PRESENTATION OF BOOK ON LAST SOLDIER OF YUGOSLAV ARMY IN THE HOMELAND

SOKOLAC, NOVEMBER 5 /SRNA/ – A book by Marko Madžgalj about Vladimir Šipčić, one of the last soldiers of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland, was presented in Sokolac this evening. The book is titled "Gorski vuk Vladimir Vlado Šipčić" /The Mountain Wolf: Vladimir Vlado Šipčić/.

The author said the book was the result of eight years of research into the last royalist soldiers, who had been unjustly neglected and forgotten by history even though their sacrifice was immeasurable.

"My motive was patriotic: I wanted to record their sacrifice, because by profession I am neither a writer nor a researcher," Madžgalj told reporters.

He said Vladimir Šipčić was one of the most interesting figures in postwar Yugoslavia, and many anecdotes were linked to him.

"He was an intriguing man, and he was capable enough to hold out in that area for ten years after the war ended, when the state had already been established. He was alone against everyone, and from what I have found, he managed to outwit the entire state apparatus," the author said.

Madžgalj noted that the communists declared Šipčić dead on July 29, 1957, but his book proves he did not die that day.

He added that he had gathered information for the book from direct and indirect witnesses, UDBA secret police files, archives, and accounts from relatives and people who lived at the time.

The evening's moderator, Marijana Močević, said the book was not just a collection of written pages but a testimony to a man and his fate, and to a life in which he continued to resist the communist authorities after World War II.

Božica Janković, director of the Sokolac National Library, said there had been great interest in the book in Sokolac, which was why the presentation had been organized.