Klarin, Mirko, editor, and Slobodan Mašić, designer.

[1968 YUGOSLAV STUDENT PROTESTS – NEW LEFT] Susret [Encounter]. Nos. 66 (1967)–83 (1968); five special issues: no. 84 (1968; published as a special edition following the June 2nd events); NB ’68 (special issues), nos. 1–3; no. 85 (September 22, 1968; special issue for Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia); nos. 86–92 (1968); nos. 93–100 (1969).

Belgrade: Gradski komitet saveza omladine, 1967–1969. Quartos (32 × 25 cm); the special issues quartos (29 × 20 cm). Original illustrated staple-stitched wrappers; ca. 24 pp per issue. Illustrations throughout, including photomontages, full page photgraphic spreads, and printing on different colored stock. Most issues very good, with the newsprint special issue chipped along edges. Item #55435

A significant run, 38 issues, of this key journal of the 1968 Yugoslav student protests. These issues date from the journal’s most radical period, when it was led by the journalist, activist, and human rights lawyer Mirko Klarin (1943–2022), one of the leading personalities in the drive for nonpartisan documentation and accountability of the Yugoslav war crimes in the 1990s. The issues come from Klarin’s personal collection, and capture the period immediately before, during, and after the explosive protest of Yugoslav students in Belgrade in June 1968. The collection includes issues dedicated to the assassination of Martin Luther King (no. 80; April 17, 1968), as well as the shooting of the German socialist student leader Rudi Dutschke two weeks later, inspired by the MLK assassination (no. 81; May 1, 1968). Stirred by the March 1968 events in Poland, and in May in Paris of the same year, on June 2nd 1968 the Yugoslav students occupied University of Belgrade buildings, announcing a seven-day strike. The students demanded a restructuring of the university, greater freedom of speech, and a higher living standard. The resulting occupation and demonstrations were violently suppressed. In a surprising move, Yugoslavia’s communist leader Tito went on national television to say that the students were 90% justified in their demands. Despite this announcement, the June 11th issue of Susret was censored and rejected by the printer. The issue was printed elsewhere on newsprint instead, and is included in this collection, titled “The truth from the Red University” with numerous photos capturing police violence. Three more special issues followed with the title “NB ‘68”, similarly full of images of protesting students. The issues also discussed the suppression of major cultural figures, such as the film director Dušan Makavejev for his public support of the student protests. The final special issue in this collection (No. 85; 22 September 1968) is dedicated to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

A bi-weekly student journal published 1963–1972, Susret changed its tone toward social justice with the arrival of the new editor, Mirko Klarin, in 1967. A lawyer by training, Klarin graduated from the University of Belgrade in 1966, coming to head the journal’s editorial board in 1967 until his removal from the post by the Student Union in May 1969. After the forced removal of Klarin as the head editor, Susret once again became an entertainment-centered youth magazine that kept away from political topics. In 1969, Klarin would go on to join the editorial board of Rok, a neo-avant-garde magazine headed by Bora Ćosić. Joining Klarin at Rok was the former designer of Susret, Slobodan Mašić (1939–2016), who gave the special issues of Susret, and Rok their strong signature look. Mašić also designed posters and publications for the famous Student Art Centre in Belgrade, collaborated with the avant-garde theatre Atelje 212, and the BITEF theatre festival. In addition to his design work, Mašić established Nezavisna izdanja [Independent publications], becoming a well-known independent publisher of dissident writings in the 1980s (See: Jasna Dragović-Soso, “Saviors of the Nation: Serbias Intellectual Opposition and the Revival of Nationalism”, 2003). Celebrated as one of the “most significant artists and publishers who shaped visual communications in Serbia and Yugoslavia over the past half century”, the exhibition “Mašić: Retrospective Exhibition of Visual Communication” was held in Belgrade in 2018 and in Paris in 2021.

As of November 2025, KVK, OCLC show only one partial holding of this title in North America, but no copies of this group of issues.

Price: €2,250.00

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