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Results of the Activities of the Institute for the Study of Totalitiarian Regimes and the Security Services Archive

We would like to take the liberty of providing you with some information regarding the activities of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and the Security Services Archive, since their establishment on 1 February 2008 up to 30 November 2009. You can also find out more about both the Institute and the Archive at www.ustrcr.cz/en/information-brochure.

Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (1 February 2008 – 30 November 2009)

In the course of its first 22 months, the work of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes has produced considerable results while fulfilling the tasks stipulated by Act No. 181/2007 of the Collection of Laws. In terms of non-periodical publications, it has published 20 monographs, series of documents, memoirs, and anthologies of conferences and seminars. Another 19 publications have been issued in the form of catalogues, reference books and informational brochures. The eighth edition of the quarterly review Paměť a dějiny (Memory and History) is currently in its pre-publication phase and the scholarly periodical Securitas Imperii is now arriving on the market. The only edition of the English magazine Behind the Iron Curtain that has been produced to date was published in the spring.

The Institute organised 4 international conferences, 11 symposia, 55 seminars, 1 film festival and 27 exhibitions, one of which is touring Europe and the United States. Periodically organised seminars focusing on issues concerning Nazism and communism were attended by approximately 1,100 participants.

Within the scope of educational and lecturing activities, specialist employees gave more than 138 lectures at primary and secondary schools as well as at universities. In the course of 13 specialised seminars, 300 teachers received training at the Institute, and another 65 teachers attended seminars at summer schools. In terms of creating educational aids, a unique internet textbook was created along with an educational DVD for teachers. Altogether, more than 180 methodological papers were also created for the teaching of modern history. Experts at the Institute participated to a considerable extent in the formulation of methodological recommendations for teaching modern history, which were published by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports in October 2009.

As part of various projects, the recollections of 150 people who witnessed historical events were recorded as oral history. More than 40 of these have been published on the internet. The Ján Langoš library is also fulfilling its tasks.

From the outset, the Institute has been an active partner of the “Paměť národa” (“Memory of the Nation”) portal, which is operated in conjunction with Czech Radio and the Post Bellum civic association. This portal won an Inforum 2009 award for best internet project of the year. It also came second in the “Project of the Year” category of the Křišťálová lupa (Crystal Magnifying Glass) competition.

The website www.ustrcr.cz consists of 19,000 files in more than 400 directories. There are 728 pages in the editing system. Besides the Czech version, the website is also available in English. More than 500 PDF files contain 47,665 digitalised documents. The website has had more than 560,000 visits, and the number of pages viewed will soon reach 2,800,000.

The conversion of documents into an electronic form (digitalisation) of record-keeping aids, archive records and microfiche media for the development of an information system and electronic research centre for the Security Services Archive exceeded 12,430,000 copies.

Along with the Archive, the Institute established and contractually confirmed cooperation with partner institutions in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Germany, Ukraine, Romania and the United States. Since the beginning of the Czech Republic’s presidency of the EU Council, the Institute has been participating in the creation of a “Platform of European Memory and Conscience,” a future supranational institution, which will focus on the study of totalitarian regimes in Europe.

On the 20th anniversary of 17 November 1989, the Institute awarded the Václav Benda commemorative medal “For Freedom and Democracy” to the following people: Division General Čeňěk Kudláček (in memoriam), Denis Nicholson, MBE, retired Colonel Ernest van Maurik, retired Colonel Milan Píka, retired Colonel Miroslav Dvořáček, Olga Hrubá, František Kohout (in memoriam), Vladimír Kruba (in memoriam), Bohumil Siřínek (in memoriam), Marianne Canavaggio, Jaroslav Fabok, Ivo Feierabend, Mirko Janeček, Bořivoj Čelovský (in memoriam), Danuše Muzikářová (in memoriam), Stanislav Valehrach (in memoriam), Kamila Bendová, Ján Langoš (in memoriam) and Jiří Gruša.

Security Services Archive (1 February 2008 – 30 November 2009)

The Security Services Archive took over the archive and administrative activities that had been carried out before February 2008 by the interior, defence and justice ministries as well as by Military Intelligence, the Office for Foreign Relations and Information, and the Security Information Service. Besides uniformly applying the law on keeping archives, it also integrated the record-keeping aids of all the main units of the former security services of communist Czechoslovakia into its information system, i.e. State Security, including the Central Intelligence Directorate (the First Directorate of the National Security Corps), the Central Counterintelligence Directorate (the Second Directorate of the National Security Corps), the Central Military Counterintelligence Directorate (the Third Directorate of the National Security Corps), as well as the Intelligence Directorate of the Central Directorate for the Border Guard Service and the Protection of State Borders, the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Czechoslovak People’s Army, and the internal security department of the Ministry of Justice of the Czech Socialist Republic.

Since 1 February 2008, the Archive’s newly established record-keeping group has so far dealt with 2, 285 requests from authorised state bodies whom it provided with information on almost more than 46,000 people.

One of the most important tasks of the Archive is to prepare and make accessible for viewing archive materials created in the period from April 1945 to the beginning of 1990 as a result of activities by security services. It does this while fulfilling the conditions stipulated by the Act on Keeping Archives and a Records Service.

With respect to ongoing public debate, interest in the archive documents administered by the Archive is constantly growing. Take the following figures for the sake of comparison: Whereas 1,526 researchers visited the Archive’s research centres in 11 months in 2008, 1,654 researchers visited these centres the following year (up to 20 November 2009).

Together with the Institute, the Archive’s employees participated in the development of assigned projects. It presents the results of its specialist activities in the Anthology of the Security Services Archive.

The website www.abscr.cz consists of almost 71,000 files in more than 900 directories. There are 276 pages stored in the editing system. Besides the Czech version, the website is also available in English. More than 709,000 records of people who were of interest to State Security have been made accessible in the form of record-keeping aids. Another 152,551 registration records published pursuant to Act No. 107/2002 of the Collection of Laws are stored in databases taken from the interior, defence and justice ministries. More than 1,000 PDF files contain over 96,000 scanned documents. There have been more than 320,000 visits to the website, and the number of pages viewed has exceeded 2,500,000.

In total, the www.ustrcr.cz and www.abscr.cz websites together contain 143 846 pages of scanned documents. The number of visits has exceeded 880,000, and the number of pages viewed is approaching 5,300,000.

The activities of the Institute and the Archive have a considerable influence on public discourse about our totalitarian past. In the period monitored, the results of the activities of both institutions were mentioned in more than 2,660 articles and papers in the Czech media. In total, the Institute and the Archive have issued 95 press releases in Czech and 35 press releases in English. A further 121 items of information have been given to Czech and foreign journalists.

The Institute financially participated in the production of the films Občan Havel přikuluje/Citizen Havel Is Rolling Barrels (director: Jan Novák, 2008) and Sága rodu Feierabendů/The Saga of the Feierabend Family (director: Tom Feierabend, 2009). It has also financially participated in other projects such as Archiv/Archive (Czech Television, 2009) , Česká křídla pod Siónem/Czech Wings under Zion (Czech Television Brno, 2008), and Brno 1969 (Czech Television Brno, 2008) as well as in the production of series (Tajné akce StB/The Secret Operations of State Security, V zajetí železné opony/Captured by the Iron Curtain, and Neznámí hrdinové/Unsung Heroes – Czech Television).

A number of foreign media outlets from Slovakia, Poland, Germany, Russia, France, Spain, the United States and Japan showed an interest in the activities of the Institute and the Archive, including Euronews, CNN and the Japanese state television station NHK (November 2009).

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have further questions.

Jiří Reichl
Spokesperson
Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes
mobile: +420 – 725 787 524