Location

• Zagreb Trg Marka Marulića 21, Croatia 10000
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Languages

• Croatian

Name of collection

• Commission for Ideological and Political Work of People's Youth of Croatia (1945-1962)

Provenance and cultural activities

• The Commission for Ideological and Political Work was one of the many working groups of the People's Youth of Croatia (PYC) organisation, later called the Alliance of Socialist Youth of Croatia (ASYC). Its task was to work intensively with young people regarding their guidance and education in line with socialist values. But an important part of its work was to monitor youth activities that were not aligned with these values and to report on their opposition activities. There were several departments within the Commission for Ideological and Political Work: the Department of Ideological and Political Work, the Commission on Cultural and Educational Work and the Department of Agitation and the Press. Each of the departments/commissions monitored and organised the activities under its purview, for which documentation exists within this collection.

  Some of the tasks of the Commission were: to oversee the situation at the lower levels of the PYC, to collect reports and to prepare analyses on the PYC’s ideological work and on so-called negative and hostile influences on youth, on the impact of religious communities on young people in Croatia, and on the escapes abroad. The Commission was also tasked with monitoring the youth press and organising meetings with newspaper editorial staffs, collecting information on courses and seminars, administering cultural and educational programs and the work of political schools and even observing celebrations and anniversaries. The Commission also produced statistical reports and tables of the PYC’s social activities, and it was obliged to maintain regular correspondence with the Central Committee of the People's Youth of Yugoslavia (CC PYY).

  The Commission deemed all youth activities that did not adhere to communist standpoint as opposed to the regime. One of the most important was the collaboration of young people with the Catholic Church and participation in its activities. Any connection with other political opponents of the regime was treated similarly. The regime also considered Cominformists (Cominform supporters, both real and perceived) as being in the opposition, as well as those dissatisfied with the government's agricultural policy. Various opposition phenomena were documented by this Commission: students in schools and universities who were dissatisfied with the regime, young people who had been influenced by the West (films, literature, radio stations, fashion, haircuts), those who did not want to participate in voluntary labour campaigns, those who fled abroad for economic or political reasons, members of the editorial staffs of youth publications whose editorial policies did not meet the desired level of "Marxist views," etc.

  Therefore, the work of this Commission after the end of the World War II and until the beginning of the 1960s is important for exploring the cultural opposition, because in its numerous documents it explicitly states which activities were considered oppositional to the regime. The material also shows what happened to people who participated in these activities. Over the years the commission changed its name several times and continued to function until 1990.

  This Commission's archival records were turned over to the Croatian State Archives (CSA) in 1995 (acquisition 52/1995), following a decision of the Croatian Government, which incorporated the Institute of Contemporary History Archives, where the archival records were kept until then, into the CSA. The archival materials are arranged, described and available for use. They are treated as a public archive and are accessible for use without any restrictions.

  This Commission's archival records were mostly used by researchers who produced several publications based on the materials. It is quite certain that this collection is important for Croatian national history, especially youth history, and as documentation of their oppositional activities.

Description of content

• The Commission's archives (1945-1962) contain many documents which testify to its monitoring of opposition activity. The collection includes the minutes of the Commission's sessions, analytical reports and information on agitation and propaganda, political analysis on the development of the People's Youth of Croatia (PYC), plans and reports on ideological and political work, data on the actions of actual and alleged Cominform supporters, agitation for volunteer youth labour campaigns, the minutes of consultations with political secretaries of lower committees, and then circulars, reports, analyses and information on the results of elections to the People's Republic of Croatia (PRC) Parliament.

Content

• manuscripts (ego-documents, diaries, notes, letters, drafts, etc.): 1000-
• publications (books, newspapers, articles, press clippings): 10-99

Operator(s)

• Croatian State Archives

Owner(s)

• Alliance of Socialist Youth of Croatia
• Croatian Institute of History
• Croatian State Archives

Topics

• alternative lifestyles and resistance of the everydays
• censorship
• democratic opposition
• film
• music (rock, punk, alternative, classical, etc.)
• religious activism
• youth culture

Founder(s)

• People's Youth of Croatia (PYC)

Date of founding

• 1945

Place of founding

• Zagreb, Croatia
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Creator(s) of content

• People's Youth of Croatia (PYC)

Supporters

• Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia

Important events in the history of the collection

• Aquisition of the Alliance of Socialist Youth of Croatia archives by the Croatian State Archives, 1995

