COURAGE

łączymy kolekcje

The periodical “Student” was one of the most important magazines in socialist Yugoslavia. The magazine was published by students of Belgrade University and dealt with student problems as well as with broader social and political issues. It was often critical towards the regime and the communist party authorities, which resulted in its being banned several times. The collection is kept at the National and University Library in Belgrade.

Almost every high school in the Soviet Union had a student scientific society. The aim of these organisations was to raise the new generation of researchers and lecturers, and popularise studies among young people, developing the ideological side of their views. Some student organisations went beyond these formal aims. In the late 1970s and 1980s, members of the Student Scientific Society of History at Vilnius University made attempts to look at new topics for research, discussions and presentations at conferences, which were not strictly forbidden, but also not approved and supported by the government of that time. The collection was formed after an interview with Vytautas Umbrasas, the leader of the Student Scientific Society at Vilnius University.

Punk culture in the GDR developed its own language, music and aesthetics. These constituted an open provocation to the existing system, fostering the notion of breaking with the conformity of everyday life under the regime of state socialism. In contrast to their role models in the UK who championed the slogan "no future", punks in the GDR feared "too much future", or the uniformity of prescribed and pre-determined life trajectories. 'Substitut', a privately run agency in Berlin, houses the most extensive archival collection relating to punk culture in the GDR. The archive grew out of 'Substitut's' numerous projects, including the 'production' of exhibitions and release of music compilations and publications.

Szabolcs Vajay’s collection is the bequest of a Hungarian scholar who represented classic European erudition. It also documents the efforts to save a marginalized culture. The collection offers insights into a way of life in exile which is centered around efforts to preserve heritage abroad, a lifestyle which arose in part as a response to political assault on culture.