Dr. Pavel Zacek, Ph.D. (born in 1969)

Dr. Pavel Zacek, Ph.D.

Education

2001 – Dr., Ph.D. Mass Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague. Dissertation topic: the illegal magazine “V Boj.” The resistance organization “Družstvo v prvním sledu” (“The squad in the first wave”) in 1939.
1992 – M.A. Mass Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague

Professional Experience

  • July 2009 – Visiting Scholar, Hoover Archives Summer Workshop on Soviet Communism, Stanford University
  • as of 1 January 2008 – appointed Director, Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes
  • 1 August 2007 – 7 January 2008 – Acting Director, Security Services Archive
  • 25 July-31 December 2007 – Delegate of the Government of the Czech Republic for Organizational Preparation and Ensuring Proper Functioning of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes
  • 2007-2008 – Member of the Editorial Board of the quarterly Pamäť národa (“Nation's Memory“), Nation's Memory Institute, Bratislava, Slovakia
  • 1 November 2006-31 December 2007 – Department Head, Security Service Archives, Ministry of the Interior
  • 2004 on – Member of the Editorial Board, Historie a vojenství (“History and Military”), Prague
  • 2004-2006 – Chair of the Editorial Board and Editor-in-Chief of the quarterly Pamäť národa (“Nation's Memory”), Nation's Memory Institute, Bratislava, Slovakia
  • 2005-2006 – Advisor to the Czech Senate on amending the state law concerning creation of a National Remembrance Institute (later passed as Act No. 181/2007 Coll. on the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and Security Services Archive)
  • 2001-2003 – Member, Czech Television Council, Prague
  • 2001 – Researcher/Principal Investigator, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic grant project no. C8063105, “State Security Service attempts to control the so-called youth issue during the second half of the 1980s.”
  • 1999-2001 – Advisor to a group of Senators to prepare the law on the disclosure of documents created in the course of State Security Service activities (passed as Act No. 107/2002 Coll., amending Act No. 140/1996 Sb. on the disclosure of files created in the course of activities on the part of the former State Security Service, and some further acts)
  • 1999-2006 – Senior Researcher, Institute of Contemporary History, Academy of Sciences, Prague
  • 1999 – Military Reserves service
  • 1998 – appointed Deputy Director, Office for the Documentation and Investigation of the Crimes of Communism
  • 1994-1999 – Editor of the anthology Securitas Imperii, a periodical concerned with state security documents and studies
  • 1997-1998 – Head of Team for the Documentation of the role of Czechoslovak officials in Korea and Vietnam, in cooperation with the U.S. Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs
  • 1995-1996 – Fellowship awarded by the J. W. Fulbright Commission for Educational Exchange (John Marshall Fellowship) at the Center for Russian and East European studies (CREES) at Stanford University, CA, U.S.A.
  • 1993-1997 – Head of the Documentation Section, Office for the Documentation and Investigation of the Activities of the State Security Service/Crimes of Communism
  • 1989-1991 – Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Studentské listy (“Student Pages”), a cultural-political biweekly newspaper which served as the voice of the student movement

Publications:

I. Books and Documentary Histories

  • At the Head of the State Security Service. The Fall of the Regime in the Records of a Secret Police Officer (V čele ŠtB – Pád režimu v záznamoch dôstojníka tajnej polície). Nation’s Memory Institute. Bratislava 2006.
  • Instrument of the class state. Organization of the Ministry of the Interior and the Security Service, 1953-1990. A Series of Documents. (Nastroj triedneho statu. Organizacia ministerstev vnutra a bezpecnost zborov, 1953–1990.) Documentary history. National Remembrance Institute. Bratislava 2005.
  • Breach. With a CIA Agent inside the Communist Nomenclature (Prulom. Agentem CIA uvnitr komunisticke nomenklatury), with co-author František Doskočil. Votobia. Olomouc 2004.
  • The Little Sister. The Origin and Development of the Czechoslovak Interior Ministry First Directorate, 1953 - 1959. Volume I. (Menší sestra I. – Vznik a vývoj První správy ministerstva vnitra 1953–1959). Documentary history, Sources and studies on the history of the Czechoslovak exile, 1948-1989, Volume 7. Prius. Brno 2004.
  • The French Mole – On the frontline of the Cold War (Francouzský krtek – V první linii studené války), with František Vojtásek. Svět křídel. Cheb 2003.
  • Jan Kavan: in the Labyrinth of the Secret Service (Jan Kavan: V labyrintu služeb), with Přemysl Vachalovský. Format, Praha 2003, pp. 11–474.
  • Barracks on the left bank. Smichov and its Environs during the 1945 Prague Uprising (Kasarna na levem brehu. Smichov a okoli v prazskem povstani 1945). Svět křídel. Cheb 2003.
  • The State Security Service in Slovakia during Normalization. The Agony of Communist Power in Secret Police Reports (ŠtB na Slovensku za „normalizácie“ – Agónia komunistickej moci v zvodkách tajnej polície). Department of Justice, Bratislava 2002.
  • Top Secret! The State Security Service During Normalization: Selected Directives and Instructions Regarding Methods of Work of the Political Police, 1978-1989 (Přísně tajné! Státní bezpečnost za normalizace – Vybrané směrnice a metodické pokyny politické policie 1978-1989). Votobia, Praha 2001.
  • Battles Over the Past. 10 Years of Coming to Terms with the Communist Past—an Attempt at a Preliminary Accounting (Boje o minulost – Deset let vyrovnávání se s komunistickou minulostí – pokus o předběžnou výpověď). Barrister & Principal, Brno 2000.
  • Daily situation reports of the State Security Service from November and December 1989 (Denní situační zprávy Státní bezpečnosti z listopadu a prosince 1989), in: Securitas Imperii, 2000, nos. 6/I-III. Documentary history with co-author Patrik Benda.
  • Organization and management of repression in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic – Operational staffs of General Lorenc 1988–1989 (Organizace a řízení represe v ČSSR – Operační štáby generála Lorence 1988–1989). Documentary history, in: Securitas Imperii, Anthology on the security services issue, 1998, no. 4/I-III.
  • Final Month – Meeting of the StB of July 20, 1989 and its putting into effect (Poslední měsíce – Porada StB z 20. července 1989 a její realizace ). Documentary history, in: Securitas Imperii, Anthology on the security services issue, 1996, no. 3.

