Václav Havel

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Václav Havel
1st President of the Czech Republic
In office February 2, 1993 – February 2, 2003
Succeeded by	Václav Klaus
10th President of Czechoslovakia
In office December 29, 1989 – July 20, 1992
Preceded by	Gustáv Husák
Succeeded by	Czechoslovakia split into Czech Republic and Slovakia
Born	October 5, 1936 (1936-10-05) (age 71) Prague, Czechoslovakia
Nationality	Czech Republic
Spouse	Olga Šplíchalová Dagmar Veškrnová
Profession	Playwright, Writer, Politician
Website	www.vaclavhavel.cz

Václav Havel, GCB, CC, (pronounced [ˈvaːtslaf ˈɦavel]) (born October 5, 1936) is a Czech writer and dramatist. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia (1989-1992) and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993-2003). He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, some of which have received international acclaim^{[citation needed]}. He has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Philadelphia Liberty Medal, and the Ambassador of Conscience Award.

Beginning in the 1960s, his work turned to focus on the politics of Czechoslovakia. After the Prague Spring, he became increasingly active. In 1977, his involvement with the human rights manifesto Charter 77 brought him international fame as the leader of the opposition in Czechoslovakia; it also led to his imprisonment. The 1989 "Velvet Revolution" launched Havel into the presidency. In this role he led Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic to capitalism and multi-party democracy. His thirteen years in office saw radical change in his nation, including its split with Slovakia, which Havel opposed, its accession into NATO and start of the negotiations for membership in the EU, which was completed in 2004.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Theater 1.3 Entry into political life 2 Presidency 3 Post-presidential career 4 Honors 5 Works 5.1 Collections of poetry 5.2 Plays 5.3 Non-fiction books 6 Cultural allusions and interests 7 References 8 Further reading 9 See also 10 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Václav Havel was born in Prague. He grew up in a well-known entrepreneurial and intellectual family, which was closely linked to the cultural and political events in Czechoslovakia from the 1920s to the 1940s. Because of these links, the Czech communist government did not allow Havel to study formally after he had completed his required schooling in 1951. In the first part of the 1950s, the young Havel entered into a four-year apprenticeship as a chemical laboratory assistant and simultaneously took evening classes to complete his secondary education (which he did in 1954). For political reasons, he was not accepted into any post-secondary school with a humanities program; therefore, he opted to study at the Faculty of Economics of Czech Technical University in Prague. He dropped out after two years.^[1]

[edit] Theater

The intellectual tradition of his family compelled Václav Havel to pursue the humanitarian values of Czech culture. After military service (1957–59) he worked as a stagehand in Prague (at the Theater On the Balustrade - Divadlo Na zábradlí) and studied drama by correspondence at the Theater Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU). His first publicly performed full-length play, besides various vaudeville collaborations, was The Garden Party (1963). Presented in a season of Theater of the Absurd, at the Balustrade, it won him international acclaim. It was soon followed by Memorandum, one of his best known plays. In 1964, Havel married Olga Šplíchalová, to the despair of his mother.^[2]

[edit] Entry into political life

Following the suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968 he was banned from the theatre and became more politically active. This culminated with the publication of the Charter 77 manifesto, written partially in response to the imprisonment of members of the Czech psychedelic band The Plastic People of the Universe.^[3] His political activities resulted in multiple stays in prison, the longest being four years, and also subjected him to constant government surveillance and harassment.

After his long prison stay he wrote Largo Desolato, a play about a political writer who fears being sent back to prison. He was also famous for his essays, most particularly for his brilliant articulation of "Post-Totalitarianism" (see Power of the Powerless), a term used to describe the modern social and political order that enabled people to "live within a lie." A passionate supporter of non-violent resistance, a role in which he has been compared, by ex-US President Bill Clinton, to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, he became a leading figure in the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the bloodless end to communism in Czechoslovakia.

[edit] Presidency

On December 29, 1989, as leader of the Civic Forum, he became president by a unanimous vote of the Federal Assembly—an ironic turn of fate for a man who had long insisted that he was uninterested in politics. In this he joined many dissidents of the period, who argued that political change should happen through civic initiatives autonomous from the state, rather than through the state itself. In another move away from the ideals he put forth as a dissident, Havel presided over the privatization of the Czechoslovak economy even though he, like much of the Civic Forum, had previously spoken in support of what is sometimes called a "third way" toward neither Soviet-style socialism nor Western-style capitalism. Western powers approved of this new state of affairs and put pressure on the government to make further changes in the direction of a market capitalist system. In 1990, he was awarded^[4] the Prize For Freedom of the Liberal International.^[5][6]

After the free elections of 1990 he retained the presidency. Despite increasing tensions, Havel appeared to have supported the retention of the federation of the Czechs and the Slovaks during the breakup of Czechoslovakia. On July 3, 1992 the federal parliament did not elect Havel—the only candidate for presidency—due to a lack of support from Slovak MPs. After the Slovaks issued their Declaration of Independence, he resigned as president on July 20. When the Czech Republic was created, he stood for election as president there on January 26, 1993, and won.

