The first time I heard about Blinken OSA was in spring 2019, when I was spending a semester in Budapest as an Erasmus+ exchange student in my second year of the master’s degree in “Library and Archival Studies.” I had a meeting with Csaba Szilágyi and Örs Lehel Tari, to discuss the possibility of starting an internship at the Archives after my graduation, in the frame of the Erasmus+ Traineeship program.

On July 17, the Archive's gallery space reopens, presenting the exhibition POST-SOVIET – Photos by Lenke Szilágyi 1990–2002. Lenke Szilágyi (who has also been working as a photo-archivist in the Archives for a number of years) has regularly traveled to the (former) Soviet Union, witnessing and documenting the fall of Communism and Post-Soviet realities. Her photos are sensitive imprints of an era of constant change and a territory of eternal immutability.

The CEU and Blinken OSA community is mourning the passing of renowned Croatian historian, former distinguished professor at Yale University, and memorable professor at CEU. After a long and grave illness, Professor Ivo Banac passed away in Zagreb on June 30, at the age of 73.

Providing insight into the publishing and academic activities of Hungarian emigré circles in the US, the Peter Pastor Collection was donated to Blinken OSA in 2018 by Peter Pastor, a professor emeritus of history at Montclair State University, New Jersey. After being processed and cataloged, the collection is now ready for research (and will be physically available once the Archives can reopen after the outbreak is over).