New body to examine communist past opens in Prague

A new institute dedicated to the examination of the Czech Republic’s communist past has opened in Prague. The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes brings together secret police and military intelligence files which were previously in the hands of various state institutions. The files, which amount to millions of pages, will be accessible to both historians and members of the public. The Czech Republic is one of the last post-communist states to create such a body.