COURAGE

savienojot kolekcijas

The samizdat holdings in the Vera & Donald Blinken Open Society Archives is a unique collection of illegal publications of the Hungarian oppositional intellectual circles. Though censorship was milder in Hungary than it was in the other countries of the Eastern Bloc, it would not have been possible for these volumes to have been published in socialist Hungary without independent publishers in the secondary public sphere, or “islands of the free press.”

The Sanda Budiș Collection is an important source of documentation for understanding and writing the history of that particular segment of the Romanian exile community which was extremely active in supporting dissidents in the country and in disseminating information about the repressive or aberrant policies of the Ceauşescu regime. In particular, the collection illustrates the actions of the collector and other personalities aimed at putting pressure on the communist authorities in order to give up the project of systematisation of Romanian villages. Also, the documents in this collection reflect the involvement of Romanians abroad in rebuilding democracy in their home country.

The Sanda Stolojan Collection is an important source of documentation for understanding and writing the history of that particular segment of the Romanian exile community which was actively involved in the West in unmasking the communist regime in Romania. At the same time, this private archive contributes to an understanding of Romanian–French bilateral relations between 1968 and 1998. In particular, the collection illustrates the activity of the collector and other personalities of the exile aimed at promoting respect for human rights in Romania and stopping the demolitions imposed by the communist authorities as part of Bucharest's systematisation programme, and later at supporting the reconstruction of democracy in their country of origin.

The Saulė Kisarauskienė collection contains documents relating to the life and work of the Lithuanian painter Saulė Kisarauskienė, her family, and her husband, the famous artist and nonconformist painter Vincas Kisarauskas. She is a well-known representative of the Lithuanian school of exlibris, and the collection contains originals of her works. During Soviet times, Saulė Kisarauskienė adhered to the principles of her creative vision and free thinking, and was marginalised for this in the 1960s by the Soviet regime.