Freedom of Speech Beyond Borders

Freedom of Speech Beyond Borders is an interdisciplinary educational project that aims to introduce young people to the history of the struggle against censorship during the Cold War and to facilitate critical reflection on current cases where freedom of expression is being violated and access to reliable sources of information is being limited. The programme consists of an online seminar session, followed by a nine-day study visit to selected European archives and memory sites. Participants will have the opportunity to discover the legacy of underground literature and art – known as samizdat and tamizdat – that took form of typewritten, handmade magazines, photographs, poetry, books and mail art.

25–26 August 2025 – Online seminars 
1–10 September 2025 – Study visits to Bremen or Prague followed by Maisons-Laffitte, near Paris

Project’s mission

Click here to read the project's mission.

Programme overview

The project offers participants the opportunity to study the history of Cold War underground publishing during field trips to the archives that preserve its legacy. Before the trips, participants will take part in online seminars that provide a historical background and prepare them for the research tasks. Assignments during the study visits in archives include researching selected archival material, analysing historical documents and preparing interviews with former dissidents involved in publishing activities as well as current human rights activists.

In this year’s edition, two parallel study visits will take place: in the archive of the Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen (Germany), and in Prague (Czech Republic), in the archives of the Libri Prohibiti Library and the Václav Havel Library. Following research in these two cities, the participants will meet in Maisons-Laffitte, near Paris, at the House of the Literary Institute – a key site of Polish exile publishing. After exploring the local archive, the group will come together to process their learning experiences through hands-on artistic practice. They will take part in a zine-making workshop and, with the support of artist mentors, engage in techniques such as: creative writing, photography, drawing and collage. To conclude the project, students will create a samizdat-inspired collective journal, that will reflect the participants’ research, insights and personal experiences.

Why Join?
Participants of the Freedom of Speech Beyond Borders will have the opportunity to:
• Learn how to navigate and utilise archival resources;
• Conduct interviews with history witnesses;
• Take part in workshops on creative writing and zine-making;
• Discover the low-tech methods of samizdat production and how their distribution was carried out;
• Collaborate within an interdisciplinary team to produce a DIY publication.

The project is co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage within the framework of the Inspiring Culture Programme.

Locations

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Archive of the Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen (Germany)

The Research Centre for East European Studies (Forschungsstelle Osteuropa – FSO) is an independent research institute affiliated with the University of Bremen. Founded during the Cold War, the FSO today combines two goals: the (re)examination of the systems, societies and cultures in the Eastern Bloc and the analysis of the transformation of the states that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Since the establishment of the research facility in 1982, the archive has been collecting documents, objects and images of informal culture from Eastern Europe that were published as samizdat (self-publishing), or within independent publishing circuit. The collections include writings, photographs and artworks by human rights activists, writers, artists and academics, as well as prints of the opposition and independence movements from the former Soviet Union, Poland, the former Czechoslovakia, East Germany and Hungary.

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Václav Havel Library (Prague, Czech Republic)

The Václav Havel Library works to preserve Václav Havel’s legacy – literary, theatrical and political – in particular his struggle for freedom, democracy and defence of human rights. It supports research and education on the life, values and times of Václav Havel as well as the enduring significance of his ideas for both the present and future. The library’s archive is gradually collecting, digitising and making accessible written materials, photographs, sound recordings and other materials linked to the person of Václav Havel.

The Václav Havel Library also strives to develop civil society and active civic life, serving as a platform for discussion on issues related to the support and defence of liberty and democracy, both in the Czech Republic and internationally.

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Libri Prohibiti (Prague, Czech Republic)

Libri Prohibiti is a non-profit, independent research library in Prague. It was founded in 1990 by Jiří Gruntorád – a signatory of Charter 77, a former samizdat publisher and collector of samizdat literature.

The library’s collections includes Czech, Slovak, Polish, Hungarian, Russian and Ukrainian exile and samizdat literature (featuring both monographs and periodicals), archives and audiovisual materials. The library holds the world’s largest collection of Czech and Slovak samizdat periodicals from 1948 to 1989, recognised by UNESCO’s Memory of the World programme in 2013. Open to researchers and the public, Libri Prohibiti also hosts exhibitions, lectures and literary events.

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Paris Kultura Foundation (Maison-Laffitte, France)

Photo by Sławomir Królikowski

The Literary Institute (Instytut Literacki) was one of the most prominent Polish publishing houses, founded by Jerzy Giedroyc and since 1947 based in Maisons-Laffitte, near Paris. It issued some of the most important titles of Polish post-war, domestic and émigré literature, as well as political journalism and books on 20th-century history, and was best known for its monthly journal Kultura.

The Institute also smuggled countless titles from the Western press and books into Poland. Giedroyc was an active fundraiser for Poland’s underground publishers, providing both financial support and printing equipment to these ‘soldiers of the free word’.

It was Jerzy Giedroyc’s wish that the Literary Institute should remain at Maisons-Laffitte – primarily as an archive and library to serve academic research and general educational purposes. Paris Kultura Foundation was established to continue these activities: ‘to preserve, make available and promote – for historical research and in the furtherance of democratic values – the intellectual heritage of the journal Kultura.’

Partners

Organiser

Partners

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