Description
Case files, reports, and diaries and interrogation transcripts of Czech senior secret police personnel, relating to secret
service activities in Czechoslovakia. Includes a summary of the secret police file on Václav Havel. Photocopies of originals
in the Národní archiv.
Background
Born in 1969, Źáček earned his PhD in mass communication at Charles University, Prague in 2001. His dissertation topic was
the illegal magazine "V Boj." From 1993 to 1997 he served as head of the Documentation Section, Office for the Documentation
and Investigation of the Activities of the State Security Service/Crimes of Communism, and was editor of the anthology Securitas Imperii, a periodical concerned with state security documents and studies, from 1994 to 1999. In 1997 he became head of the team
for the documentation of the role of Czechoslovak officials in Korea and Vietnam, in cooperation with the U.S. Office of the
Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs. In 1998 he was appointed deputy director, Office for the
Documentation and Investigation of the Crimes of Communism, and then served as senior researcher at the Institute of Contemporary
History, Academy of Sciences in Prague from 1999 to 2006. After a short period as acting director of the Security Services
Archive from 2007 to 2008, Źáček was appointed director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in January
2008. He was a visiting scholar at the Hoover Archives Summer Workshop on Soviet Communism in July 2009.
Extent
36 manuscript boxes
(14.4 Linear Feet)
Restrictions
Collection may not be copied until 2056 April 10.
Availability
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.