Conference report. Political exile from Central and Eastern Europe. Motives, strategies, activities and perceptions of East and West

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1 Conference report Political exile from Central and Eastern Europe. Motives, strategies, activities and perceptions of East and West Nation s Memory Institute (Ústav pamäti národa, Slovakia) and European Network Remembrance and Solidarity (Warsaw) in collaboration with The Institute of National Remembrance (Poland), Study Centre for National Reconciliation (Slovenia) and German Association for East European Studies (Germany) organized international scientific conference Political exile from Central and Eastern Europe. Motives, strategies, activities and perceptions of East and West, Two-day conference took place at the Historical building of the National Council of the Slovak Republic in Bratislava in November 19 20, The conference was supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media upon a decision of the German parliament. The international scientific conference has examined the political exile organisation from countries of the former Soviet bloc. Program of the conference was divided into six panels. 1st panel included three keynote lectures of the conference. First keynote lecture was given by prof. A Ross Johnson from Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and Hoover Institution, U.S.A., who focus on the media activities from East European Political Emigrants through US Perspective. The United States empowered exiles to reach their compatriots in Eastern Europe with the spoken and written word through Radio Free Europe, the FEC leaflet and book program and its sequel, and support of émigré journals published in the West. Their role in the printed word program and émigré journal support did not involve an editorial framework but was limited to determining which publications reflected democratic, non- fascist and non- Communist values and were worthy of support. His lecture was followed by speech of Dr. Sławomir Łukasiewicz from Polish Institute of National Remembrance, who examine main emigrant waives from Central and Eastern European countries and also discussed dominant motives for the emigration. As main reasons for exile he introduces postwar arrangements, communist takeover and birth of Central European political emigration as an effect of deliberate choice. He also stressed motivation for exile, which was different in each country, but also outlines similarities (mostly loss of independent state and fight against communism). He mentioned cooperation of the political exile in Western countries as well as conflicts and divisions caused by several factors.

2 Last lecture from the keynotes was speech of Prof. Robert Letz from Commenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, who deals with the Slovak political exile and gave overview about all relevant representatives, groups and their activities. Slovak political exile was created from several exile waves with the focus on the fight against communism. Most of the exile representatives fight also for the independent Slovak state, but some of them bolster Czech exile groups oriented on the Czechoslovak state. Representatives of Slovak exile groups also have huge contradictions after the war and their mutual relationships were complicated. 2 nd panel was dedicated to the political concepts that were created in the exile. This panel starts with the lecture of Peter Jašek from Slovak Nation s Memory Institute, who introduced activities of the most important Slovak exile organization, Slovak World Congress. Political program of Congress was focused on democracy, fight against totalitarianism, independent Slovakia as a part of European integration, free elections, guaranty of basic human rights. Activities of the Congress were oriented on publishing of the declarations against violation of human rights in Slovakia, meetings with western politics and lobbying for Slovakia. Milena Przybysz, historian from Polish Institute of National Remembrance, deals with the Polish emigrant Jerzy Giedroyc and the conceptions about the role of Roman Catholic Church in Poland under Communism, how they was reflected by the Polish society in Paris. The Literary Institute and Culture founded by Jerzy Giedroyc constitute one of the most important centers of Polish émigré, which focused the majority of the political forces of the Polish emigration. In June 1947, the first issue of the Kultura monthly was published. For more than half a century, magazine edited by Giedroyc published poetry, literature, journalism, as well as historical and philosophical texts and most renowned authors published there. Mateja Čoh Kladnik from Slovenian Study Centre for National Reconciliation examine in her lecture Slovene emigration in Austria early after WWII, which was considered by the communist regime as initiator and collaborator of the anti-communist illegal groups in Slovenia. She introduces activities of National Committee of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and her intelligence force Main Intelligence Centre. Last speech of the 2 nd panel was delivered by Mišo Dokmanovič from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, who deals with national statehood as a goal of the Macedonian political emigration and demonstrated it on the case of the Liberation Committee of Macedonia. The political aim of the organization was developed, but focus was to achieve national statehood of Macedonia. Organization utilized only peaceful means to implement its goals (newspapers, events, protests, letters etc). One of the most important long-term decisions of the organization was the ideological twist to attract more members and supporters. Instead of appealing to pro-democratic groups only, organization decided from 1972 to attract all potential categories ( democrats, communists and anticommunists ). Organization was also under strict surveillance of Yugoslav State Security. Commentator of first panel was Jakub Tyskiewicz from Poland. He stressed importance of the journal Kultura for polish exile in France. He also tried to compare

