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After the events at Národní třída in Prague, where the demonstration of Prague college students were violently disrupted on 17^th November 1989, by the police (SNB), there was a wave of solidarity in the then socialist Czechoslovakia. Its bearers were, in the first place, students from most of the country's universities, who had become key players in the revolution at the turn of 1989-1990. In Brno, the Faculty of Arts, UJEP (today Masaryk University), the initiating place, the school organised a committee: FF UJEP. Its core was formed on the night of Friday November 17^th 1989, immediately after the Austrian television and radio broadcasts, which were widely watched at that time and taken as a source of undistorted information. During the weekend of the 18^th and 19^th November, a sub-group was formed in which there were several students, as well as teachers of the Faculty of Arts who jointly agreed to announce a strike and a publicly protest on the first upcoming working day, November 20^th, 1989. This performance took place in the morning, in the courtyard of the Faculty of Arts, where a small crowd of students and teachers caused an avalanche of public engagement that spilled into the whole city. As a further reaction to this, students from other faculties and universities, institutions, industrial enterprises and the general public joined. The Faculty of Arts became an authority and an important centre of revolution in the city. The Strike Committee grew, created sections that communicated with other schools, theatres, institutions, media, and groups of students were sent to industrial companies, cities, and the countryside, all to spread the word. There was an extensive "press centre" that expanded typographical texts, painted posters, produced prints for 24 hours a day. A considerable part of the students ensured the distribution, and placing of the posters. The Strike Committee was circulated to much of the public, giving them many donations, such as funding, food, cars, but also evidence from the 1968 revolution in Czechoslovakia which was poorly available, and similarly unrecognisable artefacts from the time of the First Czechoslovak Republic. Students understood this organisation and the Strike as occupational. They settled permanently in the classrooms and in the offices of sympathetic teachers at the Faculty of Arts, working day and night, organising work shifts. The feverish activity during these weeks was under threat of liquidation, as the school was surrounded by police units (SNB). Over time, a steady stream of opposition had been created, and the handing over of power to democratically elected representatives began to take place. Students were withdrawn from the public space and the Committee's work was ended in 1990. The informal leaders of the FF UJEP Strike Committee were Roman Švanda, Jiří Voráč and Professor Dušan Šlosar. The broader leadership included Igor Fic, Jaroslav Hubata-Vacek, Dalibor Maňas and Jan Sládek, and Zdeněka Rusínová, Jana Jelínková, Milan Jelínek and Milan Pospíšil.

The Circle of History Students at the State University of Tartu was founded on 25 March 1946 by Richard Kleis, the dean of the Faculty of History and Languages, Julius Madisson, the head of the Department of General History, and members of the former Academic Society of History. From 1948, it belonged to the Students' Scientific Union at the State University of Tartu. The chairperson of the circle was chosen from among the students, but the board of the circle also had two advisors from among the lecturers; one was usually from the Department of History of the Soviet Union, and the other from the Department of General History. Most members were history students.
The Circle of History Students usually organised lectures five to eight times a semester. Lectures were given mostly by students. From 1948, conferences were also organised, which took place in the spring. From 1960, every spring, three-day-trips also took place to different places within Estonia and outside. Additionally, from 1964, day-trips in Estonia were also organised. In 1962–1977, members of the circle published articles in the university’s publication Ajalooalaseid töid (Works of History).
Tõnis Lukas has written that the opinion formers in the circle were academically more successful than those of the Komsomol organisation, whose leaders achieved lower results in their studies. He also stated that the student movement Noor-Tartu (Young-Tartu) can, with certain reservations, be considered a semi-underground part of the Circle of History Students. Indeed, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the board of the Circle of History Students was made up of members of Noor-Tartu: Mart Laar, Lauri Vahtre, Mart Kalm and Heiki Valk.
The activity of the society declined in the second half of the 1980s, but it was revived in 1997. The Circle of History Students is also active today, and, among other activities, its members are researching the history of their organisation.

In 1971, Józef Szajna, a scenographer, director, painter and a theatre theorist, became a director of the Classical Theatre. Under his leadership the scene at Marszałkowska developed into an independent, experimental theatre open to new forms and artistic quests, named Teatr Rozmaitości (Variety Theatre). In 1972, the scene in the Palace of Culture and Science became the official Studio Theatre in 1972.

After the very first season of Józef Szajna's mandate, the Studio Theatre obtained a very distinctive style, different from the more conservative Dramatic Theatre, situated in the opposite wing of the Palace of Culture and Science. In 1972, on Szajna’s initiative, a contemporary art gallery was established within the Studio Theatre.

At the beginning of the 1980s, a dispute emerged between Józef Szajna and the artistic group considering the form and the future of the institution. The introduction of the martial law from 13th of December 1981, provided Szajna an opportunity to end the conflict without losing his reputation. His resignation, which he had announced shortly after the declaration of the martial law, was publicly considered by the public (unaware of the internal conflicts in the theatre) a sign of a political resistance.

Following this event, Jerzy Grzegorzewski, a recognised director, scenographer, and a playwright, was appointed as a new artistic director of the theatre. Mateusz Żurawski, an expert in Grzegorzewski’s opus and life, claims that the authorities allowed his nomination due to his reputation of a “harmless lunatic”; a person concentrated on the art itself, who refrains from commenting on the reality and addressing political issues in his works. Under his leadership in the 1980s, the Studio Theatre was one of the few theatrical institutions which maintained a high artistic level.

From a diachronic perspective, the plays performed by the Grzegorzewski group contained an ambiguous and profound commentary of Polish reality in the 1980s. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz became a reference to the artistic spirit of the theatre which was named after him in 1985. In the 1980s, the Studio Art Centre further developed its activities, e.g. by creating a film documentation studio. Grzegorzewski left the theatre in 1997 and was succeeded by Zbigniew Brzoza (artistic director) and Krzysztof Kosmala (executive director).

Between 2007 and 2009, the position of a director was held by Bartosz Zaczykiewicz who tried to revive the Studio Gallery. However, some of the Studio Theatre initiatives at that time were either terminated or restructured. The management company was closed further on and the collection of the Film Studio was transferred to the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute. As a result, the Studio Art Center ceased to exist.

In 2010, , the Jerzy Grzegorzewski Section was created within the Studio Theatre. Mateusz Żurawski works on the archives inherited from the former director of the Theatre and on all the other archives related to the Studio Theatre. His mission also involves making the collection available to the broad public.