Yugoslavia's most closely guarded secret

And the desperate Damir from Zagreb had big life problems at the time. Who else will give him better advice than some unknown all-rounder?

Out of anguish, he took a pen in his hand and wrote the question of all questions. He put it in an envelope. And sent.

Long weeks of suffering and waiting followed (because there was no fast internet, no-no).

And then that day arrived. As soon as the seventh B class teacher appeared at the door with a thick roll in her hands, the class started commotion.

A sharp eye would have noticed how, on that particular day, one boy in the pew in particular was fidgeting, shuffling and blushing....

When the thin paper covers touched his desk, the shy Damir broke into a sweat.

He knew that all the boys would first rush to read the latest installment of the "A Boy Wanted" comic book. He shouldn't have been suspicious.

Looking around, he opened wide his latest issue of "Blue Swallow" in his hands. He quickly ran his eyes over the black and white squares, just for order. Because he was interested in what was behind, that something else...

When he made sure that everyone around him had already started scrolling on, he too took heart. He put the magazine down on the table and leaned over it. It's like he's hiding something. He opened the "section of all sections". The eyes glazed over, and the pulse quickened.

"Dear Lastane! Last school year, I had a fight with another..."; Dear Lastan, how to earn money for a bicycle...."; Dear Lastan, how to pass mathematics ..." the boy's eyes flew over the letters. - No, impossible! Did he forget again... - he lamented quietly.

Suddenly, his little cheeks became redder than the ripest Zagorje tomato, and his eyes stopped on a piece of text:

"Dear Lastan, I like a girl from the seventh grade next door. How can I approach her and declare my love? Damir, Zagreb."

Little Damir's heart was beating as if it would jump out of his chest. He was barely breathing when he started reading the answer.

"Dear Damir..." wrote the unknown sage: "..wouldn't it be better if you said the most simple 'hello' to her first?"

The editors did a better job of hiding the author of these lines, but how would an agent of some secret service be hidden! This "unknown sage" helped thousands of little Damirs, providing them with answers to questions that they did not dare to ask even their parents. Only two people knew the name that was hidden from the iconic and winged Lastan, and that until 2007.

Then it was finally discovered that it was Rudi Aljinović, the author and initiator of this most famous and most read children's column, who was the first Lastan!

The meeting with Lastan was the place where Yugoslav children looked for answers to all their troubles. And Rudi Aljinović answered the children's questions clearly, deftly and, of course, teasingly. Just in style! This is why the column, which he started together with editor Dragutin Brigljević in 1969, has survived for more than fifty years, and it still exists today. And how did it all begin?

Screenwriter, journalist, travel writer and keen scout Rudi came up with the idea of ​​a boy who would help his peers solve their problems. He could have been called anything - Drago, Duško or Martin. The editor liked the idea and suggested that it be called "Lastan". And the idea was a hit.

The editorial office of "Modre laste" thus began to receive 600 letters a week, and in some letters even dinars were hidden! The children would enclose ten dinars and their home address with the letter, begging Lastan to answer them, if not in the newspaper, then at least through a letter.

Rudi "wrote" Lastana for ten years. After that, he left the successor to continue the good work, and he went to some other waters. Namely, in addition to responding to children's troubles, Rudi was also a great fan of comics.

In his long career, he wrote scenarios for more than thirty comics that were published in Yugoslav newspapers, and he collaborated with all the great domestic cartoonists - Beker, Maurović, Bednjanac and many others.

He edited the magazine "Izviđač", and as a freelance journalist he wrote for many newsrooms in which he would also publish his travelogues. As he said, many newspapers called him to get a permanent job from the beginning. But he decided right at the beginning of his career that he would be a "freelancer". And all because of - the sea. Namely, Rudi could not bear to spend the summer in Zagreb. As a great lover of nature, he loved to travel, go camping or lie on the beach. Therefore, he always needed at least two to four months of peace!

In his older days, Rudi expressed his long-standing love for comics by writing about the history of Croatian comics. He wanted to complete it with the work "History of Comics in Croatia", but unfortunately, the disease was stronger.

He told Marijan Ožanić, who was visiting him in the retirement home, his life story.

- I loved people and I loved life. Life is beautiful, the only downside of life is that it is too short. I forget the bad sides, and only the good things remain. And comics brightened my life. We do not live only to eat, sleep and satisfy existential needs, we must also have some spiritual and intellectual pleasures. –

This iconic author said only the best about his colleagues who worked during the "Golden Age of Domestic Comics":

– I was lucky to work with a good generation of great artists. As much as I could contribute to them, they contributed even more to me. I only have good memories with comics. –

Big Rudi finally concluded: - Difficulties are also important in life. Difficulties are the salt of life. –

If only today we had some more wise advice from the all-knowing Lastan! Because Rudi was also a really happy man in reality. But we have no choice but to give him a hearty hand in our thoughts! Until another reading…