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Balio Sruogos romano Dievų miškas rankraštis, parašytas 1945 metais, yra itin vertingas dokumentas. Sovietų valdžia romaną vadino beverčiu ir net pavojingu režimui. Rankraštis buvo smarkiai cenzūruotas. Rankraštis turi cenzūros pažymėtas pastabas ir autoriaus atsakymus į jas. Sruoga griežtai kritikuotas už kūrybiškumą, išradingumą ir nepriklausomumą. Tokia rašytojo laikysena buvo nepriimtina cenzoriams ir režimui. Galiausiai romano publikavimas buvo uždraustas. (Romanas Lietuvos TSR publikuotas tik 1957 metais.)

„Blind Chance” is one of the most known films of the Polish cinema of moral anxiety genre. The plot of the film is divided in three equally important parts: three different life stories of a young man (reenacted by Bogusław Linda). Depending on the sheer accident (him getting on the train or missing it), the main character enters different social milieus and constructs differently his biography. Main question of the “Blind Chance” is a reflexion on human agency and ability to shape one’s fate, destiny and inevitable course of events. Film shows in an interesting way the social reality of Poland in the 1970s and the 1980s. Depending on the smallest, the most mundane choices a student could find himself in different social groups: communist party, democratic opposition or politically neutral Academia.

Kieślowski’s film was produced in 1981, but it was not screened until 1987, as it was perceived as “dangerous” by the censorship and the Ministry of Culture and Art. In the National Film Archive we can access the protocol from the pre-release closed screening devoted to “Blind chance”. Some of the participants of the Ministry’s pre-release commission, tried to underline the philosophical and metaphysical value of the film as well as the craftsmanship of the director and the historical value of the oeuvre (the pre-release screening took place only few days after the introduction of Martial Law in Poland). Most of voices in discussion did not perceive the film as a threat to Polish society. Despite of rather mild opinions voiced during the pre-release audition, the “Blind Chance” waited 6 years to be shown publicly in Polish cinemas.

This makes Kieślowski’s „Blind Chance” one of the most known „półkownik” (Polish vernacular world for “films laying on the shelves for years”). The case of Kieślowski’s film shows that even the movies produced with support of the public funding and despite the positive feedback from other filmmakers could be banned from distribution under the excuse of posing a threat. In this sense, even film directors working publicly, could be taken out from the official field of cinema production.

„By the railroad” is a film based on one of the novels of Zofia Nałkowska's „Medallions”, written just after the World War II (1946). This debut of Andrzej Brzozowski was banned from being shown publicly for 27 years. Zofia Nałkowska was a member of the Central Committee for Investigating German Crimes in Poland, a body documenting from 1945 to 1949 Nazi crimes on Jewish and Polish citizens during the Second World War. In her novels, Nałkowska in very modest, moderate way describes the atrocities of German occupation in Poland. The book “Medallions”, one of the most vital sources of social imagination about the World War II in Poland, is an important part of school curriculum, read by generations of Polish pupils.

Film “By the Railroad” by Brzozowski is an accurate film adaptation of Nałkowska’s novel under the same title. It concentrates on the Jewish woman who jumped off the train heading to concentration camp. She breaks her leg and lays on the ground by the railroad, while people from the nearby village debate what they should do with her. The plot of the novel and the film raises the issue (often neglected in official narrative) of Polish reactions to Holocaust and especially Jews trying to survive “on the Aryan side” - outside ghettos and concentration camps. The question of Polish “bystanders” to Holocaust, was only one of issues tackled in Nałkowska’s novels. Film by Brzozowski clearly concentrates on the indifference of the Catholic citizens of Poland in the face of perpetrations aimed at their Jewish compatriots.  

Banning Brzozowski’s film from public distribution was a result of fear that this oeuvre could be used for “anti-Polish propaganda” and could “threaten Polish reason of state” (Preizner 2010). Events presented in the film contrasted with the historical narrative of Polish authorities, which presented Polish citizens as victims of Nazi crimes and neglected the importance of Jewish experience.

Film critics (Preizner 2010, Calderón Puerta 2010) state that the film itself is more suggestive than Nałkowska’s novel. Role of Halina Mikołajska, austere filming, concentration on one short plot have a great influence on the audience. However,  the film was shown in public television broadcast only in 1992 (sic!), late in the night and without any meaningful public discussion.

This badge was used by the Northern Region of the Estonian Student Building Brigade (ESBB) in 1978. The rather modest badge has a star in the middle, which is remarkably similar to the Nato symbol. Although it is not known whether this was a conscious choice or not, it is unlikely that the designers of the badge did not know what the Nato symbol looked like. Unfortunately, the collection does not contain the emblem of the Euromais group from 1982, which was deliberately based on the Nato symbol. Both badges passed the censors without any problem. These cases show how members of the ESBB balanced on the borders, and did so most of the time successfully.