| Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes | |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2007 |
| Type | Government agency and research institute |
| Location | Prague |
| Director | Daniel Herman |
| Affiliations | Platform of European Memory and Conscience |
| Website | ustrcr.cz |
The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (Czech: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů) is a Czech government agency and research institute, founded by the Czech government in 2007.[1] Its purpose is to gather, analyse and make accessible documents from the Nazi and Communist regimes. The archives will also have documents from the former state secret police, the StB.[1][2]
The institute is a founding member organisation of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience, and hosts its secretariat.[3]
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In 2008 the institute became involved in controversy when claims were published that the writer Milan Kundera was a police informant who gave information leading to the arrest of a guest in a student hall of residence. The account was based on a 1950 police report. The accused man, Miroslav Dvořáček, was sentenced to 22 years imprisonment as a spy. He served 14 years of his sentence, which included hard labour in a Uranium mine. Kundera denied his involvement saying, “I object in the strongest manner to these accusations, which are pure lies,”.[4][5]
The institute has an exhibit which has travelled worldwide. Mark Kramer, a fellow and director at the Harvard Project on Cold War Studies has said of the exhibit, "The Czech secret police went to great lengths to keep track of people who were perfectly innocuous. These weren’t terrorists. They weren’t dangers to the state." [6]