

Knuts Skujenieks (b. 1936) is a Latvian poet, a dissident who was sentenced in 1962 to seven years in prison for anti-Soviet activities. The collection holds manuscripts from all his creative life, but the most powerful are the manuscripts he created during his imprisonment: poems and other literary texts, correspondence with his wife and colleagues, and many other documents that reflect the development of his poetic language and political consciousness.
A number of intelligence files included in the collection are files on members of émigré organisations (the so-called enemy emigration). Such files usually contain so-called ‘bulletins’ , i.e. official reports from regional centres with data on an émigré’s activities abroad, but also dispatches from regional centres, questionnaires on Yugoslav émigrés, original documents from earlier periods proving a person's compromising status or activities, photos, personal notes, etc. Mutual relations between enemy emigrant communities of differing ethnicities, divergences and conflicts between individuals and émigré organisations, subversive activities, directives and references on enemy activities against Yugoslav citizens, propaganda and publishing (pamphlets, magazines), meetings and events, relations with anti-state oriented individuals and groups in Yugoslavia (so-called domestic enemies), etc. were subject to surveillance (Mikšić, Iseljeništvo: Vodič kroz fondove i zbirke HDA, 2015, 412).
This group of persons under the State Security Service's surveillance included Bogdan Radica (Split, 26 August 1904 – New York, 5 December 1993), writer, publicist, journalist and historian, as well as one of the most prominent Croatian émigrés after 1945, whose personal legacy was described in the COURAGE Registry. His file in the collection has 62 pages, it is registered as file no. 319291, and it is preserved both on paper and microfiche. The documents were created in period from the mid-960s to 1990, but they also include information on Radica's activities abroad in the preceding period. The reason for surveillance and the creation of the file was the assessment that Radica was “one of the remarkably active emigrants/writers active in the émigré press” (HR-HDA-1561. SDS RSUP SRH. Intelligence files, Bogdan Radica's file, no. 319291, Official note from State Security Service's Centre in Zagreb, 18 December 1968).
Besides the standard “questionnaire on the Yugoslav emigrant,” Radica's file contains different operational notes and reports from the State Security Service's regional centres, mostly in Zagreb and Split. The main charges against him were that he participated in all anti-Yugoslav meetings and travelled to different countries (USA, Canada, Switzerland, Italy and other European counties) in order to organise enemy activities. Emphasis was placed on the fact that meetings of members of the Croatian Academy in America and discussions on political issues were organised in his home. In particular was also highlighted charges of His enemy propaganda against Yugoslavia and the “extreme anti-Yugoslav attitudes” expressed in his books or in the émigré press, radio and television stations in New York were also highlighted. The file also contains a description of his participation in organising the emigrant symposium “Croatia Today and Tomorrow,” held in Switzerland from 30 August to 1 September 1968, and “focused on further consolidation and programming of anti-Yugoslav activities” (HR-HDA-1561. SDS RSUP SRH. Intelligence files, Bogdan Radica's file, no. 319291, Note on file content, 13 March 1969). As described in the operational note from 7 September 1969, in a paper on that symposium, Radica “promoted activities designed to create an ‘Independent State of Croatia,’ a multi-party system in SFRY and better connections between émigré/ intellectuals with ‘forces’ in Yugoslavia, especially with intellectuals” (HR-HDA-1561. SDS RSUP SRH. Intelligence files, Bogdan Radica's file, no. 319291, Operational note, 7 September 1969).
Radica is also mentioned as one of the organizers of the symposium “Croatian Discussions on Freedom,” held in Lucerne, Switzerland from 30 June to 3 July 1971, whence telegrams were sent to Šime Đodan, Franjo Tuđman, Marko Veselica and other participants in the Croatian Spring (HR-HDA-1561. SDS RSUP SRH. Intelligence files, Bogdan Radica's file, no. 319291, Operational note, 19 April 1972). An agent code-named “Rade,” who was in the United States in November and December 1971, wrote in his note that Radica “greatly helped in the promotion” of dissident Milovan Đilas while he was in the US (HR-HDA-1561. SDS RSUP SRH. Intelligence files, Bogdan Radica's file, no. 319291, Note written by agent Rade, 1972). The file also contains the report that Radica, as a member of Croatian National Council, a political émigré association founded in Toronto in 1974, signed an appeal sent on 7 February 1977 to the newly-elected US President Jimmy Carter. As described in the operational note from 24 January 1980, in that appeal Croatian National Council asked for help against Tito's government, which has “over the past several years (…) systematically and brutally suppressed the cultural and political expression of Croats in their own country,” and that “this reign of terror culminated in 1971 as a response to the awakened spirit of nationalism among students and professors at the University in Zagreb” (HR-HDA-1561. SDS RSUP SRH. Intelligence files, Bogdan Radica's file, no. 319291, Operational note, 24 January 1980).
The documents are available for research and copying.
MEFESZ Tájékoztató, IV. évfolyam 2. szám, 1963 május
A magyar emigráns diákszövetség lapjának 1963 májusi száma megjelenésekor egy sor fontos változás zajlik ország-világ szerte. Az ENSZ közgyűlés napirendjéről 1962 végén hat év után lekerül a „magyar kérdés”, 1963 tavaszán az ú.n. „ENSZ-amnesztiával” az 56-os politikai foglyok jó részét szabadon bocsátják, megindul a Kádár-rezsim belpolitikai konszolidációja, s a „puhuló diktatúrát” a Nyugat is mindinkább hosszútávú partnerének tekinti a kelet-nyugati enyhülés jegyében. Mindez a magyar emigráns közélet céljainak, szerepének újragondolását is szükségképp felveti, hiszen miközben odahaza egy sor kedvező változás indult meg (modernizáció, a fogyasztás és az életszínvonal lassú növekedése, a nyugati utazások óvatos engedélyezése, stb), az emigráns szervezetek az új helyzetben mind kevésbé számíthattak befogadó országaik hathatós erkölcsi, politikai és anyagi támogatására.
Az UHSF/MEFESZ láthatóan maga is keresi helyét, s ez időben a legfőbb elvi és gyakorlati feladatkörét a demokrácia, az emberi jogok következetes számonkérésében továbbá a határon túli magyar kisebbségek védelmében véli felfedezni. Ezt jelzi már a Tájékoztató két címoldali írása is, melyben arról tudósít, hogy a MEFESZ tagjainak vitafórumot szervez „a magyarországi helyzet” feltárása és jobb megértése érdekében, illetve közli az emigráns diákszövetség U Thant ENSZ-főtitkárhoz intézett, franciából magyarra fordított levelét, melyben arra kéri a világszervezet Romániába készülő vezetőjét, hogy vesse latba személyes tekintélyét az erdélyi magyar kisebbség kulturális és vallási elnyomásának megszüntetése s az ’56-os magyar felkelés ürügyén ártatlanul bebörtönzöttek, deportáltak közkegyelemben részesítése érdekében. Ez utóbbi indokaként – több más emigráns szervezet petíciójához és tiltakozó kampányához hasonlóan – joggal emeli ki, hogy miközben Magyarországon ekkoriban már sorra szabadulnak az életfogytiglani börtönre ítélt politikai foglyok is, Romániában még ez időben is ezrével raboskodnak 1956 után elítélt középiskolás és egyetemi diákok, köztük számos magyar is, akiket ártatlanul ítéltek el a magyar forradalommal vállalt békés rokonszenv-tüntetéseik miatt. (Az ő szabadításuk csak egy év múlva, 1964-től kezdődik meg a román elnöki amnesztia nyomán.)






