This collection consists of books, pamphlets, periodicals, ephemera, and various memorabilia pertaining to the political events in Czechoslovakia from the Prague Spring to the Velvet Revolution. A large part of the collection consists of documents on violations of civil and human rights in the former Czechoslovakia, generated through the activities of independent initiatives, such as Charter 77, the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted, or through accounts and works of individual dissidents. While many documents come in the original typescript, (or, carbon copy), other ones are chiefly Xerox copies, or originals from exile publishing houses.

The collection contains items in a variety of formats, and the materials are chiefly in Czech and/or Slovak, with selected items in English. It spans many disciplines (literature, film, music, history, religion, philosophy, political and social thought, environmental studies, alternate youth culture, even astrology— basically everything of interest to the dissidents, and subject to censorship (Western music, Marina Tsvetaeva’s poems, Hannah Arendt’s essays, etc.)

To learn more about this collection, see the HOLLIS record.

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