Leaders of the "velvet" revolutions
Vaclav Havel- the only person in world history in 13 years who managed to visit the president of three states. In 1989, he took the oath, laying his hand on the Constitution of Czechoslovakia. Then he became the head of the Czech-Slovak Federation, and from 1993 to 2002 he was the president of the Czech Republic.
Opinions expressed in the press about Vaclav Havel are often diametrically opposed. But be that as it may, namely, during his tenure as president, the Czech Republic relatively painlessly overcame the period of reforms. In this country there was no hyperinflation, like that noted in Poland and Hungary, "gangster capitalism", unemployment and crime. The reforms were not accompanied by mass strikes and demonstrations. Even the division of two states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, that took place on January 1, 1993, can serve as an example of a civilized solution of such issues. True, complaints are still heard from Bratislava that “Slovakia left the federation, like a husband who, after a divorce, took only his dirty socks, leaving his wife, that is, the Czech Republic, everything else.” But this is nothing compared to what happened in Yugoslavia. As for the personal contribution of Vaclav Havel, some argue that he was not directly related to the political and economic reforms in the Czech Republic, while others claim that it was he who carried out these reforms and no one else. What was his real role?
Coming from a family of "snickering millionaires"
March 10, 1977 under the headline "Who is Václav Havel?" Prague newspapers published a recording of a broadcast broadcast on Czechoslovak radio the day before, in which famous writer of that time, Tomasz Rzezach talked about this man. The publications began like this: "Vaclav Havel was born in October 1936 in a family of snickering millionaires." There was some truth in this statement - the future president of the Czech Republic clearly could not boast of a worker-peasant origin. His paternal grandfather began by successfully paving one of Prague's squares, and at the end of his professional activity, in 1907 - 1915, designed and built a magnificent Art Nouveau palace in the center of Prague - the famous hall with a cafe and a cinema "Lucerne". This palace was the first building in Prague with a reinforced concrete structure. Havel's maternal grandfather edited the bourgeois Narodnaya Gazeta, was ambassador to Hungary and Austria, and in 1938 served as Minister of Propaganda. Vaclav Havel's father bought a large plot near Prague on Barrandov Hill (named after the famous French archaeologist Joachim Barrande), building a film studio and a whole block of mansions there.
But in 1948, all the mansions, film studios, hotels and restaurants of the Havel family were nationalized. It is clear that this circumstance did not at all contribute to the disposition of the young Vaclav Havel towards the theory and practice of communism. But it would be a mistake to assume that from his youth he pursued the only goal - to regain his family property. However, looking ahead, it is worth noting that after the "velvet" revolution, this property was returned to him. Moreover, as far as is known, he did not donate it to charity at all.
The first literary experience of the future playwright can be considered the recordings made in one of the family albums by "Vaclav Havel, a student of grade III." Under the title "The End of the War in Gavlovo" he described the events of May 9, 1945, connected with the flight of German troops from the town of Zhdarets under the onslaught of the Red Army. After graduating from the gymnasium in 1954, Vaclav Havel failed the entrance exams to the Academy of Cinema and Musical Art, but passed the competition to the Czech Higher Technical School at the Faculty of Transport Economics. In that educational institution Havel stayed only two years - he was attracted to literature, theater, and he always felt disgusted with the concrete economy.
Vaclav Havel acquired his first experience in dramaturgy in the city of České Budějovice, where he served in the military. There he created a theater group, staging a play he wrote in collaboration with Karel Brynda about military honor titled "Life Ahead". After demobilization, the novice playwright got a job as a stage worker at the ABC theater, while simultaneously mastering dramaturgy at the theater department of the Academy of Arts. On December 3, 1963, the premiere of Václav Havel's play "Holiday in the Garden" took place at the Otomar Krejčy Theater. Three years later, his book entitled Protocols was published, in which, in addition to several innovative plays in the style of the theater of the absurd, Typograms were published - poems written in the mainstream of experimental poetry, as well as essays "On Dialectical Metaphysics" and "Anatomy gaga." This book had a great public outcry - according to the general opinion of literary critics, the works of Vaclav Havel were exceptionally talented, but at the same time they did not at all correspond to the party principle of socialist realism.
