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Photo Exhibition: Prague Through the Lens of the Secret Police

Pavel Zacek, Director, Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes; Ladislav Bukovszky, Director, Security Services Archive; Jiri Ellinger, Czech Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Date & Time

Thursday
Aug. 20, 2009
1:00pm – 2:00pm ET

Overview

The photo exhibition Prague through the Lens of the Secret Police features a selection of never before seen photographs and films of "subjects of interest" taken secretly by the Czechoslovak State Security Service's Surveillance Directorate during the "normalization" era of hard-line socialist entrenchment which followed the 1968 Soviet-led occupation of Czechoslovakia.

The exhibition, created by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and the Security Services Archive in connection with the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, aims to unveil the mechanisms by which state agent operatives tailed Czechoslovak citizens, emigrés and foreigners--using variously disguised miniature cameras concealed in briefcases, a playing transistor radio, lighter, inkstand, or even a baby carriage--as well as the results of their efforts in the state prescribed "struggle against the internal adversary."

The exhibition will be open for visitors at the Woodrow Wilson Center August 20 to September 20, 10am to 4pm. The opening of the exhibition and presentation of the eponymous book will be introduced by Pavel Zacek, director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, Ladislav Bukovszky, director of the Security Services Archive and Jiri Ellinger of the Czech Embassy in Washington, D.C.

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Cold War International History Project

The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War. Through an award winning Digital Archive, the Project allows scholars, journalists, students, and the interested public to reassess the Cold War and its many contemporary legacies. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program.  Read more

History and Public Policy Program

The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs.  Read more

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