The Scriptum.cz web archive provides access to various non-commercial and online Czech exile and samizdat periodicals. This is a unique collection of works that are often not accessible anywhere and are constantly being refilled.

The bequest of Rusko Matulić, an American engineer and writer of Yugoslav origin, is held in the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. The collection largely encompasses Matulić's activities as a political émigré in the United States of America, when he mainly dealt with the publication of the bi-monthly bulletin of the Committee Aid to Democratic Dissidents in Yugoslavia (CADDY). The bulletin and organization acted as a part of the Democratic International, established in New York in 1979. Mihajlo Mihajlov, one of the most prominent Yugoslav dissidents, was a member and the main initiator of launching the CADDY organization and its bulletin. Rusko Matulić was Mihajlov's main collaborator in the overall CADDY project.

Jaroslav Drábek Jr (1901–1996), a Czech lawyer, journalist and member of the Czechoslovak resistance movement during the Second World War, was the author of a lecture entitled “A Contribution to the History of the Beginning of the Czechoslovak Resistance”, which was presented on 9 December 1960 as part of the series “Contributions to the Development of the Idea of the Czechoslovak State” organized by the Czechoslovak Society for Arts and Science. The 33-page article includes descriptions of Drábek’s memories of his resistance activities, his escapes, interrogations, the Gestapo, and his colleagues in exile in London. Drábek also described other experiences from the postwar period, such as the arrest and torture of his colleague after the Communist coup. After February 1948, Drábek emigrated from Czechoslovakia. The document also includes a letter from the Czech scientist and prominent member of the anti-Nazi resistance, Professor Vladimír Krajina, who also emigrated after 1948. In his letter, Krajina mentions the fact that it was Jaroslav Drábek Jr who persuaded him to be active in the resistance during the Second World War.

Securitatea was a quarterly aimed at improving the training of Securitate operative personnel. Its articles were written by Securitate officers for Securitate officers and thus they touched upon practical problems faced during their specific mission of preventing and neutralising any actions that potentially threatened the communist regime. Among the many dangers that were outlined in the pages of the quarterly as undermining “state security” were foreign radio stations, and especially Radio Free Europe (RFE). The article chosen as a featured item of the collection presents under the title “Cu referire la relațiile cetățenilor români cu unele posturi de radio capitaliste” (About the relations of Romanian citizens with some capitalist radio stations) the perspective of the Securitate upon the activity of RFE and evaluates its contribution in providing an alternative source of information for Romanians. In the absence of underground publications, RFE represented the main source of alternative information in communist Romania. Thus, the Securitate regarded RFE and contacts between Romanian citizens and employees of the Romanian desk of this radio station as dangerous to the communist regime. Accordingly, the entire article focuses on revealing how RFE allegedly acts in order to undermine “state security.” Starting from the premise that RFE is the locus “of espionage, ideological diversion, and hostile propaganda,” the anonymous author traces the connection between this radio station and the American espionage machine, namely the CIA. The Central Intelligence Agency was credited with financing RFE and setting its agenda even after the American Congress officially took responsibility for financially supporting its functioning. The control of the CIA over RFE was underlined once again when discussing its organisation. The two management structures in the United States and Europe were allegedly infiltrated by CIA agents who engaged the radio station in their “ungentlemanly” war against communist countries and used it to collect information about them. As a result, the CIA used the microphone of RFE to proffer slanders and shamefully distort the realities of the communist countries, according to the Securitate’s interpretation of the broadcasting of news and other political programmes by this radio station. Even worse from the point of view of the Securitate was that people travelling abroad were an easy prey for “agents” working at the Romanian desk of RFE. After underlining the connection between its director, deputy director, and programme producers with the CIA, the article describes how they allegedly succeeded in manipulating Romanian tourists in order to collect valuable information about the country, its leadership, and the impact of its social and economic policies on the mood of the population. In other cases, they even managed to trick their “victims” and persuade them to emigrate. The narrative of blaming RFE for these “unpatriotic” deeds was an ideologically convenient explanation for the fact that the great majority of Romanians listened to and trusted RFE, in spite of the fact that this might have caused problems. At the same time, such a narrative was meant to highlight the vital role played by the Securitate as a guardian of the communist regime in Romania.