"I don't want to be a politician!"
As early as March 1965, the Central Office for Supervision of the Press, in its daily summary, banned the journal Litso from publishing Václav Havel's "visual poem" Forward. The following year, the censorship recommended that an interview with Havel about his activities in the "Active of the Young" of the Union of Czechoslovak Writers be removed from the Slovak student magazine. Plays by Václav Havel were banned from being staged in Czechoslovakia. But before the “Prague Spring”, the authorities looked at the works of the young playwright and publicist through their fingers. The Warsaw Pact invasion of Prague on 21 August 1968 heralded the era of screw-down. Later, Havel described this period of his life as "a continuous formless fog." In 1974, he even had to work as an auxiliary worker at a brewery in the town of Gradecek.
Vaclav Havel had the opportunity to emigrate from Czechoslovakia following his close friend Milan Kundera (author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being). Instead, he, as they say, climbed on the rampage. In 1975, Havel wrote a manifesto "Open Letter to the President of Czechoslovakia Gustav Husak", and in 1976 he not only signed the human rights "Charter-77", but also became the first press secretary of the opposition movement. The reaction of the authorities was not long in coming - the obstinate playwright was imprisoned three times. On May 29, 1979, he was arrested, accused of attempting a coup d'état and sentenced to four years in prison. Having been released (Vaclav Havel spent a total of about five years in prison), he immediately signs another appeal of the Charter, creates the play Mistake based on prison memories, as well as the essay Politics and Conscience. In it, Havel argued that politics could well be moral, but at the same time categorically stated: "I never wanted and now do not want to be a politician." Nevertheless, on December 29, 1989, the leader of the "Civil Movement" Vaclav Havel was elected president of the country.
His first New Year's address to the citizens of Czechoslovakia was not like the speeches of the communist leaders: “Our country is not prospering. Huge creative and spiritual potential is used unreasonably. Our backward economy is wasting energy, which we already have so little ... We have polluted the land, rivers and forests that we inherited from our ancestors ... But all this is not the most important thing. Worst of all, we live in a polluted moral environment. We are morally sick, because we are used to saying one thing and thinking another. We have learned not to believe in anything, to care only about ourselves. The concepts of “love”, “friendship”, “compassion”, “humility” or “forgiveness” have lost their deep meaning for us.” Approximately the same words were applied to their nations by other "prisoners of conscience" who became presidents, for example, Lech Walesa in Poland and Zviad Gamsakhurdia in Georgia. Just like the leader of the Polish Solidarity, Havel literally did not get out of the rallies: “In the first months after the“ velvet ”revolution, I did crazy things, of which I am even somewhat ashamed today. Once, in one day, I spoke in five places and in the end spoke complete nonsense, since the rally tribune is not very important from me. And like the "Georgian Havel", the President of Czechoslovakia at first tried to interfere in the economy, arguing endlessly with Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus.
"Angel of Triumphant Democracy"
But, unlike Lech Walesa and Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the Czech playwright quickly realized that in the play called "Velvet Revolution" he was destined special role, which no one but him can play. The nation needed to have a kind of "beam of light in a dark kingdom" ahead, because the worst thing that can be imagined during the implementation of political and economic reforms is shying from side to side. Vaclav Havel suited this role like no one else - his authority was absolutely fantastic. In addition, as noted by Tomas Rezach, mentioned above, the Czech president was "a man of infinite self-confidence" - he did not allow any hesitation. Vaclav Havel also clearly understood that “we have to fight not only with specific people or specific organizations, but above all with the skills and habits of ordinary, normal citizens. Although they hated the totalitarian regime, they lived under it all their lives and involuntarily got used to it.” In this regard, Vaclav Havel, just like Gavriil Popov in Russia, could, as they say, explain on his fingers ordinary people advantages of a market economy. (But, unlike the former Moscow mayor, Vaclav Havel was never suspected of bribery.) “You don’t need to be seven spans in the forehead,” the Czech president argued, “to understand: a private electrician will do his job better than an anonymous employee of a state office . So I am a supporter of the speedy revival of relations based on private property, pluralism and competition. I am for the market mechanism as something taken for granted, economically justified. But nothing more: it is not a religion at all.” Agree, this sounds convincing, although there really is no direct connection between a private electrician and the market mechanism.
