COURAGE

connecting collections

Gyula Ortutay was both an ethnographer and politician.   
He was born in Subotica, Serbia, in 1910. His parents were Ilona Borsodi and István Ortutay, a journalist and editor of the Szegedi Napló. Following secondary school Gyula Ortutay began his academic studies at the University of Szeged. He studied Greek and Latin, and graduated in 1934. He was a founder of the Artistic Youth College of Szeged [Szegedi Fiatalok Művészeti Kollégiuma]. In 1935 he began work at the Hungarian National Museum. Later, in 1944, he joined the Hungarian Radio [Magyar Rádió]. During his carrier there, working with Patria audio publishers, he organized several ethnographic recordings with László Lajtha, Béla Bartók, and Zoltán Kodály. He wrote about these works in his diary. They recorded folk tales, folk songs, folk customs, religious songs, and also helped performers travel to Hungary. He launched his political career in 1943 through his contact with communist intellectuals. He served as Minister of Religion and Education between 1947 and 1950. While his political role gained importance, he also worked as an ethnographer and folklorist. In 1949 he presented the speech, “A magyar néprajztudomány elvi kérdései” [Theoretical Questions of Hungarian Ethnography], which defined the role of Hungarian ethnography in the socialist era. From 1951 Ortutay served as the Head of the Folklore Department at Eötvös Loránd University. Between 1949 and 1956 he was also the chairman of the Hungarian Ethnographic Society, and later, between 1957 and 1963, was the rector of Eötvös Loránd University. He was one of the most important academic figures of Hungarian folklore during the socialist era; he supported folklore collections and research, and highlighted the importance of informative work. He curated a very popular series for Magyar Radió, the Kis Magyar Néprajz [Little Hungarian Ethnography].

He was married to Zsuzsa Kemény.

Željko Oset was born in Celje (Slovenia) in 1984. He obtained his Ph.D. in history at the University of Ljubljana and works as a professor at the University of Nova Gorica. He began his professional career at the Institute for Contemporary History (Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino) in Ljubljana, where he established himself as a researcher of the intellectual history of Slovenia in the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

Oset believes that environmental movements were the forerunner of political organization and that the Communist Party allowed them to appease discontent: "It is interesting that the Party allowed these environmental movements and thus enabled people to express their dissatisfaction with the authorities. And it was like that throughout Yugoslavia - it was a release valve for dissent. But the authorities were vigilant about minor disagreements, making sure they did not turn into some kind of movements that would become the opposition, because the authorities would appear weak. Criticism was allowed, but the boundaries of tolerance were not defined. I know there was pressure against environmental activists in Slovenia, but nobody ended up in prison” (Oset, interview, July 6, 2017).

Blaž Otrin was born in Ljubljana in 1973. He was educated in Ljubljana. He has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and master in history. In 2000, he was employed by Archdiocesan Archives in Ljubljana. He is in charge of personal funds, including Anton Vovk's fund. During socialism he was a minor, so he was not involved in oppositional activities. Otrin considers research and preservation of the materials on anti-communist movements important. He also considers this particular fund important in that regard. Otrin's attitude toward the communist regime is multi-dimensional. His family history includes both sides, people who were supporters of communism and people who were opponents of communism. Otrin believes that Slovenian society has not done enough to clarify its relationship to the Communist regime and that, among other things, the absence of lustration affects social attitudes toward communism.

Romualdas Ozolas (1939-2015) was a Lithuanian philosopher, politician, activist, writer and lecturer at Vilnius University. He was a member of the Communist Party from 1973 to 1990. During Soviet times he occupied high formal positions: in 1975-1980 he worked as an assistant to the deputy chair of the Soviet Lithuanian Council of Ministers, and in 1980-1989 he was deputy director of Mintis (Thought), one of the biggest publishers in the republic. Nevertheless, he was very active and involved in informal networks that took initiatives to promote Lithuanian culture and history. During Gorbachev’s perestroika period, he expressed the opinion that cultural opposition should not be limited to cultural work only, and encouraged making political claims against Moscow. He was a member of the Lithuanian independence movement Sąjūdis from 1988 to 1990. From 1990 to 1991, he served as deputy prime minister of Lithuania. He joined the Lithuanian Centrist Union in 1993, and was its chairman until 2000. In 1996, he was elected to the Seimas, the Lithuanian parliament, and served until 2000. From 2003 to 2007, he chaired the National Centrist Party (NCP), which has since been renamed the Lithuanian Centrist Party in 2005.