COURAGE

savienojot kolekcijas

The folk music collection of László Lajtha is currently held at the Hungarian Heritage House. The collection provides insight into the private practices of alternative culture during the socialist dictatorship. It holds many documents that represent pre-communist cultural heritage, as well as private opposition to communist ideology. It illustrates László Lajtha’s correspondence with the Communist Party, and contains many letters, manuscripts, and documents which reflect a critical perspective on the Hungarian communist era.

The unique resource value of the collection stems from the historical fact that the continuity of Hungarian scouting established in 1910 was in fact maintained by the émigré Hungarian scouting movement worldwide for more than four decades, from 1948 to 1989, in a period when it was prohibited in communist Hungary. According to Hungarian émigré scout leaders, the movement was intended to serve a two-front struggle of cultural resistance: on one hand against the official forgery of “the real” national heritage in communist Hungary; and on the other against the linguistic and cultural assimilation of Hungarian émigré youth within the multi-ethnic environment of some 20 countries of 4 continents worldwide.

The collection is held in the Lithuanian Special Archive. The archive was arranged to manage a special collection of material that consists mostly of Soviet Lithuanian KGB, Communist Party and Interior Ministry documents. Documents from these former institutions are recognised by the Lithuanian government as material of special status, and they are separated from other government archive documents. The Lithuanian Special Archive is a governmental institution that supervises, keeps, stores and initiates legislation regarding this special group of documents.
The collection is part of this group. It holds various documents about Lithuania’s anti-Soviet armed resistance in 1944-1953. While the partisan movement is related more to the resistance rather than to cultural opposition issues, the collection includes creative work by partisans, such as poetry, drawings, works of art, cards, and other items. The existence of this kind of work demonstrates the phenomenon of Lithuania’s anti-Soviet resistance and cultural opposition which was not limited only to armed rebellion. Partly because of this, the partisan resistance has a deep influence today on the Lithuanian historical memory.

The Museum of Romani Culture in Brno contains unique materials on the life, history and culture of Roma in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and map the social, political and cultural activities of the minority. This collection is closely focused on the Roma minority and is unique in the Czech Republic. The collections also include materials mapping the life of the Roma minority during the Communist regime and their emancipation efforts.