Tuzla moje mladosti – Čudesni svet Stare Tuzle
Tuzla of My Youth – The Miraculous World of Old Tuzla

Summary/Abstract: Unique and unparalleled, diversified and unusual, the world of old Tuzla was certainly the result of the historical context that generated it, during the succession of different empires. The common Old Slavic descent of the original state of Bosnia was followed by the specific circumstances in the Turkish Empire and the spread of Islam, which left a special mark on Bosnia, with its mosques, mahallas and distinctive Islamo-Slavic mentality. By relocating people from different parts, the Austro-Hungarian government later brought the Poles, Rusyns, Czechs, Slovenians, Italians, and Germans to Bosnia. To these should be added numerous groups of Jews, both Sephardim and Ashkenazim, and finally the latest settlers – the Russian emigrants. A conglomerate was thus created of various national and religious groups, as well as their impacts – from the local Serbo-Croato-Muslim mixture, to the Central European and Eastern European influence. Since early childhood, we could hear different languages and dialects. Moreover, since the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a strictly centralised state, the civil servants of all kinds and professions used to be relocated from one part of the country to the other, from Maribor to Djevdjelija, so our fellow townsmen were Montenegrins, Macedonians, Dalmatians, Slovenians, Serbians, and others. It was a privilege to grow up in such an environment, which I became aware of only many years later. When at a young age one gets used to coexistence with people different from oneself, one will hardly opt for extremism and national intolerance, which does not mean there were no nationalists and chauvinists among us. Even back then they were noisy and loud, although few, and they foreshadowed the Evil that would come. Unfortunately, people do not recognise Evil in its inception; they do so only when it grows big enough, and becomes a threat.

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