I am Dusan Vukić, I was born in Erdevik in 1960 as a twelfth child in the family. My family came to Erdevik in 1958 from Biovica Village in Croatia. I grew up in a multinational environment. Apart from Serbs also Slovaks, Croats, Bunjevci, Hungarians, Russians, Germans, Czechs live in the village, and there are Polish who live in two houses. I’m married to a Serbian woman from Srem. Before privatization, I worked in PP Erdevik, and I am currently unemployed. Erdevik is a dying village in both economic and ethnic sense. Someone should consider its extraordinary potential, like the villages on the slopes of Fruška Gora, where the conditions for growing the vines are the most favorable. Today, unfortunately, every third house in Erdevik is empty. According to the census there are 2,700 people, and in reality there are close to 2,000. In Ilok, about 9 km from Erdevik, there was a war, while nothing was happening here. Although a multinational environment, it has always been peaceful and quiet. Even from the center of the village, we watched the planes that flew over and hit the bridge “25 May”. I have never felt like a Croat in Serbia, because I am a Serbian. My people did not come during “The Storm”, they came for economic reasons. During the war nobody moved from Erdevik, just a few families, but not from national, but exclusively for economic reasons. Today, unfortunately, 50% of youth go to Slovakia to work because of the
crisis. The economy began to go down during the nineties and culminated in the war years. I go to Croatia now and I have no problems with them. There are people who have identical problems like us in Serbia.

Ja sam Dušan Vukić, rođen sam u Erdeviku 1960. godine kao dvanaesto dete u porodici. Moji su došli u Erdevik 1958. godine iz Biovičinog sela u Hrvatskoj. Odrastao sam u višenacionalnoj sredini.

Osim Srba, u selu žive i Slovaci, Hrvati, Bunjevci, Mađari, Rusi, Nemci, Česi, a u dve kuće žive i Poljaci. Oženjen sam Srpkinjom iz Srema. Pre privatizacije radio sam u PP Erdeviku, a trenutno sam nezaposlen. Erdevik je selo u odumiranju i u ekonomskom i u etničkom smislu. Neko bi trebalo da sagleda njegov izuzetan potencijal, kao sela na obroncima Fruške gore na kojima su najpovoljniji uslovi za uzgoj vinove loze. Danas je, nažalost, svaka treća kuća u Erdeviku prazna. Prema popisu ima 2.700 ljudi, a realno ih je blizu 2.000.

U Iloku, na oko 9 km od Erdevika, bio je rat, dok se ovde nije događalo ništa. Iako je višenacionalna sredina, uvek su bili mir i tišina. Čak smo zajedno iz centra sela gledali avione koji su nadletali i gađali most „25. maj“. Nikada se nisam osećao kao Hrvat u Srbiji jer sam Srbin. Moji nisu došli u Oluji, došli su iz ekonomskih razloga. I za vreme rata niko se nije odselio iz Erdevika, tek nekoliko porodica, ali ne iz nacionalnih, već iz isključivo ekonomskih razloga. Danas, nažalost, 50% omladine odlazi u Slovačku da radi zbog krize. Ekonomija je počela da ide nizbrdo devedesetih i kulminirala je ratom. Ja i sada odlazim u Hrvatsku i sa njima nemam nikakvih problema. Tamo žive ljudi koji imaju identične probleme kao mi u Srbiji.