This letter is an important document for the history of dissidence in Romania, being a proof of the open opposition of a Romanian living in the country to the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu. In this case the writer was Victor Frunză, a Romanian writer and journalist, who in 1978 went as tourist to Paris. On this occasion, he contacted a representative of the Reuters Agency, to whom he handed a letter addressed to Nicolae Ceaușescu. He wrote the text of the letter in Romania and memorised its content in order not to carry it and be discovered at customs control. So he rewrote it from memory after he arrived in France. The material in question was published by Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung and broadcast by Radio Free Europe. Also, a copy of the letter was sent by Victor Frunză, by post, to Nicolae Ceaușescu. Essentially, his letter was a criticism of Ceausescu's dictatorship: "I want to manifest deep disagreement with the revival of the cult of personality, today is an improved version, decorated with the national flag." Frunză's conclusion was that "the type of socialist democracy in Romania is nothing more than a parody of discussions through speeches, even if these are not written by those who speak them." The document is in the IICCMER archive and is an original copy of the German letter published in 1978 in Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung. The letter was subsequently published by Victor Frunză in Romanian, at the publishing house he founded after the emigration, in the pages of the book For Human Rights in Romania (1982). The second edition of this volume appeared in 1990, in Bucharest, under the aegis of Victor Frunză Publishing House.

A gyűjtemény egyike Magyarország legfontosabb szamizdat gyűjteményeinek. A Múzeum Könyvtára és Levéltára az 1980-as években kezdte el szisztematikusan gyűjteni a szamizdat anyagokat. Az anyagokat zár alatt tartották, s a nagyközönség számára hozzáférhetetlenek voltak 1989-ig. A rendszerváltás után a Múzeum volt az első olyan intézmény, amely a magyarországi szamizdatról kiállítást rendezett.

Jan Čep (1902-1974) was one of the most prominent representatives of modern Czech prose. His collection contains his manuscripts of radio reflections, which he wrote for Czechoslovak Radio Free Europe. Through his reflections, he tried to face totalitarianism and spiritually strengthen people "at home".

The events that transpired alongside the fall of the Romanov monarchy in February 1917, the takeover of the Winter Palace by the Bolsheviks in October 1917, and the dissolution of the Constitutional Assembly in January 1918 are immensely significant for understanding Ukrainian history and cultural opposition to communism. During that year of upheaval, many divergent visions for the future were articulated throughout the Russian Empire. In the Imperial Southwest, the Bolsheviks battled monarchists, nationalists, socialists, greens and anarchists over how to move forward during and after the collapse of empire.

The Ukrainian Museum-Archives has in its possession an original broadside of the Third Universal, issued by the Central Rada on November 20, 1917, in the four major languages used in the Imperial Southwest—Ukrainian, Russian, Polish and Yiddish. This document is reflective of efforts by the Central Rada to appeal to various communities living on the territory, while negotiating with the Provisional Government for greater autonomy. As historian George Liber notes, the first two proclamations of Rada did not define the borders of Ukraine, but the Third Universal asserted that the nine provinces in the Imperial Southwest with Ukrainian majorities belonged to the Ukrainian National (or People’s) Republic. The document also claimed parts of Kursk, Kholm/Chelm and Voronezh provinces, where Ukrainians also constituted the majority. The Central Rada also pledged to defend the interests of all national groups living in these territories and articulated a law protecting personal and national autonomy for Russians, Poles, Jews and others.

Shortly after this, the UNR established diplomatic ties with a number of European countries and even the United States. Britain and France tried to persuade the UNR leadership to side with them against the Central Powers, which they refused as they were determined to stay neutral. The Soviet Russian Republic initially recognized the UNR, but this was short-lived as the Red Army soon moved in from the north and east. This prompted the Rada to issue the Fourth Universal on January 25, 1918, which declared independence of the UNR as defined by the Third Universal. This made the push for greater autonomy within the context of empire a war of nationalist secession. (Liber, 62-63)

The Karl Laantee collection at the Estonian Cultural History Archive is part of the large archival legacy of Karl Laantee, an émigré Estonian religious activist, and announcer with the Voice of America radio station. 

The manuscript of Mihajlov's travels, “Moscow Summer,” written in English is in the box 28. The text was the fruit of Mihajlov's visit to the Soviet Union in the summer months of 1964. Mihajlov supported Nikita Khrushchev's reforms and the program of de-Stalinisation, and he criticized the changes in the Soviet leadership after Kruschev’s fall. This criticism alarmed those in charge of Yugoslavia’s foreign policy, since it could once more undermine Soviet-Yugoslav relations, which had normalized in the mid-1950s.

Referring to the publication of the first two essays of this book, Tito himself called out Mihajlov in February 1965 as a result of pressure from the Soviet ambassador due to his criticism of the new political course following the fall of Khrushchev in the autumn of 1964. Despite censorship of Mihajlov’s essays in Yugoslavia, American politicians and the public were interested in Mihajlov's case precisely because of his stance on the Soviet Union during the political upheavals in the upper echelons of the Soviet party in those years.

The Libri Prohibiti’s collection of Czech exile monographs and periodicals contains over 8100 publications including the complete works of many publishers. More than 940 titles of Czechoslovak exile periodicals, some of them complete editions, are part of this collection as well.

