Divergent responses to a common past: Transitional justice in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

Theory and Society

Volumn 33, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 65-115

  Nedelsky, Nadya ^a  

^a MACALESTER COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 4143084169     PISSN: 03042421     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/B:RYSO.0000021428.22638.e2     Document Type: Review

References (184)

1. See Samuel Huntington, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press), 1991.
2. Huntington finds a fourth type - "intervention" - only in Grenada and Panama. The countries Huntington includes in the third wave are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Ecuador, El Salvador, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, India, Korea, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey, and Uruguay. He also looks at Nigeria and Sudan, which reverted to authoritarianism, and at Mexico, Nepal, Panama, South Africa, Taiwan, and the USSR, which had liberalized but not democratized by 1990.
3. Ibid., 142.
4. Ibid., 228.
5. I b i d.
6. Aryeh Neier, "What Should Be Done About the Guilty?" New York Times Review of Books (February 1, 1990), 34, quoted in ibid., 230.
7. Huntington, The Third Wave, 230.
8. Ibid., 231.
9. Jan Obrman, "New Minister Dissolves State Security," Report on Eastern Europe (16 February 1990): 11.
10. Petruska Sustrova, "The Lustration Controversy," Uncaptive Minds 5 (1992): 130.
11. Jan Obrman, "Laying the Ghosts of the Past," Report on Eastern Europe (14 June 1991): 5.
12. Parliamentary immunity prevented MPs from being forced to resign.
13. Paulina Bren, "Lustration in the Czech and Slovak Republics," RFE/RL Research Report 2 (16 July 1993): 17.
14. Text of the Parliamentary Commission's Report in "Collaborators Revealed," Uncaptive Minds 4 (1991): 9.
15. For an English translation of the law's text, see Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes, Volume III: Laws, Rulings and Reports, in Neil J. Kritz, editor (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 1995), 312-321.
16. Ibid., 320.
17. The final vote in the 300-person Federal Assembly was 148 to 21, with 22 abstentions, 29 boycotts, and 80 absences. See Jiří Pehe, "Parliament Passes Controversial Law on Vetting Officials," Report on Eastern Europe 2 (25 October 1991): 6.
18. For an English translation of the November 26, 1992, Constitutional Court Decision on the Screening Law, see Transitional Justice, Vol. III, 346-365.
19. Michael Kraus, "Settling Accounts: Postcommunist Czechoslovakia," excerpted from revised version of paper of the same name delivered at the 1992 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, September 3-6, 1992, in Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes, Vol. II: Country Studies, Neil J. Kritz, editor (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace, 1995), 544.
20. I b i d.
21. Herbert Kitschelt, Zdenka Mansfeldova, Radoslaw Markowski, and Gábor Tóka, Post-Communist Party Systems: Competition, Representation, and Inter-Party Cooperation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 31.
22. Claus Offe, Varieties of Transition: The East European and East German Experience (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1997), 140-141.
23. For example, while Kitschelt et al. and Offe's categorizations conform to one another, Huntington differs as to the classification of Hungary and Romania, as well as Czechoslovakia.
24. Kitschelt et al., Post-Communist Party Systems, 21-22.
25. Ibid., 23-24.
26. Ibid., 24-25.
27. Ibid., 25-27.
28. John P. Moran, "The Communist Tortures of Eastern Europe: Prosecute and Punish or Forgive and Forget?" Communist and Post-Communist Studies 27 (March 1994): 95.
29. Ibid., 101.
30. Ibid., 101.
31. Ibid., 105.
32. Helga A. Welsh, "Dealing with the Communist Past: Central and East European Experiences after 1990," Europe-Asia Studies 48 (1996): 419.
33. Ibid., 422.
34. Ibid., 419.
35. Kieran Williams, Aleks Szczerbiak, and Brigid Fowler, "Explaining Lustration in Eastern Europe: A Post-communist Politics Approach," SEI Working Paper no. 62 (March 2003) http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/SEI/papers/ papers.html
36. I b i d.
37. Department of State Human Rights Report for 2000: The Czech Republic, Released by the U.S. Department of State in February 2001, http://www. humanrights-usa.net/reports/czechrepublic.html
38. I b i d.
39. Obrman, "Laying the Ghosts," 7.
40. See Jozef Darski, "Police Agents in the Transition Period," Uncaptive Minds 4 (1991-1992): 27, and Pehe, "Parliament Passes," 9.
41. See Jozef Darski, "Police Agents in the Transition Period," Uncaptive Minds 4 (1991-1992): 27, and Pehe, "Parliament Passes," 9.
