O čom rozmýšľali a písali mladí katolíci na konci 80. rokov 20. storočia? Analýza čitateľských príspevkov pre samizdatový časopis Zrno

Abstract

The youth samizdat Christian magazine Zrno was published in 1989 and was technically and distributionally the most perfect samizdat in Slovakia, capitalizing on the experience of about 20 other secret Christian magazines published since the 1970s. It also brought innovation to content creation because it gave space to its readers and wanted to be above all a tool for creating mutual unity and encouragement in the underground Church. A part of the archive of readers' contributions was preserved in the estate of the editor-in-chief of Zrno, priest Ladislav Stromček. For individual texts, the editorial notes and evaluations were also retained. This article analyzes this sample in detail in terms of form and content, noting the authors (gender, age), form of texts (typed, handwritten), genre, topics, editorial evaluation, editorial recommendation and the quality of contributions in terms of current editorial perspective. It offers a probe into the mentality of the generation of young committed Catholics from 1988 to 1989. At the same time, it presents the history of the magazine Zrno and the working methods of the samizdat editorial office under the conditions of totalitarianism.