This role of "the angel of triumphant democracy" (in the words of US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright) was played brilliantly by Havel. Moreover, it was precisely the role - the Czech playwright repeatedly emphasized: "My personal opinion is somewhat different from my own opinion as president." It is known that Vaclav Havel had an extremely negative attitude towards any military alliances, but on the eve of the entry of the Czech Republic into NATO, he launched such agitation in favor of the North Atlantic bloc that everything went off without a hitch. Just as effective, for example, was his justification for the sale of the Czech automobile company Skoda to the German concern Volkswagen: ours, Czech. After this statement, the cries of the communists about the sale of national property remained a voice crying in the desert.
By the way, there was a special attitude towards the communists in the Czech Republic. The President did not get tired of talking about forgiveness, demonstrating it on own example: "Shortly after I became president, they gave me a list of all my colleagues who wrote denunciations against me, and I not only lost this piece of paper on the same day, but also forgot who was on the list." But, for example, in Poland there was a “policy of bold line”. This formulation was used by Tadeusz Mazowiecki in his first speech as prime minister. He suggested separating the past from the present day with a bold line, at the same time establishing as a criterion for evaluating officials only their competence and loyalty to the new government. In the Czech Republic, the so-called lustration was practiced - persons associated with the former regime were deprived of the right to hold state and municipal positions. However, in fairness, it must be said that Vaclav Havel did not limit himself to eloquent words about “forgiveness”, once refusing to sign a law on the extension of the period of checks for the loyalty of citizens applying for leadership positions in state institutions, as well as for police service.
When the production called "Velvet Revolution" came to an end and the role of "the angel of triumphant democracy" had exhausted itself, Václav Havel resigned with a sense of accomplishment. The same inconspicuous Vaclav Klaus was elected as the new president of the Czech Republic, who, behind the colorful scenery of the "theater of one president" held real economic reforms.
EVGENY KOKOULIN
First Crimean N 118, MARCH 31/APRIL 6, 2006 . Written a year ago, but, in my opinion, the author hit the mark.
Hereditary collaborator Vaclav Havel
While in Prague, sailed on a boat on the Vltava.
This embankment, - shows the guide, - belongs to Vaclav Havel.
If anyone thinks that this smart-ass th ... he (Admin is my censorship) was a harmless dissident intellectual (and in general a “European”, unlike our new Russian elite) - he is very much mistaken.
Havel is the son of pre-war Czech oligarchs. The first thing he did when he came to power was to push through the adoption of the law on restitution, which in one fell swoop turned him into one of the the richest people Czech Republic. There was, however, one inconvenient nuance. The Havels were collaborators, i.e. persons collaborating with the fascist regime. According to the law, restitution was not supposed to be such, otherwise the property would have to be returned to the Sudeten Germans, who in the Czech Republic were a third of the population (if you count with Slovakia - a quarter) and who were collaborators without exception. Therefore, the law was circumvented personally in the interests of the first president, who, by the way, Soviet times far from poor
In general, the Czech comrades did not finish off the bitch tribe.
He was the director of the shoe factories of the manufacturer Tomas Bata, and in 1938 he briefly served as Minister of Propaganda.
Vaclav Havel's parents, Vaclav M. Havel and Bozena Vavrechkova, married in June 1935. Vaclav became their eldest son. Ivan was born a year later.
The beginning of writing
In October 1977, on charges of "assaulting the interests of the republic abroad," Havel was sentenced to 14 months in prison on probation, but after a couple of months he was charged with "assaulting a civil servant in the line of duty" and arrested. Until March 1978, he was in prison, then the case was dismissed.