Ferdinand Peroutka, who represented the democratic past of Czechoslovakia, and mainly the First Czechoslovak Republic, became the director of the Czechoslovak section of Radio Free Europe (RFE) in New York on 6 April 1950. The Czechoslovak service of the RFE began its regular broadcasting from Munich on 1 May 1951 with the famous phrase “This is the voice of Free Czechoslovakia, Radio Free Europe.” One of the first speakers was also Ferdinand Peroutka, who stated, besides other things: “One magazine would mean little in a country where freedom reigns. But one free magazine, one radio station in a dictatorial regime – that is a revolution, because such a system is based on the fact that only the government can speak and nobody can answer back, that anyone can be charged, but nobody can defend themselves. However, once even a fraction of freedom enters that rigid and artificial system, from anywhere, once it is again possible to set argument against argument, once it is no longer possible to act without criticism, once there is a place to call untruths into question, then this whole proud system quavers.”

The Literary Archives of the Museum of Czech Literature possesses a mimeograph copy of the typescript of this speech.

Fejtő Ferenc Könyvtára egy eredeti demokratikus baloldali gondolkodó gyűjteménye. A Könyvtár egyedülálló lenyomata a kelet-európai jobboldali tekintélyelvűség, a szocialista diktatúra és a nyugat-európai baloldali romantika kritikájának. A mindenkori európai szellemi elittel szoros kapcsolatokat ápoló Fejtó 1938-ban hagyta el Magyarországot és költözött Franciaországba. A szabadságot nélkülöző Kelet-Európa sorsa iránti mély elköteleződése azonban haláláig megmaradt.

The collection belongs to the group of the most relevant archival resources for researching the communist regime’s relationship with and repression against religious communities in Croatia, and their organisations, priests and other religious officials. It contains documents collected or produced by the State Security Service of the Republic Internal Affairs Secretariat of the Socialist Republic of Croatia, the civilian security and intelligence service in Croatia in the period from 1946 to 1990. Different cultural opposition activities of certain religious communities and their members can be studied on the basis of its documents. Criticism (concealed and public) of communist rule and its social and political system, i.e. the official doctrine of atheism, is especially visible.          

The Goma Movement Ad-hoc Collection includes numerous plans of action against the individuals involved in supporting the open letter of protest against the violation of human rights in Romania which was to be addressed to the CSCE Follow-Up Conference in Belgrade. Each Securitate informative surveillance file contains periodically updated plans of action, but these usually required only the approval of the high-ranking Securitate officer in charge of the case of the person in question. What is remarkable about this plan of action, which is part of Goma’s personal file, is its endorsement by the highest possible office holders in the Ministry of the Interior, to which the Direction of State Security was directly subordinated in 1977: the plan was countersigned by Nicolae Pleșiță, first deputy minister, and finally approved by Teodor Coman, the minister of the interior himself. Obviously, the hierarchical level of those who endorsed this plan indicates the great importance attached to this case. It is worth noting that the “successful” handling of the Goma Movement, in which Pleșiță involved himself and acted as Goma’s head interrogator, led to his promotion to the rank of lieutenant general in 1977. The same year, he coordinated the repressive measures taken by the regime in the aftermath of the Jiu Valley miners’ strike of August. Pleșiță remains notorious, however, for his actions while head of the Centre for Foreign Intelligence between 1980 and 1984, in particular for the 1982 failed attempt at suppressing Goma while in exile in Paris, and for the 1981 bomb attack on the RFE headquarters in Munich, for which the Securitate seems to have hired the infamous terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal. After 1989, Pleșiță showed no remorse for his misdeeds, and all attempts to hold him legally responsible for these wrongdoings eventually failed.     

A közel fél évszázada Korzikán élő magyar légiós veterán, Nemes Sándor az ezredforduló éveiben összeállított ’Légiós szótára’ jól tükrözi a Francia Idegenlégió soknyelvű, multietnikus és multikulturális világát – és benne a jelentős számú magyar önkéntes egyedi csoportidentitását. Mindennek megértéséhez elengedhetetlen néhány történeti adalék. Az 1831-ben Lajos Fülöp király által alapított Francia Idegenlégió máig jogfolytonos és aktív, mintegy 9000 fős haderőként erősen őrzi hagyományait, noha az 1960-as évek óta gyarmati hódító, megszálló sereg helyett mára főként nemzetközi békemissziókra, humanitárius és terrorelhárító feladatokra kiképzett elit-alakulatok hálózataként működik Franciaországban és a világ számos más pontján.

