji Milanovac, he received permission to open a law office in Belgrade at no.1 Miloš Veliki Street. Somewhat later, he married Natalia, the daughter of Sergei Alexandrov, a general of the Royal Russian Army who was an expert in building army fortresses and mines. They had a daughter, Tanja, who at present lives in Belgrade.

Vasić practiced law for a short time in interwar Belgrade. He became an active member of the Republican Party as well as one of the editors of the periodical “Progress.” By the mid twenties he had published significant works in documentary and narrative prose, such as “The Character and Mentality of a Generation” in 1919 and three years later “Two Months in the Yugoslavian Siberia”;⁴ in 1922 he published his famous book of narratives or short stories, entitled “Utuljena Kandila” (The Extinguished Icon Lamps) and his novel “Red Fogs.”⁵ Both were publicly acclaimed at the time. His opus also includes short narratives “Vitlo and other stories” (1924) and a book of short stories “Bakić Ulija” (1926).⁶ In 1927, a trip to the Soviet Union⁷ was followed by the publication of his notable travel documentary “Impressions from Russia” (1928).⁸ The Serbian Literary Guild published a collection of his short stories (1929)⁹ and a book “A Fall from...