Scholarships are awarded two times per year on a com­pet­i­tive basis to scholars, artists or journalists from V4 and non-V4 coun­tries who wish to con­duct research at OSA, and whose cur­rent research projects are rel­e­vant to the hold­ings and the given research pri­or­i­ties of the Fund and OSA.

The €3,000 scholarship is designed to pro­vide access to the archives, cover travel to/from Budapest, mod­est sub­sis­tence, and accom­mo­da­tion for a research period of two months. Scholarships for shorter peri­ods are pro-rated.



Altogether, 20 fel­low­ships are awarded annu­ally to selected applicants from V4 coun­tries.

Research theme within the Visegrad Scholarships at OSA in 2023/24

Lessons of the Cold War?


In the context of the current invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing tragic war, many analysts have claimed that we face the real end of (or the confirmation) of the Cold War and its dichotomies. What we witness would be the outright confrontation between civic liberalism and autocracy, or the “West” and the “East”. According to Stephen Kotkin, even if post-communist societies have changed, a military-police dictatorship in some former satellite countries is still fighting a “West” seen as an enemy, and this has the reverse consolidating effect on the West which re-emerged and stood up against Putin.

We invite historians, researchers, political scientists, sociologists, and socially engaged artists to reflect on the Lessons from the Cold War by taking cues from the Blinken OSA collections. The applicants are encouraged to reflect on the connections as well as on the differences between current times and the past by following some recommended sub-topics listed below.

  • The importance of homegrown dissident cultures of truth telling and the related counterpropaganda in minimizing them as foreign agents.

  • Histories of Soviet invasions (1956, 1968, 1979), their stakes, misunderstandings, and miscalculations.

  • The political instrumentalization and hollowing of concepts, such as “fascism”, “Nazism,” and “imperialism”.

  • The demonizing methods of propaganda (as not just an alternative regime of facts, but as a stigmatizing tool).

  • The power of stories: revisionist and public usages of history for political ends.

  • The relationship between foreign policy, strategic security, and energy relations (at global scale, too).

  • Lessons from the international security crises (Berlin in 1961, Cuba in 1962, the Sino Soviet split).

  • Informational asymmetries (cultures of secrecy and obscure decision-making versus cultures of openness and liberalism).

  • Histories and efficacy of human rights advocacy with regards to abusive regimes.

  • Post-'89 transitions and their connections to the Cold War (reproduction of secret police networks and the new oligarchies, different understandings of the role of State, the subordination of the legal system, etc.).

  • Conditions for the maintenance/ disruptions of autocratic regimes (the role of ideology, political patronage, corruption, etc.).

  • Retroactive assessment of international responses to political and security crises: the role of appeasement, of “stability”.

  • People on the move: internal displacement and forced migration following Soviet invasions during communism and the dissolution of countries (USSR, YU, Czechoslovakia) in its aftermath.

The application process is run via the OSA website. Deadlines for applications are: 25 July, 15 November.

Application procedure

Please submit the following to OSA:

  1. Application letter in English (should specify expected period of stay and preferred dates).
    Please note that the Archive’s Research Room is closed during the Christmas period, and the research stay must end on the last day of the given academic year, July 31.

  2. Research description/plan in English (about 800 words and should include the following: introduction, presentation of the stage of research, literature on the subject, preliminary hypothesis, questions, identification of possible documents in the OSA holdings). Artists are expected to submit a portfolio, too.

  3. Curriculum Vitae (C.V.)

  4. Proof of officially recognized advanced level English language exam (native speakers and those with qualification from an English language institution/degree program are exempted)

  5. Names of two referees with contact address. Letters of reference are not needed.


The Application letter, C.V., the Research description/plan, the copy of a language exam certification and the Referees’ contact information should be sent by email to Katalin Gadoros at gadoros@ceu.edu.