3 efforts of political exile from Slovakia and Macedonia and their attitude to the question of national statehood. After short break negotiations of the conference continued by the 3 rd panel. First lecture in this panel was given by Filip-Lucian Iorga from University of Bucharest in Romania, who deals with the descendants of the Romanian Nobility, who faced large scale of repressions and some of them were forced to emigrate. In exile, they joined already established Romanian exile organization and contribute to the fight against communism. Andrzej Mietkowski from Poland examines (partially based on his own experiences) several aspects of the Polish political exile, including their activities against Jaruzelski s regime in several Western countries. He presented opinion, that contribution of refugees from Central and Eastern Europe in the overthrow of totalitarianism is widely underestimated and highly appreciate contribution of Radio Free Europe in the fight against totalitarian regime in Poland. Adam Kola from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun focused his lecture on the Polish Left-wing Exile Intellectuals in exile, who fight not only against the communist regime in Poland, but also against another polish exile groups. They were treated by the mainstream migrants movement suspiciously and accused of being communists spies, but in their own view, they were anticommunists. Finally, Bernd Florath from The Office of the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the Former German Democratic Republic in Germany deals with the German emigration, which was really specific case in all communists countries under the Soviet rule. Germans target country was Western Germany, but author also mentioned strong influence of East German Stasi, which tries to carry out cases of emigrants. Commentator of this panel was Raphael Krűger from Germany. After this panel Roundtable talk with witnesses was scheduled. Guests of the Roundtable talk were Wlodek Goldkorn, Polish journalist living and publishing in Italy; František Mikloško, Slovak catholic dissident and activist of clandestine church and Dušan Tóth, former General Secretary of the Slovak World Congress. Discussion was focus on the contacts between political exile and dissidents, but also other important issues were examined. Second day of the conference begun by 4 th panel focused on the media and information channels in the exile. Pavol Holeštiak from Catholic University in Ružomberok brought overview of Slovak exile media from all western countries. The mission of exile periodicals of Slovaks was primarily to inform the press and uplift the spirit of Slovak community members who lived in a number of cases spread across of their new country. Last but not least, Slovak periodicals in more than one occasion educated Slovak literature, art and spiritual life. Prokop Tomek from The Institute of Military History in Prague deals with reflection on the Radio Free Europe broadcasting in communist Czechoslovakia during communism. He assumes, that Western world for a long time lacks feedback from the Soviet bloc countries about the influence of broadcasting in

