COURAGE

connecting collections

In May 1989, under the pen name Bálint Homoród, Béla Nóvé published a book of selected articles, pamphlets, translations and documents entitled, Hopes and Doubts. Once Again on Transylvania. Five hundred copies were printed of the small booklet, which was designed and illustrated by the author. It contains a number of articles and documents previously published in Deadline Diaries - Transylvanian Monitor, along with fresh reports, news and timely documents on the deepening Romanian refugee crises, new goverment restrictions on minority language use, education, and culture, as well as the plans to demolish thousands of Transylvanian villages. It included the author’s translations of Amnesty International and International Helsinki Federation reports on human rights violation in Ceausescu's Romania, and Karl Joachim von Schwarzenberg's testimony before the European Parliament. As he argued in the bilingual summary:

The author is well aware of the hard situation today in Romania. Being a Hungarian with many close contacts in Transylvania, he feels a deep involvement and responsibility for the 2,2 million Hungarian ethnic minorities suffering from forced assimilation under Ceausescu's rule. However, he is far from giving any chauvinistic statement against the Romanians. [...] Instead, he strongly emphasizes the need for mutual solidarity among different ethnic groups, without which, there is no peaceful and democratic solution to the present crises. [...] God save and help us all to survive in good hope these hard days in Eastern Europe.

Members of the Leipzig basis group organized a street music festival for 9 June 1989 in protest of the prohibition of street music. More than one thousand musicians and their supporters took part in the event.

During the event, patches were distributed opposing the official GDR media jubilation at the subjugation of the Chinese Democracy movement. The security services attempted to disperse the festival and apprehended nearly one hundred participants. There were police chases in the city center, which affected many uninvolved citizens.

The organizers were ready and were able to document the event, later distributing fifty copies of a brochure detailing and showing what had transpired. One of these fifty copies made it to the West. From there, photos of the event were transmitted to the East and helped to illuminate the repressive character of the security services. The street music festival of 9 June 1989 and its impact play an important part in the chronology of system changing events.

Samizdat ZrNO [Seed] tried to meet the needs and aspirations of young Catholics seeking spiritual values as well as their place in society. It tried to capture the spirit of the times and respond to the current issues of the young wo/men. It therefore provided an opportunity to express opinions, ideas and attitudes of young people. Each issue included: answers to the problems of youth, profiles of well-known Slovak personae, historical articles, specific problems of time and poetry. Samizdat ZrNO was unique because of its graphically varied covers. It reached only small circle of people, but for the Catholic church it had great symbolic value. ZrNO was a samizdat focused on teenagers and young people.
First issue focused on informing young Catholics about christianity worldwide (e.g. transcript of Pope John Paul´s II. address to the youth). Every article focuses on different christian virtues - power of silence, especially for youngsters surrounded by loud and vivid 80s music, or strong faith as protection against satanism. A long article about heavy-metal, satanism and religious symbols deals with fascination with antireligious behaviour. Author is trying to explain base of this actions and how to help "affected individuals". In the end of the issue few pages are provided young beginning poets.