Featured items

• Analysis of the Film News magazine writing, 1957. Manuscript
• Material for the Secretariat meeting, Pezo, Vladimir. Some issues on criminality and antisocialist phenomena among youth, 27 October 1960
• Report on the activities of clerical organizations, 10 April 1946. Manuscript
• Some remarks regarding the influence of Western culture on youth, 1953

Access type

• completely open to the public

Author(s) of this page

• Šarić, Tatjana

References

1. Akmadža, Miroslav. Katolička crkva u Hrvatskoj i komunistički režim 1945 – 1966. (The Catholic Church in Croatia and the Communist Regime 1945-1966.) Rijeka: Otokar Keršovani, 2004.
2. Banac, Ivo. Sa Staljinom protiv Tita: informbiroovski rascjepi u jugoslavenskom komunističkom pokretu (With Stalin Against. Tito: Cominformist Splits in Yugoslav Communism). Zagreb: Globus, 1990.
3. Bilandžić, Dušan. Hrvatska moderna povijest (Modern Croatian history). Zagreb: Golden marketing, 1999.
4. Boeckh, Katrin. “Vjerski progoni u Jugoslaviji 1944. – 1953.: staljinizam u titoizmu” (Religious Persecution in Yugoslavia 1944-1953: Stalinism in Titoism). Časopis za suvremenu povijest 38 (2006), no. 2: 403–431.
5. Dimić, Ljubodrag. Agitprop kultura. Agitpropovska faza kulturne politike u Srbiji (Agitprop culture. The Agitprop phase of cultural policy in Serbia). Belgrade: Izdavačka radna organizacija „Rad”, 1988.
6. Dobrivojević, Ivana. “Između ideologije i pop-kulture. Život omladine u FNRJ 1945. – 1955.” (Between ideology and pop culture. Youth life in the FPRY 1945-1955.). Istorija 20. veka, 1(2010): 127–135.
7. Goldstein, Ivo. Hrvatska povijest 1918. – 2008. (Croatian history 1918-2008.). Zagreb: Europapress holding, Novi Liber, 2008.
8. HR-HDA-1231. Republička konferencija Saveza socijalističke omladine Hrvatske 1943. – 1990. (HR-HDA- 1231. The Republic Conference of the Alliance of Socialist Youth of Croatia, 1943-1990)
9. Jukić, Marijana. Sumarni inventar fonda HR-HDA-1231 Republička konferencija Saveza socijalističke omladine Hrvatske 1943. – 1991. (Fund inventory of the Republic Conference of the Alliance of Socialist Youth of Croatia, 1943-1991) interno izdanje HDA, 2011.
10. Julius, Stevo. Ni crven ni mrtav: odrastanje u bivšoj Jugoslaviji za vrijeme i nakon Drugog svjetskog rata (Neither red nor dead: growing up in the former Yugoslavia during and after the Second World War). Zagreb: Durieux, 2005.
11. Kašić, Biljana. “Idejna strujanja u Hrvatskoj 1948. – 1952.” (Conceptual streams in Croatia 1948–1952). Časopis za suvremenu povijest, 25 (1993) 1: 101–123.
12. Knezović, Zlata. “Boljševizacija i ideologizacija hrvatske kulture i umjetnosti” (Bolshevisation and ideologisation of Croatian culture and art). Časopis za suvremenu povijest, 26 (1994) 1: 47–63.
13. Kotek, Joël. “Youth Organizations as a Battlefield in the Cold War”. In: The Cultural Cold War in Western Europe. New York: Frank Cass & Co., 2005.
14. Krišto, Jure. Katolička crkva u totalitarizmu 1945. – 1990: razmatranja o Crkvi u Hrvatskoj pod komunizmom (The Catholic Church in Totalitarianism 1945-1990: Reflections on the Church in Croatia under Communism). Zagreb: Nakladni zavod Globus, 1997.
15. Radelić, Zdenko. Hrvatska u Jugoslaviji 1945. – 1991. od zajedništva do razlaza (Croatia in Yugoslavia 1945-1991. from union to dissolution). Zagreb: Hrvatski institut za povijest [etc.], 2006.
16. Spehnjak, Katarina. Javnost i propaganda: Narodna fronta u politici i kulturi Hrvatske 1945 – 1962. (Publicity and Propaganda: The National Front in the Politics and Culture of Croatia 1945-1962). Zagreb: Hrvatski institut za povijest, 2002.
17. Šarić Tatjana. “Položaj i uloga omladine i omladinskih organizacija u FH / NRH 1945. – 1954.“ (The Position and Role of the Youth And Youth Organizations in Federal Croatia/People's Republic of Croatia 1945-1954). Doctoral dissertation, University of Zagreb, 2011.