Lustration

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Lustration is historically the term for various ancient Greeks and Roman purification rituals.

In the period after the fall of the various European Communist states in 1989–1991, the term came to refer to the policy of limiting participation of former communists, and especially informants of the communist secret police, in the successor governments or even in civil service positions.

1 Ancient use
2 Modern use
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Ancient use

"Lustratio", from "A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities", John Murray, London, 1875.

Lustration, "Encyclopedia Britannica" of 1911

[edit] Modern use

"Poland's controversial lustration trials", from "Central Europe Review"
"A Scorecard for Czech Lustration", from "Central Europe Review"
Brahm,Eric "Lustration" , Beyond Intractability. Ed. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. 1 Jun. 2005. Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Jiřina Šiklová, "Lustration or the Czech Way of Screening" in East European Constitutional Review, Vol. 5, N. 1, Winter l996 - Quarterly - Univ. of Chicago Law School and Central European University
"...The current state of lustration laws...", covering a dozen former Communist countries in 1996

[edit] See also

Vergangenheitsbewältigung, Germany's "struggle to come to terms with the past" after the Nazi era
Lustration in Poland
Proclamation of Timişoara

[edit] References

1904 (Merriam) Webster's International Dictionary of the English Language says: ""a sacrifice, or ceremony, by which cities, fields, armies, or people, defiled by crimes, pestilence, or other cause of uncleanness, were purified""