COURAGE

savienojot kolekcijas

An archive of several tens of thousands of  photographs representing the life’s work of one of the most acclaimed Polish photographers – Tadeusz Rolke. It comprises photoreports on the everyday and cultural life in Warsaw, fashion photography and documentation of avant-garde events from the mid-1950s until 1970, as well as photos depicting Polish society during the “carnival” of “Solidarity” in 1980, during the martial law, the transformation in 1989, and the alternative culture of the 1980s.

The private collection of Tamás Csapody (1960–) includes documents related to movements for the reform of the compulsory military service and the introduction of alternative civilian service. Refusal to perform military service was an illegal act in the countries of the Warsaw Pact. Csapody’s collection, as the only collection focusing this specific topic, contributes to remembering the stories of people who were penalized by the laws of the Kádár regime because of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.

The Archive of Opposition is one of the oldest activities of the KARTA Centre. It was established in 1991 as “The Archive of the Polish People’s Republic” and gathered all the materials concerning political life in Poland since 1956 to 1989, especially in connection to the events of 1956, 1968, 1970, 1980. In 1998 the archive changed its name to “The Archive of Opposition”, which reflects greater awareness of the specificity of the opposition in the Polish People’s Republic: its diversity extending beyond merely political actions. In the Archive researchers and journalists can find a very rich, written and visual material on the newest Polish political and social history.