WHY DID MIROSLAV MARKOVIĆ HAVE TO LEAVE?
WHY DID MIROSLAV MARKOVIĆ HAVE TO LEAVE?

Summary/Abstract: In Prof. Miloš N. Đurić’s archive the author discovered a letter from Caracas and a postcard from Merida sent to him by his student, the internationally acclaimed classical philologist Miroslav S. Marković, both of which are of special importance to understanding his decision in the mid 1950s to leave Yugoslavia and move to Venezuela. In the letter to his teacher, friend and mentor Marković briefly explains the reasons for leaving his motherland, mostly due to being unable to realize his scientific and research projects in Yugoslavia. The postcard discreetly indicates that the decision to move to Venezuela was appropriate. These messages are a first-class source not only for Marković’s intellectual biography but also for the history of academic life in Yugoslavia of the time. To make the content of the correspondence more understandable, in the introductory part of this paper the author gives a short overview of the most important moments in Marković’s life, focusing particularly on his early years, then paying special attention to the critiques of his works from the early 1950s, and finally presenting an important testimony on why Marković decided to move to Venezuela. Part II contains the texts and photographs of the Letter from Caracas and the Postcard from Merida.

• Details
• Contents