COURAGE

povezivanje zbirki

Translated in 1945 by Teresa Jeleńska, Orwell’s Animal Farm was first published in Polish by the Radio Free Europe in 1956, and later by Jerzy Kulczycki émigré Odnowa press in 1974. Jeleńska met Orwell in London during World War 2 and corresponded with him until his death in 1950. In 1979, NOWA, the emerging giant of Polish samizdat, re-published the London edition with the illustrations and cover page designed by Andrzej Krauze (1947-), a Polish and British political cartoonist known for his damning portrayals of the communist party nomenklatura. Krauze’s contribution to the NOWA publication cost him his job in the Kultura weekly in Warsaw. In the same year, Krauze emigrated to the West and eventually settled in Great Britain where joined the team of The Guardian, reviving the art of political cartoon in the British press. A copy of the NOWA edition of Animals Farm participated in the 1984 British Library exhibition on George Orwell’s works in the languages of Eastern Europe. 

The founding statement of the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted (VONS) of April 27^th, 1978, signed by seventeen signatories on the Charter 77, who posted their addresses so that people could find them. VONS's goal was to track the cases of people who had been prosecuted or imprisoned for their opinions and beliefs or who had become victims of police and judicial arbitrariness. VONS, by means of numbered communications, familiarised the domestic and international public with these cases and asked the Czechoslovak authorities for remedy. They helped to provide legal representation and mediate financial assistance to the unjustly persecuted and imprisoned.

The impulse for the creation of VONS was, among other things, the events associated with the Railroad Ball in January 1978, in which the signatories of the Charter 77 wanted to attend to. However, three of them were detained by the state security. In support of them, the Defence Committee was formed by Václav Havel, Pavel Landovský and Jaroslav Kukal, who gathered documents for their defence and informed the Czech and foreign public about the whole case. The accusations were released after six weeks and the prosecution was halted. This was a great success for committee members and other dissidents, so VONS was founded in May 1978.