Katarina BEŠIREVIĆ
Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade
The Új Symposion Journal on Trial in Yugoslavia (1971/72)
Abstract:
Among the censored press and criminal prosecutions led against individuals after the 1968 student demonstrations in socialist Yugoslavia, a Hungarian neo-avantgarde journal published in Novi Sad found its own place. The Új Symposion journal’s two issues were banned at the end of 1971, and a few months later, its two authors and editor were criminally prosecuted. The aim of this article is to explore the occurrence of political trials in Yugoslavia on the example of the Új Symposion case, by looking into the trial documents, as well as the testimonies of three witnesses of this historical event.
Key words: Új Symposion, political trials, censorship, neo-avantgarde, the New Left, socialist Yugoslavia, Novi Sad
Summary
The journal Új Symposion was published in Hungarian in Novi Sad from the mid 1960s. This neo-avantgarde journal for art and critique, as stated in this subtitle, was a gathering place for the young artists of Novi Sad’s alternative scene. During the wave of repressions that followed the 1968 student demonstrations and the 1971 Croatian spring, two issues of the journal were banned at the end of 1971, while criminal charges against two authors and the journal’s editor followed a few months later. The writings of two young artists, Sándor Rózsa and Miroslav Mandić were the main reasons for the bans of two Symposion’s issues; while in 1972 Rózsa and Mandić were sentenced to imprisonment.
This article displays the Új Symposion case and the trials against Sándor Rózsa, Miroslav Mandić and the editor Ottó Tolani, through a detailed analysis of the court documents (mostly the ones from Rózsa’s case) along with the interviews conducted with Sándor Rózsa, as well as Professor Tibor Varadi and artist Katalin Ladik, who were tightly linked, not just to the journal, but to the trials as well. By portraying this case, I had the intention to demonstrate the practice of political trials in socialist Yugoslavia, with the focus on the period of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The fact that the journal was issued in Hungarian in Yugoslavia adds another aspect to this case, but also to the political trials of that period in Yugoslavia in general.