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

8 LIFE AND IDEAS OF MITRINOVIC

In order to safeguard this expansion of their colonial interests the Hapsburgs sought to maintain the social and religious divisions within the population. They did this by preserving the feudal pattern of serfdom that had existed under the Turks. By playing off the largely Christian peasant population against the predominantly Muslim landlords, the Austro-Hungarians sought to forestall the development of nationalist feelings amongst the Slavs of the provinces. The result was that under the Hapsburgs the conditions of the peasantry in Bosnia and Hercegovina remained as bad as ever. A third of all their products was demanded by their feudal landlords. The Hapsburgs imposed a further tribute of one tenth which had to be paid in cash. A system of forced labour for the central state and the local authorities was also maintained until 1893, when it was replaced by a new tax. In addition to these obligations the peasantry suffered from a worsening of the terms of trade between town and country under the Austro-Hungarian occupation. The price of industrial goods rose whilst the revenue from agricultural products fell. Agrarian relations were further aggravated by a rapid rise in the population of the provinces, which almost doubled during the Hapsburg annexation.

Divided amongst themselves and lacking any national leadership or organisation, the response of the peasantry to these conditions was the traditional reaction of subjugated groups throughout the world: periods of apathetic resignation broken by violent, but localised, uprisings and armed rebellion. As part of their attempt to sustain tribal and feudal relations in the villages, and thereby forestall any national uprising, the Austro-Hungarian authorities systematically deprived the population of any educational resources. Even by 1914 88% of the population of Bosnia and Hercegovina were illiterate.

It is therefore all the more surprising that there emerged in these South Slav provinces at the turn of the century a small group of educated young people who were to form the nucleus of a revolutionary movement against the Hapsburgs. Collectively they came to be known as the Young Bosnians, and Mitrinovic was to become one of their leaders.

Many of the Young Bosnians were peasant boys who had worked as servants in the richer homes in order to attend high school. Mitrinovié was rather more fortunate.' Both his parents were educated and well read. His father, Mihajlo, worked as a school teacher in Donjie Poplat as did his mother, Vidosava. Outside school hours Mihajlo was active as an agricultural adviser whilst Vidosava involved herself in teaching the village girls domestic skills, home management and the rudiments of health care. The house itself served as a regular meeting place for the students of the area and contained a well-stocked library of several hundred books—reflecting the enquiring mind