42. Jozef Darski, "Decommunization in Eastern Europe," Uncaptive Minds 6 (1993), 78.
43. U.S. Department of State, The Slovak Republic Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1996, http://www.state.gov/www.global/human_rights/ 1996_hrp_report/slovakre.html
44. Act on the Illegality of the Communist Regime and Resistance to It (Act No. 198/1993), in Transitional Justice, Vol. III: Laws, Rulings, and Reports, 367.
45. Article 5, in ibid., 368.
46. See Constitutional Court Decision on the Act on the Illegality of the Communist Regime (December 21, 1993), in Transitional Justice: Vol. III: Laws, Rulings, and Reports, 369.
47. Department of State Human Rights Report for 2000: The Czech Republic.
48. Jeremy Bransten, "Czech Republic: Strougal Case Refocuses Attention on Communist Crimes," (2001) http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2001/08/ 02082001122809.asp.
49. See "Former Czech Communist Premier Acquitted," RFE/RL Newsline (21 February 2002) http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2002/02/210202.asp
50. Quoted in Sharon Fisher, "Slovak Parliament Approves Anti-Communist Law," OMRI Daily Digest (5 February 1996) http://www.rferl.org/newsline/ 1996/02/3-cee/cee-050296.html
51. Quoted in ibid.
52. U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2001, released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (4 March 2002) http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/eur/8338.htm
53. "Langoš predkladá zákon o zločinoch nacizmu a kommunizmu," Pravda (12 October 2001) http://www.pravda.sk/ spravy/2001/10/12/slovensko/article.669.html
54. Kuśy's response to written questions from the journal's editor, "Dedičstvo ŠtB na Slovensku," Kritika & Kontext 2-3 (2001): 30.
55. After the law's passage, some Czech and Western sources erroneously reported that all files would be open to the public. For the law's details, see the Czech Ministry of Interior, "Zpřistupnění svazků vzniklýnch činností bývalé ŠtB," http://www.mvcr.cz/agenda/labyrint/svazky.html
56. "Havel podpísal zákon o sprístupení zväzkov ŠtB," Pravda (14 March 2002) http://www.pravda.sk/ spravy/2002/03/14/svet/article.34918.html
57. Miroslav Korecký, "Havlův podpis odtajnil agenty ŠtB," Lidové noviny (15 March 2002) http://www.lidovky.cz/ tsk.asp?c=L063A01A&r=atitulni
58. See "Slovak Parliament Overrides Presidential Veto...," RFE/RL Newsline (21 August 2002) http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2002/08/3-CEE/cee- 210802.asp
59. Author's interview with Ján Langoš (22 May 2003).
60. Huntington, The Third Wave, 228.
61. Carol Skalnik Leff, National Conflict in Czechoslovakia: The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1987 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), 243.
62. Ibid., 173.
63. Ibid., 261.
64. Petr Pithart, "Towards a Shared Freedom, 1968-1989," in The End of Czechoslovakia, ed. Jiří Musil (Budapest: Central European University Press, 1995), 211.
65. I b i d.
66. See Václav Průcha, "Economic Development and Relations, 1918-1989," in The End of Czechoslovakia, ed. Jiří Musil (Budapest: Central European University Press, 1995), 72-75.
67. H. Gordon Skilling, Charter 77 and Human Rights in Czechoslovakia (London: Allen and Unwin, 1981), 54.
68. Karol Zlobina, "Slovensko: impresie a depresie," Listy 8 (1978): 45.
69. Skilling, Charter 77, 55.
70. Leff, National Conflict, 264.
71. I b i d.
72. Skilling, Charter 77, 55.
73. Pithart, "Towards a Shared Freedom," 214.
74. Leff, National Conflict, 265.
75. Zlobina, "Slovensko," 45.
76. Pithart, "Towards a Shared Freedom," 214.
77. Skilling, Charter 77, 57.
78. Anonymous, "Češi, Slováci, a federace," Listy 9 (1979): 24.
79. Robert W. Dean, Nationalism and Political Change in Eastern Europe: The Slovak Question and the Czechoslovak Reform Movement (Denver: University of Denver, 1973), 50.
80. Anonymous, "Češi, Slováci, a federace," 24.
81. Pithart, "Towards a Shared Freedom," 217.
82. Kenneth Jowitt, "An Organizational Approach to the Study of Political Change in Marxist-Leninist Systems," The American Political Science Review 68 (1974): 1177.
83. Miroslav Kusý, "Slovenský fenomén," Listy 15 (1985): 35.
84. Pithart, "Towards a Shared Freedom," 218.
85. Kitschelt et al., Post-Communist Party Systems, 27.
86. Gil Eyal, The Origins of Postcommunist Elites: From Prague Spring to the Breakup of Czechoslovakia (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2003), 60.
87. Ibid., 28.
88. Ibid., 103.
89. Ibid., 100-131.
90. Pithart, "Towards a Shared Freedom," 212.
91. Průcha, "Economic Development and Relations," 75.
92. Moran, "The Communist Torturers of Eastern Europe," 108.
93. Eyal, The Origins, 86.
94. Ján Obrman, "Slovak Politician Accused of Secret Police Ties," RFE/RL Research Report 1 (10 April 1990): 14.
95. Milan Zitny, "Mečiar's Questionable Supremacy," East European Reporter (January/February 1992): 68.
96. Obrman, "Slovak Politician," 15.
97. Ibid., 14.
98. Eyal, The Origins: 143.
99. Carol Skalnik Leff, The Czech and Slovak Republics: Nations Versus State (Boulder: Westview Press, 1998), 131.
100. Ibid., 89.
101. Eyal, The Origins, 143.
102. Leff, The Czech and Slovak Republics, 161.
103. Eyal, The Origins, 161.
104. Ibid., 175.
105. Ibid., 13.
106. Ibid., 183.
107. Ibid., 195.
108. Author's interviews with Ján Langos (22 May 2003) and Ján Carnogursky (2 June 2003).
109. Iveta Radicova, "The Velvet Divorce," Uncaptive Minds 6 (1993): 51.
110. Ibid., 52.
111. Kevin Deegan Krause, "From Another Dimension: Public Opinion and Party Competition in Slovakia and the Czech Republic," paper presented at the convention of the American Political Science Association, Boston, Massachusetts, 5 September 1998, http://www.cla.wayne.edu/polisci/krause/papers/ apsapart/apsapart.htm. The statement used by the survey was "It is right to forbid certain positions to people with a Communist past."
112. In the 1992 elections, the HZDS won 37% of the vote, and the SDL came in second with 15%.
113. Branislav Janík, "Havel podpísal zákon o sprísptupení zväzkov ŠtB," Pravda (29 March 2002) http://www.pravda.sk/spravy/2002/03/14/svet/article.34918.html
114. Luděk Navara and David Steiner, "Havlův podpis odmekl archivy ŠtB," Mladá fronta dnes/idnes (14 March 2002) http://zpravy.idnes.cz/domaci.asp?r=domaci-&c=A020208_213018_domaci_pol& t=A020208_213018_domaci_pol&r2=domaci
115. Janík, "Havel podpísal zákon."
116. Navara and Steiner, "Havlův podpis odmekl."
117. I b i d.
118. Janík, "Otvorenie Pandorej skrinky."
119. Petr Uhl, "Několik argementů pro Havla," Právo (11 March 2002): 7, and http://www.pravo.newtonit.cz/tisk.asp? cache=797095
120. Janík, "Otvorenie Pandorej skrinky."
121. Ibid. An expert on the files and KDU-ČSL representative Josef Janeček similarly observed that "fond Z" has been concealed since shortly after 1989.
122. Quoted in Korecký, "Havlův podpis odtajnil."
123. Janík, "Otvorenie Pandorinej skrinky."
124. I b i d.
125. Jolyon Naegele, "Czech Republic: Bill Would Open Communist Secret Police Files to General Public," RFE/RL, http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/ 2002/02/13022002085655.asp
126. Navara and Steiner, "Havlův podpis odmekl."
127. Kusý's response to written questions from the journal's editor, "Dedičstvo ŠtB na Slovensku," 30. Kusý contrasts the lack of Slovak interest to that of the Czechs: "In the Czech lands the young generation of historians has pounced on the topic of recent history, write professional essays and popular articles on this, publish books. With us it is still only a couple of people who are professionally engaged with this."
128. Juraj Podoba, "V Strachu Sme si Boli Všetci Rovní," Kritika & Kontext 2-3 (2001): 37.
129. Imrich Vašečka, "Slovenský Problém ŠtB," Kritika & Kontext 2-3 (2001): 27.
130. Olga Gyárfašová, "Fenomén ŠtB v širšom Kontexte," Kritika & Kontext 2-3 (2001): 32.
131. Ibid., 33.
132. Kusý's response to written questions from the journal's editor, "Dedičstvo ŠtB na Slovensku," 30.
133. "Orosz označil Langošov zákon o pamäti národa za právny galimatiaš," Pravda (17 October 2001) http://www.pravda.sk/spravy/2001/10/17/slovensko/article.900.html
134. SDL Representative Anton Hoffman, quoted in Lenka Živnerová , "Podporíte odtajnenie zväzkov ŠtB v parlamente?" Národná odbora (30 October 2001) http://195.168.40.176/20011030/ 03_004.html
