Czech Republic bans ‘communist propaganda’

The Czech president has signed an amendment essentially equating communism with Nazism.

The Czech Republic has amended its criminal code to outlaw the promotion of communism, placing it on par with Nazi ideology. The legislation was signed on Thursday by President Petr Pavel, himself a former Communist Party member.

The amendment introduces prison terms of one 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.”

The change follows calls from the Czech government-funded Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, with co-author Michael Rataj claiming that it is “illogical and unfair” to treat the two ideologies differently.

“Part of Czech society still perceives Nazism as the crime of a foreign, German nation, while communism is frequently excused as ‘our own’ ideology just because it took root in this country,” Rataj said.

The Czech Republic, once part of communist Czechoslovakia and a Soviet-aligned Eastern Bloc member, became independent in 1993 after the 1989 Velvet Revolution. Its current president, Petr Pavel, referred to his past membership in the Communist Party as a mistake.

The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM) has strongly opposed the change, calling it politically motivated. The party is part of the Stacilo alliance and currently polls at around 5%, which could allow it to return to parliament in the October 2025 elections.

“This is yet another failed attempt to push KSCM outside the law and intimidate critics of the current regime,” the party said in a statement.

Prague has removed or altered hundreds of Soviet-era monuments, with another wave of removals following the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev. Several countries in Eastern Europe – including Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania – have joined Kiev’s decommunization drive in recent years, passing various laws that effectively equate communism with Nazism, moves that Moscow describes as politically driven attempts to rewrite history.

Russia has argued that these measures distort the truth about World War II, during which the Soviet Union lost 27 million lives fighting to liberate Europe from the Nazis. In July 2021, President Vladimir Putin signed a law prohibiting “publicly equating the USSR with Nazi Germany” and banning the “denial of the decisive role of the Soviet people in the victory over fascism.”