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Born in 1984, Iskren Velikov spent only his early childhood during the period of socialism. His involvement with the theme of the socialist past began during his study of history at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", where he specialized in Contemporary History of the World. Since 2009 Velikov has worked as curator at the Rousse Regional Museum of History and has further developed his professional interest in the recent past. Velikov participates in field studies on everyday life during socialism and has publications on the recent past:
Velikov, Iskren. 2012. "Pamet i musika - shtrihi ot retseptsiite za 'zabrani' ot vremeto na sotsialisma" [Memory and Music – Strokes of the Receptions for “Prohibitions” from the Period of Socialism]. In: Izvestia na Regionalen istoricheski musey - Ruse [Proceedings of the Rousse Regional Museum of History], volume 16, Ruse, pp. 62-76.
Velikov, Iskren. 2013. TKZS 'Deveti Septemvri', village Beltsov - dialog mezhdu darzhava i sobstvenitsi (1950-1958)” [The “Ninth of September” Cooperative Farm in the Village of Beltsov – Dialogue Between the State and Landowners (1950-1958)]. In: Godishnik na Asotsiatsia 'Ongal' [Yearbook of the "Ongal" Association], volume 12, Sofia, pp. 47-63.
Velikov, Iskren. 2013. “Sluchayat 'Ana Ventura' i temata za geroichnata smart" [The “Ana Ventura” Case and the Issue of Heroic Death]. In: Koleva, Daniela (ed.), Smartta pri sotsialisma. Geroika i postgeroika [Death Under Socialism. Heroics and Post-heroics]. Sofia: Center for Advanced Studies, pp. 77-92.
Velikov, Iskren. "Znatsi na ekoprotestite v Ruse (1987-1991)” [Signs of the Ecological Protests in Rousse (1987-1991)]. Forthcoming.
Velikov, Iskren. "Albumat na TPK 'Solidarnost' - Ruse: modeli na visualno predstavyane" [The Album of the “Solidarnost” Labor Production Cooperative in Ruse: Models of Visual Presentation]. Forthcoming.

Aleš Veselý was a Czech sculptor, graphic designer, painter, and a representative of Czech Informalism. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. In 1960, he organised the private exhibition Confrontation II in his studio, where he exhibited the works of artists, including himself, who were followers of Informalism. The work of these actors was radically different to that of the official cultural policy. Aleš Veselý’s first solo exhibition was held in 1963 at the Umělecká Beseda Gallery of Young Artists. From 1967 to 1968, during the Symposium of Simple Forms in Ostrava, he created his most famous sculpture, Kaddish (also known under the title A Prayer for the Dead). He was banned from exhibiting during Normalization and lived privately. He focused mainly on monumental works where he turned to the roots of Judaism and the search for the meaning of existence. He began to exhibit his work again after 1989. He taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and at the J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem. He created several sculptures across the globe.

Ion Vianu (b. 15 April 1934), a Romanian psychiatrist and writer, is the son of Tudor Vianu, a prominent literary historian and critic. Ion Vianu is best known for his instrumental contribution to the unmasking of the misuses of psychiatry in communist Romania. In 1952, he began his studies in classical philology at the University of Bucharest. He did not consider himself to have a natural talent for classical literary studies, and thus he abandoned philology for medicine. Another reason for his decision to radically change his career was that he thought that in contrast to the humanities, which were aggressively subjected to political control, a doctor would enjoy some degree of independence. According to his testimony, he hoped that his decision would help him “live as a free man in that sea of obedience and oppression which was Romanian society” (Călinescu and Vianu 2006, 14–101).

