COURAGE

savienojot kolekcijas

In the letter sent to the Commission on Religious Matters of the Vinkovci Municipality, the correspondent Republic Commission interpreted the new circumstances that had arisen in the Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council. The regime adopted new political strategies for lower levels of government and instructed them on how to fight against the oppositional influence of the Catholic Church in a socialist society. “It forces us to create our political strategy and tactics, in other words, clear conceptions with which to successfully and cogently politically counteract the offensive tendencies and actions of the Church in its attempt to infiltrate our socialist society.“

The journal Praxis, whose editorial board consisted of Rudi Supek together with Milan Kangrga, Gajo Petrović, Danko Grlić, Ivan Kuvačić, was published from 1964 to 1974, four times a year in the Croatian language. It also had international editions in English, French and German. Intellectuals gathered around the journal advocated for a neo-Marxist approach to philosophy and sociology. Soon this group was called the Praxis intellectuals (Lešaja 2014: 246), and they promoted a social system which would expand the individual's ability to act freely and creatively. From this standpoint, they criticised capitalism and its understanding of human freedoms and rights which, according to them, leads to alienation. But they also criticised the free market elements which were introduced into the economic system of self-management socialism in Yugoslavia in the mid-1960s and certain other aspects of the Yugoslav socialist system which they considered over-bureaucratized. That is why they often came into conflict with the LCY. The journal was repeatedly attacked and censored by the authorities, its financing was blocked, and even though it was not officially banned, its publishing was disabled by “self-management censorship” (Stipčević 2005: 11-12). Namely, the working people of the Joža Rožanković printing company informed the editorial board of their decision not to provide printing services for the journal anymore. The Rudi Supek Personal Papers in the Croatian State Archives (CSA) contain the letter from Franjo Kalapoš, the manager of the printing company, sent in March 1975, notifying the editorial board of Praxis that the self-management bodies and political organisation of the company made the decision that the journal would no longer be printed. The Praxis editorial board then tried to find another printer, but every single one of them refused to print the journal. That is why the already prepared issue of Praxis (6/1974) was never published. According to Gajo Petrović's testimony, “certain forums even told us not to try too hard, as all the presses received the notification and the workers in all of them were quite in agreement regarding the matter” (Lešaja 2014: 286).

This document is a copy of a memorandum written by Gheorghe Ghimpu at the end of 1971 and addressed to Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. This thirteen-page typed text is part of volume 10 of the Usatiuc–Ghimpu–Graur file stored at the SIS Archive . The version preserved in this archive represents a literal Russian translation of a handwritten Romanian-language document. The Romanian version was copied by Valeriu Graur from the initial typed draft of the memorandum authored by Gheorghe Ghimpu. The handwritten Romanian text, confiscated from Graur’s apartment, constituted one of the main pieces of evidence during the trial. This text was to be smuggled by Graur to Romania and subsequently sent to the RFE/RL headquarters in Munich (by clandestine means), but Graur’s arrest hampered this. The document synthesises the main arguments and views of the members of the National Patriotic Front. The text begins by deploring the fate of the “ancient Romanian lands” of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and Transnistria under the “most cruel and despotic tyranny” of the Soviet regime. This regime is accused of “chauvinism” and of large-scale repressive policies in the post-war period. The author acknowledges that during the 1960s the situation had improved and that the Moldavian population had more opportunities to receive a better education. However, the MSSR’s position within the USSR is described as that of a “colony of the Russian Empire” (the anti-imperialist rhetoric is pervasive). The document then presents and purports to analyse various strategies used by the Soviet regime to Russify and “de-nationalise” the local Romanian-speaking population. Aside from mentioning the isolation of the USSR Romanians from Romania proper and the attempt to create a separate linguistically based Moldavian national identity, the author points to several other concrete manifestations of the Russification policy, e.g.: 1) the attempt to further assimilate the local population by appointing to leading and managerial positions Russian speakers or Russified Moldavians, who were in reaction labelled ”outsiders” (venetici) or Russian collaborators, and who consolidated the colonial relationship between Soviet Moldavia and the Russian centre; 2) the ”expulsion” of the Romanians to Siberia’s ”virgin lands” and their replacement by a wave of Slavic migrants, 3) compulsory service in the Soviet army; 4) the encouragement of mixed marriages; 5) the ubiquitous use of Russian as a state language (despite the provisions of the Soviet Constitution) and the marginalisation of Romanian; 6) the Russification of education at all levels; 7) the purposeful Russification of proper names (both family names and geographic locations). The author further argues that the Romanian population has not accepted the policies of the “Russian colonisers,” and invokes a number of individual examples of resistance, mainly from intellectual circles. Although stating that the “struggle will continue,” the text concludes on a rather pessimistic note, emphasising that the Romanians of the MSSR are isolated and ignored by the wider world due to the Russification policies pursued by the regime. The dominant nationalistic language and overtones, which are probably inspired from the interwar rhetoric specific to Greater Romania, make this document one of the most eloquent examples of Moldovan national opposition in the Soviet period. The attention given to the cultural sphere is especially revealing. It is worth mentioning that Graur reconstructed a version of this document from memory, so it was thus able finally to reach its destination ten years later, in 1982, when it was broadcast by Radio Free Europe. 

The Bogdan Radica’s letter to Franjo Tuđman is an example of his correspondence covering the period from the 1960s to the late 1980s. Their corresponding was very difficult, so Tuđman sent the letters to Radica in the USA through a confidant-intermediary. Radica first communicated Tuđman that he had to go to the Hoover Institute at Stanford University to read his book Uzroci krize monarhističke Jugoslavije od ujedinjenja do sloma (Causes of the Monarchist Yugoslavia Crisis - From Unification to Breakdown) (Zagreb: doctoral thesis, 1965) printed in two volumes in 1965. He wanted the book to be published in English. In his opinion, as a Croatian Marxist, Tuđman was to assume the role that Đilas and Mihajlov had prior to him. According to Radica, the importance of Tuđman's dissident work is that he pays attention to the question of Croatian statehood. Due to the need for secrecy, without mentioning the place of his summer residence (close to Ulivello, a village in Toscana, Italy where Radica spent his summer months), Radica informed Tuđman where they were to clandestinely meet. The letter is a testimony to the secrecy of their meetings. 

In the same letter, Radica was interested in Tuđman’s interviews by the European media such as the Italian newspaper Il tempo (The Time) and the Swedish National Television. They also discussed the possibility of translating Tuđman’s book National question in contemporary Europe and publish it in English so the world knows about the issue of endeavours in establishing Croatian statehood under the Yugoslav communist dictatorship. Radica asked a publishing house in New York to print Tuđman’s book. The publishing house was Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, whose owner was William Jovanovich, an American businessman with Serbian origins. All of Milovan Đilas’ books were published in English by the Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich publishing house. However, in the end, Jovanovich rejected Radica's suggestion and his publishing house never printed the book.