COURAGE

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The event Kaj je alternativa? (What is the alternative?) was organised by the FV group in Šiška Youth Centre in Ljubljana. In May 1983, the FV 112/15 group entirely moved its social activities from Disco Študent, situated in the basement of Building IV in the Rožna dolina student dormitory complex, to the Šiška because the authorities were exerting pressure on them. The poster was designed by Dušan Mandić, later a member of the Irwin group and Neue Slowenische Kunst.

Mandić’s design for the poster, which advertised the event, combined aspects of the aesthetics of the FV group and the band Laibach, with elements appropriated from socialist aesthetics mixed ambiguously with elements of petit-bourgeois romanticism. The poster underscored the FV brand, reproducing in the background a Laibach woodcut, the Metalworker, along with the band’s name (Laibach), which was prohibited at that time because of a crossed-out swastika, and slogans. This poster earned Mandić a visit from the police, which arrived with a search warrant, although Mandić was never prosecuted in court for it. Mandić says that the poster was made because Igor Vidmar, who wore two badges with anti-fascist content but decorated with swastikas on them, was imprisoned for two months. Mandić also included the problematic badges on the poster, and this was the reason why the police questioned him. At the police station, he stated that he was only a contractor, since the League of Socialist Youth of Slovenia and Radio Student has commissioned the poster and, therefore, they should be placed in custody.

Soon cultural theory came to the defence of the subculture for the first time. The poster was even printed in Mladina in a somewhat censored form, but it appeared in full in the first issue of the alternative publication Viks. The event What is the alternative? was organised as a theoretical symposium, featuring some of Slovenia’s most prominent contemporary theorists, artists and cultural figures, such as Slavoj Žižek, Rastko Močnik, Lev Kreft, Pavle Gantar, Iztok Saksida, Dušan Mandić, etc. Some people were disappointed because the debate remained at the theoretical level and did not address some of the real issues that the alternative scene was grappling with, such as battles over space or the legal problems faced by the band Laibach. The event What is the alternative? revealed certain other internal contradictions within the alternative scene.

The Manifesto of Socialist Surrealism was an ideological basis of the Orange Alternative movement. The document was written by Waldemar Fydrych and originally was published in the "A" magazine in 1981. "A" included also essays by Wiesław Cupała and Paweł Jarocki as well as some graphics and pictures. It was sold on the streets to the students, workers, and other passers-by in Wrocław and other Polish cities. The continuation of the "A" magazine" was "Pomarańczowa Alternatywa" ("Orange Alternative") paper which was distributed during the students' strikes in November and December 1981. Both gazettes were issued by the New Culture Movement.

The text of the Fydrych's Manifesto was inspired by the Manifesto of Surrealism by Andre Breton and other his works. But the Manifesto of Socialist Surrealism was also a parody of the state socialist propaganda. It rejected the whole realist aesthetics, both the socialist realism from the 1950s and classic realism represented by Dostoevsky, as a boring rationalization of the creative and joyful life. Fydrych affirmed the "living for adventure", irrationality, spontaneous love, an imagination that "means a world without limits". He juxtaposed the philosophers and the politicians and took side of the latter, who in fact change the world:

"We shall soon get rid of the philosophers. Luckily, even in the moments least propitious for surrealism, it has always found refuge in public toilets of every city. Advisable. I recommend such spiritual wanderings. It was there that Icarus soared. It was difficult for pure rationalism to take control of the toilets. Surrealism has prevailed in toilets thanks to the politicians. For nowhere is there such a close relation between relief and the aesthetic feeling. The philosophers attempted to extend their reach also to these places, but their foul hopes misfired. The politicians have always been great surrealists. They are waiting for affection. Let’s love the politicians. The philosophers are defeated.

At present, it’s high time to expose the foul acts of the philosophers before the Tribunal of Surrealism. Next to them, I propose to build a Great Tribune to extol the great deeds of the politicians from. Let’s all have a whole-hearted laugh. The war between materialism and idealism. From the point of view of a vigorous intellect it is but a primitive entertainment. The functionaries of philosophy, Judases of criticism, experts in constraining imagination and spontaneity, do not count on it".

Veljo Tormis wrote his Kurvameelsed laulud (Melancholy Songs) in 1979, and dedicated it to the conductor Neeme Järvi, who was persona non grata in the Soviet Union since 1978. Thus, Tormis was told to cross out the dedication on the first page of the manuscript. However, he refused to do so, and covered it up with a strip of dark paper instead. The dedication is faintly visible through the paper. The manuscript was accepted, and later archived in this form. On a later copy, which also belongs to the same collection, the dedication is rewritten and formulated as a dedication to Neeme Järvi's leaving the homeland. Järvi emigrated to the United States in 1980.

Kurvameelsed laulud is not the most famous work by Tormis, but the manuscript is a unique and notable rarity as a reflection of the struggle with Soviet censorship.

The cantata Lenini sõnad (Lenin's Words) is a purely ironic work. It was formally dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Soviet Union. Tormis used extracts of texts by Vladimir Lenin. The irony lies in the fact that these were extracts which demanded equality between nations and the right of self-determination. Since the author was Lenin himself, the authorities could not blame Tormis for anything. Whether the authorities understood the irony or not remains unknown.

It has not been widely performed, and even not at all since the restoration of independence, but it is often quoted in the press as a curious case. This cantata is definitely not forgotten. For example, Lenini sõnad was one of the works mentioned in the obituaries of Tormis.

The original manuscript and a later written copy are currently stored in the Estonian Theatre and Music Museum.