Some of the photographs taken by Lucian Ionică are snapshots of moments of high drama. Among them, those “hard to look at” images from the Paupers’ Cemetery, with the bodies of those killed by the repressive forces of the communist regime, hastily buried by the representatives of those forces, and then disinterred in order to be laid to rest in a fitting manner. There are also in the collection some photographs with portraits of children wounded during the Revolution of December 1989 in Timişoara. They were taken in the Timişoara Children’s Hospital on 24 December. The photographs show the wounded children in bed; the three snapshots include portraits of two boys and a girl. “For a few years after I took those photos I tried to trace the children I had photographed. I couldn’t find them, although I tried repeatedly. In the confusion and the strong emotions of the events back then, I didn’t have the inspiration to make a note of their names. Today I don’t know what has become of them, what they are doing,” says Lucian Ionică, confessing his regret at being unable to follow the story of those whose drama he immortalized in December 1989. “In the Timişoara Revolution, there were a lot of teenagers in the street. However the repressive forces had no compunction about firing at them. They were victims of the Army in the first place. Opening fire on minors is impossible to accept. Of course it is not justified against adults either, but the brutal actions of the soldiers against the children show how faithful those in the forces of repression were to Nicolae Ceauşescu,” is the comment of Gino Rado, the vice-president of the Memorial to the Revolution in Timişoara, summing up the tragic consequences of the involvement of forces loyal to the communist regime in the repression of the demonstrators, including minors (Szabo and Rado 2016). According to research carried out at the Memorial to the Revolution in Timişoara, as well as other official statistics  documenting the scale of the repression in the city in December 1989, at least six children or adolescents under the age of 18 were killed in this symbolic city of the Romanian Revolution. The youngest hero-martyr was Cristina Lungu; when she was fatally shot in December 1989, she was only two years old.

May 21 - June 29, 1989, Greek Church Exhibition Hall, Vác. Opened by Dr. Lajos Németh

As part of the research program on the establishment of the collection, József Bárdosi curated the exhibition entitled Revitalized mimesis (1955-1988), with which he designated the path of collection development in the long run. He selected a figurative works which in some form reflect on the social reality of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

This reflection is formulated on the language of realism understood in quotation marks, informed by critical, conceptual, minimalist, hyperrealist, and radical tendencies. The local types of hyperrealism inverted the original intentions of the movement in order to formulate their political or aesthetic messages.

Artists exhibited: Márton Barabás, Sándor Bernáth(y), Ákos Birkás, Tibor Csenus, Gábor Czene, László Dinnyés, László Fehér, Tamás Gál, László Gyémánt, György Jovián, Ádám Kéri, László Kéri, Imre Kocsis, Gyula Konkoly, György Korga, László Lakner, István Mácsai, György Marosvári, László Méhes, István Pál Nolipa, István Nyári, András Orvos, László Patay, Péter Sarkadi, Ágnes Szakáll, Attila Székelyhidi, Ákos Szabó, Iván Szkok, Zoltán Tardos, Noémi Tamás, Róbert Várady, László Varkoly, Gábor Záborszky, Gábor Zrínyifalvi.

Cristina Lungu was the youngest hero-martyr of the Revolution of December 1989 in Timişoara. When shed died, shot in the heart by one of the bullets fired from the roof of the Research Centre on Calea Girocului, Cristina Lungu was only two and a half years old. She died on Str. Ariş in Timişora, at the crossing with Calea Girocului, in her father’s arms with her mother beside her. Her destiny is symptomatic for the fate of most of the over 1,000 victims of the Romanian Revolution of 1989, who lost their lives not in a direct clash with the apparatus of repression, but because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when a stray or ricocheting bullet cut short their lives.

The tragic moment is recounted as follows in one of the books published by the publishing house of the Memorial to the Revolution in Timişoara: “There was a moment of respite, around 10 pm, after intense shooting close by, on Calea Girocului. They came out at the crossing of Str. Negoi with Str. Arieş and Calea Girocului. At a certain moment, Cristina fell. Her father thought she had tripped, because there had been no particular noise. When he picked her up, Doru Lungu noticed that blood was flowing from her mouth. Then he ran with her to the County Emergency Hospital: “And it was only in the morning, about 4 am, that I found out, someone told me, that in fact she had been shot and had died on the spot. I wanted, because someone there had told me, to run quickly to the Morgue to take her, because otherwise I would never be able to get her.” Because he was afraid that her body would disappear for ever in the criminal action of erasing the traces of the repression of the popular revolt, her father was determined to take her from the Morgue, although it would have been almost impossible to bury her officially, because he had no documents. But he did not reach her, because he was given advice to take care and not to put himself in danger, because two people from the Securitate were at the Morgue, carrying out investigations into the deceased. It was only in the afternoon of Thursday 21 December that he managed to recover her body, his good fortune (if one can speak of good fortune in these circumstances) being that she had not been put in the batch that would arrive in Bucharest for incineration.” (Szabo 2014)

On the ground floor of the building of the Memorial to the Revolution in Timişora there is a thematic corner dedicated to this heroine-martyr. Her portrait, donated by her family to the institution in 2001, is covered by a pane of glass pierced in the middle by the impact of a bullet. The pane comes from a shop in the centre of Timişoara, in Opera Square, a place where there were violent exchanges of fire between 17 and 22 December 1989. In connection with the tragic case of this youngest victim of the December 1989 events in Timişoara, the portfolio of the Memorial also contains some testimonies by her parents and information that helps to place Cristina Lungu in both her historical and her family context.

