Since this project started, over the past year, our team of Research Assistants has been deeply engaged in two parallel strands of work: preserving the past through digitisation and uncovering hidden histories through field research.
One of the main achievements was the successful digitisation of a unique set of handwritten notes by the late J. Bařinka, a Czech Koreanist who travelled to North Korea in the 1950s.
His personal notes offer a rare glimpse into the country during a period about which little is known. The assistants carefully scanned and processed the entire collection, ensuring the fragile documents were digitally preserved. Work is underway to develop an online database to make these materials accessible to researchers and the broader public. Making J. Bařinka’s notes available is a key step in opening new perspectives on early socialist-era connections between Czechoslovakia and North Korea.
In addition to the digitisation work, the Research Assistants have been active in the field, conducting extensive archival research and oral history interviews. Over the year, they visited numerous archives and libraries across the Czech Republic and Slovakia, searching for documents related to the history of North Korean orphans sent to socialist countries. They also travelled to meet and interview eyewitnesses, helping to document memories often missing from official records.
This combination of hands-on archival work and direct engagement with living memory has enriched our understanding of Czechoslovak–North Korean relations and laid the groundwork for future research. We thank our research assistants for their dedication and look forward to sharing more of their findings as the project continues.