Having been released, Havel became one of the organizers of the Committee for the Protection of the Unjustly Persecuted. On May 29, 1979, Havel was again arrested on charges of attempting to overthrow the existing regime. In October 1979, during a trial of a group of dissidents, Havel was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison. In February 1983, the sentence was commuted to house arrest due to health problems.
In 1984, Havel wrote an essay "Politics and Conscience" in which he spoke of "politics without politics": "I advocate 'anti-political politics', that is, politics understood not as a technology of power and manipulation, not as a cybernetic system for controlling human beings. and not as the skill of a pragmatist, but as one of the ways to find and achieve a meaningful life, to protect such a life and serve it. I stand for politics as a practical morality, as a service to the truth, as an essentially human and measurable concern for our fellow human beings. Yes, this approach in our world is extremely impractical and hardly applicable to Everyday life. But I don't see a better alternative."
Velvet Revolution
In 1989, Havel was arrested again, Jiri Prochazka recalled this:
Shortly before our Dobříš conference in January, Vaclav Havel was imprisoned. Julian Semyonov immediately flew to Prague and went to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, interceded for him with Rudolf Gegenbart and Minister of the Interior Kinzl. He returned reassured, because these statesmen guaranteed that even before the opening of the conference on Dobrisi, Havel would be free.
In the fall of 1989, the “Velvet Revolution” began in Czechoslovakia with a speech by Prague students. Havel was one of the initiators of the creation of the "Civil Forum", which became the main opposition force in the Czech Republic. Havel's popularity as a politician grew rapidly.
President of Czechoslovakia
The second term of the Czechoslovak president began on July 5, 1990, with the election of the already freely chosen Federal Assembly, which was dominated by representatives of the Civic Forum and the Public Against Violence. New strong figures appeared on the political scene in competition with Havel, most notably Václav Klaus of the Czech Republic and Vladimir Mečiar of Slovakia. They contributed to the formation of a new party system and were able to gather massive support. At the same time, tension was growing between the Czech Republic and Slovakia, fueled both by the different political orientations of the representatives of the two republics, and by the inflexible constitution of the federation, which ceased to work after the end of the communist dictate in parliaments. Havel was unambiguously in favor of maintaining the federation of the two republics. The 1990 election campaign was declared shortened, but full elections in 1992, the right-wing GDP, led by Klaus, won in the Czech Republic, and the nationalist Movement for a Democratic Slovakia Meciara won in Slovakia. Parties close to Havel, such as the Civic Movement, lost the election. The collapse of the joint state was not prevented even by the vote of the Federal Assembly on Czechoslovakia as a union (at the request of M. Zeman) - this decision was ignored by both sides. Vaclav Havel resigned from the presidency three months before the end of his mandate on July 20, 1992, due to his failure to be elected by the Federal Assembly for another term, and also because he saw the end of Czechoslovakia as inevitable.
The first economic reforms are also associated with the presidency of Havel during the times of Czechoslovakia.
President of the Czech Republic
I think that there is an element in NATO's invasion of Kosovo that no one can doubt: air attacks, bombs are not caused by material interests. Their character is exclusively humanitarian: the main role is played by principles, human rights, which take precedence even over state sovereignty. This makes the invasion of the Federation of Yugoslavia legal even without a UN mandate.
Original text (fr.)
DANS l "intervention de l" OTAN au Kosovo, je pense qu "il y a un élément que nul ne peut contester: les raids, les bombes, ne sont pas provoqués par un intérêt matériel. Leur caractère est exclusivement humanitaire: ce qui est en jeu ici, ce sont les principes, les droits de l "homme auxquels est accordée une priorité qui passe même avant la souveraineté des Etats. Voilà ce qui rend légitime d "attaquer la Fédération yougoslave, même sans le mandat des Nations unies.