Although Havel has been quite popular throughout his career, his popularity abroad surpassed his popularity at home, and he has been no stranger to controversy and criticism. An extensive general pardon, one of his first acts as a president, was an attempt to both lessen the pressure in overcrowded prisons and release those who may have been falsely imprisoned during the Communist era. It was also based on his feeling that a corrupt court's decisions cannot be trusted, and that most in prison had not been fairly tried.^[7] Critics claimed that this amnesty raised the crime rate. However, according to Havel in his most recent memoir To the Castle and Back, the statistics do not support that allegation, especially as most released would have been released within a year.

In an interview with Karel Hvížďala (also included in To the Castle and Back), Havel states that he feels his most important accomplishment as president was the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. This proved quite complicated, as the infrastructure created by the pact was so ingrained in the workings of the countries involved and indeed in their general consciousness. It took two years before the Soviet troops finally fully withdrew from Czechoslovakia.

Following a legal dispute with his sister-in-law, Havel decided to sell his 50% stake in the Lucerna Palace on Wenceslas Square, a legendary dance hall built by his grandfather Vácslav Havel. In a transaction arranged by Marián Čalfa, Havel sold the estate to Václav Junek, a former communist spy in France and leader of soon-to-be-bankrupt conglomerate Chemapol Group, who later openly admitted he bribed politicians of Czech Social Democratic Party.^[8]

In December 1996 the chain smoking Havel was diagnosed as having lung cancer.^[9] The disease reappeared two years later. In 1996, Olga, beloved by the Czech people and his wife of 32 years died of her cancer. Less than a year later Havel remarried, to actress Dagmar Veškrnová.^[10]

The former political prisoner was instrumental in enabling the transition of NATO from being an anti-Warsaw Pact alliance to its present inclusion of former-Warsaw Pact members, like the Czech Republic. In the interests of his country, he advocated vigorously for the expansion of the military alliance into Eastern Europe, including the Czech Republic.^[11][12]

Havel was re-elected president in 1998 and underwent a colostomy when on holiday in Innsbruck. Havel left office after his second term as Czech president ended on February 2, 2003; Václav Klaus, one of his greatest political opponents, was elected his successor on February 28, 2003. Margaret Thatcher writes of the two men in her foreign policy treatise, Statecraft, reserving greater respect for Havel, whose dedication to democracy and defying the Communists earned her admiration.^[13][14][15]

[edit] Post-presidential career

Since 1997, Havel has hosted a conference entitled Forum 2000.^[16] In November and December 2006, Havel spent eight weeks as a visiting artist in residence at Columbia University. The stay was sponsored by the university's Arts Initiative, and featured "lectures, interviews, conversations, classes, performances, and panels center[ing] on his life and ideas", including a public "conversation" with former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Concurrently, the Untitled Theater Company #61 launched a Havel Festival, the first complete festival of his plays in various venues throughout New York City, in celebration of his 70th birthday.^{[17][18][19][20][21][22][23]}

In May 2007, Havel's memoir of his experiences as President, To the Castle and Back, was released. The book mixes an interview in the style of Disturbing the Peace with actual memos he sent to his staff with modern diary entries and recollections. On August 4, 2007, Havel met with members of the Belarus Free Theatre at his summer cottage in the Czech Republic, in a show of his continuing support, which has been instrumental in its attaining international recognition and its membership in the European Theatrical Convention.^[24][25] Havel's first new play "in over 18 years," Leaving (Odchazeni), was scheduled in November 2007 to have its world premiere in June 2008 at the Prague theater Na Vinohradech (at Vinohrady),^[26] but the theater withdrew it in December.^[27] The play is now scheduled to premier at the Archa Theater on May 22, 2008 [1]. Havel based the play on King Lear, by William Shakespeare, and on The Cherry Orchard, by Anton Chekhov; "Chancellor Vilém Rieger is the central character of Leaving, who faces a crisis after being removed from political power."^[26]

[edit] Honors

On July 4, 1994 Václav Havel was awarded the Philadelphia Liberty Medal. In his acceptance speech, he said: "The idea of human rights and freedoms must be an integral part of any meaningful world order. Yet I think it must be anchored in a different place, and in a different way, than has been the case so far. If it is to be more than just a slogan mocked by half the world, it cannot be expressed in the language of departing era, and it must not be mere froth floating on the subsiding waters of faith in a purely scientific relationship to the world." ^[28] In 1997 he was the recipient of the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca.

