COURAGE

Mbledhje koleksionesh

Polish politician and one of the leaders of democratic opposition in the 1970s and 1980s in Gdansk. In free Poland he has been repeatedly chosen for the top positions in Polish parliament, including its current term of office.

Bogdan Borusewicz has been actively supporting initiatives intended to preserve the memory of democratic movement. He is a member of the Council of European Solidarity Centre and he donated to the institution numerous items, such as: the wooden crucifix made in the internment camp, large amount of underground publications or the blouse worn by his late wife (Alina Pienkowska, also democratic activist) during the protests in the Gdansk Shipyard. He also influenced some of his co-workers from the past to donate their collections and cherished objects, which resultet eg. with a donation of perfectly preserved and complete underground copy machine.

Kazys Boruta is a famous Lithuanian novelist, poet and translator. During the interwar period, he belonged to the leftist organisation the Socialist Revolutionaries Union. In 1925, he was arrested for a short period, and in 1926 he left Lithuania. He lived in Austria and Germany, and cooperated with the Social Democratic press. He returned to the Republic of Lithuania in 1931, and was arrested again for illegal political activity, and sentenced to four years in jail, but amnestied after two years. 

In 1940, Boruta enthusiastically welcomed the Soviet regime in Lithuania. However, his relations with the regime started to change, and became more and more complicated and tense. His famous novel Baltaragio malūnas (The Mill of Baltaragis), published in 1945, was strongly criticised for 'mysticism' and ignorance of the Soviet reality. (All the print-run was destroyed by the government.) In the end, in 1946, Boruta was arrested and sentenced to five years, but in 1949 he was released. He was ignored by the regime, and had many problems publishing his work. However, his situation started to change during the period of de-Stalinisation. In 1965, he was honoured with the title of cultural activist, and after his death the publication of his collected writings (ten volumes) started. The first volume was published in 1970, and the last in 1975. 

To the Lithuanian intelligentsia and cultural activists, Boruta was an example of a rebellious artist, who protested against different political regimes for artistic autonomy and creativity.

Eglė Borutaitė-Makariūnienė is the daughter of the famous Lithuanian writer Kazys Boruta. In 1968, she and Elga Borutienė, the third wife of the writer, gave part of his personal papers (various manuscripts) to the manuscript section of the Institute of Lithuanian Language and Literature (the exact date when they started to collect the manuscripts is unknown). The same year, the Institute purchased manuscripts of the writer’s unpublished works from Boruta’s widow.

Eglė Borutaitė-Makariūnienė actively disseminates the writer’s legacy. She participates in various meetings and conferences dedicated to Boruta. In 2005, Borutaitė-Makariūnienė edited a volume of memoirs about the writer, Susitikimai su Kaziu Boruta (Meetings with Kazys Boruta, Vilnius: Lietuvos rašytojų sąjungos leidykla).

Jacek Borzych is a film producer and a popularizer of film culture. He co-organized film festivals and competitions; he is also a Chairman of the Board at the Association for Film Education (Stowarzyszenie na rzecz edukacji filmowej).

Since the early 1980s he has documented historical changes in Poland, especially the turbulent events like strikes and clashes. For many decades he has been associated with Video Studio Gdansk, where he deals with film production and realization, as well as archiving. He also oversees queries, requested by researchers, journalists and other filmmakers. Since 2004 he is a Chairman of the Board at the Film Archive Foundation “Roads to Solidarity” (Fundacja Archiwum Filmowe „Drogi do niepodległości”), where he has organized a gradual digitization of the Video Studio Gdansk archives.

Marijan Bosnar was born on 31 March 1980, in Zagreb. In the same city, he completed elementary and secondary school. He graduated in history in 2004 at the Centre for Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb. His mentor was Prof Aleksandar Buczynski and his research topic related to early modern British history. Since December 2004, he has been employed at the Croatian State Archives. Since that time, he has dealt with personal papers and family collections. He was the author of two books dealing with personal papers Osobni arhivski fond – Rudi Supek (Personal Archival Fond - Rudi Supek), Zagreb 2010 and Osobni arhivski fond Vesna Parun: analitički inventar (Personal Archival Fond of Vesna Parun: analytical inventory) Zagreb 2012. Both of these deals with the cultural opposition, that is, two dissidents from the period of the communist regime.

Marijan Bosnar did not participate in any form of opposition, but touched upon the topic of cultural opposition in his archivist work. He has written two books concerning the philosopher Rudi Supek (1913-1993) and the writer and poet,Vesna Parun (1922-2010), who also belonged to dissident circles in Yugoslavia.

The interviewee views a broader concept of cultural opposition, gravitating towards pluralism and toleration in respecting other people’s opinion and rights. This tendency had special importance in regimes as was Yugoslavia’s, showing totalitarian characteristics.