Pavel Žáček (born 1969[1]) is a Czech academic and politician who served as the first Director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, the Czech government agency and research institute tasked with investigation of the crimes of the Communist regime of Czechoslovakia that was declared to be criminal in 1993.

[1] He worked for the Office for the Documentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism from 1993, where he was appointed Deputy Director in 1998.

[1] From 1999 to 2006, he was Senior Researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

He served as adviser to Daniel Herman who was elected director of the Institute in August 2010.

After a dispute about Herman's removal in April 2013, Pavel Žáček was fired by the new director Pavla Foglová.