After graduating from the University of Medical Studies in 1962, he followed a university career in the field of psychiatry. During the short period of political relaxation in the mid-1960s, Ion Vianu was able to travel to the German Democratic Republic and even to France on a scholarship offered by the World Health Organisation. In spite of the temptation to settle abroad, he returned to Romania as he believed that he could make a difference in his professional field and change the situation of the country for the better (Călinescu and Vianu 2006, 193–223). Indeed Ion Vianu became a well-known and respected psychiatrist. The results of his medical research were comprised in a volume entitled Introduction to Psychotherapy, which was published in 1975. His relations with the communist regime became rather tense as he refrained from becoming a Party member, as most Romanians did taking into account the advantages attached to Party membership, and from becoming an informer of the Romanian secret police, the Securitate. On the contrary, Ion Vianu decided to reveal how his profession was turned into a tool of repression against those who decided to speak against the regime. Based on his direct experience, he published in 1976, an article entitled “Psychiatry, anti-psychiatry, hyper-psychiatry,” in which he implied that psychiatry and psychiatrists were used in Romania for political purposes. Although he did not explicitly denounce psychiatric repression, the article illustrated that some doctors would diagnose the public critics of the communist regime as having mental diseases, contributing to their forced admission to psychiatric hospitals, where they could be isolated and kept under strict surveillance. (Călinescu and Vianu 2006, 234–239, 340–341, 345; C Petrescu 2013, 132–133).

Shortly after, in February 1977, Ion Vianu applied for an emigration visa. However, before leaving the country, he and his friend, Ion Negoițescu, joined the emerging movement for human rights, which the writer Paul Goma initiated in January 1977 following the model of Charter 77. Disregarding any personal risks that his actions might attract, Vianu wrote a letter of support to Paul Goma, which also reached the international media, making this position publicly known. Moreover, with Paul Goma’s support, Ion Vianu wrote another open letter in which he explicitly denounced the use of psychiatry as a political tool against the opponents of the communist regime. As a result, the communist authorities subjected his nine-year-old child to brutal treatment and urged the University of Medical Studies to fire him. Besides losing his position, Vianu came to be investigated for proliferating defamatory statements in the above-mentioned article. Due to international protests, Ion Vianu was eventually allowed to emigrate, but not before the commander of the Foreign Intelligence Directorate of the Securitate himself, General Nicolae Pleșită, had threatened him, reminding him that this institution had the capacity to reach the “enemies of the regime” even in Western countries.  Vianu and his family left Romania on 28 July 1977 to finally settle in Switzerland (Călinescu and Vianu 2006, 346-356).

István Vida is a historian, D.Sc., and professor at the Loránd Eötvös University of Budapest. His main fields of interest are the history of political parties in Hungary between 1918 and 1989, especially the history of the Independent Party of Smallholders (FKgP), and the history of foreign affairs in Hungary 1939–1989. For the collection of the Foundation for Contemporary Research, he collected biographical data on members of parliament.

