Havel was born in Prague. Following the Moscow-backed coup of 1948 he and his family were shunned for having been wealthy capitalists and pro-German collaborateurs (collaborants according to the Communist party daily Rudé Právo from 23.2.1989) and he had difficulties studying beyond the basic level, but took evening classes and studied briefly at the Czech Technical University (1957). After military service (1957-59) he worked as a stagehand in Prague (Theatre On the Balustrade) and studied drama by correspondence. His first publicly performed play was The Garden Party (1963). In 1964 he married Olga Splichalova.
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 77manifesto. His political activities cost him five years in prison. He was a leading figure in the Velvet Revolution of 1989. On December 29, 1989, as head of the Civic Forum, he was elected president by the Federal Assembly.
After the free elections of 1990 he retained the presidency. He strongly supported the retention of the federation of the Czechs and the Slovaks, despite increasing tension. On July 3, 1992 the federal parliament did not elect Havel - the only candidate for presidency - due to a missing support by Slovak MPs. After the Slovaks had issued their Declaration of Independence, he resigned as president on July 20.
When the Czech Republic was created he stood for election there on January 26, 1993, and won. Despite illness and three operations he was re-elected in 1998. He left office after his second term as Czech president ended on February 2, 2003; Václav Klaus, one of his greatest political opponents, was appointed his successor on February 28, 2003.
An unusual speech (http://www.worldtrans.org/whole/havelspeech.html) for a politician, arguing for the need for transcendent values in political life.
Brief bio (http://www.radio.cz/en/article/36022) at Radio Prague
Ambassador of Conscience (http://www.artforamnesty.org/aoc/biogs.html#vaclav) at Amnesty International
Hero file (http://www.moreorless.au.com/heroes/havel.htm) at More or Less
Havel, his memories and the world (http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2004/10/21/news/havel.html)- International Herald Tribune (21 October 2004)
Interview (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/europe/jan-june97/havel_5-16a.html)transcript (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/europe/jan-june97/havel_5-16.html) at PBS
Velvet President (http://reason.com/0305/fe.mw.velvet.shtml) essay
U.S. Medal of Freedom (http://www.medaloffreedom.com/VaclavHavel.htm)
Václav Havel: Heir to a Spiritual Legacy (http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=767)
Despite increasing tensions, Havel strongly supported the retention of the federation of the Czechs and the Slovaks during the breakup of Czechoslovakia, known as the Velvet Divorce.
Václav 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.
Born in 1936, VaclavHavel appeared on the Czechoslovak cultural scene as early as 1956, when as an aspiring young writer he took advantage of Khrushchev's post-Stalin "thaw," which to varying degrees was taking place in the U.S.S.R. and in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.
Havel's first published text was a letter to the editor of the new literary magazine Kveten, challenging the magazine's claim that it really had jettisoned the strictures of socialist realism.
Raised in an educated, upper-middle class family, Havel as a child was steeped in the democratic traditions of the first Czechoslovak Republic, founded at the end of the World War I. Unfortunately, due to his "bourgeois" background, Havel's attempts to enter the university were repeatedly thwarted by the communist regime.
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