COURAGE

povezovanje zbirk

The protocol describes a meeting of the Central Committee Bureau in 1958 at which Juozas Bulavas was accused of bourgeois nationalism, dismissed from his post and expelled from the Party. While he was rector of Vilnius University, Bulavas decided to start more groups for Lithuanian students and close groups for Russian students. After this decision in 1958, he was accused of ignoring the ‘principle of proletariat internationalism’ and of ‘bourgeois nationalism’. He was fired from his job, and in 1959 he was expelled from the Communist Party. He worked in a scientific institute as a researcher. Bulavas was a loyal supporter of the communist regime, but he believed that de-Stalinisation created opportunities for policies more favourable to the Lithuanian nation and its culture. His story illustrates very well the fact that the de-Stalinisation policy had clear boundaries, and the Party leadership determined what was permissible and what was not.

The psalm ‘Rūpintojėlių Lietuva’ was written by Miškinis during his imprisonment in Siberia. The lyrics of the psalm follow the style of the psalms in the Bible. It is like an appeal to God, asking His help for all Soviet deportees. In the psalm, the Soviet regime is seen as a nine-headed dragon. Neither the psalm nor parts of it have been translated into English or into other foreign languages. 

The punk “uniform” was an indispensable element of any image of the Rock Musicians’ Festival in Jarocin. In fact, in 1980s this venue became the most important event for punk and new wave music, even though punks were visibly less numerous than the dominating metal music fans. Still, the colourful and extravagant style and way of being of punks made them an iconic element of the festival.

Although, supposedly the primary punk rule is no rules at all, and nonconformist attitude obliges punks to break any conventions and customs, in practice as early as mid 1980s the punk style in Poland has become highly conventional. Its elements included chucks or heavy boots – due to the lack of access to the preferred bovver boots these could be the so-called “rumuny” (lit. romanians), i.e. Romanian army boots – denim trousers often with torn or rolled-up legs or dyed with vivid colours, leather jackets with painted slogans or band names, badges, pins, and finally the characteristic hairstyles: mohawks and teased hair in striking hues. Particular parts of the apparel are on display in the section dedicated to punk music, which is an element of the permanent exhibition at the Polish Rock Granary.

The painting dates back to the approximately ten-year-long existence of the Zugló Circle, specifically, to the years when its members were influenced by the French abstract expressionism. This period is a brief but important manifestation of Art Informel in Hungary. The trend emphasizing the freedom of expression had special significance in the Hungarian context in the early sixties because it opposed the socialist realist aesthetic principles prescribed by the cultural policy of the Kádár regime. Taking sides with the autonomy of art had a political undertone, which was an important feature not only of the neo-avantgarde endeavours in Hungary but also in other parts of Central and Eastern Europe.