Location

• Žerotínovo náměstí 449/3, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic
  Show on map

Languages

• Czech

Website

• www.archiv.muni.cz

Name of collection

• Strike Committee of the Faculty of Arts of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University (UJEP) Brno

Provenance and cultural activities

• After the events at Národní třída in Prague, where the demonstration of Prague college students were violently disrupted on 17^th November 1989, by the police (SNB), there was a wave of solidarity in the then socialist Czechoslovakia. Its bearers were, in the first place, students from most of the country's universities, who had become key players in the revolution at the turn of 1989-1990. In Brno, the Faculty of Arts, UJEP (today Masaryk University), the initiating place and later one of the centres of the revolution, where it had already started on the night of November 17^th, and the weekend of 18^th-19^th, a group of students and teachers formed to take part in a public protest. On Monday, November 20^th 1989, a strike was declared in the courtyard of the Faculty of Arts and was organised by the FF UJEP Students' Strike Committee. The Strike Committee was made up of not only many students, but also some faculty teachers, and became the venue for action against the current communist regime. One of the distinguished teachers involved from the beginning to the strike activity, Zdeňka Rusínová the then assistant of the Department of Bohemistics, addressed in this revolutionary period the student of archival studies Pavel Kocman, to try to organise the documents and other artefacts that were accumulated in the Strike Committee. Pavel Kocman gradually managed to create a system of document storage. In this work he was helped by other colleagues, at that time students of archival studies Darja Golková (later Kocábová), Renata Brožová (later Růžičková) and Ivo Durec. These became the organisers of a unique collection of documents that arose in the period of 1989-1990, at the FF UJEP Strike Committee. Many people from the general public showed their support to the Strike Committee, gave food, offering their cars or other means to support their activities, but also donated many materials originating from another key moment in history, the time of 1968-69. The collection includes not only artefacts from the Velvet Revolution but also from these important years. The Strike Committee ended its activity at the beginning of 1990, when power was gained by democratic authorities in Czechoslovakia. The collection was then finally arranged by students Darja Golková and Renata Brožová. They created lists of all the artefacts stored in the collection and organised it into a closed set. The demand and importance of the materials contained in the collection are affirmed by the requests from several institutions which expressed their interest in taking over the collection into their administration. The students however, decided to put it in the Archive of Masaryk University, which they thought best fit. Since 1991, the collection has been under the administration of the University Archive.

Description of content

• The collection contains mainly written and photographic documents about the November Revolution stored in Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Brno (now Masaryk University), in the city of Brno. A number of documents are also linked to other universities in Czechoslovakia, industrial enterprises and many organisations. The size of the collection plays an important role in illustrating the role of the university students during the November Revolution. Not only the density of the collection, but also the relative completeness of it, owes its origins and full and expressive volume to the personal engagement of the students at that time; both are unique aspects that make the collection an indispensable source of information about the events of the November Revolution in Brno and Czechoslovakia.

Content

• grey literature (regular archival documents such as brochures, bulletins, leaflets, reports, intelligence files, records, working papers, meeting minutes): 1000-
• manuscripts (ego-documents, diaries, notes, letters, drafts, etc.): 100-499
• memorabilia (posters, flyers, stamps, etc.): 500-999
• photos: 1000-
• publications (books, newspapers, articles, press clippings): 1000-

Operator(s)

• Archive of the Masaryk University

Owner(s)

• Archive of the Masaryk University
• Strike Committee of the Faculty of Arts of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University (UJEP) Brno

Geographical scope of recent operation

• local

Topics

• student movement

Founder(s)

• Durec, Ivo
• Kocman, Pavel
• Kocábová, Darja
• Růžičková, Renáta
• Strike Committee of the Faculty of Arts of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University (UJEP) Brno

Date of founding

• 1989

Place of founding

• Brno, Czech Republic
  Show on map

Creator(s) of content

• Strike Committee of the Faculty of Arts of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University (UJEP) Brno

Collector(s)

• Archive of the Masaryk University
• Strike Committee of the Faculty of Arts of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University (UJEP) Brno

Important events in the history of the collection

• Donation of Strike Commitee Collection to the Archive of Masaryk University

Featured items

• Set of period inventory of the collection

Access type

• visits by appointments

Author(s) of this page

• Zapletal, Tomáš

References

Povolný, D. (2015, December 26). Filozofická fakulta byla centrem stávkového hnutí. Retrieved from https://www.online.muni.cz/tema/599-filozoficka-fakulta-byla-centrem-stavkoveho-hnuti

Blinková, K. (2015, December 26). Studentské stávky a demonstrace po brn'nsku. Retrieved from https://www.online.muni.cz/z-historie-mu/1563-studentske-stavky-a-demonstrace-po-brnensku

S.r.o., L. (n.d.). Badatelna.eu | Archiv Masarykovy univerzity v Brně. Retrieved from http://badatelna.eu/instituce/Archiv_Masarykovy_univerzity_v_Brne/fondy/?s=18