Croatian Wartime Songs, 1914—1918

U radu se obrađuju zbirke pjesama koje su tijekom Prvoga svjetskog rata tiskane u hrvatskome kulturnom krugu. Autori tih pjesmarica, vojnici na bojištima i pojedinci u pozadini, opjevali su uspomene na mobilizaciju i borbe hrvatskih pukovnija u sastavu austro-ugarske vojske na Balkanskom i Istočnom, a kasnije i na Talijanskom bojištu. Pisane najčešće običnim jezikom i bez umjetničkih pretenzija, pjesme nude ratnu promidžbu na početku, suze i uzdahe tijekom, te gladovanje i vapaje za mirom na kraju rata. U radu se donose primjeri stihova s bojnih polja i iz pozadine.Millions of soldiers participated in the European and worlds battlefields during the World War I and millions of civilians in the front background. Numerous theater plays, concerts and other cultural activities were held during the four wartime years for humanitarian causes, also many poems were written and published on the pages of daily newspapers and special editions. In Croatian cultural milieu numerous collections of songs were printed, excluding the poems published in newspapers during the World War I. The sales were intended to support wounded soldiers, widows and orphans of fallen soldiers, or for the benefit of the Red Cross. The authors of these songs, soldiers on the battlefields and others, sang about the mobilization and fighting of Croatian regiments within the Austro-Hungarian army in the Balkans, Eastern Europe and later on Italian battlefields. The songs, usually written in plain language, without artistic pretensions, sing of jingoistic propaganda at the beginning of the war, tears and sighs during the war, and starvation and yearning for peace at the end of the war. Even though they do not cover whole dehumanized existence during the Great War, these collections of songs have rather documentary and not aesthetic value and today are open to all kinds of scientific interpretations