4 1950s. But especially in 1960s and 1980s many people from Czechoslovakia send letters and information to the RFE. Radio station became more influent and more popular in late 1980s. State security failed in their attempts to search for the contributors of RFE. Final lecture of the panel given by Jan Cholinsky from Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes introduce Czech exile journalist Rudolf Kopecký and his political views and ideological conflicts with different representatives of Czech political exile. Commentator of this panel was prof. Alexandar Jakir from Croatia. He pointed out role of media and journalists in the exile and their activities. 5 th panel of the conference started with presentation of Beatrice Scutaru from Universities of Angers and Iasi in France and Romania. She deals with the role of the Romanian exile groups on the process of change views on the Causescu s Romania in France during 1980s. In 1970s Ceausescu and Romania were perceived as key partners for Détente among the communist bloc, but attitude of Western world was completely different in 1980s. A shift can be noted starting the second half of the 1970 s, following the signing of the Helsinki Final Act. The criticism over Ceausescu s policy increasing year after year and representatives of exiles managed to raise awareness of public opinion in France by several actions like protests and press releases about the real situation in Romania. Anna Siwik from AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow examine ideological dilemmas of Polish socialists in exile, which were marked by the Cold War and development of the socialists parties in Western Europe. The socialists as opposed to other political groups operating in exile devoted a lot of their attention to the formulation of an ideational programme. In individual matters, they referred to Western experience for help (one example is Sweden). Nevertheless, they did not completely reject Marxism, in which they differed from Western social democrats. Bernd Robionek from Humboldt-University of Berlin deals with Changing Attitudes towards Communism in the Croatian political exile after WWII. Short after the war, Croat exile was created mostly by the representatives of Croat independent state organized in the Croatian Liberation Movement. Their main goals were fight against communism and for independence. In late 1970s, there is visible change towards the preference of the independent democratic state as a main target, and the strong anticommunist tone had vanished. Last speech of this panel was given by Yevhen Rogovyy from Kharkov National University of the V. N. Karazin in Ukraine, who deals with Ukrainian Political Exile in the West and stressed important role of this exile to show crimes of communism in Western parties. Another very important aim of its activities was to restore Ukrainian statehood. An author emphasized that the main force behind the post-war Ukrainian exile were the intellectual leaders of the Diaspora who criticized the totalitarian regime in the Soviet Union, ethnic oppression of Ukrainians, defended the need for creation of an independent, free and democratic Ukraine. Commentator of this panel was Filip-Lucian Iorga from Romania. He appreciated all presentations and discussed mostly paper of Mrs. Scutaru about position of the Romanian political exile in France in the 1980s and attitudes to the Causescu s regime, which openly fight against

5 their opponents even in late 1980s. Commentator also emphasized activities of the Ukrainian exile, which similarly to the Slovak or Croat exile fight not only against communism, but also for the national statehood. The last panel of the conference was focused on the role of the Security Services in the issue of political exile. Richard Cummings deals with the activities of Radio Free Europe and how USA supported it through CIA. Zsuzsanna Borvendég from Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security in Hungary examines activities of the Hungarian State Security against Hungarian political emigration. Her presentation discussed the emigration-related activities of Hungarian state security through recruitment history of Imre Vámos, Hungarian emigrant and the chief editor of the journal Látóhatár [Horizon]. Hungarian Intelligence tried through his person influence the broadcasting politics of Radio Free Europe. First attempts to get him as a collaborator were unsuccessful, but Hungarian State Security finally convinced him after Revolution in 1956, but at that time he lost his prestige as a prominent exile journalist. Prof. Alexandar Jakir from University of Split in Croatia brings the light into the role of Yugoslav Secret police fighting against Croatian emigration during communism. Yugoslav communist regime engaged in a running battle with the émigrés, and former Yugoslavia has a history of assassinations of political opponents. Victims were mostly Croatian émigrés, although also others were targeted. In his speech author analyzes some cases of assassinations. Last speech of the panel and whole conference was presented by David Svoboda from Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in Prague, who deals with the view of American CIA on the Ukrainian exile in Germany after the WWII. American and British Intelligence services used members of this exile groups (most of them under command of Stephan Bandera) as a tool in the fight against communist, f. i. they search in the refugee camps and identified Soviet collaborators. On the other hand, Western countries considered Bandera and his fighters as a dangerous person. Commentator of this panel was Matej Medvecký from Slovakia. He highly appreciated all presentations and compare activities of secret services of Hungary and Yugoslavia with Czechoslovak State Security and their activities. Each panel and commentaries were followed by discussions focusing on the presented lectures and deepening knowledge about the political exile, their representatives and their share on the fight against totalitarian communist regime and for national statehood of nations in the Central and Eastern Europe.