The Czech Republic has taken a significant step in re-evaluating its historical past, passing legislation that criminalises the promotion of communist ideology and places it on the same level as Nazi propaganda. The move marks the culmination of long-standing efforts by leading historical and human rights institutions.
In February 2025, the Czech Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, the Museum of the 20th Century Memory, and the Platform of European Memory and Conscience issued a joint statement calling for changes to the law. Their central demand was to equate the communist regime with the Nazi one, in light of the crimes committed by both totalitarian systems.
Those calls were answered. On 17 July, Czech President Petr Pavel signed a landmark amendment to the Criminal Code. Under the revised wording, communist and Nazi propaganda are now legally considered equivalent.
Supporters of the new law, including MP Michal Zuna, describe it as a symbolic act of justice for those who suffered under the communist regime—dissidents who were executed, imprisoned, or silenced. Martin Exner, a member of the Chamber of Deputies, drew direct parallels between the crimes of Nazism and communism. “Both regimes executed their opponents, both built concentration camps and Gulags, both promoted antisemitism and held a monopoly on power enforced through violence,” he said. “The occupation of neighbouring countries and plans for violent global domination were shared by both Nazis and communists.”
Exner went on to argue that both systems thrived on the same brutal foundations: “The ideology of fear and hatred was central to both. The only real difference was the target—Nazism directed its hatred along racial and national lines, while communism focused on class. But the tools were the same: camps, executions, totalitarian rule.”
At a press conference, Kamil Nedvědický, Deputy Head of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, echoed that view: “At the root of communist teachings—and at the root of Marxism—is one word: violence. Karl Marx and his followers were clear that change, as they saw it, could not come without it.”
These legislative changes come amid the steady decline of communist influence in Czech politics. While the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia still clings to pro-Russian slogans like the “Victory of the Red Army,” and its leader, Kateřina Konečná, holds a seat in the European Parliament, the broader picture tells a different story. In the 2021 elections, the party failed to cross the 5% threshold—leaving the Czech Parliament without communist representation for the first time since 1920.
The shift points to a broader transformation in Czech society that has been unfolding since the Velvet Revolution of 1989, which brought an end to four decades of one-party rule and set the country on the path to democracy. The new law is seen as part of that ongoing process—a clear step away from the legacy of totalitarianism and a reaffirmation of the country’s commitment to democratic principles.
“We’re witnessing a moment that transcends politics,” said Oleksandr Alfiorov, head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, “but an event that opens a new chapter in Europe’s historical memory.”
