150 YEARS SINCE THE FIRST SPEECH IN CROATIAN GIVEN IN THE CROATIAN PARLIAMENT ON MAY 5, 1843 BY IVAN

Motif: Portrait of Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski In 19th century, the Croatian parliament was the last in Europe in which Latin was still spoken. On 2 May, 1843 Ivan Kukuljević (1816 - 1889), poet, dramatist, writer, historian, bibliographer stood up in parliament and made his famous speech about the Croatian language and the need for it to replace the dead language of Latin. This is what he said: "I believe that the ranks and orders should begin to think about giving o u r language precedence and to use it in public life... because if we do not begin to think about this we shall remain what we now are, not a nation but the shadow of a nation and among the nations of Europe that function in their own living languages we shall be like a little deserted island in the sea and we shall sooner or later die with a dead language and our death will be that of a man who did absolutely nothing to revive and prolong his life." In spite of the enthusiasm of those persent Kukuljević's proposal was not at that time accepted. But as many times before and later the important thing was that it had been made and made in the proper place. Only four years later, 23 October 1847 Kukuljević repeated his proposal and this time it was accepted. The stamp was printed in sheets of 20. HPT issued a first day cover (FDC) and a commemorative sheet.