In 2002, he was the third recipient of the Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award presented by the Prague Society for International Cooperation. He was awarded in 2003 the International Gandhi Peace Prize, named after Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi by the government of India for his outstanding contribution towards world peace and upholding human rights in most difficult situations through Gandhian means. In 2003, Havel was the inaugural recipient of Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience Award for his work in promoting human rights.^[29] In 2004, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.^[30][31] In January 2008, the Europe-based A Different View cited Havel to be one of the 15 Champions of World Democracy. Other champions mentioned were Nelson Mandela, Lech Wałęsa, and Corazon Aquino.^[32] As a former Czech President, Havel is a member of the Club of Madrid.^[33]

[edit] Works

[edit] Collections of poetry

• Čtyři rané básně
• Záchvěvy I & II, 1954
• První úpisy, 1955
• Prostory a časy (poesie), 1956
• Na okraji jara (cyklus básní), 1956
• Anticodes, (Antikódy)

[edit] Plays

• An Evening with the Family, 1960, (Rodinný večer)
• The Garden Party, 1963, (Zahradní slavnost)
• The Memorandum, 1965, (Vyrozumění)
• The Increased Difficulty of Concentration, 1968, (Ztížená možnost soustředění)
• Butterfly on the Antenna, 1968, (Motýl na anténě)
• Guardian Angel, 1968, (Strážný anděl)
• Conspirators, 1971, (Spiklenci)
• The Beggar's Opera, 1975, (Žebrácká opera)
• Unveiling, 1975, (Vernisáž)
• Audience, 1975, (Audience)
• Mountain Hotel 1976, (Horský hotel)
• Private View, 1978
• Protest, 1978, (Protest)
• Mistake, 1983, (Chyba)
• Largo desolato 1984, (Largo desolato)
• Temptation, 1985, (Pokoušení)
• Redevelopment, 1987, (Asanace)
• Tomorrow, 1988, (Zítra to spustíme)
• Leaving, 2007, (Odcházení)

[edit] Non-fiction books

• The Power of the Powerless (1985) [Includes 1978 titular essay.]
• Living in Truth (1986)
• Letters to Olga (1988)
• Disturbing the Peace (1991)
• Open Letters (1991)
• Summer Meditations (1992/93)
• Towards a Civil Society (1994)
• The Art of the Impossible (1998)
• To the Castle and Back (2007)

[edit] Cultural allusions and interests

• Havel was a major supporter of The Plastic People of the Universe, becoming a close friend of its members, such as its manager Ivan Martin Jirous and guitarist/vocalist Paul Wilson (who later became Havel's English translator and biographer) and a great fan of the rock band The Velvet Underground, sharing mutual respect with the principal singer-songwriter Lou Reed, and is also a lifelong Frank Zappa fan.^[34][35]
• Havel is also a great supporter and fan of jazz and frequented such Prague clubs as Radost FX and the Reduta Jazz Club, where President Bill Clinton played the saxophone when Havel brought him there.^[34]
• The period involving Havel's role in the Velvet Revolution and his ascendancy to the presidency is dramatized in part in the play Rock 'n' Roll, by Czech-born English playwright Tom Stoppard.
• In 1996, due to his contributions to the arts, he was honorably mentioned in the rock opera, RENT during the song La Vie Boheme.

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

Works by Václav Havel

• Commentaries and Op-eds by Václav Havel (index). Rpt. by Project Syndicate. Accessed December 21, 2007.
• "Excerpts from The Power of the Powerless (1978)", by Václav Havel. ["Excerpts from the Original Electronic Text provided by Bob Moeller, of the University of California, Irvine."]
• "The Need for Transcendence in the Postmodern World" (Speech). worldtrans.org n.d. Accessed December 21, 2007.
• "Václav Havel: 'We are at the beginning of momentous changes' ". czech.cz (Official website of the Czech Republic), September 10, 2007. Accessed December 21, 2007. [On personal responsibility, freedom and ecological problems].

Media interviews with Václav Havel

• Warner, Margaret. Online Focus: Newsmaker: Václav Havel". The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. PBS, broadcast May 16, 1997. Accessed December 21, 2007. (NewsHour transcript.)

Books (Biographies)

• Keane, John. Vaclav Havel: A Political Tragedy in Six Acts. New York: Basic Books, 2000. ISBN 0465037194. (A sample chapter [in HTML and PDF formats] is linked on the author's website, "Books".)
• Kriseová, Eda. Vaclav Havel. Trans. Caleb Crain. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993. ISBN 0312103174.
• Pontuso, James F. Vaclav Havel: Civic Responsibility in the Postmodern Age. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. ISBN 0-7425-2256-3.
• Rocamora, Carol. Acts of Courage. New York: Smith & Kraus, 2004. ISBN 1575253445.

[edit] See also

• Humanitarian bombing

[edit] External links

• Václav Havel Official website
• Václav Havel archive from The New York Review of Books
• "Havel at Columbia: Bibliography: Human Rights Archive

v • d • e Presidents of Czechoslovakia Regular Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk  · Edvard Beneš  · Jan Syrový  · Emil Hácha  · Edvard Beneš · Klement Gottwald  · Antonín Zápotocký  · Antonín Novotný  · Ludvík Svoboda  · Gustáv Husák  · Václav Havel Acting Milan Hodža (1935)  · Jan Syrový (1938)  · Viliam Široký (1957)  · Jozef Lenárt (1968)  · Marián Čalfa (1989)  · Jan Stráský (1992)

v • d • e Presidents of the Czech Republic Václav Havel · Václav Klaus

• [2]The Patrin Web Journal: The Gypsy Genocide by Paul Polanski

Persondata
NAME	Havel, Václav
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	President of the Czech Republic
DATE OF BIRTH	October 5, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH	Prague, (former) Czechoslovakia
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH