JVF Conference Papers
One must first know one’s past well to be able to reflect on it or adjust to it. Not only is today’s Czech Republic lacking the means to get to know its own past well, there is no political or social consensus for it to even start doing so.
In fact, a political scientist has observed that if one looks at today’s Czech society, “It looks as if Czech communism had never existed.” Contemporary history, including communist history, is marginal in the Czech Republic. It is barely taught in the universities, let alone in high schools, and the activities of the Prague Institute of Contemporary History remains rather modest in scope.
