Initiation and initiative : an exploration of the life and ideas of Dimitrije Mitrinović

THE YOUNG BOSNIAN 9

of Mihajlo who had taught himself Greek and Latin and was also fairly fluent in German. It was from his father that Mitrinovi¢ obtained an early appreciation of the classical literature of Europe and his first introduction to the world of science. His relationship with his mother was particularly deep and close, and it was she who opened up the world of music and the arts to her eldest son. It was from her that he learnt the Serbian epic poems and traditional folk music that he was to remember all his life.

Brought up as an Eastern Orthodox Christian, Mitrinovi¢ attended primary school at Donje Poplat and later at Blagaj to where his father had been transferred. Both parents seem to have recognised the fact that their eldest child was specially gifted, and to have been prepared to make sacrifices in order to encourage his educational and cultural development. His brother, Cedomil, remembered an occasion when their father had to go into town for necessary shopping. The young Dimitrije asked him to buy a violin. There was insufficient money for the family’s shopping and the violin, but the child got his violin and the family went without the needed household articles. Another tale told by his brother was of the occasion when Mitrinovic, as a small child, went for a walk with his parents. Separated from his parents, they discovered him with a venomous snake, both quietly regarding each other. To the relief of the parents the snake showed its discretion and slid away.

One can safely assume that such events were not the norm during his childhood, which seems to have passed fairly uneventfully—it was, however, of extremely short duration, according to some of his elders. He later recalled how, as a small boy, he was taken by his mother to visit the local ladies of the Muslim faith in the strict seclusion of their quarters. This practice was terminated when he reached the age of seven, by that age he was regarded as a man.

In 1899, at the age of twelve, he enrolled at the High School at Mostar, the capital of Hercegovina, where he remained until his matriculation in 1907. As part of the Hapsburgs’ general policy of denying any kind of political freedom to the people of Bosnia and Hercegovina, students were forbidden to organise any school societies or to participate in any public society. This did not prevent the school children from expressing their feelings towards the Austro-Hungarian regime, however. Mitrinovi¢c used to tell his associates in Britain in later years of how, as school children, they would kneel on one knee only in church when prayers were said for the Austrian royal family, hoping that this would render their prayers ineffective.*

Given the restrictions on organising openly, the school boys began to form secret societies. One of the earliest was started at Mostar in 1904