Krzysztof Skiba, ‘Komisariat naszym domem. Pomarańczowa historia’, Warsaw: Narodowe Centrum Kultury, 2015.Tomasz Sikorski, Marcin Rutkiewicz, 'Graffiti w Polsce 1940-2010', Warsaw: carta blanca, 2011.

This typewritten conversation originally would have been published in Pál Diósi’s book about prostitution, This is not a Joyride (1990). Pál Diósi, who originally recorded his conversations on tape and paid for their transcription himself, talked with a man of Jewish origins who received sexual services from a prostitute several times. The editor of Gondolat [Thought] Publishing House believed that if the fact that a Jewish person had paid for sex had been revealed, it would have compromised the Jewry of Budapest, so the interview remained in manuscript form.

The Lucian Ionică private collection is one of the few collections of snapshots taken during the tensest and most feverish days of the Romanian Revolution of December 1989 in the city of Timişoara, the place where the popular revolt against the communist dictatorship first broke out. The photographic documents in this collection preserve the memory both of the dramatic moments before the change of regime and of the days immediately after the fall of Nicolae Ceauşescu, when sudden freedom of expression produced moments no less significant for the recent history of Romania.

Самиздат списания се появяват в България едва в края на 1980те години. Двете български самиздат списания са замислени заедно, първите им броеве излизат по едно и също време: „Глас. Независимо списание за литаратура и публицистика” с основател и главен редактор Владимир Левчев и „Мост: Алманах за експериментална поезия" с основател и главен редактор Едвин Сугарев. Списанията се печатат на пишеща машина и се размножават на ксерокс в не повече от 100-200 екземпляра всеки брой. Първият брой на „Глас” е размножен на документална фотохартия. Художник е Стефан Десподов, който оформя кориците на ръка. Списанието се подготвя полиграфично в банята на Владимир Левчев, превърната за целта във фотолаборатория. Хората, които сътрудничат и разпространяват списанието, рискуват да бъдат уволнени.Владимир Левчев разказва: „През есента на 1988 г. се организира Клубът за гласност и демокрация (тогава известен като Клуб за подкрепа на гласността и преустройството). В края на декември, ентусиазирани от новите развития, аз и Едвин съвсем спонтанно решихме да започнем някакво самиздатско списание. Действахме много делово и експедитивно. Понеже тогава имаше два достъпни ксерокса в София и те бяха под наблюдение, а компютри естествено нямаше, ‘самиздатът’ беше технически сложна работа. По идея на Едвин [Сугарев] купихме двустранна фотохартия и ползвайки моята баня за лаборатория, след едноседмичен труд произведохме по фотоначин около стотина броя от две самостоятелни списания - моя ‘Глас’ и ‘Мост’ на Едвин. Снимахме като фотография всяка отделна отпечатана на пишеща машина страница - това беше нещо като ръчно павиране на улица... Първо мислехме да направим два броя от едно списание, за да може, ако ни арестуват след издаването на първия брой, да направим втори. После обаче преминахме на варианта две списания. След като приготвихме броевете, ги раздадохме на приятели, на известни ‘дисиденти’, на хора с достъп до ксерокс в службата си, които правеха още бройки. ... Първите броеве на двете списания излязоха през януари 1989 г.

През януари 1989 г. у Блага Димитрова, аз подписах писмото в подкрепа на Петър Манолов и станах член на клуба [за гласност и демокрация], а после и на ‘Екогласност’. Малко по-късно ‘Дойче веле’, Би Би Си и ‘Свободна Европа’ съобщиха за списанието, а през есента, по време на екофорума Румяна Узунова взе и интервю от мен. Аз бях съкратен от ‘Народна култура’ и глобен 500 лева за издаване на нерегистрирано списание. Повикаха ме в сдружение ‘Българска книга и печат’ (цензурата) и ме заплашиха, че ако издам още един брой, ще ме глобят 1500 лева, а със случая оттук нататък ще се занимава Държавна сигурност и сигурно ще отида в затвора. Аз обаче издадох още един брой - това беше по време на подписка на ‘Екогласност’ пред ‘Кристал’, екофорума. Никой не можеше да подозира, дори тогава, че на 10 ноември Живков ще подаде оставка. До 10 ноември 1989 аз издадох 4 броя." (цит. по интервю, Рудникова 206)

