The former DPS government in Andrijevica took such good care of the Memorial House of Mihailo Lalić in his native village of Trepča that they even lost the key to the front door.
So the new authorities, as the acting director of the Culture Center Ivan Radojević says, had no choice but to break the armored lock.
"If it wasn't tragic it would be funny. These are cheap Chinese blind doors, so the damage will not be great if we break them. It is tragic, however, that we are taking over this important building in this way," says Radojević.
According to him, what they found there is difficult to describe with another word, shame.
“Total neglect. Stray dogs have found a way to settle inside. Is there anything else I need to tell you about that", asks Radojević.
He said that it is the firm determination of the new local authorities in Andrijevica to finally put the Memorial House into operation.
"Lalić deserved that building to shine in full glory. To be a mirror of culture. We will find a way to do it urgently and make it one of the highest priority tasks for the Culture Center, which I head," says Radojević.
He states that he will get in touch with the son and the family of the great man of the written word, so that they too will be fully aware of what will be done and how the house will be valorized.
"Maybe they give us some ideas and suggestions. Maybe they will give us some valuable literature or manuscripts that they would place there and make a library and a small museum", says the director of the Cultural Center in Andrijevic.
He also claims that he will propose to the management of the Municipality that a cultural manifestation be established in memory of Mihail Lalić and that it is most natural and appropriate to organize that manifestation in the Memorial House.
"Now it seems completely unnatural to me that some events are organized in other areas. A round table, literary days or anything else that has Mihail Lalić in its name should be organized in Andrijevica, that is, in his native village of Trepča, in this Memorial House, which was intended for that, but, unfortunately, has not been for more than a decade. put into operation", says Radojević.
Mihailo Lalić's memorial house in the village of Trepča was purchased for these purposes thanks to donations and allocations from the Government and the municipalities of Berane and Andrijevica a little over ten years ago.
At that time, it was calculated that it is better to buy an existing house, not far from the foundation of this great man's birthplace, than to build a new one. The purchase and furnishing cost about forty thousand euros.
The Memorial House was officially opened and handed over to the Andrijevic Cultural Center for management and management.
Mihailo Lalić, however, has been present only in the name of that city's cultural institution, while his house has been empty and far from the public eye until today.
The former DPS local administration made countless promises that in the coming period they would take measures to make the memorial house in Trepča function as it was originally intended.
Former Minister of Culture Aleksandar Bogdanović promised that Lalić would return to his homeland via the Memorial House two years ago, during his visit to Andrijevica.
The question now arises as to whether some financial resources were diverted to the Municipality of Andrijevica that were not spent as intended.
"I have some information that funds have been earmarked for putting the Memorial House into operation. We will try to check it and see if they went in another direction", said the director of the Cultural Center.
Radojević is categorical about the fact that culture will be a priority for the new local authorities (SNP, NSD, Democrats) and that, precisely because of this, putting the Memorial House into operation will be one of the first tasks.
"All the facts from the past of Andrijevica, as the former spiritual and cultural center of Gornji Polimlje, oblige us to change the relationship we had so far towards culture," says Radojević.
It's a shame, he says, that the Cultural Center has so many employees and a budget that is almost two hundred and fifty thousand euros for this year, and that there are zero cultural events.
"It would be a shame for larger urban areas, not for Melena Andrijevica," Radojević believes.
If I'm in a fight with people, I'm not with appetizers
Lalić, the first winner of the Njegoš award in 1963 for the novel "Lelejska gora", and the laureate of the NIN award in 1973 for the novel "The Luck of the War", have yet to be returned to their homeland.
Recently, 105 years have passed since Lalić's birth.
Today, he has "his own street", i.e. a boulevard in Podgorica, he is represented in school programs and reading materials. His literary work became a special subject - Mihailo Lalić's Poetics, a one-semester course at the Faculty of Philology in Nikšić.
In the homeland, it exists only in the name of the Cultural Center and the so far non-functioning Memorial House.
"If I'm in a fight with the people there, I'm not with the appetizers. When I look at them, I change my mood," the great novelist used to say, illustrating his relationship with his homeland.
The municipality of Andrijevica, according to all indicators, is currently one of the poorest municipalities in the country.
This small town in the middle of the nineteenth century was, however, the cultural and spiritual center of this part of Montenegro.
Less known are the facts that after the capital Cetinje, the first state school in Montenegro was opened in Andrijevica.
Also, in 1892, the first library and reading room in Montenegro were opened in Andrijevica.
In the period from 1882 to 1910, several more private schools started operating in this area.
This gave extraordinary results in the field of enlightenment, so according to the population census from 1909, in proportion to the number of inhabitants, Andrijevica was the second town in terms of the number of literates in Montenegro, right after Cetinje.
Today, Andrijevica has barely any students for one class of first graders due to significant migration, and the survival of the high school center in this town is being questioned due to the low influx of students.
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