Secret Agents and the Memory of Everyday Collaboration in Communist Eastern Europe is now available through Anthem Press and JSTOR. This collection of essays addresses institutions that develop the concept of collaboration, and examines the function, social representation and history of secret police archives and institutes of national memory that create these histories of collaboration. The essays provide a comparative account of collaboration/participation across differing categories of collaborators and different social milieux throughout East-Central Europe.

The Second Workshop Meeting of the Horizon2020 project COURAGE (“Cultural Opposition – Understanding the CultuRal HeritAGE of Dissent in the Former Socialist Countries”) took place in Warsaw at the Polish Academy of Sciences 16/17 June 2016

The scope of the seminar was to discuss how the RICHES project and its network including cultural heritage projects can provide insights to support evidence-based policymaking in Europe. The seminar included political updates by representatives from the European Commission, the presentation of policy recommendations from the RICHES project and a Round Table discussion involving major stakeholders.

Culture in Eastern Europe before 1989 meant more than socialist realism and dull propaganda art. An alternative cultural scene flourished despite the controls of socialist regimes, and its diverse practices included non-conformist avant-garde art, civic initiatives for unofficial education and publication, underground punk and rock bands, alternative ways of life and even novel religious practices. COURAGE (“Cultural Opposition – Understanding the CultuRal HeritAGE of Dissent in the Former Socialist Countries”) is the first international research project that tackles this rich and colourful legacy of cultural opposition in the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe by exploring and comparing collections on cultural opposition.