The National Security Archive
Openness in Russia and Eastern Europe Project
Overview and Goals
The struggle of the individual against power
is the struggle of memory against forgetting.
— Milan Kundera
Begun in 1992 in the wake of the Soviet
Union’s collapse and the demise of communist regimes in Central and Eastern
Europe, the Openness Project has evolved into a full-scale, multinational
undertaking that includes collaborative investigations of contemporary
history, joint publications, multinational conferences, technical assistance,
training and seed funding, in cooperation with institutions and individuals
in Warsaw, Budapest, Moscow, Bucharest, Sofia, Prague, Potsdam and elsewhere.
Project goals include:
| · |
To contribute to the development of “civil society” in
Central and Eastern Europe by supporting non-governmental, non-commercial
institutions and researchers involved in recovering the previously suppressed
history of the region. |
|
|
| · |
To assist these pioneering organizations and individuals in promoting
greater openness and accountability in government, mirroring the National
Security Archive’s ongoing activities with respect to the U.S. government. |
|
|
| · |
To investigate key turning points and crises in the region’s history
by encouraging more extensive public access to archives, especially those
of key repressive institutions such as the Communist Party and secret police. |
|
|
| · |
To press for the public release of previously secret documentation
from all sides, while balancing the privacy rights of victims and ordinary
citizens. |
|
|
| · |
To create venues for the dissemination of new archival information
and broader public debate on their significance, thus providing multiple
perspectives on, and a more sophisticated understanding of, our mutual
recent history. |
|
|
| · |
To help build constituencies among journalists, academics and citizens
for statutory processes of access to government information, similar to
the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. |
|
|
| · |
To conduct all these activities in a spirit of collegiality and full
reciprocity, recognizing that the end of the Cold War also requires a systematic
reassessment of its legacy in the United States and the expansion of openness
in America as well. |
The Openness Project encompasses collaborative relationships
not only with partners in Central and Eastern Europe but also in the United
States. The Cold War International
History Project (CWIHP) at the Woodrow
Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. deserves
particular mention for its invaluable cooperation on many levels.
In addition, an extraordinary range of scholars and archivists have contributed
their expertise, time – and documents – to this multinational effort.
Too numerous to name here, their presence is felt (and, we hope, properly
acknowledged) in each of the project’s activities and publications described
on this site.
Openness
in Russia and Eastern Europe Index
National Security
Archive Main Page
|