Deadline passes for applications for top institute job

The deadline for applications for the post of director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes closed at midday on Monday. Nine applications were received including two from foreign historians. The post at the body which holds the archives of the Communist secret police and is supposed to promote research into Communist and Nazi era crimes fell vacant when historian Jiří Pernes was dismissed at the start of May following a plagiarism scandal. The temporary head, Zdeněk Hazdra, has said he will not stand. The institute has been beset by problems and scandals since its creation.