Grigore Vieru (b. 14 February 1935, Pererîta, Hotin county, then in Romania, today Briceni district, Republic of Moldova – d. 18 January 2009, Chișinău) was a Moldovan poet and writer. He is mostly known for his poems and children’s books. His poetry is characterised by vivid natural scenery, an outspoken national orientation and powerful images of motherhood. Vieru came from a relatively well-to-do peasant family. His literary debut came in 1957, with a booklet of poems for children. The following year, Vieru graduated from the Ion Creangă State Pedagogical University in Chișinău, receiving a degree in history and philology. In 1959, he became editor at the magazine Nistru, published by the MWU. From 1960 to 1963, he served as editor in chief of the Cartea Moldovenească publishing house. In 1967, Vieru's book Poezii pentru cititori de toate vârstele (Poetry for readers of all ages) (published in 1965) was awarded the Moldavian Prize for Youth Literature. The following year, his book Numele Tău (Your name) became part of the contemporary literature curriculum in Moldavian universities. This book featured several poems dedicated to prominent Romanian poets and artists (Arghezi, Blaga, Brâncuși, Labiș, and Sorescu), which was unprecedented in the literary context of the MSSR. Starting from the early 1970s, Vieru collaborated with a number of Moldavian composers, while his lyrics became rather popular in the 1980s and early 1990s. After 1965, starting with the Third Congress of the MWU, the poet began to display an increasing political sensitivity and open “pro-Romanian” tendencies. In 1970, he published a children’s book in which he inserted a poem – “Curcubeul” (The rainbow) – metaphorically referring to the three colours of the Romanian national flag. This volume was destroyed by Soviet censorship, and Vieru was accused of an “ideological diversion.” In 1973 Vieru visited Romania for the first time. He later confessed: “If somebody dreamed of getting to outer space, for my whole life I have dreamed of crossing the Prut River.” He visited Romania as part of a Soviet delegation and had a meeting with the editors of the popular Romanian journal Secolul 20 (Twentieth century), notably Dan Hăulică, Ștefan Augustin Doinaș, Ioanichie Olteanu, Geo Șerban, and Tatiana Nicolescu. In 1974 he visited Romania again, responding to the invitation of the chairman of the Romanian Writers’ Union, Zaharia Stancu, followed by another trip in 1977, during which he visited Bucharest, Constanța, Cluj, and Iași. In the late 1980s, Vieru became one of the most significant supporters of the national movement, being a founding member of the Moldovan Popular Front. He fervently advocated the introduction of the Latin script. As early as 1988, he authored the first text in the Latin script to be published in the MSSR since 1945, which appeared in the MWU weekly Literatura și Arta. He was also one of the main organisers of the Great National Assembly of 27 August 1989. He supported the new language laws voted by the Supreme Soviet of the MSSR on 31 August 1989. Vieru’s lyrics for a series of patriotic songs became a powerful tool of nationalist mobilisation in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Although he retired from active politics after 1992, he remained firm in his nationalist convictions and participated in the identity conflicts that erupted in the Republic of Moldova. Dividing his time between Moldova and Romania, Vieru remained a prominent public figure until his death. He died on 18 January 2009 as a result of a car crash. His funeral, organised two days later, gathered a crowd of over 10,000 people, and was the most massive event of this kind after Moldova’s independence. He remains unequalled in terms of the mass impact of his works, especially due to the wide dissemination of his children’s books and the popularity of his song lyrics among a significant part of the population. 

Heldur Viires is an Estonian artist. He began his studies in 1945 at Tartu State Art Institute, but it was interrupted when he was arrested in 1949 as a member of the Tartu Circle group of artists. He was sent to Vorkuta prison camp. After he was freed in 1956, he returned to Estonia and continued his studies at the Estonian State Art Institute in Tallinn. He completed his studies in 1959. He then returned to Tartu, where he worked mostly as a book illustrator. He also took part in exhibitions. He started working at the Konrad Mägi Studio as a teacher in 1989. He lives next to the art studio, still gives advice to students, and is the heart and soul of the studio.

Viktoras Petkus was a religious activist. In 1947, he was arrested and sentenced to the Soviet gulag as an activist with the Ateitininkai religious organisation for youth. He was released after Stalin’s death, but after the events in the Rasų cemetery in November 1956, he was arrested again and sentenced to eight years in prison. During those events, a meeting was organised in the Rasų cemetery to commemorate Jonas Basanavičius, the 'founding father' of the modern Lithuanian state. After the meeting, a demonstration was organised, which was suppressed by the Soviet police. In the 1970s, Petkus was involved in human rights activities, and was one of the founders of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group. In 1976, he organised a press conference for foreign journalists, where he and others proclaimed the existence of the Helsinki Group and its aims. In 1977, he was arrested and sentenced again.

Viktoras Petkus was an expert in religious art and history, but he could only publish his writings after the Soviet regime had collapsed. His books were published after 1990: Vilniaus Arkikatedros bazilikos koplyčios (Vilnius Cathedral Chapels, Vilnius, 1994), Vilniaus vyskupas kunigaikštis Ignas Jokūbas Masalskis (The Bishop of Vilnius Ignas Jokūbas Masalskis, Vilnius, 2001), Vilniaus vyskupai Lietuvos istorijoje (Vilnius Bishops in the History of Lithuania, Vilnius, 2002), Domininkonai Lietuvos kultūroje (The Dominicans in Lithuanian Culture, Vilnius, 2004), and Vilniaus šv. Mikalojaus bažnyčia (The Church of St Nicholas in Vilnius, Vilnius, 2004). During Soviet times, Petkus collaborated with the underground Catholic opposition and the Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania. He was arrested several times, and spent about 25 years in prison.

Petkus' dissident activity was honoured by various international organisations. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times (1987, 1988 and 1999).