Bordered by rivers and the Dinaric range, mountainous Bosnia, which once was an independent kingdom, has always been difficult for outsiders to conquer and control. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the Ottoman tide in Europe receded as a result of several wars with Austria and Russia, Bosnian spahis turned homeward from their lost estates in Galicia, Hungary, and Bessarabia, placing increased pressure on the local peasantry and causing the social unrest and rebellion which culminated in the uprising ustanak of The Austrian failure to solve the agrarian problem over a period of more than thirty years contributed directly to the events of , including the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip, the son of a Bosnian Serbian peasant.
In the zadruga each person had a specific responsibility, and before long Petar was put to watching the lambs, and later the sheep. As far as we know, Petar was an illiterate shepherd until the age of eleven, when he was sent for schooling to the monastery of Gomionica, where his father was abbot. Although he left the monastery after two years, completing his primary education at the Serbian Orthodox school in Banja Luka, he returned to Gomionica every summer, and it was during such visits that he heard much of the lore that would later appear in his stories.
In his fourth year of gymnasium, however, Petar became angry at his religion teacher over a poor grade, threw his book and swore; he was dismissed form class and fined. After a couple of incidents in bars, involving the singing of nationalistic songs and a brawl, Petar was expelled from school and sent home; but he travelled to Serbia instead, finishing his gymnasium there in , under conditions of extreme hardship and want.
Petar showed Janko a few poems he had written, and was advised to try prose instead. Such memoranda were not taken lightly by the Austrians, since copies were sent to the other participating powers of the Berlin Agreement.
It is truly ironic that at the same time that Petar found framework for political action, he also found the milieu in which to develop his talents as a writer. Eh, this is a real fool, the fool of crazy Bosnia! Prosecute a badger! What else will a man experience in this crazy Bosnia!
