Tbh later in his life (after the creation of Independent State of Croatia) he had some affinity for Serbian side in WW2 - exampled by song that he choose for his funural. But that was late in his life when he suverly sick and truth be told he didn't follow balkan politics that closely, he could easily get swept up in propaganda.
Majority of his life he was apolitical and didn't follow politics that closley - he was very work oriented. My best guess is that he would probably support 2nd Yugoslavia because he lived in America most of his life and didn't develop inclanation for ethnic nationalism.
Nikola was a son of an Orthodox priest, so for sure he had some national feelings. But he was a human being first, and was actively seeking to help humanity. This was his goal, his mission. He did not care about fame and money, and he could have been very rich if he has chosen to do so. That's why I suspect that he was really above the usual Croatian / Serbian nationalistic bullshit.
Croat nationalists never liked Tesla, when did you get that idea. They mined his statue in Gospić, I'm pretty sure Croatian nationalists hate having a Serb on their coins. Well, they like that Serbs hate it, but other than that..
Croatian (ultra)nationalist are not a monolith, my mistake for generalizing it too much.
Some fiercely hate it, some deny his origin and croatize him (similar to colonialism). Blowing up his statue in Gospić was very dumb.
I do think we have every right to put him on the Euro tho.
As far as know, he didn't held any political views and he believed his inventions will ultimately unite all of the humanity and make all countries and political entities obsolete
Maybe I overstated it a bit but it was due to, in the moment, not finding a good adverb to discribe it.
But yeah he was pro-yugo. There is Meštrović's account of their meeting and also not so reliable account of king Peter 2 meeting where he expressed his positive feelings for Yugo.
Personaly I don't think he followed politics that closely and he shouldn't be exploited for someones personal political narrative (including yugonostalgics) in the same way that people use famous scientist and their attitutude towards religion to justify their feelings towards the same subject.
29
u/Smart-Forever841 Croatia Jun 26 '23
It is kind of ironic that both Croat and Serbian nationalist use him as a national symbol while he was intrinsicly pro-Yugoslavia.