COURAGE

connecting collections

Künstlerzeitschriften verbreiteten sich überall in der Welt ab Ende der 1960er Jahre. Sie waren ein Mittel der Kommunikation zwischen Grafikern, Schriftstellern, Fotografen und Künstlern, die mit neuen Medien arbeiteten. Auch in der DDR wurde dieses Medium von der jüngeren Künstlergeneration entdeckt, die sich selbst vom sozialistischen Realismus distanzieren wollten und nicht nur ihre künstlerischen Ideen, sondern auch oppositionelle Meinungen teilten, was schnell die Stasi auf sie aufmerksam machte. Die Sammlung "Künstlerzeitschriften der DDR" in der Sächsischen Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden (SLUB) hat ihren Ursprung zu Zeiten der DDR, als Künstler der Sächsischen Landesbibliothek Grafiken zum Kauf anboten.

The Klub Közlöny (Club Gazette) was the self-published newspaper of the Közgáz-klub (Economics Club) at the Karl Marx University of Economic Sciences (MKKE) between 1976–1987. In the newspaper, articles were published about the club’s activities and also cultural and political topics. In contrast to the official organ of the Communist Youth League (KISZ) titled Közgazdász, there were more direct and honest writings about life at the university in the uncensored Klub Közlöny, and its tone was many times more critical of the party leadership of the university. The aim of its creators was to galvanize the students and to develop the culture of debate. The issues are preserved in the archive of the Corvinus University and in the National Széchényi Library.

The collection consists of two websites run by the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania: www.kgbdocuments.eu and www.kgbveikla.lt. Both websites publish KGB documents online. The internet portal www.kgbdocuments.eu is designed for the international reader, and is part of a project with the Baltic countries, whereas kgbveikla.lt is more suited to the Lithuanian theme. This collection shows the attempts by Soviet government institutions to influence the understanding of the Soviet past, and what could be seen as opposition to Soviet rule.

The collection contains documents about Estonian emigré communities in the West, primarily on political and religious subjects. Additionally, it includes material in the Estonian language about the Voice of America radio station. Furthermore, the collection boasts extensive material about the dissident movement in Estonia in the 1980s.