Havel later denied: "the terrible term 'elections in State Duma December 4, 2011. His text, printed on the pages of Novaya Gazeta, became the last lifetime publication of Vaclav Havel in the Russian press. After his death, this statement became known as "Testament of Russia" [ ] :
I think that Russian society is fighting against the most brutal form of post-communism known, with this particular combination of old stereotypes and the new mafia business environment. Perhaps political scientists will find a connection between the current situation in Russia and the current Arab revolutions, but personally, I hear in what is happening, first of all, an echo of the collapse of the Iron Curtain, an echo of the political changes of 1989-1990.
Therefore, I am sure that it is necessary, first of all, to convince the citizens of Russia that the regime that is presented to them under the guise of democracy is not democracy at all. This regime is marked only by some - extremely formal - signs of democracy.
There can be no question of democracy as long as the government offends the dignity of citizens, crushes justice, means mass media and manipulates election results.
But the biggest threat to Russia would be the indifference and apathy of the people. Against. They must tirelessly seek recognition and observance of their rights and freedoms. Opposition structures should unite, form a shadow government and explain their program to people all over Russia.
The opposition should create powerful legal institutions to protect citizens from police and legal arbitrariness.
The opposition should appeal to compatriots who are on personal experience convinced of the effectiveness of democratic freedoms in the West, with a call to remember their roots and support the development of civil society in their homeland.
Death
Havel, who underwent many complex operations during his 75-year life, suffered from inflammation of the respiratory tract and lived under the supervision of doctors and his wife, film and theater actress Dagmar Veshkrnova-Gavlova. Shortly before his death, he managed to fulfill his dream by making a feature film. In the summer of 2011, his directorial debut - the painting "Departure" (Czech. Odcházení) - was presented in the program of the Moscow International Film Festival. The director himself, due to a serious illness, could not come to the screening. Last months he spent his life in his country house in Gradechka near Trutnov D. A. Medvedev, neither Prime Minister V. V. Putin personally expressed condolences to the Czech side. Russian authorities limited themselves to an official letter sent by the embassy Russian Federation in the Czech Republic. In Runet, a civil initiative was implemented to express condolences to the inhabitants of the Czech Republic, as well as to the family of the deceased.
"The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else but in the human heart, in the human capacity to think, in human humility and in the human sense of responsibility."
Vaclav Havel
The last president of Czechoslovakia, the first president of the Czech Republic, writer, playwright, human rights activist Vaclav Havel was one of the founders of the "Civil Forum" - the main opposition force in the Czech Republic in 1989.
Vaclav Havel was born into a wealthy Czech family on October 5, 1936. His grandfather was an entrepreneur in the field of construction, he founded the Lucernafilm film company, Vaclav's father and uncle continued his work. His mother, Bozhena Gavlova, was the daughter of Hugo Vavrechka, editor of the bourgeois newspaper Lidove noviny (People's Newspaper).
In the years German occupation Vaclav started going to the Zdarce school. After graduating from school, he was sent to the boarding school named after King Jiri for boys in Poděbrady.
When the communists came to power, the property of Vaclav's family was confiscated, he himself was expelled from high school as the son of an opponent of the regime. He entered the laboratory as a laboratory assistant and at the same time began to study at the evening gymnasium in Prague. In 1954 he received a certificate of secondary education.
He first published as a literary critic in 1955, at the same time he began to write plays and became known in literary circles. After passing military service(1957-1959) he starts working at the Na zábradlí theater, first as a technician and then as a playwright (until 1968). In December 1963, the first performance of Havel was staged. "Garden Holiday". In 1965, Havel joined the editorial board of the literary and art magazine "Tvarzh"(Face). By this time, the first bans by the Czechoslovak censorship of his works date back. Recognition abroad comes to him in the same period.
In 1966 he managed to finish the correspondence department of the theater faculty. Prague Academy of Arts.
After the intervention of the Warsaw Pact troops in 1968, Havel became actively involved in the struggle for democracy and human rights. The fees that came from abroad allowed Havel to not work for a long time to earn money. In 1975 he writes "An open letter to Gustav Husak". In 1976, Havel and his dissident friends created "Charter 77". On charges of "assaulting the interests of the republic abroad" in October 1914, Havel yul was sentenced to 14 months in prison on probation, but after a couple of months he was accused of "attacking a civil servant in the line of duty" and arrested. Until March 1978 he was in prison, then the case was dismissed.
