PART OF THE MONOGRAPH “GOJKO JAKOVLEVSKI” BY SLAVE KATIN
I n our conversation with Goyko Yakov leski, we learned that going abroad for a specialization, that is, for exchange of students at that time, was done through an international organization called IAST. He later understood why he was not allowed to take the final two exams: ” Anatomy of Tree ” and “Floods”, exams he had already prepared.
Allegedly, the reason was to motivate him and to provide him for a reason to return to the fatherland, or as Goyko puts it: “In Tito’s socialist paradise and the so called workers’ self-government, which was widely unknown for everybody and no one really knew how it worked.” This reminded him of a joke or a truth.
Namely, when the President of Turkey, as he says, he thinks it was Edzevit, visited the SFR Yugoslavia, officials at that time walked him to look at the factories and see how they were organized. They were telling in details about the “workers’ self management”. But before his departure, at the airport the President asked his adviser or an employee at the Turkish embassy in Belgrade about the “self-management”, and he said: “I understood everything, but I couldn’t understand what that “self management”meant? Then, his adviser briefly explained to him and said: “Mr. President, this is something like a Bashi bazouk, ala bala (bla-bla?). To that Edzevit replied, “Oh, now I understand!”
On July 19, 1961, Goyko was to leave his native place Zubovce and go to Germany. At the railway station in Gostivar he was seen off by his family and his friends and comrades with the song: “Come on Rado, come, and see me off, because I will go far way, hey, to Germany.” All who saw him off wished him a happy trip with the promise that they would wait for him to return alive and well soon.
Belgrade
From Gostivar he came to Skopje by train. After he arrived in Skopje that evening, he boarded the train to Belgrade. Veljo Simonovski, the president of the organization that was in charge of the student cooperation abroad (IAST), and who was in charge of the students from Macedonia, travelled with same train. On July 20, in the morning, they arrived in the capital of the SFR of Yugoslavia, Belgrade. Then Simonovski offered to help him to get his visa, for which, as he was told in Skopje, he would have to apply in Belgrade.
Immediately after getting off the train, Simonovski took him to the IAST office to find out if the West German visa was prepared. The answer was negative. Because Goyko had been receiving the same response for several days, that his visa had not yet been ready , he was forced to stay in Belgrade for more days than he had planned.
Goyko stayed in Belgrade, in the city often said to be the crossroads of the Balkan Peninsula and beyond, an international communication metropolis which roads lead to all parts of the world and around the world, both by land, water and air. It is due to its location, communication links, natural conditions, its territory and other characteristics. The very location of Belgrade gives it extraordinary and strategic importance. Its history is best seen in the names it had during the times, and it is a history of a very important frontier fortress, a place of war and reconciliation, a place for which Avars and Slavs and Austro Hungarians and Turks and Bulgarians, Byzantines, Hungarians, Germans .. . have fought.
Goyko told us that during his stay in Belgrade he was accommodated at his grandmother Vexima’s husband, a daughter of his great-grandfather Manoil, and a sister of his grandfather Petko. He was a nice looking man with an open heart. He was very happy that Goyko was his guest. He was alone because his grandmother Vexima was out of Belgrade those days. He spent many beautiful hours with him. He told him about his life, the problems he had. In a word, he was a pleasant interlocutor and a dear relative.
During his stay in Belgrade, he also met with Petko, whose mother’s name was Gorica. Petko had no father. He was his friend from Zubovce. Petko worked in a catering industry, he was in charge of a fast-food grocery store at Balkan Street, near Terasie and the Moscow Hotel. Petko occasionally gave him free food from the grocery store, which was a big support for Goyko. One day Petko even took him to the beach at Tashmaydan, and once Goyko went to swim alone on the Danube River between the old and the new bridge.
At that time many Macedonians from Gostivar, Tetovo, Bitola, Struga, Prilep, Kichevo and other regions of Western Macedonia were rushing to Belgrade trying to find a job. That number increased even further between the two world wars, especially after the World War II, when Belgrade was lacking bakers, restaurant owners, seed sellers, pastry makers and other craftsmen, but it was full of well known and recognized cultural workers, politicians and citizens of the world.
To be continue
By SLAVE KATIN