Különös paradoxon, hogy a Francia Idegenlégió – egy sor gazdasági, politikai krízis és háborúvesztés következtében – jó egy évszázadon át makacsul őrizte legénységi állománya németajkú (svájci, osztrák, elzászi, lotharingiai német, stb) többségi dominanciáját, ami jó időn át még vezényleti nyelvében és folklórjában – így eredetileg német indulóiban – is számos nyomot hagyott. Nem meglepő hát, hogy kivált az 1945 és 1956 utáni években, mikor a légiós toborzó statisztika több mint 4000 magyar újoncot regisztrált, mind jobban fölerősödött a magyar önkéntesek összetartása is, úgymond, ’a német maffiával’ szemben, amint azt Nemes Sándor és bajtársai is kiemelik emlékezéseikben. A szoros katonai hierarchiában, pláne háborús viszonyok között (Indokína, Algéria!) szükségképp rejtve így hát egy „kétfrontos” kulturális és identitásbeli ellenállás alakult ki a magyar rekruták körében: egyrészt a döntően francia és gyakran kihívóan fensőbbséges tisztikarral, másrészt a németajkú altisztekkel és tiszthelyettesekkel szemben. Mindezt tovább árnyalja, hogy a magyar önkéntesek (légiós ragadványnevükkel: a ’kicsik’, ’hunok’ vagy ’attilák’) maguk sem voltak egységesek kulturális és politikai csoport-identitásukat tekintve, hiszen a ’45 utáni „Horthy-huszárok’ és az ’56 utáni „Kádár-leventék”, még ha csak alig egy évtizednyi korkülönbséggel is, voltaképp két markánsan eltérő nemzedéket képviseltek. Az utóbbiak közül ez főként azok esetében tűnt ki, akiket a forradalom és a harcok gyakran kamaszként megélt élményközössége évtizedekre összekapcsolt, s akik, mint a provence-i magyar veteránkör tagjai, a legtovább éltették annak emlékét csoportos rítusaikkal (bankettek, koszorúzások, ’56-os relikviák gyűjtése és megosztása másolatban, majd a világhálón).

A fentieket Nemes Sándor Légiós szótárában főként a szerző előszava s a szótár 2-6. fejezetei illusztrálják számos további beszédes adalékkal. (Lásd: 2. Légiós argó- és jövevényszavak; 3. Beszédfordulatok, szólások, szállóigék; 4. Gyakoribb német jövevényszavak;  5. Gyakoribb arab jövevényszavak; 6. Az egyes nációk légiós gyűjtőnevei)

This document is an important source of documentation for the understanding and writing of the history of the Romanian exile community in the 1980s. It concerns the organisation that Romanians of the emigration established to unmask the wrongdoings of the communist regime in their native country to the West in the hope that they would find external support for the removal of communism in Romania. In particular, the document illustrates exile actions for the observance of human rights in Romania, as it testifies to the existence of a political body set up for this purpose, namely Liga Românilor din Exil pentru Drepturile Omului (The League of Romanians in Exile for Human Rights). It had its headquarters in Paris and was coordinated by Virgil Veniamin, who was a personality of the exile. A graduate of the Law Faculty of the University of Paris in 1930, he was a professor of international law and a lawyer, as well as being a distinguished member of a Romanian political party, the National Peasant Party. The establishment of the communist regime found him at home in Romania, which he left clandestinely in February 1948, settling in Paris. In exile, he was particularly noted for his activity as president of the Carol I Royal University Foundation and as a member of the Romanian National Committee, considered by its founders as the Romanian government in exile. In the 1970s he was involved in a major scandal in the Romanian exile community when he was accused of collaborating with the Securitate in Bucharest. Today, based on the documents contained in the file on him created by the former Romanian secret police, it can be ascertained that he was indeed an agent of influence of the communist regime within the exile community. The document kept in the Ion Dumitru Collection is a request sent by the collector to Virgil Veniamin on 23 February 1980, asking him to accept affiliation to the central section in Paris of Liga Românilor din Exil pentru Drepturile Omului (The League of Romanians in Exile for Human Rights) of a newly established West German section based in Munich, in which Ion Dumitru had been elected chairman. In response to this request, Ion Dumitru received a favorable reply from Virgil Veniamin. Both documents, in A4 format, can be found in the private archive of Ion Dumitru at IICCMER.

The Oral History Collection at CNSAS is a unique collection of this kind as it includes only interviews with individuals who are the subjects of personal files in the CNSAS Archives, and who after studying these personal files created by the Securitate agreed to narrate their own experience of entanglement with the secret police. The interviewees include not only individuals who were under surveillance and thus victims of the Securitate, but also individuals who collaborated with the secret police to provide information on others: family, friends, and colleagues. Both types of interviews represent the response of the interviewees to the narrative created about them by the Securitate.

The Ștefan Gane Collection documents in photographs and slides the extent of the demolitions imposed by the so-called systematisation programme in Bucharest following the devastating earthquake of 4 March 1977, which the communist regime used as a pretext for destroying or mutilating numerous historic monuments. The Ștefan Gane Collection is also an important source for understanding and writing the history of that particular segment of the Romanian exile community which was extremely active in disseminating in Western countries information about the aberrant policies of the Ceaușescu regime. In particular, this personal archive illustrates the efforts of the collector and of other personalities from the exile community to stop the systematisation of Bucharest.