Having been released, Havel became one of the organizers of the Committee for the Protection of the Unjustly Persecuted. On May 29, 1979, Havel was again arrested on charges of attempting to overthrow the existing regime. In October 1979, during a trial of a group of dissidents, Havel was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison. In February 1983, the sentence was commuted to house arrest due to health problems.
In 1984, Havel published an essay "Politics and conscience", in which he spoke of "politics without politics": “I am in favor of an “anti-political policy”, i.e. politics, understood not as a technology of power and manipulation, not as a cybernetic system for managing human beings, and not as the skill of a pragmatist, but as one of the ways to find and achieve a meaningful life, protect such a life and serve it. I stand for politics as a practical morality, as a service to the truth, as an essentially human and measurable concern for our fellow human beings. Yes, this approach in our world is extremely impractical and difficult to apply to everyday life. But I don't see a better alternative.".
In 1989, Havel was arrested again. With the performance of Prague students in the autumn of 1989 in Czechoslovakia began "Velvet Revolution". Havel was one of the initiators of the creation "Civil Forum", which became the main opposition force in the Czech Republic. Havel's popularity as a politician grew rapidly.
On December 28, 1989, the parliament of Czechoslovakia adopted a constitutional law on co-optation, according to which the seats in parliament vacated as a result of the resignations of 23 communists were replaced by new deputies without holding popular elections by the decision of the parliament itself.
On December 29, 1989, at a joint meeting of both chambers of the Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia in the Vladislav Hall of the Prague Castle, Havel was unanimously elected president- the first non-communist president in the last 40 years. With this victory, the former opposition ended the period of great demonstrations, strikes and the activities of strike committees were stopped, and society began to return to a normal way of life.
Havel's first presidential term lasted six months - until the first free elections. Second term The Czechoslovak president began on July 5, 1990, with the election of the already freely elected Federal Assembly, which was dominated by representatives of the Civic Forum and the Public Against Violence. Havel was unambiguously in favor of maintaining the federation of the two republics.
Despite the failure in domestic politics, during his presidency, Havel managed to bring Czechoslovakia back into international politics and demonstrate a Western orientation. Success foreign policy show the state visits of the time: in 1989, Pope John Paul II and US President George W. Bush visited Czechoslovakia. An important point there was also an exit from the sphere of influence of the USSR, symbolized by the withdrawal Soviet troops and termination of activities political structures the Soviet bloc, in particular, the Department of Internal Affairs and the Comecon. The country, under the leadership of Havel, worked to gain membership in Western organizations, as well as to build relations between countries. central Europe on new foundations, primarily within the framework of the Visegrad Group.
The first economic reforms are also associated with the presidency of Havel during the times of Czechoslovakia.
On February 2, 1993, Havel became the first president of the independent Czech Republic. In 1998 he was re-elected for a second presidential term.
In 2011, under pressure from a number of well-known political and public figures Europe, including Vaclav Havel, the annual award was canceled "Quadriga" Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Havel himself received this award in 2009.
Shortly before his death, Vaclav Havel expressed his point of view on what is happening in Russia after the elections to the State Duma on December 4, 2011. His text, published on the pages of Novaya Gazeta, became the last lifetime publication of Vaclav Havel in the Russian press. After his death, this statement became known as "Testament of Russia".
He spent the last months of his life in his country house in Gradechka near Trutnov, where he died on December 18, 2011. Shortly before his death, he managed to fulfill his dream by making a feature film. In the summer of 2011, his directorial debut - the picture "Care"(Czech Odcházení) - was presented in the program of the Moscow International Film Festival
Vaclav Havel was born on October 5, 1936 in Prague. Grew up in the family of a famous entrepreneur. But after the communist putsch, the Havel family lost their fortune, and Vaclav, due to his bourgeois origin, could not get a decent education for a long time.
