Yugoslavia first existed as vision. South Slav intellectuals on the Balkans shared the idea of a common state uniting people with a common language. But what did they do to turn their vision into reality? How did they intervene in times of radical change, which opened up the political horizon/a space for the creation of new order?
The thesis deals with this question against the background of the First World War and the formation of a new European Order. The focus lies on the political activities of the Serbian publicist Milan Ćurčin (1880-1960) in the period between 1914 and 1929. During his exile in London he promoted the independence of the Southern Slavs from the Habsburg monarchy. After Yugoslavia became reality with the foundation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Ćurčin published the political and cultural magazine "Nova Evropa" [New Europe] in Zagreb and fought for a liberal democratic state order. In the role of an intellectual he analysed his present and attempted to shape a Yugoslav state. The paper considers his political activities, taking into account his personal network in Zagreb, Belgrade, Vienna and London. In his profession as well as in private life Ćurčin was a networker, sharing information and connecting players in the fields of science, art, politics and journalism. Analysing his letter correspondences, publications as well as institutional documents the project therefore shows individual action following the idea of Yugoslavism within a transnational networks of European intellectuals. Viewing strategies of action and adaptation, success and failure it concludes about spaces and limits for political action and contributes to the understanding of intellectual's agency in times of radical change.