The Ion Dumitru Collection is the richest and most diverse of all the private archives of the Romanian exile community, which makes it indispensable for the study of the history of postwar Romanian exile. The collection is also a fundamental source for documenting and understanding Romania's (domestic and foreign) political, cultural, economic, and social evolution during both the communist and post-communist periods. At the same time, this private archive is a historical source both for understanding how the Bucharest authorities acted to divide the Romanians abroad and to counteract their actions aimed at unmasking the wrondoings of the communist regime between 1948 and 1989 in the West and for how Romanians within the country perceived the emigrant community.

Ivana Tigridová (1925-2008) was a journalist and human rights activist. She was one of the most distinguished personalities of Czechoslovak exile. In Paris, she founded two organisations supporting prisoners and persecuted opponents of the regime in Czechoslovakia and other countries of the Eastern Bloc.

The digital collection of the Oral History Center contains more than 2000 interviews with twentieth-century witnesses, which are divided into different themes and topics, thus presenting a unique collection of professionally created interviews and memories, many of which are related to the theme of cultural opposition.

This chart epitomises the typical and efficient method which the Romanian secret police, the Securitate, used against those who attempted to establish networks of dissent in Romania. It seems to have been drafted for the Securitate officers who prepared the operative decision-making process regarding an emerging human rights movement in Romania, inspired by Charter 77. The driving force behind this movement was the writer Paul Goma, who initiated the movement in February 1977 by drafting a collective letter of protest against the violation of human rights in Romanian, which he and more than 200 other individuals eventually endorsed and addressed to the CSCE (Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe) Follow-Up Meeting in Belgrade. It was the first time that the Romanian secret police, the Securitate, had faced such an enormous challenge, and thus it had to react quickly in order to curtail the spread of the movement. In order to counteract this movement, the secret police had to collect in two months complex information about all those involved. 

This chart and its annexes epitomise the collection of these complex data in the short time span between 9 February, when the collective letter was first broadcast by Radio Free Europe, and 1 April 1977, the day when the secret police arrested Paul Goma. The first thing one notices about this chart is its resemblance to the drawings made by high school teachers to facilitate a better understanding of a topic. The chart actually highlights Goma’s connections with the internal and external supporters of this movement which at that time constituted a collective action of unprecedented magnitude in communist Romania and implicitly a novel challenge for the Securitate. The chart only contains a schematic representation of Paul Goma’s relations with other persons (schema legăturilor lui Paul Goma). The central field, which features Paul Goma, is connected left and right with two columns of differently coloured fields. The left-hand column seems to represent a typology of individuals whom Goma had contacted in order to send documents relating to the activity of the emerging movement across the border to a Western country. They are divided into four categories: diplomats, foreign journalists, “reactionary elements from the emigration” and “autochthonous elements.” The right-hand column seems to categorise all those who had contacted Goma with the purpose of endorsing the movement. At the time when this chart was drawn, the Securitate had been able to scrutinise only 288 persons out of 430; the number of those identified to date is added in pencil. About these persons, there are three types of information offered: the actions taken (against them), their method of contacting Goma, and their political background (antecedente politice). The complex data collected about all these, which is included in annexes to this chart, included age, ethnicity, profession, education, place of residence and political background, meaning information about previous anti-regime activities.

The chart is an unusual type of document in the archives of the Securitate. Its unique character is directly related to the novelty of the challenge which the Securitate had to confront with Paul Goma’s attempt to establish a Romanian Charter 77. The novelty was twofold: it consisted both in the network established and the ideas expressed by this movement. Such a rapid solidarisation of individuals around a common purpose did not occur in communist Romania either before or after the Goma movement. At the same time, the defence of human rights was a totally alien idea and ideal in the political traditions of Eastern Europe in general, and of Romania in particular, even considering the period before the communist takeover. Thus, this emerging movement which implied the defence of a political idea (and not a material benefit) must have been really puzzling for the Securitate officers, who did their best to grasp the situation and understand the “real” motivations of the individuals protesting for the observance of such an “abstract” issue as human rights. This coloured chart and its annexes testify to the methods used by the Securitate in order to disaggregate a collective action for a common interest, the observance of human rights, into a multitude of individual actions, driven by personal interests and thus easier to break apart. In Goma’s words, “this is the use of statistics in the house of terror” (Goma 2005, 412).

The Mojmír Vaněk collection is a unique collection of materials that relate to the life and activities of Mojmír Vaněk. The activities of this distinctive, albeit unknown, Czechoslovak exile was very important for the dissemination of Czech music abroad, as well as his activities within the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, the Swiss branch of which he presided over for many years. The collection is at the Comenius Museum in Přerov.

The émigré manuscripts of the painter Joze Kljaković are located at the archives of the Pontifical Croatian College of St. Jerome in Rome. The collection is a source for the study of Kljaković's prose and current affairs writing during his émigré life in Italy and Argentina. Kljaković stands out as an example of the culture of dissent, having written a handful of manuscripts at the time of exile, in which he heavily criticized the socialist regime in Croatia and Yugoslavia.

