The Czech Republic’s Stand Against Communism

Foundation for Economic Education ^ | Wednesday, August 27, 2025 | Fabricio Antezana Duran

[E. Pluribus Unum]

A nation’s scars shape today’s laws.

While visiting Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, I was intrigued and surprised by the amount of art and public displays commemorating communism and the Soviet era. These weren’t honorary tributes to “golden times,” but rather pieces honoring those who suffered under the regime; reminders never to forget, and never to return to, those dark times.

These displays range from the John Lennon Wall, where young Czechs expressed their discomfort and protested against the Soviet regime, to the Memorial to the Victims of Communism, a striking display of bronze figures progressively melting and disfiguring, representing the mental and physical degradation of those who suffered between 1948 and 1989. Soviet-backed communist rule was characterized by censorship, persecution, economic decay, and a lack of freedom. Czechs know, and they remember: communism and all its cousins (socialism and fascism) are deeply harmful and dangerous to society.

This conviction was recently brought into the legislature. On July 17, 2025, Czech President Petr Pavel signed a new law prohibiting communist propaganda, equating the promotion of communism with the already illegal Nazi ideology. The law allows prison sentences of up to five years for anyone who “establishes, supports, or promotes Nazi, communist, or other movements which demonstrably aim to suppress human rights and freedoms or incite racial, ethnic, national, religious or class-based hatred.” In more severe cases, such as organized activity, sentences may reach ten years.

The law, influenced by institutions like the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, passed with little resistance. Parties in the center-right spectrum framed it as a matter of justice. Totalitarian ideologies, they said, have no place in Czech society. MP Michael Zuna of the TOP 09, a liberal-conservative political party,...

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TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
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[Ronaldus Magnus III]

These weren’t honorary tributes to “golden times,” but rather pieces honoring those who suffered under the regime; reminders never to forget, and never to return to, those dark times.

Every time I hear or read about the Czech Republic, I think of R. Emmett Tyrrell and Billy Jeff Clinton.

Billy Boy was supposedly a Rhodes Scholar, but he was more interested in skirts and communism. He never finished his Rhodes studies.

When young Bill Clinton visited Czechoslovakia in 1970, he chose to seek out people like Jirina and Bedrich Kopold, high-placed communists.

Tyrrell actually tracked down the Kopolds and interviewed them about Billy Jeff.

Just for the fun of it, I used the Google search to see how crappy their AI is.

When I used the search terms Bill Clinton and Czechoslovakia, it said:

""Bill Clinton did not visit Czechoslovakia because it ceased to exist on January 1, 1993.""

I trust so-called AI about as much as I trust Woke-pedia.

[Bigg Red]

John Lennon Wall

hmmm...a. anti-communist wall named for an admirer of communism....