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Current AffairsHistorians, police sceptical over ‘StB plot’ explanation for 1984 gas explosion
The authorities have examining claims by a former intelligence agent that a
fatal explosion in 1984 was the work of the communist secret police, the
StB. Twelve people died when a gas mains exploded in the town of Třinec.
The agent claims the whole thing was a secret police plot aimed at
discrediting dissidents around Václav Havel, but historians and police are
sceptical.
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Current AffairsFormer StB observation post in Malá Strana bell tower opens to public
Prague has just seen the opening of a new and rather unusual tourist
attraction – a former secret police observation post recently discovered
at the top of a bell tower in one of the city’s gothic churches. For just
under four decades – from the 1950s to the 1980s – the tower was home
to a detachment of communist secret policemen who’d spy on the foreign
embassies below. Rob Cameron climbed to the top to have a look.
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Current AffairsControversial Czech institute sets new course with new director
The Czech Republic’s controversial institute for studying its Nazi and
Communist totalitarian past is to take a new course. Its current director
and one of the main forces behind the institute’s creation was
surprisingly voted out of office. We report on the vote and the prospects
for the troubled institute under new management.
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Current Affairs20 years ago officials disbanded notorious Communist-era secret police
Exactly 20 years have passed since officials in Czechoslovakia disbanded
the notorious Communist-era secret police the StB. The order came on
January 31, 1990 from then interior minister Richard Sacher; within 15
days
some 13,000 StB officers had handed in their weapons and their badges. More
Current AffairsStB lookout, once used to spy on US Embassy, to be opened to public
Later this year, ABL FM services, a company in charge of a number of
Prague’s historic sites, will re-open the bell tower on St Nicholas’
Church, where 20 years ago the Communist-era secret police, the StB, kept a
hidden lookout. The cubby-hole with views of Prague’s Malá strana
district was used to above all monitor activities outside nearby embassies,
especially that of the US.
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Czech BooksBarbara Day and the Velvet Philosophers
Barbara Day works for a non-profit organization called The Prague Society,
promoting international links in business, politics and academia.
Twenty-five years ago, Barbara was doing a job that, at least on the
surface, seems very similar. Then based in London, she was coordinating
visits by Western academics to Czechoslovakia. But times could hardly have
been more different. In those days, such initiatives were seen by the
communist regime as a subversive activity. Constantly harangued by
Czechoslovakia’s secret police – the StB – visiting lecturers,
including some of the world’s most renowned philosophers, would meet
secretly at private flats. In what came to be known as the “underground
seminars” they would address small groups made up of students, dissidents
and anyone else brave enough to turn up, and lectures covered subjects as
varied as the philosophy of Plato and the music of Mahler. Barbara Day’s
book, The Velvet Philosophers, recounts the details of how the seminars
worked. When I met Barbara, she began by telling me how the seminars
started: It was in the years just after the 1968 Soviet invasion, when many
of Czechoslovakia’s top academics were thrown out of their jobs, and even
their children found themselves in trouble.
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PanoramaLarge open-air exhibition in Prague looks at 20th-century Czech history through stories of bravery
Descending the historic Old Castle Stairs on the way from Prague Castle to
the left bank of the Vltava River, an unusual structure will catch your eye
in the middle of a small park between the river and a busy road. The
five-and-a-half-metre tall wooden watchtower looks strangely out of place
among the 19th-century urban architecture. It is an exact replica of a
watchtower from a communist-era labour camp near the town of Příbram
southwest of Prague. As a symbol of the oppression of the communist regime,
the watchtower is part of an extensive outdoor exhibition titled “We Did
Not Give It Up/Stories of the 20th Century” which has just opened in
Prague to mark the twentieth anniversary of the fall of communism.
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From the ArchivesCzechoslovakia in 1991: What to do with former secret police collaborators?
One of the most passionate debates in Czechoslovakia in the first years
after the fall of communism was over what to do with people who had
collaborated with the secret police – the StB – or had held prominent
functions in the Communist Party. In 1991 the so-called “screening law”
was passed, under which former StB collaborators were prevented from
holding certain senior posts – for example in academia or in the civil
service. At the time Radio Prague invited two Czech politicians into the
studio: the left-of-centre member of the Federal Parliament, Jan Kavan, and
the leader of the small right-wing Conservative Party, Jiří Kotas. Here
is an extract from the debate, starting with Jiří Kotas, who was strongly
in favour of the law:
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