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Dealing with the past in Czech and Slovakia - focusing on the re-interpretation of 'lustration' -

Shin Kyu Kim 1

1한국외국어대학교

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ABSTRACT

Most of the post-communist Eastern European countries have been carrying out various projects to deal with the past. Measures to deal with the past are classified into judicial proceedings on the infringements of human rights which were done by communist regimes, truth-findings, reparations to the victims and personal vettings on his or her past behaviours. Although Czech and Slovakia had experienced common communist pasts from 1948 until 1989, they have been responding to the communist past quite differently. In 1991, when the Czech and Slovakia was single state as Czech and Sloavak Federal Republic, the federal parliament passed "Lustration law" to deal with the communist pasts. The aim of lustration law which was to vet high position officials whether they were agents or collaborators with communist secret police is to exclude some dubious high-positioned officials from their present and in the next some years positions. After the break-up of a common state in 1993, Czech republic have been pursuing the lustration law vigorously, but Slovakia has little interest in dealing with the past and did not enforce the lustration law until it's expiring in 1996. It was not until V. Mečiar was defeated in 1998 election that the dealing with past was started to be shown interest in public and political circles. The dealing with the past has been enforced in Slovakia until the Nation’s Memory Act which is on the disclosure of documents regarding the activity of state security authorities in the period 1939-1989 and on founding the Nation’s Memory Institute (Ústav pamäti národa) and on amending certain acts (553/2002 zákon) was passed in the The National Council. But in this case the Nation’s Memory Act is not alike in character with the lustration law in the Czech Republic. In fact the Nation’s Memory Act in Slovakia is not necessarily classified as lustration law which has been enforced in other post-communist countries. If so, why the Czech Republic and the Slovakia have been responding to the dealing with the past so differently is the question in this article. Although there are some factors why the Slovakia has pursued different measures to the past, I stress the two factors which have strong effects on the dealing with the past in Slovakia. Those are political games in Slovakia and different level of legitimacy on the communist regime between the Czechs and Slovaks. After all, the character of communist regimes and the mode of transition from communist regime to democratic one are important factors to analyze the causes and effects of lustration, but the specific political culture is essential to understand the dealing with the past and lustration in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

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* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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