The story of the interwar Dawn/Future/Montenegro is inseparable from the vibrant development of the communist movement in Montenegro, its ups and downs, aspirations and goals.
Founded in Belgrade in April 1919 as the Socialist Workers' Party of Yugoslavia (Communist), the Communist Party of Yugoslavia adopted a new name the following year and gained a Montenegrin branch. In the elections for the Constituent Assembly held on 28 November 1920, in which the territory of present-day Montenegro was divided into three electoral units, the KPJ became the strongest political force in the province with 40 percent support.
The communists achieved their most convincing victory in Podgorica, the “red city”, where they received almost 50 percent of the votes (3.367 out of 6.740). Recognizing the Communist Party of Yugoslavia as a threat to “the state, its structure and social order”, warned by the example of the October Revolution in Russia, the Yugoslav King Alexander I Karađorđević issued the “Obzna” on 29 December 1920 through the Royal Government, ordering that until a new constitution was adopted, “all communist and other destructive propaganda be banned, their organizations be suspended, their meeting places be closed, their newspapers and all other writings be banned”.
After the adoption of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the Assembly passed the “Law on the Protection of the State” on 2 August 1921, which designated communist activity as criminal. The attempt of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia to covertly legalize its work through the Independent Workers’ Party of Yugoslavia, conceived in January 1923, did not last long, as the authorities banned it the following year. Until World War II, communists on the territory of the Yugoslav Kingdom operated in deep underground, facing persecution, arrests, police violence, and factional struggles for supremacy within their ranks...
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In these circumstances, in the communist worldview, sport was not perceived just as sport, but as a means of class awareness, resistance, and rebellion.
This was also talked about by the interwar player, and the first post-war president of Buducnost and the Football Board of Montenegro (the future Football Association of Montenegro). Vlado Božović.
"Although I can't say that the result wasn't important to us, the main focus was on spreading communist ideas among the people, and not just Podgorica. The sudden popularity of the club only helped us in that. An increasing number of young people began to gather around Buducnost. Secret meetings were held with them, where they were prepared to be participants in the revolutionary movement."
The influence of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in Montenegro and its encouragement were crucial for the agreement to establish the Workers' Sports Club Zora on June 12, 1925, in Podgorica, in the Jolo Vukčević tavern, which was located in today's Karađorđev Park, on the banks of the Ribnica River. The political motives and orientation were unambiguous: the founding meeting was opened by Nikola Kovacevic, secretary of the Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia for Podgorica, who was also appointed the first president of the club. The goals were understandable - gathering workers-athletes, covert political work and spreading progressive ideas.
The secretarial position was entrusted to a hairdresser. Milo Bulatović, the economist was Milan Raičević, a party activist, while the club's board also included Spasoje Raspopovic, Ilija Milacic, Jovo Terzic, Vuko Vucinic...
The name was chosen in a communist key, as a symbol of revolutionary upsurges and announcements of better days for the working class, which must dawn.
Possibly also encouragement: that no one was burning - until dawn.
"No one individually suggested the name of the society," Milan Raičević recalled.
"I would say that this was determined by the party leadership of Podgorica even before the founding assembly. Because, Dawn was associated with the dawning of the day, it was meant to say: even for us who groan under the auspices of bourgeois government, the true dawn will one day dawn."
Just to avoid any confusion about political affiliation, the first jerseys were red.
"They were actually shirts dyed red," he said. Djordjije Vucelic, player of Zora and Buducnost.
"There were no more than two or three pairs of shoes, and the other players usually tied their sandals with string to help them run and kick better."
And running and kicking were mostly done on Ćemovsko polje. In those first months of existence, Zora did not have access to the city stadium, or rather the playground, which was located next to the Military Quarter (the post-war barracks of the Yugoslav People's Army), on what is now Vaka Đurovića Street, from the intersection with Bulevar Ivana Crnojevića towards the Gymnasium.
"The owners of the official sports field did not allow us, as a sports workers' association, to train on their field. The authorities at the time used that field for their team and matches of the civic club [Balšić]," said Milan Raičević, who also remembered that the managements of Zora and the Cultural and Educational Association Abrašević - another workers' association close to the Communist Party of Yugoslavia - rented a room in a ground-floor house in Nova Varoš (near today's Independence Square), where they met, and the choir and theater section of Abrašević held rehearsals.
(From the monograph “Proud Past, One Future”, which will be on sale soon)
Bonus video:
