COURAGE

łączymy kolekcje

The Estonian Student Building Brigade collection contains material about the activities of the Estonian Student Building Brigade, a feature of student life in Soviet Estonia. The activities of this organisation are sometimes described as a free space, which is also reflected by this collection. The documents and artefacts show how students used the summer not only for building work but also for provocative entertainment and irritating the authorities. The Estonian Student Building Brigade has a relatively positive image, and is the only remarkable phenomenon from Soviet times which has ever been celebrated since the restoration of independence.  

The Ethnographic Research in Dobrogea Ad-Hoc Collection at the ASTRA Museum (Colecţia Ad-Hoc Cercetarea Dobrogeană) reflects the activities carried out between 1964 and 1989 by collaborative teams of ethnographers, photographers, and architects to rescue and recover the cultural heritage of villages in the region of Dobrogea, which were affected by forced collectivisation and the building of the Danube–Black Sea Canal.

Gigantyczne archiwum 170000 fotografii stanowiących unikatowy zapis życia codziennego, gospodarczego, politycznego, sportowego i kulturalnego w Polskiej Republice Ludowej drugiej połowy lat 50. i lat 60. Są one dorobkiem życia fotografa Eustachego Kossakowskiego. Na zbiór składają się fotoreportaże prasowe tworzone we współpracy z pismami społeczno-kulturalnymi oficjalnego obiegu, dokumentacja życia artystycznego, w tym wystaw, happeningów, environments, instalacji i spektakli teatralnych, ale także życia towarzyskiego artystów; wreszcie serie fotografii konceptualnej, którymi  Kossakowski zdobył uznanie jako artysta w latach 70. na emigracji we Francji.

This fascinating collection sheds insight on generally unknown moments of everyday life in southwest Bulgaria during state socialism, including: the experience of and resistance against collectivization; experiences reflecting the religious policy of the communist regime (e.g. towards Muslims) and others elements of everyday life. The collection is one of the first created by the Balkan Society for Autobiography and Social Communication - Blagoevgrad (BSASC). It mainly consists of oral histories and photographic documentation, which aim to share ordinary people's experience of socialism.