Already in 1955, he made his debut as a literary critic in the journal Kveten and soon gained fame in literary circles. At a meeting of young writers in 1956, Havel's speech stunned the audience with the boldness with which he expressed heretical thoughts about the freedom of creativity at that time.
Vatslav gained his first experience in drama while serving in the army, where he organized a theater group in which he played himself. In addition, in collaboration with K. Brynda, he wrote a play about military honor “Life Ahead”. After demobilization, he got a job as a technician at the ABC Theater in Prague, in which several plays were staged with the participation of Havel as a co-author. In parallel, he mastered dramaturgy at the theater department of the Prague Academy of Arts, from which he graduated in 1966. In 1963, the Prague theater "Na Zabradli" staged Havel's first major play written without co-authors - "Festival in the Garden". Then there was the play "Memorandum" - a caustic satire on bureaucracy.
Vatslav also wrote articles in the magazines "Theater" and "Culture", which are increasingly political in nature. During the Prague Spring of 1968, Havel actively participated in the activities of the "Club of Independent Writers" and the "Club of Engaged Non-Party", organized numerous protests. Known for his free-thinking, he was repeatedly imprisoned. His plays were banned in Czechoslovakia, but were staged on many European stages. Havel was one of the initiators of the creation of the "Charter 77", which was signed in January 1977 by more than 500 Czechoslovak intellectuals, and then he became one of the organizers and the most active member of the "Committee for the Protection of the Unjustly Persecuted". As a result, in 1979, Havel was arrested on charges of subversion and spent 4 years in prison. For health reasons, after severe pneumonia, he was released early from prison. After the amendment, Vaclav further intensified his activities - he wrote articles, various appeals to the Czech and world governments, and other works, in particular, his play "The Great Devastation", 1985, was widely known.
During the "Velvet Revolution" in 1989, Havel was one of the initiators of the creation of the "Civil Forum", which became the leading force of the democratic opposition in the country. His popularity as a politician grew rapidly, and on December 29, 1989, Havel was unanimously elected president of Czechoslovakia, and in 1990 he was re-elected for a two-year term in the first free elections. The democratization of the socio-political life of the country and the first economic reforms are associated with his reign. Havel advocated the preservation of a united Czechoslovakia. In 1992, faced with the inevitability of the collapse of the country, he resigned. Wenceslas was last president Czechoslovakia, and in January 1993 became the first president of the newly formed Czech Republic - the independent Czech Republic. In 1998, he was elected to a second five-year term. Opinions about Havel's presidency are very opposing. Most often, the pardons and amnesties carried out by the presidential administration were the subject of criticism.
It was during the reign of Havel that the Czech Republic relatively painlessly overcame the period of reforms. He also sought to return his state to Europe, defended the right of the Czech Republic to become a full member of the European Union. Under him, the Czech Republic became a member of NATO in 1999. In February 2003, he resigned his presidency. Vaclav Klaus was chosen as the new head of state. It should be noted that Havel did not write a single play during his presidency.
A Czech writer, playwright, dissident, human rights activist and statesman, member of the European Council for Tolerance and Mutual Respect, Havel has received a number of Czech and international awards. Several times he was nominated for Nobel Prize peace. During his creative career, Havel published dozens of plays, novels, political essays, and several books.
Vaclav was married twice. His first wife is Olga Shplikhalova, whom he met in 1956. Havel spoke about her more than once as his irreplaceable life support. She died in 1996, and a year later Havel married a second time. His wife was the actress Dagmar Veshkrnova. In political retirement, he returned to creativity. His new play Leaving was premiered in Prague in the spring of 2008. AT last years ex-president traveled the world a lot with public speaking and lectures in prestigious universities world, lived with his wife Dagmar in own house in the western part of Prague. In October 2011, Havel celebrated his 75th birthday.
On Sunday, December 18, as a result of complications after a long illness, Vaclav Havel died in his country house in Hradecka near Trutnov.