"Krajišnik" the newspaper in obscurity

Printed in Croatian, the first issue of ‘’Krajišnik’’ was published in Vinkovci on 20 December 1874. According to the announcement made by the editor N. A. Plavšić, the newspaper will be published every Sunday and Thursday in the morning hours as a brand new and political paper. As the first and only political newspaper in the Military Border then, except for Vinkovci and its wider surroundings, the editor’s office wished to become the press of the whole Border by subscription announcement and to gain readers in Civil Croatia with a help of contents selection. At the same time it aimed at subscribers outside the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in the Serbian princedom, Russian Empire and the Republic of France. The subscription announcement to ‘’Krajišnik’’, the first political paper in Croatian in the Military Border, was published on 10 May 1874. It marked Agram (Zagreb) and Vinkovci as announcement sites published in German. The personal name of the editor and paper’s board was marked in initial letter N. and the last name Plavšić. Apart from having been a publisher and the editor of ‘’Krajišnik’’, N. Plavšić was also a technical manager (director) of the Stock company printing plant in Zagreb (Aktiendruckerei in Agram). According to the announcement, the first issue of ‘’Krajišnik’’ was on 15 June 1874. The first five numbers were printed in 10000 issues and dispatched across the country via a subscription announcement. As subscribers, businessmen were also urged for cooperation to advertise their products and activities as well as public announcements and other sorts of advertisements. The content of ‘’Krajišnik’’ was considered to be very dangerous for the then social and political order, thus the Austrian authorities made the decision to confiscate and immediately burn the complete edition. The first number of ‘’Krajišnik’’ was attached as a proof to the this decision in the file, thus remaining the only preserved sample copy of the paper. How the mentioned paper ended in the collection of the forestry official Mato Medvidović in Vinkovci, is not clear; since then it has been in the possession of the Town Museum in Vinkovci