History & Challenges

Big Book Festival – a book lovers celebration. Two days, several thousands of readers, 150 guests, 50 events in an international company, discussions, literary walks, public readings, virtual meetings, dozens of places. From serious tone to tongue in cheek – extraordinary urban spaces, streets, authors’ private rooms. An up-to-date festival engaging its audience in literary activities. Surprising and created together. Fully open.

Women's cotribution to oposition movements in the Communist times deserves to be widely discussed and mainstreamed. Therefore Heinrich Böll Foundation supported the project reclaiming women's place in the history.

In Slovakia, as well as in Poland, there was a lack of women’s voices during the official celebration of the 20th anniversary of democratic changes last year. It was the reason why Ingrid Hrubaničová, a Slovakian actress and writer, who had been touched by the absence of women decided to publish an Open Letter to Potential Women of November in the main daily newspaper “SME”. She appealed to those women who participated in the Velvet Revolution asking them to speak about their experiences during the memorable events in November 1989. She also encouraged the female journalists to fill the gap and efface “white spots” of history and to present female engagement in the democratic changes.

The report by the Green European Foundation gives an overview of the "recovery packages" introduced by governments around the globe and reveals that the European Union is lagging behind the United States and Asia in terms of the Green share of those recovery plans. The authors show the economic and employment potential of a Green New Deal and that the EU has the possibility of leading the way.The report takes a pragmatic approach in the sense that it focuses primarily on how to "green" immediate recovery activities in specific economic areas, and how to support the creation of framework conditions which initiate a dynamic for ecological modernisation and structural change. It also identifies key elements for the implementation of a Green New Deal. The report ends with a series of recommendations that urge the European Union and its Member States to focus their programmes on investments that will kick-start a Green economy and provide sustainable ways out of the crisis.

The society of Belarus was under the influence of the Soviet regime for 70 years, the consequences of which can be seen to this date – in political and social culture, in how institutions and social structures are organized, and in the way governance is exercised and power is enforced. Without awareness of this heritage it is impossible to understand how local communities function or how citizens participate in the decision-making process.

The Orange Revolution is often dubbed “Ukraine’s European revival”. To defend democratic principles, the hero of the Revolution, Viktor Yushchenko, mobilised millions of Ukrainian men and women to take to the streets. The flare-up in Maidan heralded new hope that Ukraine will yet become a free and democratic state. Five years on, Ukraine is disappointing.

The historical breakthrough of 1989 – the Polish Round Table, the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall – was realisation of the freedom efforts of the democratic opposition in the socialist block states and the beginning of the fundamental changes in Europe.

The effects of the global economic crisis are particularly visible in Eastern Europe and Russia is no exception. Dozens of Russian cities saw their first grassroots demonstrations in years during autumn. The Internet and text messages were deployed to bring people out onto the streets to protest against an increase in vehicle duty. Demands that Putin’s government resign could be seen alongside economic slogans in the ensuing demonstrations. Whether the divided Russian opposition, including Kasparov’s “Solidarity” movement, can seize this opportunity, and if so, to what extent, remains to be seen.