Leseprobe

C Z E C H R E P U B L I C 8 1 As early as 1993, the Czech parliament declared the communist regime illegitimate and criminal. In 2008, the trivialisation of communist crimes in the Czech Republic became punishable by law. As in all former communist countries, the prosecution of former perpetrators and those respon- sible for the crimes proved difficult. Of the approximately 200 charges brought, only 23 ended in prison sentences, most of which were suspended. As early as 1991, the first institute for State Security documents was established within the Ministry of the Interior. The Office for the Documentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism (ÚDV) was set up in 1995. Lastly, in 2007, the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (ÚSTR), which also owns archival holdings from the former security agencies, was established. 17 November, the day the Velvet Revolution broke out in 1989, is now a national holiday in the Czech Republic—the Day of Struggle for Freedom and Democracy. 27 June became the Commemoration Day for the Victims of the Communist Regime in the Czech Republic in 2004. It also commemorates the execution of Maria Horáková in Prague’s Pankrác prison on 27 June 1950.