COURAGE

connecting collections

The Ukrainian Museum-Archives in Cleveland, OH contains a hidden world-class archival collection amassed over the last century. Founded in 1952 by Ukrainian WWII refugees, the materials document the lives and struggles of multiple generations against communism. The museum-archive took on the mission of preserving Ukrainian culture at a time when it was being destroyed in the Soviet Union, assembling a vast collection of books, periodicals, photographs, ephemera, diplomatic papers and other materials that document a century of struggle. This is a unique institution that spans international borders, but is simultaneously integrated into an urban American neighborhood. The collection is based in Cleveland’s historic Tremont neighborhood and attracts partners like the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the National Academy of Sciences in Ukraine, and other institutions interested in digitizing its hidden gems.

The collection of incomplete investigative files at the National Archives of Estonia is an extensive, though partial, set of investigative files about people who were persecuted during the Soviet period. A significant part of the collection is made up of the files of persecuted cultural figures. The cases included in this collection were still open when the KGB was liquidated in 1991. 

A special music collection was created by two librarians in a public library in Budapest. This unique repository was established in the branch library of the Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library (Fővárosi Szabó Ervin Könyvtár, FSZEK). The librarians maneuvered among the barriers of the regime and utilized a loophole which allowed them to copy music recordings. The collection consists of recordings of contemporary Western music and alternative Hungarian bands. The materials reflect the tastes of the librarians.

The Soviet Lithuanian Union of Artists was an influential cultural organisation made up of local artists, painters, sculptors and other workers in the field of art. The organisation brought together artists, and was responsible for the spread of Soviet values in art. The collection holds many documents, including transcripts of meetings and congresses of artists, and reports of artists' activities, which show that some local artists were eager to support the Lithuanian cultural heritage, and promote the extension of the boundaries of modernism in the late Soviet period.