COURAGE

connecting collections

The Commission for the Examination of Nationalist Phenomena in the Emigrant Foundation of Croatia (1964-1967) was one of the working bodies of the Executive Council of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Croatia in the period 1945-1990. The League of Communists of Yugoslavia was the ruling political organization in the former Yugoslavia, of which the League of Communists of Croatia (LCC) was a part. The LC dictated the overall development of Yugoslav and Croatian society, and Party decisions were largely binding on the state and republic authorities and governmental bodies, as well as for mass political organizations. Party organizations in Yugoslavia, as well as Party organizations in its federal units, were managed by their central committees as the highest organs of the Party between the two congresses. To accomplish defined program objectives, LC CC elected the constituent, executive political body (Political Bureau or Politburo, 1937-1952, Executive Council, 1952-1974, Presidium, 1974-1989). To carry out specific tasks, the Executive Council established working bodies - permanent or interim commissions to deal with specific issues. One of them was the Commission for the Examination of Nationalist Phenomena in the Emigrant Foundation of Croatia, established with the sole aim of identifying phenomena labelled as nationalistic in an organisation charged with establishing ties to the very numerous and politically heterogeneous Croatian emigrant communities:  the Emigrant Foundation of Croatia. It was vital to the LCC leadership that the person at the head of this organisation fully adhered to the accepted political line, and President Većeslav Holjevac had departed from it. That is why, after this Commission’s investigation, he was dismissed and expelled from the LCC.

In 1963 the Commission on Religious Matters of Vinkovci Municipal Assembly began to work which was charged to control religious institutions on the territory of Vinkovci Municipality. The Commission worked in the conditions of centralist socialist dictatorships and was under direct surveillance by the Republic Commission on Religious Matters which acted at the Executive Council of the Parliament of the Socialist Republic of Croatia, that is to say, under the direct control of League of Communists of Croatia. The archival records of the collection were created by the same Commission on the territory of Vinkovci Municipality from 1963 to 1993.

The primary goal of the Commission was to follow the work of religious communities, since a religion was conceived as a negative factor for the building of the socialist society. Besides, the Commission was ensued after the period of repression, first of all against Catholic Church, but also other religious communities (1945-1960). In the time of the so-called liberalization of Yugoslav regime it had the function of normalization and dialogues between government and churches. The pinnacle was Protocol between the Vatican and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1966. That event meant the establishment of diplomatic relations of two parts since 1970. It happened all in the shadow of the Second Vatican Council that was passing in the atmosphere of seeking dialogue of the Church with socialist regimes on the Eastern Europe. Later, it was well known as the Vatican Ostpolitik inaugurated by the Pope Paul VI. The collection testifies about the attempt control that part of society, in this case of religious institutions, which were conceived unreliable for the socialist regime and its ideology. Apart of the Roman Catholic Church which was the most numerous and organized religious community, the regime was also controlling other churches, Serbian Orthodox Churches, Greco-Catholic Church and Jewish and Evangelical communities as well. In the special focus of the commission were the religious activities marked as those which propagated „anti-socialist moral“ in the public like the priest homilies, public missions and teaching of catechism, publishing activities, religious press and books, influence on the young people. No less important were issues of the building of churches and the problems about confiscation of church properties.

The Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted (VONS) was founded in April 1978 by Charter 77 signatories, although this organisation was independent from Charter 77. The aim of this organisation was to monitor cases of persons that were criminally prosecuted or kept in prison because of their beliefs or became victims of police and judicial despotism. VONS helped individuals facing persecution to obtain legal representation and acted as mediators in acquiring assistance of a financial or other nature. VONS informed the Czechoslovak and international public (e.g. via Radio Free Europe, Voice of America and the BBC) about these cases. Thus, VONS also tried to publicise “non-prominent” Czechoslovak persecuted dissidents, who were not so well-known. A number of VONS members were persecuted by the communist regime; some of them were kept in prison or were forced to emigrate. VONS was also active after November 1989, when it focused on amending the criminal code or preparing rehabilitation laws. In 1996 VONS suspended its activities for an indefinite period.