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

30 LIFE AND IDEAS OF MITRINOVIC

in their imagination, anticipated the future, “the dream of the far-away and the great.” Like the Russian artist he had a firm faith that the example and efforts of just a few, those “true ones . . . who are of today yet who were born tomorrow,” could act as a leavening agent amongst the mass of alienated humanity dominated by the world-as-it-is and ill-equipped to envisage the world-as-it-might-be.

As part of this ‘leavening process’ Kandinsky had been planning to produce a second yearbook to follow the publication of the original Blaue Reiter Almanac in 1912. Although Mitrinovié had originally planned to leave Munich in the spring of 1914 and move to Ttibingen to complete his doctoral studies, his growing involvement with Kandinsky meant that once again he deserted his university studies and channelled his energies into the preparation of the proposed book, taking on the role of chief editor. Planned as the first of a series, the Yearbook was seen as part of a wider movement “Towards the Mankind of the Future through Aryan Europe.” This was to be an initiative to transform and unify Europe, working towards the transcendence of the different national cultures and the creation of a “panEuropean culture” which, as a model, would lay the foundations for the overcoming of all divisions between people in the world—the attainment of world fellowship.

In their approach Mitrinovié and Kandinsky were noticeably influenced by the visionary ideals of the Russian theologian, poet, and philosopher Vladimir Solovyoy (1853-1900). Solovyoy viewed the cosmos as an organism, animated by a single spirit and evolving towards a definite goalthe final reconciliation of the world of God with that of humanity. Such an achievement could only be attained through humanity consciously joining with God, as co-partners, to transform personal and social life. “The supreme aim of individual and social morality,” he wrote, “is that all men and all things should be conformed to the image of Christ . . . it depends on each one of us contributing towards its realization by trying to reproduce Christ in our personal and social life.”!*

Mitrinovié anticipated that the Yearbook would be published in the Spring of 1915, and by June 1914 he was heavily involved in negotiations with the publishers, the Delphin company of Munich, and in establishing contact with potential contributors. The list was impressive: they included Peter Kropotkin and Thomas Masaryk, the sculptor Ivan Mestrovic, Maxim Gorky, Knut Hamsen, Maurice Maeterlinck, Emile Verhaeren, Anatole France, Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Rudolph Eucken, Henri Bergson, Franz Oppenheimer, Otto Braun and Jean Jaurés. Mitrinovic was also busy preparing articles for various European journals on the idea