COURAGE

connecting collections

Nenad Bukvić is a senior archivist at the Croatian State Archives (CSA). He studied history at the Department of History and archival sciences, at the Department of Information and Communication Sciences at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Zagreb. Nenad’s first contact with the CSA was during his archival sciences programme as some of the lectures and work practice took place at the CSA. After graduating, he started to work at the CSA, first as a volunteer and was subsequently employed by the organisation in 2009. Nenad currently holds the position of Deputy Head of the CSA.

Nenad Bukvić did not participate in any form of opposition as he was too young but treated the topic of cultural opposition in his research during his doctorate. His research topic is the Parliament of the People’s Republic of Croatia (1945-1953) and analyses the relations between the Parliament and the individual. He focuses on the impact the Parliament had on the contemporary social ties in Croatia.

The interviewee takes a broader view of the concept of opposition as an expression of attitudes that oppose typical behavioural patterns. The political system in socialist Yugoslavia and Croatia had a particular underlying set of behavioural patterns, which the society as a whole was obliged to support. Thus, all behaviour deviating from what was desirable was considered as some form of opposition. Nenad points out that cultural opposition can be construed as a form of cultural activity, such as a desire for expression of freedom of thought, or an attempt to encourage public debate, dialogue and the like.

György Bulányi (1919–2010) was a Piarist monk and the founder of the base community named Bokor. He was also the author of its theological principles and the creator of numerous works of samizdat writing. He was imprisoned for 8 years on charges of illegal community organizing.

He was ordained in 1943 as a member of the Piarist convent. He was a teacher in the Piarist grammar school in Debrecen, and he began to organize the base communities here in 1945. According to his memoir, he was inspired by a Croatian Jesuit monk. This monk went by the name Kolakovics, and incognito. As is revealed in a paper by Bernát Benyhe, his real name was Stjepan Tomislav Poglajen, and he probably played a role in the establishment of the Czech underground church.

The development of the movement was brought to an end by Bulányi’s arrest. He and his 10 associates were accused of “leading organizations to damage the People’s Democracy.” The public prosecutor sought the death penalty, but he was sentenced to life in prison. In the end, he spent 8 years in jail. He was released in 1960 in accordance with an amnesty, but he was not permitted to serve as a priest. He worked as a transport worker until 1970.

The compromise reached by Hungarian church leaders, the Vatican, and the Kádár regime constituted a trauma for Bulányi. He saw that the Church was willing to collaborate, and he saw that some of the faithful were arrested. After he was released, none of the churches would accept him. He turned to Scripture and sought an answer to the question: what kind of Church would Jesus want to see? He summarized his ideas in a book entitled Seek the Country of the Lord! /Keressétek az Isten Országát! - KIO/, which was written between 1968 and 1970. This work became the theological foundation for the activities of the members of the Bokor group. He began to reorganize the communities in 1967, 7 years after his release.

Galyna M. Burlaka received her PhD (Candidate of Philology) from the T. H. Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NANU), where she now works as a senior research fellow and also heads the Department of Manuscripts and Textual Studies. Burlaka matriculated to the Institute of Literature in 1981 and has worked there in many different roles since then. Her supervisor was Mykola Sevachenko, who while alive had been a member of the NANU and a renowned specialist in textual studies following World War II. Burlaka was interviewed about three collections at the Institute of Literature’s archives—Vasyl Stus, Zina Genyk-Berezovska and Mykhailyna Khomivna Kotsiubynska—not only because she heads the department, but also because she knew these figures personally and can provide additional insights into the history of these collections and how these materials expand and improve our understanding of cultural opposition in Soviet Ukraine during the increasingly repressive 1960s and 1970s.