Naughty schoolboy
How did Krleža fail the fourth grade of high school?
Krleža was a real bully as a child. As in his later years, he rebelled against all authority and always did as he pleased. A boy from the center, having enrolled in the Donjograd gymnasium, fell in love with his Latin teacher, a certain Muller, who came to the Zagreb gymnasium as a substitute. He argued with him every day.
He would criticize him for various little things - that he didn't tie his tie properly, that his hands were dirty, that he didn't write his homework neatly and many other things. He was always guilty of something. However, according to the custom of the time, every offense was followed by a beating, and often an insult. On one occasion, Miroslav did not want to put up with the bullying anymore, and when he was beaten, he defiantly stood up and said: - I am now going to the director and I will report you for beating me. - Following his plan, he ran into the director's office and told him everything, after which he transferred him to the Gornjograd gymnasium.
However, as Krleža claimed until the end of his life, a conspiracy against him took place there as well. Three professors – Latin, Greek and physics, mercilessly demolished him at the end of the fourth grade. Miroslav accepted the unit in Greek as possibly fair, but he could not reconcile himself to the insufficient Latin because he claimed that he was one of the best Latin in the class! He had a hard time accepting the grade drop, he was depressed for a year. Disappointed in the "conspiratorial" Zagreb, he decided to go to the military academy in Pécs, and later to Budapest, where he spent five full years of schooling. Thus, the young Latinist turned into a cynic, as he remained for the rest of his life.