Velvet Justice
Finishing the revolution.

By NR Editors
From “The Week,” January 28, 2002, issue, of National Review

ailure to prosecute people for the crimes they committed in the name of Communism is perhaps the main reason why countries of the old Soviet bloc have found it hard to launch a civil society with respect for the law. After the Velvet Revolution, the Czech Republic had a moment of what was called lustration, or bringing Communists to account, but it petered out. But in Prague there is an Office for the Documentation and Investigation of the Crimes of Communism. This office has at last initiated a range of prosecutions of men who played a part in the murder of anti-Communist activists going back to 1949, and the subsequent persecution of dissidents. The Office for Documentation is also pressing for the trial of Milos Jakes, last secretary general of the party, and former prime minister Jozef Lenart, two of the hardliners responsible for supporting the Soviets in crushing the Prague Spring of 1968. With Communism as with Nazism, the future remains in suspense until due process of law cleans up the past.