COURAGE

connecting collections

The collection of the Archives of the Peace Movement in Ljubljana contains 58 boxes of archival materials accumulated by the activity of the Centre for the Culture of Peace and Non-violence in Ljubljana, as well as the democratic opposition and the forerunner of civil society in the 1980s and 1990s in Slovenia. The collection testifies to peace-making activities of a part of Slovenian society which advocated greater democracy of in Slovene society and citizen involvement in policy-making.

This ad-hoc collection mainly consists of documents separated from the fonds of judicial files concerning persons subject to political repression during the communist regime which is currently stored in the Archive of the Intelligence and Security Service of the Republic of Moldova (formerly the KGB Archive). It focuses on the case of Arsenie Platon, a person of peasant background and an aspiring poet, who was tried and convicted in 1961 for displaying nationalist views and for conducting “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda” among his friends and acquaintances. Platon’s “anti-Soviet” opinions were mostly expressed in a series of poems and short proclamations in which he criticised ethnic discrimination against the Moldavians and called for the overthrow of Soviet power. This case is emblematic for less widely known forms of grassroots cultural opposition, falling under the same broad category as the cases of Gheorghe Muruziuc and Zaharia Doncev. Platon’s file includes no further information about his fate after the end of his prison term.

Umělecké sbírky Památníku národního písemnictví obsahují práce blízké literatuře – například ilustrace, vizuální práce spisovatelů či grafiky. Sbírky se skládají z pozůstalostí, a obsahují proto i práce umělců, kteří nemohli před rokem 1989 působit v oficiální sféře.