Pavel Žáček (born 1969) is a Czech academic and politician who served as the first Director of the

Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes ( cs, Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů or ÚSTR) is a Czech government agency and research institute. It was founded by the Czech government in 2007 and is situated at Siwiecova street ...

, the Czech government agency and research institute tasked with investigation of the crimes of the

Communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

that was declared to be criminal in 1993. In 2017, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies and serves as a Civic Democratic MP.

Education and early career

He holds an M.A. (1992) and a PhD (2001) in Mass Communication from Charles University of Prague. He worked for the

Office for the Documentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism The Office of the Documentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism ( cz, Úřad dokumentace a vyšetřování zločinů komunismu, abbrev. ÚDV) is the Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a coun ...

from 1993, where he was appointed Deputy Director in 1998. From 1999 to 2006, he was Senior Researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History,

Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic The Czech Academy of Sciences (abbr. CAS, cs, Akademie věd České republiky, abbr. AV ČR) was established in 1992 by the Czech National Council as the Czech successor of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and its tradition goes back ...

Career

He was a member of the Czech Television Council 2001–2003. He is a founding signatory of the

Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism The Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism was a declaration which was initiated by the Czech government and signed on 3 June 2008 by prominent European politicians, former political prisoners and historians, among them former ...

. In 2010, he was succeeded as Director by Jiří Pernes. He served as adviser to

Daniel Herman Daniel Herman (born 28 April 1963) is a Czech politician who served as the Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic in Bohuslav Sobotka's Cabinet from 2014 to 2017. He was born in České Budějovice. His mother was a cousin of Hana Brady. ...

who was elected director of the Institute in August 2010. After a disputed Herman's removal in April 2013, Pavel Žáček was fired by the new director Pavla Foglová. A collection of Žáček's papers, including transcripts of interrogations of Czech secret police personnel and documents about

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then ...

, is held in the collection of the

Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, an ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zacek, Pavel 20th-century Czech historians Czech civil servants 1969 births Charles University alumni Living people Civic Democratic Party (Czech Republic) MPs Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (2017–2021) Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (2021–2025) 21st-century Czech historians