Vaclav
Havel was the last President of Czechosolovakia, and the very first president
of the Czech Republic. Before Vaclav Havel entered politics he was a world-famous
playwright. But after the Communist government banned him from the theater, he
began to get politically active. In 1977, he and a number of others started an
informal civic initiative called Charter 77, which criticized the government for
human rights violations and loosely united its members around the goal of working
for civil and human rights in Czechoslovakia and around the world. Havel's political
activities landed him in prison a number of times, including a four year stretch.
He continued to write plays and essays about the lack of freedom in his nation.
A
strong advocate of nonviolent resistance, Havel's efforts culminated in the 1989
Velvet Revolution, when the communist government was overthrown without any blood
being shed. In 1990 Vaclav Havel was elected President in the first free election
since 1946. Once the nation was free from Communist rule, however, tensions between
the Czech and Slovak Republics grew and the Slovak Republic declared its independence
in 1992. Havel resigned as president, but ran for election as President of the
Czech Republic in 1993 and was then reelected in 1998.
