Nazor supported the opposition alliance led by Vladko Maček in the 1938 Yugoslavian election.[1] During World War II, on 30 December 1941, Nazor became a member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts by government decree,[2] but in 1942 he escaped from Zagreb with poet Ivan Goran Kovačić in a boat across the river Kupa, that was sublimed in poem The Boat on the Kupa (Čamac na Kupi) and joined the Partisans. However, there is also a different story related to Nazor's alleged escape. According to the Croatian writer and politician Nedjeljko Mihanović (citing a testimony from Nazor's sister), Nazor - who at the time was old and had health issues - did not escape on his own will but was abducted by communist agents for propaganda purposes and later forced to collaborate with the new government.[3] Nazor became one of Josip Broz Tito's closest associates and the President of Croatia's World War II assembly, the ZAVNOH.