The Lovinescu–Ierunca Collection at the Central National Historical Archives (ANIC) in Bucharest is arguably the most important collection created by the Romanian Diaspora in Paris. The collection illustrates not only Monica Lovinescu and Virgil Ierunca’s interest in the subject of dissent in Romania but also how their activity at Radio Free Europe (RFE) created a transnational network of support for those who decided to speak against the regime.

A göteborgi Tóth Magángyűjtemény az 1980-as évek elején nemzetközi hírnevet szerző magyar nyelvű Ellenpontok szamizdatkiadvány legösszetettebb anyaga, amely beavat a kommunista Románia emberjogi és kisebbségi küzdelmeinek a részleteibe. Ugyanakkor a Tóth családra következményként beköszönő emigrációs életút magyarországi, kanadai, svédországi szakaszainak tárgyi részei, mint például a hivatalos iratok, kéziratok, hangfelvételek, fotók, magánlevelezés és kisebbségi szakkönyvek, rávilágítanak a gyűjtők kulturális erőfeszítéseire, melyek célja az volt, hogy javítsanak az otthonmaradottak helyzetén.  

The Zina Genyk-Berezovska Collection at the T.H. Shevchenko Institute of Literature in Kyiv is crucial for understanding the transnational networks underpinning cultural opposition in Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora community in Prague. The latter was largely composed of anti-Bolshevik émigrés that had fled to Czechoslovakia in the 1920s, after their failed attempt to establish the Ukrainian National Republic amid the chaos of the First World War. Genyk-Berezovska was born and raised in this community, studied Slavic languages and literatures at Charles University in Prague, later teaching and translating Ukrainian literature into Czech. Through personal connections, Genyk-Berezovska was also deeply involved in the cultural renaissance in Soviet Ukraine known as the sixtiers movement. 

In addition to the more than 800 letters Genyk-Berezovska received from her many correspondents in Ukraine, her archive contains her own works as a scholar of Ukrainian and Czech literature, translator, and prominent community figure, as well as those of her husband Kost’ Genyk-Berezovsky, a philologist who taught Ukrainian at Charles University in Prague. Their family archive served as a repository for materials about prominent members of the Ukrainian émigré community in Czechoslovakia, including the Ukrainian sculptor Mykhailo Brynsky, the Czech writer František Hlaváček, the Ukrainian chemist and statesman Ivan Horbachevskyi, and Petro Krytskyi, a former colonel in the Ukrainian National Republican army, among others. This unique collection highlights both the transnational and the intergenerational dimensions of Ukrainian cultural opposition to communism.

The records of Croatian-American sociologist Dinko Tomašić are deposited at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford University. In accordance with its own themes and periodization, it covers Tomašić's public work after the Second World War, when he settled in the United States as a political émigré. The collection testifies to Tomašić's sociological research, in which he critically examined political and social phenomena of post-war communist society in Croatia and Yugoslavia. The main thesis of Tomašić's sociological theory was that the revolutionary transformation of society and the huge growth of the party-state’s power destroyed political, economic, social and cultural pluralism in the public life of the Yugoslav nations. Based on his sociological methods, and making use of results the fields of ethnography and anthropology, he believed that the source of the Yugoslav revolution derived from the specific Dinaric culture, which belonged to economically passive territories, regions where the Partisan movement secured the great support, such as Montenegro, Dalmatia, Lika, Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

The Fištrović Collection of the Fran Galović Library and Reading Room in Koprivnica contains about 1,300 historical, political, economic and cultural books in English, many of which are the only copies in Croatia. The books were used by a group of Croatian intellectuals in Chicago in the 1990s to address the American public and advocate for a democratic and independent Croatia, which can be considered a final act of resistance to the Yugoslav socialist regime. The authors of some of the books are also intellectuals from the former Yugoslav republics, and their work, published in English, is evidence of their dissent against the Yugoslav system of government.  

The Krunoslav Draganović Collection on World War II and Post-war Victims is an archive collection whose original collector was the priest Krunoslav Draganović, who, relying primarily on the testimonies of survivors and other witnesses, planned to publish a book on the crimes of the Yugoslav communists.

