Vlado Gotovac - Imprisonment

Imprisonment

Growing up in Tito’s Yugoslavia, Gotovac, like many patriots living in Yugoslavia, was harassed and eventually arrested in 1971 and sentenced to four years in prison, based on charges of being a “separatist” and “nationalist”. In an interview with Swedish television in 1978 he reflected rather dejectedly about his experience:

“No basis was found in my actions or in my activities, but, rather, like in all such processes, criminal actions were assumed and corroborated, not only in my case, but in the cases of a whole group of others whom I know.”

The one most important for him was freedom of speech. As an eminent writer in Croatia he not only experienced tremendous difficulty publishing his ideas, but was also denied the right, as a public figure, to criticise. Despite the prevalent western view that Yugoslavia, not under Soviet domination, was becoming a liberal and open society, Gotovac’s experiences show the contrary.

Despite the hardship Gotovac endured, he continued to write in prison, with his most famous piece being his diary, Zvjezdana Kuga ("Starry Plague"), published some twenty years after his release in 1978. And whilst he spent his pre-prison years working as a journalist and editor for TV Zagreb as well as writing literary pieces, he gradually moved into politics after being released from prison.