Archival Projects

Let’s Speak the Truth about ‘56 - Competition for Teachers (2016)

In cooperation with the History Teachers’ Association of Hungary, a competition was announced for history teachers entitled “Let’s Speak the Truth about ‘56” (‘56-ról hitelesen).

Digital State Security Archive (since 2007)

Hungarian-language textual and audiovisual records requested by members of the public from the former state security and secret police archives, and digitized and published by the Archivum.

Will There Be a 1989?

Text, photo, film, sound, and object photo chronicling the democratic transition in Hungary and presenting multiple perspectives on 1989.

Book cubes (2008)

The RFE/RL Library consisted of the two former book collections of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, which was consolidated in 1975 and amounted to approx. 120.000 volumes by the time the Radios were closed down.

The Trial (2008)

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the trial by People's Jury of Imre Nagy and his fellow defendants, OSA Archivum, jointly with the 1956 Institute, organized an unusual, one-week-long event.

Room Without a View: Inside the Processing of Yugoslav Television Broadcasts (2016)

An experimental video documentation of and a research guide to the ongoing (re)archiving project of the Archivum’s Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian television broadcast collection from 1993-1999.

Samizdat Text Corpora (since 2006)

Run the framework of the International Samizdat [Research] Association (IS[R]A), the Samizdat Text Corpora aims to bring together the various linguistic and regional bodies of samizdat to create a unified constellation of materials for scholarly research

Archive of Electronic Campaign Letters (2002-2006)

Between the two rounds of the 2002 parliamentary elections in Hungary, the Archivum publicly announced its intention to set up an archive of electronic campaign mail, inviting all recipients of email and cell phone text messages related to the parliamentary elections to forward them to designated accounts.

Europe for Citizens: Remembrance 2016 (2016/17)

The project aimed at collecting source materials in Poland, Germany, Czech Republic and Hungary on the common experience of the citizens of the former Eastern Bloc, which is the result of the political thaw of 1956.

Comintern (Communist International) Project (1996-2003)

An electronic database containing 220,000 files and 1,000,000 digitized pages of the Communist International materials at the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History in Moscow.

Email Archive of the Civil Circles (2002-2006)

Political propaganda via email played an unprecedented role in the 2002 parliamentary election campaign in Hungary. The Archivum decided to collect this new, and in Hungary yet unknown, instrument of political persuasion

Paranoia Recycling Archive (2008-2009)

The aim of this project was to digitize and make available online Hungarian Cold War educational films on ABC (atomic, biological, chemical) warfare. Supported by the ERSTE Foundation.

OSA Leaks: Secret U.S. Diplomatic Documents (2010- )

The Archivum has digitized from its library microfilm holdings over 10,000 declassified confidential or secret US State Department documents on the Soviet Union's relations with the US and other countries in 1955-1959.

Concrete (books bound in concrete) (2008)

János Hübler and Nemere Kerezsi, two Ph. D. students at the Budapest Academy of Fine Arts (supervisor: György Jovánovics), have created this installation using two cubic meters of concrete and eighteen cubic meters of discarded books donated by Radio Free Europe.

Soros Network Archival Portal (since 2003)

SNAP (Soros Network Archival Portal) is a portal comprising a Digital Repository as well as Records Management Resources considered relevant to the ongoing work of the Soros Foundations Network.