Throughout the past year, we published fragments from the Chronicle "Wheat in Flames" in each issue of our newspaper; however, for objective reasons, we did not include them in the early issues. Since this year is a jubilee year, marking the 25th anniversary of the Revolution, and in response to the expressed desire of many of our readers, we will continue publishing fragments of the chronicle authored by Milivoj Popov, starting from this issue.
The mass participation in the National Liberation Struggle and the increased activities of its members, who were carrying out various and difficult tasks every day, forced an ever-growing number of participants out of the legal ranks of fighters. As is known, the illegal conditions of life and work were extremely complicated and limited. As the number of participants rapidly increased, it became necessary to consider what to do with such a large number of people at this time of year, especially given the lack of any armed formations in the territory of Northern Banat.
Since the earlier months, there had been instructions from the District Committee to all party leaderships and activists, alerting them to the problems of increasing illegal participants in the struggle and the impossibility of involving them in this area. The instructions emphasized the need to focus on ways of operation that would reduce the number of families being “discovered” and thus exposing their affiliation with the National Liberation Movement (NLM) to the enemy. Only in this way could the rapid rise of individuals in illegal activity be prevented, which would also avoid the need to address issues such as their accommodation, food, and security.
Such a task could only be carried out up to a certain level of activity and mass participation, which inevitably required greater and more frequent engagement. This, in turn, led to faster discovery by the enemy's police and agents. To prevent sudden raids on party, youth, and other organizations, and to protect entire families, they were more and more often moved into illegality. The previous practice had to be abandoned: organized acceptance of new illegal participants and their transfer to Srem was established.
Now, the District Committee in Paris had adopted the practice of, after meeting the personnel needs for political and background work in the Northern Banat region, directing the remaining new illegal participants to Srem. Srem offered broader and freer opportunities for engaging these fighters, making it easier and more direct for them to join the formations of the National Liberation Army and partisan units.
In connection with this task, the Central Committee issued a directive to all district committees of the party to organize their own reception points for newly arrived illegal participants. The plan was for them to be gathered in these places, and once a group of 20-30 individuals had formed, they would be sent to Srem.
As part of this task, Miloš Popov, secretary of the Novi Bečej district committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ), was to restore and strengthen the permanent courier link with the organization in Farkaždin and Perlez, to ensure the smooth and uninterrupted transfer of fighters. According to an agreement with the secretary of the SKOJ organization, Dragutinova, and Beodre Milenko Milovanov, Veselin Isakov, known as “Čizmaš,” was appointed as the courier for this connection.
This brave and seasoned youth activist did not hesitate to accept the task given to him by his secretary. Following instructions, he quickly made contact with a member of the KPJ district committee, “Gavra,” from Melenac, who took him to the link in Farkaždin. They also brought along an entire partisan family from Dragutinovo, which could no longer maintain its activities in legal conditions. On the train, they did not sit in the same compartment to avoid arousing suspicion from the police: Veselin and Gavra were in one group, while Dobrinka Radnova, her husband Bogdan, and their young son Milan were in another.
The journey proceeded without significant issues, but there was constant fear that the fascist police and agents might disrupt their plans, considering their very vigilant surveillance of the movements of the entire population.
Upon disembarking at the Farkaždin train station, Veselin and Gavra were greeted by courier “Slobodan,” who took them, along with the partisan family, to a designated base. Here, they met the majority of other illegal participants from Northern Banat, who would soon be sent to Srem.
Courier Veselin spent the night here, familiarizing himself with his future, permanent task. The next morning, he was already on his way to Dragutinovo, where a new mission awaited him.
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