The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, The Office of the Government of the Czech Republic, the Platform of European Memory and Conscience and the XXth Century Memorial Museum are organizing a conference entitled Russia’s Hybrid War Against the Democratic World. A Challenge for European Remembrance Policy.

As of 1 October 2022, the highest body of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes approved a new organizational structure with six votes from the seven-member Council of the Institute and a new organizational structure within which the reorganization took place, in full compliance with the Labour Code.

The date 23 August 2022 marks 83 years since the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact – an agreement that pave the way for the tragedies of the Second World War. In 2008 this day was proclaimed to be the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. This day should preserve the memory of the victims of mass deportations and exterminations. We asked our historian, Petr Blažek, about the history of the Remembrance Day and the events behind it.

Historians Anna Chlebina, Adam Hradilek, and Jaroslav Formánek from The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (ÚSTR) visited partner institutions in Ukraine. The main aim of the visit was to sign a cooperation agreement with the Central State Archives of Public Organizations of Ukraine (TsDAGO of Ukraine).

On 1 May 2022, Ladislav Kudrna was appointed director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. The ÚSTR Council elected him director on 2 March 2022 following a selection procedure.

Our thoughts are with our Ukrainian friends and colleagues, whose cooperation and help allowed the better in-depth exploration of our shared history of communist dictatorship.

The  conference 100 Years Since the Founding of the KSČ. The Legacy of Czechoslovak Communism took place online on 13 and 19-21 May 2021.

The academic journal Securitas Imperii: Journal for the Study of Modern Dictatorships is launching a call for papers for a monothematic issue marking the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. The deadline for submissions is July 31, 2021.

In the past 18 months, ÚSTR underwent an independent international research assessment, which focused on the first decade of the Institute’s existence. The assessment summary is now available in Czech and English on our website.

We are launching English, Russian and Ukrainian versions of the Czechoslovaks in the Gulag website. It gives people in other countries access to research into documentation on political repression of expatriates (not only Czechs, but also Ukrainians, Germans, Ruthenians, Jews, Hungarians and Slovaks) in the USSR.

The conference focuses on perception of heritage, the development of heritage preservation, and crucial themes and key personalities in the field of heritage in Central European countries belonging with the Eastern bloc after 1945. Date: 26–29 April 2021. Venue: On-line

In The Warsaw Pact, 1969-1985: The Pinnacle and Path to Dissolution, Matěj Bílý analyzes the internal tensions of the Soviet-led Cold War alliance as its careened toward its end. Rooted in detailed research in Czech, Polish, and German archives, this book presents much previously unknown information about the alliance’s mechanisms as it served as one of the Kremlin’s increasingly ineffective tools for managing the Eastern Bloc.

The conference focuses on both national and international context of the fall and transformation of the communist regime. Self-perception of the then student generation, transformative journey of Czech media, changes in Czech society etc. will be topics of the conference’s lectures and discussions. Date: 6–8 November 2019. Venue: Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. 

The conference will focus on violent acts occurring at the end of World War II in the context of nationalism as reshaped by previous war experiences. Date: 16 – 17 May 2019. Venue: Karolinum of Charles University in Prague. Programme of the conference.

Three of well-known thinkers and movers of the late 1960s – Ágnes Heller, Pavel Litvinov and Mustafa Dzhemilev – will take part in a discussion at the Václav Havel Library on 21 August 2018, starting at 7 p.m. The debate will focus on a comparison of societal changes in 1968 and 2018, particularly in Hungary, the US and Ukraine. Interpretation into English and Russian provided.

Organized by the Hanns Seidel Foundation, Prague, the Czech-German Lawyers’ Association, the Václav Havel Library and the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, the conference is held on 18 May 2018 at the Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Praha 1. It is necessary to register in advance at tschechien@hss.de. Simultaneous interpretation into Czech and German provided.

The exhibit was comprised from a collection of over 20 interviews with citizens of the Warsaw Pact countries who participated in protests against the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Their testimonies, together with documents collected from Soviet, Polish, Hungarian, German, Bulgarian, and Czech secret service and personal archives are the basis of the exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of the invasion. You can visit the exhibition at the Delegation of the European Union to the United States, Washington, D.C. between 4 April and 31 May 2018.

Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes jointly with the Institute for the Study of Strategic Regions at Charles University in Prague organized a workshop Labour Migration between East and West. Guest Workers in Europe from the 1960s to the 1980s.  The workshop was held on 27–28 February 2018 in Prague. Find the programme with abstracts of the presented papers here.

Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in cooperation with the Institute of International Studies at Charles University in Prague and the Parliamentary Library invited Yury Fedorov, a Russian foreign and security policy expert, to speak about his book Russia between Fascism and Disintegration. The lecture was held on 1 February 2018 in Prague.

Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes jointly with the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic organized an international conference on the history of the Soviet Cheka. The event was held on 2–3 November 2017 in Prague. Find the conference programme here.