135. HZDS-L'S Representative Augustín Marián Húska, in ibid.
136. HZDS Representative Imrich Andrejčák, interviewed by Ján n Borčin, "Dokedy bude štát obcánmi skrývat' spisy ŠtB?" Národná obroda (21 February 2002) http://195.168.40.176/200220221/05_001.html
137. Vice-premier and Chair of the Legislative Council of the Government L'ubomir Fogaš, SDL', interviewed in ibid.
138. Marek Vagovič, "Tiene minulosti," Pravda (2 November 2001) http://www.pravda.sk/dennik/2001/11/02/nazory/01/article.5309.html
139. I b i d.
140. Quoted in Patricia Ďurišková, "Eš tebákom hrozia problémy," Pravda (30 October 2001). http://www.pravda.sk/dennik/2001/10/30/slovensko/01/article.5566.html
141. I b i d.
142. I b i d.
143. Marek Vagovič, "Najvyšší čas diskutovat' o zločinoch komunistického režimu," Pravda (16 November 2001) http://www.pravda.sk/dennik/2001/11/16/slovensko/01.article. 14559.html
144. Quoted in Borčin, "Dokedy bude štát občanmi skrývat' spisy ŠtB?"
145. Borčin, "Dokedy bude štát občanmi skrývat' spisy ŠtB?".
146. Vagovič, "Tiene minulosti."
147. Milan Stanislav, "Osvieženie pamäti," Pravda (7 November 2001) http://www.pravda.sk/dennik/2001/11/07/nazory/01/article.2819. html
148. Peter Vavro, "Preverení," Národna obroda (22 February 2002) http://195.168.40.176/20020222/04_002.html
149. Ivan Bača, "Udavači, mate zelenú," Národna obroda (12 February 2002) http://195.168.40.176/20020212/06_001. html
150. Author's interview with Ján Čarnogurský (2 June 2003).
151. Author's interview with Ján Langoš (22 May 2003).
152. Author's interview with Ján Cárnogurský (2 June 2003).
153. Kitschelt et al., Post-Communist Party Systems, 78-79.
154. Offe, Varieties of Transition, 139.
155. Jacek Wasilweski and Edmund Wnuk-Lipiński, "Poland: Winding Road from the Communist to the Post-Solidarity Elite," Theory and Society 24/5 (October 1995): 674.
156. Ibid., 692.
157. Adam Przeworski, Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 70.
158. Ibid., 4.
159. Wasilweski et al., "Winding Road," 674.
160. Eva Fodor, Edmund Wnuk-Lipiński, and Natasha Yershova, "The New Political and Cultural Elite," Theory and Society 24/5 (October 1995): 794.
161. Offe, Varieties of Transition, 139.
162. Wasilweski et al., "Winding Road," 683.
163. Fodor et al., "The New Political and Cultural Elite," 785.
164. Ibid., 788. See also Wasilweski et al., "Winding Road," 688.
165. Ibid., 788. See also Wasilweski et al., "Winding Road," 688.
166. Ibid., 799.
167. Williams et al., "Explaining Lustration," 12.
168. Kitschelt et al., Post-Communist Party Systems, 78-79.
169. Offe, Varieties of Transition, 139.
170. I b i d.
171. Szonja Szelényi, Ivan Szelényi, and Imré Kovách, "The Making of the Hungarian Postcommunist Elite: Circulation in Politics, Reproduction in the Economy," Theory and Society 24/5 (October 1995), 702. See also Fodor et al., "The New Political and Cultural Elite," 800.
172. Szonja Szelényi, Ivan Szelényi, and Imré Kovách, "The Making of the Hungarian Postcommunist Elite: Circulation in Politics, Reproduction in the Economy," Theory and Society 24/5 (October 1995), 702. See also Fodor et al., "The New Political and Cultural Elite," 800.
173. Ibid., 703-704.
174. Ibid., 705 and 714.
175. Ibid., 706. "Revolution of the deputy department heads" is a phrase coined by Tamas Kolosi.
176. Fodor et al., "The New Political and Cultural Elite," 788.
177. Szelényi et al., "The Making of the Hungarian Postcommunist Elite," 714.
178. Williams et al., "Explaining Lustration," 12.
179. Ibid., 19.
180. Ibid., 7.
181. Lavinia Stan, "Access to Securitate Files: The Trials and Tribulations of a Romanian Law," East European Politics and Societies 16 (2002): 146.
182. See ibid.
183. Ibid., 74.
184. Ibid., 145-146.