yugoslavias implosion

and somewhat inert manner. Immediately after Tito’s death, Ćosić
and his circle prepared to launch the magazine Javnost, which was
designed to create a new platform 57 with clear political goals similar
to those formulated by the Polish political movement, Solidarity.
No sooner was the platform announced than the publication of the
magazine was prevented by the Belgrade communist organization,
which accused Ćosić’s circle of intending to muscle in as a “political
partner” and operate as a legalized political opposition. The magazine
platform was also criticized by many other politicians as well as
intellectuals. Among the latter was Oskar Davičo, an ardent leftist,
who said that the programmatic text impugned socialist self-management
in the name of a left-wing radicalism.
Javnost never saw the light of the day. The editors responded
to the magazine’s ban by explaining that they “did not desire the
polarization of the intelligentsia.” However, their Socialist leanings
are quite clear, as evidenced by a draft text penned by Ćosić and
Ljubomir Tadić which urged that “a democratic, humane, enlightened
Socialism may indeed be realized only by the total mental and
moral forces of the people, as indicated a hundred years ago by Svetozar
Marković, the founder of the first Javnost.” 58
Ćosić’s circle pursued its ambitions through various other activities.
For instance, university professors, philosophers, and members
of the Praxis group held regular private sessions, called the Free University,
at which they discussed theory, gave lectures, and exchanged
views on various matters. Sharing a discontent with the state of
existing institutions, the circle saw the Free University as a quest for
an alternative. Leftist students and intellectuals also attended and
took part in the sessions. The circle, operating as a closed group, was
57 Leading figures on the magazine included Ćosić (editor), Ljuba Tadić
(editor in chief), Dušan Bošković, Zoran Gavrilović, Nebojša Popov,
Svetozar Stojanović, Zoran Đinđić, and Lazar Trifunović .
58 Slavoljub Đukić, Čovek u svom vremenu (Man Facing the
Challenges of Era), (Beograd: Filip Višnjić . 1989) .
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