Location

• Zagreb Trg Josipa Jurja Strossmayera, Croatia 10000
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Languages

• Bulgarian
• Croatian
• German
• Italian
• Macedonian
• Russian
• Spanish

Name of collection

• The Pavao Tijan Papers

Provenance and cultural activities

• The Pavao Tijan Papers covers his life from the beginning of his exile in 1945 until his death in 1997. Tijan left his pre-war personal papers behind in Zagreb after 1945, and they were lost, mostly due to theft. His friends and family obtained information that they were sold in an antique store in Zagreb after the war. Out of that pre-war collection, only personal documents and copies and photocopies of his individual works remain. Most of the collection originated in Spain, while a smaller part was formed in refugee camps at various Italian sites where he lived from 1945 to 1947, when he permanently moved to Spain. The collection was owned by his wife Nedjeljka Luetić-Tijan from 1997 until 2002, after she placed it in a warehouse near Madrid until 2004, when it was delivered to the Archives of the Croatian Academy of Science and Arts (HAZU) in Zagreb. In the letters he sent to his friends, it can be seen that he had been arranging his archives at the end of his life. What he failed to accomplish was completed later by his wife Nedjeljka.

  His daughter Maria Tian Wieck Luetich, a university professor in the United States, turned her father’s collection over to the HAZU based on a donation agreement. The activities surrounding the assumption of Tijan's collection began on January 14, 2004, when Mrs. Wieck Luetich, based on Jure Lokmer's recommendation, contacted academician Milan Moguš, who was also from the city of Senj by birth, like her father. He thanked her for the collector's donation and took further steps for its acquisition to the then head of the Archives, academician and historian Petar Strcic. The concluding activities were conducted by Dr. Tatjana Pajić-Vukić in 2006 under the authority of the new head of the same Archives, academician Damir Zagotta. The description and summary inventory of the collection were done by HAZU Jadranka Kaloper-Bakrač, at the time a HAZU archivist.

  It was not collected for some specific purpose, but rather grew over time as a result of Tijan's émigré opposition to Titoism and communist Yugoslavia. Because of this, the collection was formed as a result of Tijan's activities as its primary creator and collector and as such it was his personal archive. Since, during his lifetime, Tijan delivered parts of the collection to the former director of the City Museum in Senj, Ante Glavičić, on several occasions, it is assumed that some fragments of this collection are also held in that museum.

  The collection has significant importance to Croatian national history, particularly of that part of the population which could not freely express itself and function in the country for political reasons in the era of Yugoslav socialism. It is also important to the history of the world anti-communist movement, given that Tijan dedicated a large number of his works to other countries and cultures, especially the Slavic-speaking nations that were under communist rule. Since the collection was preserved in Spain, it was not hidden from the communist regime.

Description of content

• According to the inventory list, the collection is divided into 10 series. The total collection contains 213 archive boxes. The first series, contained in one box, consists of personal records by Pavao Tijan which covers to the period from 1931 to 1997.

  The second series consists of editorial work in the Croatian language for Radio Madrid from 1955 to 1975, which accounts for 48 boxes of archival materials. This series is sub-divided into three sections covering the show, official records and materials, as well as letters from listeners and associates, and it consists of 10 archive boxes.

  The third series covers Tijan's cultural and educational work, and is sub-divided into four sections: encyclopaedic work and lexicography, translation work, Slav studies and Slavic courses held in Madrid. The fourth series contains materials pertaining to Tijan’s creative activity, which accounts for a total of 24 boxes of materials. This series encompasses published works, various compositions, thematic works and materials featured under different designations.

  The fifth series contains the testimonies of different persons about the character and work of Pavao Tijan, which are separated into one archive box. The sixth series covers Tijan's correspondence, which pertains to materials stored in 40 archive boxes. In the seventh series, there is an illustrative section that is divided into 8 archive boxes.

  The eighth section of the series covers works by Tijan's family members, a total of 7 boxes in his collections, most of which were produced by his wife Nedjeljka Luetic Tijan. The eighth part of the collection contains a large number of press clippings, which are stored in 68 boxes. The final, tenth series is devoted to library bibliographic cards, in a total of 6 boxes.

  Apart from the importance to Croatian émigré history and movements on the Croatian émigré scene, especially in Spain, Tijan's collection can serve as a source for the history of Spanish intellectual and cultural life during the Cold War: Tijan intensively collaborated with many Spanish intellectuals from that period.

  The collection is written mostly in Croatian and Spanish, but there are texts written in English, Italian, German, Russian, Macedonian and Bulgarian. The collection is well-preserved, and an inventory has been produced as a scholarly information tool for research. The collection is in paper format and digitization has not yet been done.

Content

• manuscripts (ego-documents, diaries, notes, letters, drafts, etc.): 1000-
• publications (books, newspapers, articles, press clippings): 100-499

Operator(s)

• Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts

Owner(s)

• Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
• Tijan, Pavao

Geographical scope of recent operation

• diaspora
• international
• national

Topics

• democratic opposition
• emigration/exile
• literature and literary criticism
• national movements (patriotic opposition)

Founder(s)

• Tijan, Pavao

Date of founding

• 1945

Place of founding

• Madrid, Spain
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• Roma, Rome, Italy
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Creator(s) of content

• Tijan, Pavao

Collector(s)

• Tijan, Pavao

Supporters

• Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia

Important events in the history of the collection

• Donation of Pavao Tijan Papers to the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 2006

Featured items

• Tijan Pavao. Causes and principles of Titoism, 1950s. Manuscript
• Tijan, Pavao. Ivo Andrić, Nobel Prize in Literature, 1961. Article

Access type

• completely open to the public

Author(s) of this page

• Kljaić, Stipe

References

Luetić Tijan, Nedjeljka. 1980. Krov i kruh: deset godina u okupiranoj Hrvatskoj (1945-1955) [Roof and Bread: Ten Years in Occupied Croatia (1945-1955)]. Munich - Barcelona: Knjižnica Hrvatske revije.

Luetić Tijan, Nedjeljka. 2014. Život Pavla Tijana [The life of Pavao Tijan]. Zagreb: Matica hrvatska.

Moguš, Milan et al. 2011. HAZU: Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti (1861.-2011.) [HAZU: Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (1861.-2011.)]. Zagreb: Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti.

Švab, Mladen. 1997. „In memoriam – Pavao Tijan (1908.-1997.)“ Radovi Leksikografskog zavoda vol. 6: 127-130.

Vuković, Marinko, interview by Kljaić, Stipe , May 15, 2018. COURAGE Registry Oral History Collection