COURAGE

gyűjtemények hálózata

In May 1944, the Department of National Security (Oddelek za zaščito naroda), abbreviated as OZNA, was formed. It was a military intelligence and counter-intelligence organization. In 1946; the military and civilian parts of OZNA were separated; the civilian part changed its name to the State Security Administration, but it was commonly known by its abbreviation UDBA. The agency was a tool of the communist regime to keep it in power and spread terror so people would submit to the communist regime. The UDBA had a broad agenda, and until 1951 was even in charge of criminal investigations and held special prison cells in different locations in Ljubljana and elsewhere in the country.

Besides official employees, there was a network of informants, and their number in the first years after 1945 grew rapidly; in 1950, 24,193 informants were registered in Slovenia. The network of informants in Slovenia was the largest in Ljubljana, and most of the informants were from four main focal social or professional groups: the Roman Catholic Church, the so-called ex-bourgeoisie right, peasants and so-called enemies among their own ranks. Group trials against real and imaginary opponents were held. The UDBA was a feared arm of the communist regime, especially in first 10 to 15 years, until the communists acquired a firm grip over society. In 1966, at the Brioni Plenum, some changes were made; firstly, the autonomy of UDBA branches in the republics increased, and secondly, internal affairs were handled directly by the municipal administrative bodies and the secretariats of internal affairs in each republic or their provincial bodies The regional branch of the UDBA with its seat in Ljubljana and smaller working groups in the field operated in Slovenia. All information and data flowed into the central unit in Ljubljana and was sent on from there to users. Field groups had working contacts with the local authorities, but did not answer to them.

Smoloskyp is the name of a human rights publishing house, named after the poet Vasyl Symonenko. It was originally founded in Baltimore, US, in 1967. As one of the biggest publishers of Ukrainian dissident literature, nowadays it holds the biggest collection of Ukrainian samizdat (Ukr. samvydav) and the material of the Ukrainian resistance movement (Rukh Oporu), 1960-1990. The phenomenon of Smoloskyp, however, goes far beyond the scope of the publishing house. Smoloskyp is associated with the hub of human rights activities of the Ukrainian diaspora. Smoloskyp took an active part in the campaigns for human rights in Ukraine, and (co)founded several human rights organizations: Smoloskyp Organization for the Defence of Human Rights in Ukraine, Washington Helsinki Guarantees for Ukraine Committee, and the Committee for the Defence of Ukrainian Political Prisoners in the USSR. Smoloskyp activists took part in follow-up meetings to the Helsinki Final Act (1975), held by the OSCE in Belgrade in 1977–78, Madrid in 1980–83, and Vienna in 1986–89. They participated at the International Sakharov Hearing and spoke at the US Congress. Smoloskyp organized a series of protest campaigns against political repression in Soviet Ukraine, and fought for the independent participation of Ukraine in the Olympic games. It ran information services in the US, Canada, and Argentina, widely disseminating factual information on political repression and the dissident movement in Ukraine. It cooperated with international human rights organizations (such as Amnesty International) and sent humanitarian aid to Ukrainian political prisoners. Its secret communication channels along with its own network of specially trained couriers allowed Smoloskyp to establish a two-way traffic of censored information and clandestine materials across the Iron curtain.

After the dissolution of the USSR, this collection moved to Ukraine and was institutionalized as the Museum-Archive and Documentation Centre of Ukrainian Samvydav in Kyiv. Nowadays, the Museum-Archive and Documentation Centre of Ukrainian Samvydav in Kyiv holds the most extensive collection of Ukrainian samizdat; Ukrainian diaspora periodicals; the collection of Ukrainian tamizdat (samizdat materials published abroad in Ukrainian, Russian, English, French, German and other languages); hundreds of photos of Soviet-era political prisoners and dissidents; the archives of several committees for human rights in Ukraine from the US, Canada, Australia, Argentina, and other countries. The collection holds Smoloskyp correspondence with international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International.

The Society for Queer Memory was established in 2013. A year earlier, the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University organised a conference on the topic of the difficulties of research on sexual minorities and queer history. At that conference, the idea to establish a society or institution which would focus on collecting and preserving queer memory originated. Thus, the goal of the Society is to serve as a platform from intergeneration dialogue in LGBT community and gradually build a museum and an audio and written archive documenting the history and memory of queer people. In 2015, the Society acquired suitable premises and opened the Centre for Queer Memory.

One of the main goals of the Society for Queer Memory is oral-historian work which means gathering, archiving and popularizing biographical interviews with LGBT seniors with the possibility of subsequent professional historical processing. Apart from oral historian work, the Society tries to work with queer seniors and serve as a uniting platform. The work and activities of the Society are based on the premise that elderly people are a group considerably threatened by isolation and loneliness and, in the case of queer seniors, this danger could be higher due to their different sexual orientation. This is why the Society organises, within the Centre, at least one event monthly. In the future, the Society plans to establish a permanent exhibition within the museum, as well as to continue with current activities.

The Society of Libri Prohibiti was established in 1991 as a non-profit association of citizens. The aim of this society is securing the operation of the library Libri Prohibiti and supporting its collections. Among the founding members of the society were writers, e.g. Václav Havel, Eva Kantůrková, Ivan Klíma, Hana Ponická, Zdeněk Urbánek, Ludvík Vaculík and Jan Vladislav. Apart from writers, many others important personalities co-founded this society (e.g. Radim Palouš, Milan Jelínek, Vilém Prečan, Pavel Tigrid, Vlastimil Ježek, Jaroslav Opat, Ivan M. Havel, Táňa Dohnalová, Oto Mádr). Today the society has 139 members.