The German journalist and writer Jürgen Serke (b. 1938) dealt with persecuted and silenced artists. At the beginning of the 1980s, he was researching a book about life and work of Polish, Russian, East German, and Czechoslovak poets and writers living in exile. Thus, Jürgen Serke, accompanied by photographer Wilfried Bauer and Czech poet in exile, Jiří Gruša, visited Blatný in Ipswich in October 1981. Then, Serke wrote a report about Blatný and his life in exile entitled “Escape to the Madhouse” (Flucht ins Irrenhaus), which was published in the West German magazine Stern in December 1981. The following year, Serke’s book “Expelled Poets” (Die verbannten Dichter), which also included the report about Ivan Blatný, was issued. Serke’s article about Ivan Blatný in Stern found an echo. After its publication, Ivan Blatný received many letters and gifts, mainly from Czechoslovak emigrants. Some people also came to Ipswich to visit Blatný personally. Then, in 1982, British and Norwegian televisions made a documentary film about Ivan Blatný. Hence, Jürgen Serke, or specifically his article, “Escape to the Madhouse”, significantly contributed to the rediscovery of this almost forgotten exiled poet.

Dr. Szecskó Tibor (Gyöngyös, 1939 – Aix-en-Provence, 2017) hadtörténész, légiós veterán volt az első, aki 2011 őszén az 50 kérdésből álló, teljes életutat átfogó kérdőívet kitöltötte, s a provence-i magyar veterán kör szervezőjeként oroszlán része volt abban is, hogy utóbb számos bajtársát sikerrel bevonta a kutatásba (kérdőívezés, interjúzás, forgatás, levéltári kutatómunkák az aubagne-i Főparancsnokságon, stb.).

1940-ben született, gyöngyösi munkáscsalád legkisebb fiaként, édesapja kőműves volt. 1956 őszén egy mezőgazdasági szakiskola másodéves diákjaként lelkesen részt vett a forradalom helyi megmozdulásaiban, majd egyik társával Pestre ment, és a Corvin-közi felkelőkhöz csatlakozva nemzetőrnek állt. November végén, búcsú nélkül, Ausztriába szökött, előbb az eisenstadti gyűjtőtáborba került, majd 16 évesen Franciaországban kapott menedéket.

Rouenba érkezve nyomban felvételét kérte az Légióba – ám ekkor még hiába. Két éven át osztozott Lille és Párizs földönfutóinak sorsán, híd alatt lakva, segélyen és alkalmi munkákon tengődve. Az éhség és nyomor elől 1958 őszén ismét jelentkezett a Légióba, ezúttal sikerrel, s Marseille-ből Oránba áthajózva csakhamar a szaidai kiképzőtáborban találta magát. Két év múlva, alig húsz évesen, őrmesterré avanzsált, majd az 1. Idegen ezredben az ekkor tájt Afrikába érkező több száz magyar újonc kiképző altisztje lett. Ezután a 3. Gyalogezred altisztjeként maga is részt vett szaharai és madagaszkári hadműveletekben, két ízben megsebesült, majd az 1. Lovas- (páncélos) ezredhez került.

Az algériai háború után a Légió Szidi-bel-Abbesz-i anyabázisa a Marseille melletti Aubagne-ba települ át, itt kap ő is új beosztást a légiós főparancsnokság mellett. A ’70-es, ’80-as években a Légió Múzeumának igazgatója és Archívumának vezetője lesz, emellett a „Képi blanc” című légiós magazint szerkeszti. Közben Montpelier egyetemén történész diplomát szerez, majd – aktív légiósként máig egyedüliként – a hadtörténet doktora lesz. 28 és fél évi szolgálat után, 1986-ban törzszászlósként kéri nyugdíjazását, bár a tudományos életben és a veterán bajtársi körök (AALE) szervezésében továbbra is aktív marad. A Légió történetéről franciául, angolul, németül számos cikket, tanulmányt és tucatnyi önálló kötetet publikált.

Sokáig abban a tudatban élt, hogy légiós társaival együtt távollétében magyar állampolgárságától megfosztották. 1974-ben lett francia állampolgár; spanyol-francia feleségével, gyermekeivel és unokáival 1971 óta Aix-en-Provence-ban élt. Számos kitüntetése közül a „Művészet és Irodalom Lovagja” címre volt a legbüszkébb – e rangos civil elismerést aktív francia katona máig sem kapta meg rajta kívül. Noha szülőföldje iránt erős honvágy élt benne s magyarságát mindvégig híven őrizte, 1956 óta többé nem térhetett haza – előbb politikai, majd egészségi okokból. Súlyos betegségével elszántan dacolva 2017 végén hunyt el Aix-en-Provence-ban. Távozásával, a családján kívül nagy veszteség érte a provence-i magyar légiós bajtársi kört is, amelynek évtizedekig lelkes összetartója volt.   

Pályája, életfelfogása, nyílt és szókimondó kérdőíves válaszaiból kellő mélységben feltárul, jól példázva a nagyidős veteránok három életszakasza – a légió előtti, alatti és utáni évtizedek – ellentmondásait, és koronként ambivalens hármas kötődését a szülőföldhöz, a Légióhoz és a fogadó országhoz. Miközben lojalitása az előbbi kettőhöz mindvégig töretlen maradt, akárcsak ’56-os gyökerű, mély antikommunizmusa, a francia közélettel és életformával szemben már tartózkodó, sőt, nem egyszer erősen kritikus volt, éppen „az igazi” patrióta lojalitást és önzetlenséget hiányolva belőle. Az ’56-os magyar légiós veteránkör is voltaképp ezen morális, kulturális rezisztencia erősítését és életben tartását célozta sajátos hagyományőrző közösségi rítusaival.