В първия брой на сп. "Глас" основателят Владимир Левчев след уводната си статия, завършваща с думите "... Тя [България] жадува за малко гласност, за демокрация!" дава основните цели на списанието: да публикува предимно литература, поезия, критика и есеистика, която трудно намира място по страниците на официалния печат, както и публицистични материали по екологически, икономически и социални проблеми, преводни или български.  На двете самиздат списания сътрудничат известни български творци, които публикуват на страниците им свои критични към режима творби: Блага Димитрова, Радой Ралин, Биньо Иванов, Драгомир Петров, Валери Петров, емигрантите Цветан Тодоров, Атанас Славов, Цветан Марангозов и ред други утвърдени автори, редом с младите Румен Леонидов, Ани Илков, Мирела Иванова, Виргиния Захариева, Елисавета Мусакова, Илко Димитров, Христо Стоянов, Антоанета Ценева, Боряна Кацарска и други, критиците Александър Кьосев, Михаил Неделчев, Александър Йорданов, философите Желю Желев, Иван Кръстев и Калин Янакиев и други. След падането на комунистическия режим "Глас" и "Мост" се легализират. Появяват се много независими издания, печатът става скъп. Списание "Глас" остава литературно списание, но малотиражно. Издаването на няколко броя се спонсорира от фондация "Отворено общество" на Дж. Сорос. През 1994 г. главният редактор Владимир Левчев заминава за САЩ. Няколко години поддържа списанието в интернет, в София Румен Леонидов и Владимир Трендафилов издават още няколко броя. Последният брой на сп. "Глас" е бр. 14/1994 г.Списанията "Глас" и "Мост" днес са библиографска рядкост. Благодарение на "Свободно поетическо общество", създадено през 1990 година от Блага Димитрова, Владимир Левчев, Едвин Сугарев и други литератори, пререгистирано през 2016 г., всички броеве на двете списания са качени със свободен достъп на страницата на електронното списание - http://www.freepoetrysociety.com.

Antanas Miškinis (1905-1983) was a Lithuanian poet and Soviet political prisoner. He started his creative activity in the mid-1920s. In the mid-1940s, he joined the Lithuanian partisan movement, for which he was convicted and sent to Siberia. While serving his sentence, he wrote romantic poems (psalms). Many of them were copied out or learned by heart by other Lithuanian political prisoners at that time in Siberia. The collection holds psalms and poetry written by Miškinis during his imprisonment from 1948 to 1956.

A collection created by students of the Faculty of Arts, UJEP in Brno, at the turn of 1989-1990, contains almost complete documentation of the work done by this committee, which was at the centre of the November Revolution in Brno.

The leadership of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church, acting underground because their Church had been officially dissolved by the communist regime in December 1948, sent a memorandum to Ceauşescu in October 1989, in which they asked that the official status of their Church be restored. After the Greek Catholic Church was dissolved by the communist regime, its hierarchs and hundreds of priests continued to practise their confession clandestinely. This underground religious activity continued until the fall of the communist regime. During the 1980s the leadership of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church launched several initiatives that aimed at regaining official status. In 1989, these initiatives were encouraged by the open debates in the Soviet Union about the fate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which led to the restoration of the latter’s official status in December 1989. In this context, marked by the reforms initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev, the leadership of the Romanian Greek Catholic church asked Ceauşescu that the situation of the Church be discussed at the fourteenth Congress of the Romanian Communist Party, which was planned to take place in November 1989 and that their church regain its official status. In this respect, the Greek Catholic hierarchy invoked the state constitution. Article 30 of the 1965 Constitution stipulated that: “Freedom of conscience is guaranteed to all citizens of the Socialist Republic of Romania” (ACNSAS, FD 69, vol.1, ff. 45–46). In this respect the Greek Catholic hierarchy had the courage to mention the state repression that targeted their Church’s priesthood and parishioners after 1948, but also the harassment affecting Greek Catholic priests and parishioners at the time when the memorandum was drafted. The Securitate managed to confiscate a copy of this document and attached it to a file of the Documentary Fonds in order to illustrate the anti-State activities of the leadership of the Greek Catholic Church. The document was signed by several bishops and vicars: Alexandru Todea, Ioan Ploscaru, Vasile Hossu, Tertulian Langa, and Lucian Mureşan.

Numerous demonstrations were organized in 1989 in Budapest. Nine of the demonstrations are documented in the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security (Állambiztonsági Szolgálatok Történeti Levéltára – ÁBTL). As of January 1989, however, the freedom of assembly was guaranteed by law. The secret police observed and recorded the events by following their earlier reflexes, and they focused on identifying the participants and the banners. The photo collection of street demonstrations is the visual imprint of the actions which were organized by the different civil, artistic, and activist groups and a good source on the ambivalent behavior of the political police in the transitional period before the collapse of the communist system.