II. Symposia, Essays and Book Chapters (Selection)

  • La vía moderada checa hacia la superación del pasado totalitario, published in the collection: Experiencias de la transición Checa. X crossing. Praha 2006.
  • Operation “Brothers”. The Organization of the Kidnapping and Murder of Ctirad and Josef Masin (Akce Bratri. Priprava unosu a vrazdy Ctirada a Josefa Masinovych, 1957-1968), published in the collection: Power versus Citizen. The Role of Repression and Political Violence in Communism (Moc versus obcan. Uloha represe a politickeho nasilia v komunizme). National Remembrance Institute. Bratislava 2006.
  • The Role of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) in the Process of Overcoming the Communist Past (Role ODS pri prekonavani komunisticke minulosti), published in the collection: The Civic Democratic Party and Czech Politics. ODS in the Czech Political System During the Years 1991-1996 (Obcanska demokraticka strana a ceska politika. ODS v ceskem politickem systemu v letech 1991-1996) CDK. Brno 2006.
  • Jaromir Nechansky and the 1945 Prague Uprising (Jaromir Nechansky a prazske povstani). Historie a vojenstvi. Nr. 2-3/2005.
  • The Cases of Czechoslovakia, published in the collection: Disclosing hidden history: Lustration in the Western Balkans. Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe. Thessalonike 2005.
  • Czechoslovakia (with Petr Blazek), published in the collection: A Handbook of the Communist Security Apparatus in East Central Europe, 1944-1989. Institute of National Remembrance. Warsaw 2005.
  • Der tschechische Weg aus dem Komunismus. Horch und Guck. Nr. 1/2005.
  • The Origins and Development of the Czechoslovak Interior Ministry First Directorate: Communist Espionage in the 1950s. The Journal of Intelligence History, Nr. 1/2005.
  • The Rises and Falls of Bohumir Molnar. The Career of the General of the State Security Service (Vzestupy a pady Bohumira Molnara. Kariera generala Statni bezpecnosti), published in the collection Eyes and Ears of the Party. Seven Views Into the Life of the State Security Service (Oci a usi strany. Sedm pohledu do zivota StB). Tilia. Senov u Ostravy 2005.
  • An Agent of the Free World. The Career of Intelligence Officer Frantisek Tisler (Agentem svobodneho sveta. Kariera zpravodajskeho dustojnika Frantiska Tislera). In: Historie a vojenstvi, Nr. 1/2004.
  • The Army under the Microscope: Military Counter-Intelligence in Documents, 1974 - 1989 (Armada pod drobnohledem: Vojenská kontrarozvedka v dokumentech, 1974-1989). In: Historie a vojenstvi, Nr. 3-4/2003.
  • Kidnappings organized by the Czechoslovak State Security Service in the 1950s (Odluky osob v padesatych letech /unosy v rezii Statni bezpecnosti/), published in the collection Towards Freedom and Democracy III (Za svobodu a demokracii III). Hradec Kralove 2003.
  • Political Police against Youth. Efforts of the State Security Service to Control Youth in the Second Half of the 1980s. (Politicka policie proti mladezi. Snahy StB o kontrolu tzv. problematiky mladeze ve druhé polovine osmdesatych let), published in the collection: Isles of Freedom (Ostruvky svobody). Praha 2002.
  • The Struggle against Churches and Sects: View from the State Security Service Headquarters. Outline of Operative Activity of the 9th Department of the National Security Counterintelligence (Boj proti cirkvim a sektam: pohled z centraly StB. Nastin agenturne-operativni cinnosti 9. odboru hlavní spravy kontrarozvedky SNB v roce 1989), published in the collection: The Catholic Church and Totalitarianism in the Czech Lands (Katolicka cirkev a totalitarismus v ceskych zemich), Brno 2001.
  • Overcoming the Totalitarian Past in the Czech Republic (Prekonavani totalitni minulosti na cesky zpusob), in Petr Fiala and Frantisek Miks, eds., Czech Conservative and Liberal Politics: A Journal on the 10th anniversary of the Proglas. CDK, Brno 2000.