Oct 05, 2023

Václav Havel Was Born 87 Years Ago

Prague Morning

People all over Czechia are commemorating the 87th anniversary of the birth of Václav Havel, the last Czechoslovak and the first Czech president.

In Trutnov in the Hradec Králové Region, a memorial site on top of a cinema will be unveiled, while at the Faculty of Philosophy in Olomouc, an event commemorating Havel’s thoughts and speeches is planned.

People in Prague are expected to gather at Havel’s grave in the Vinohrady cemetery.

Aside from that, Havel was a poet, playwright and filmmaker.

His absurdist plays, which were critical of communism, led him to be blacklisted after the 1968 Soviet-led invasion, and his works could not be performed domestically.

He was one of the authors of Charter 77, a protest petition for human rights, and a founder of the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted.

When massive antigovernment demonstrations erupted in Prague in November 1989, Havel became the leading figure in the Civic Forum, a new coalition of non-communist opposition groups pressing for democratic reforms.

In early December the Communist Party capitulated and formed a coalition government with the Civic Forum. As a result of an agreement between the partners in this bloodless “Velvet Revolution,” Havel was elected to the post of interim president of Czechoslovakia on December 29, 1989, and he was re-elected to the presidency in July 1990, becoming the country’s first non-communist leader since 1948.

As president, he tried to promote culture in the newly independent country with theater festivals and music. He counted the Rolling Stones and Lou Reed among his friends, as well as human rights activists like the Dalai Lama.

He continued his human rights activism after his presidency by starting Forum 2000, an annual series of lectures, panels and related events.

He continued to write, and his play Leaving premiered in 2008. He directed a film version in 2011.