Modra Lasta - History

History

The very first issue, titled Djeca za Djecu ( Children for Children) was published in Zagreb in 1954 by Josip Sabolović, a primary school teacher, and featured contributions by his pupils. The editor-in-chief was Blankica Veselić. The first issue had only four black-and-white pages containing a few essays, drawings and song lyrics made by pupils. Djeca za Djecu soon got very popular so the following issues included contributions by pupils from other Zagreb schools, and eventually, from schools in other cities around the country. As the project grew larger, more adults got involved in it, so the magazine needed a new name. In 1959 a readership poll was held to determine the new name and the winning suggestion was Plava lasta (The Blue Swallow) - but since there was already a newspaper called Plavi vjesnik (The Blue Gazette), it was adapted into Modra lasta (modra and plava being synonymous terms for the color blue in Croatian).

It continued to be published throughout the following decades and it achieved huge readership numbers thanks to the independent distribution network (as it is distributed directly in most primary schools), the emphasis on children's contributions, and its colorful and simple coverage of topics that closely follow the school curriculum.