A veterán kérdőívek listája a gyűjteményben (2011-2017)

  1. A. Domokos (Budapest, 1939) Paris, 2012

  2. Bubla István Miklós (Keszthely, 1936) Paulhan, 2017

  3. Huber Béla (Sopron, 1942 ) Aubagne, 2012

  4. Spátay János (Budapest, 1943) Puyloubier, 2011

  5. Soós Sándor (Budapest, 1939) Septémes les Vallons, 2012

  6. Sorbán Gyula Elek (Budapest, 1940) Toulon, 2011

  7. Szecskó Tibor (Gyöngyös, 1939) Aix-en-Provence 2017, 2011

  8. Morvay Tamás (Budapest, 1938) Vins sur Caramy, 2012

  9. Nemes Sándor (Szekszárd–Zomba, 1941) Borgo (Korzika), 2011

10. Pápai Lajos (Öcsöd, 1937) Montrichard, 2014

This document reflects the way in which the Romanian exile community organised itself and acted to promote media coverage in the West of the urban systematisation project of Ceaușescu's regime, which tacitly involved the demolition, mutilation, or destruction of the national heritage. The protest message was shared when the International Association for the Protection of Monuments and Historic Sites in Romania was founded in 1985, in Paris. The purpose of the association was to draw the attention of political decision-makers and international public opinion to the communist regime's plan for the demolition of the architectural and urban heritage of Romania. The actions undertaken within the Association focused particularly on the promotion of media coverage of the demolition of the city centre of Bucharest, which the communist authorities planned to reorganise according to their architectural vision. On the occasion of its foundation, the association organised a protest on the streets of Paris, during which it distributed a protest message to participants and passers-by with texts about communist Romania accompanied by photographs of historic monuments destroyed by the communists or scheduled to be demolished or moved. A copy of this protest message was sent by post to several Romanian exiles in order to convince them to join the Association and get involved in unmasking the communist regime in Romania and, in particular, the urban systematisation project of the Ceaușescu regime. This document was sent by the president of the Association, the architect Ștefan Gane, to Sanda Stolojan, a personality of the Romanian exile, who kept it in her private archive. The document, which can be consulted in the IICCMER collection, was written in English and French, in A4 format. The material, titled "Protest: Romania's historical and spiritual heritage is in danger," briefly outlines the consequences of the Bucharest systematisation project undertaken by the Communist authorities since 1977 and some examples of monuments from the historical and spiritual heritage of the Romanians that had been destroyed, demolished, or mutilated by the Ceaușescu regime. Against this background, the association protested, asking for: a stop to the  demolition of historic monuments and sites in the country; the re-establishment of the Romanian Historic Monuments Commission, abolished in 1977; and the rebuilding, under the aegis of this Commission and with the help of the International Council for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites and other international organisations, of the demolished historic monuments and sites.

A Szabad Magyar Egyetemisták Szövetsége – SzMESz, korábban és később újra: MEFESZ – a Nyugatra menekült magyar diákok népes rajának világszervezete volt az 1956-os forradalom brutális eltiprása után. Az 1957 nyarán alakult Szövetség három földrész tizenhat országában mintegy 8000 magyar egyetemistát képviselt jó egy évtizeden át, évről-évre másutt megrendezett kongresszusaival, tanulmányi és kulturális programjaival, nemzetközi sajtókampányaival, tiltakozásaival és szolidaritási akcióival próbálván ébren tartani a magyar forradalom demokratikus és patrióta szellemét világszerte. Várallyay Gyula, 1956 őszén a Budapesti Műszaki Egyetem másodéves hallgatója, egyike volt az emigráns diákmozgalom leginkább aktív, elkötelezett vezetőinek, aki 1959 őszén egy évre megszakította a Harward Egyetemen tanulmányait, hogy a Szövetség genfi központjában az elnöki teendőket ellássa. Az SzMSz –1961-től újra MEFESZ – több mint fél évszázadon át jórészt washingtoni otthonában őrzött iratait 2016 nyarán adományozta a budapesti 1956-os Intézet Kézirattárának. 

The collection documents the work of Croatian historian and political émigré Nikola Čolak (1914-1996). In 1966, he belonged to a group of academics and thinkers from Zadar, who officially sought to break the Communist Party's monopoly on truth by establishing the first journal not controlled by the Party. After the suppression of this initiative, Čolak was forced into exile in Italy. The so-called Movement of Independent Intellectuals represented the first attempt to create a formal cultural opposition circle not only in Croatia, but in Yugoslavia as a whole, which is recorded through this collection.