A Cseke-Gyimesi Éva Gyűjtemény kétségtelenül a magyar kulturális ellenállás legjelentősebb példája Erdélyben. Ez könyvekből, kéziratokból, gépelt szövegekből, személyes levelezésből, újságcikkekből és más tárgyakból áll. A gyűjtemény érthetővé teszi Cseke-Gyimesi Évának a romániai kommunista rendszerben kifejtett ellenzéki tevékenységét, a Ceaușescu-diktatúrával szembeni teljesen demokratikus és euro konform hangvételű ellenállást, az emberjogi küzdelem (tiltakozó levelek, memorandumok) részleteit, a röpiratterjesztés és a szamizdattevékenység módozatait.









„By the railroad” is a film based on one of the novels of Zofia Nałkowska's „Medallions”, written just after the World War II (1946). This debut of Andrzej Brzozowski was banned from being shown publicly for 27 years. Zofia Nałkowska was a member of the Central Committee for Investigating German Crimes in Poland, a body documenting from 1945 to 1949 Nazi crimes on Jewish and Polish citizens during the Second World War. In her novels, Nałkowska in very modest, moderate way describes the atrocities of German occupation in Poland. The book “Medallions”, one of the most vital sources of social imagination about the World War II in Poland, is an important part of school curriculum, read by generations of Polish pupils.
Film “By the Railroad” by Brzozowski is an accurate film adaptation of Nałkowska’s novel under the same title. It concentrates on the Jewish woman who jumped off the train heading to concentration camp. She breaks her leg and lays on the ground by the railroad, while people from the nearby village debate what they should do with her. The plot of the novel and the film raises the issue (often neglected in official narrative) of Polish reactions to Holocaust and especially Jews trying to survive “on the Aryan side” - outside ghettos and concentration camps. The question of Polish “bystanders” to Holocaust, was only one of issues tackled in Nałkowska’s novels. Film by Brzozowski clearly concentrates on the indifference of the Catholic citizens of Poland in the face of perpetrations aimed at their Jewish compatriots.
Banning Brzozowski’s film from public distribution was a result of fear that this oeuvre could be used for “anti-Polish propaganda” and could “threaten Polish reason of state” (Preizner 2010). Events presented in the film contrasted with the historical narrative of Polish authorities, which presented Polish citizens as victims of Nazi crimes and neglected the importance of Jewish experience.
Film critics (Preizner 2010, Calderón Puerta 2010) state that the film itself is more suggestive than Nałkowska’s novel. Role of Halina Mikołajska, austere filming, concentration on one short plot have a great influence on the audience. However, the film was shown in public television broadcast only in 1992 (sic!), late in the night and without any meaningful public discussion.

