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Václav Havel

Czech statesman, author, and dissident who led Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic during key democratic transitions.

Václav Havel is one of 1287 people in the A–Z index, listed under V.

Is Václav Havel dead or alive?

Who is Václav Havel?

Václav Havel is best known for Last president of Czechoslovakia and first president of the Czech Republic, influential dissident and playwright. On Dead or Alive, Václav Havel is listed in the World Leaders of the 80s category, where you can test yourself on similar names. Dead or Alive is a trivia game: you decide whether a famous person is still alive, then see the answer. The status for Václav Havel is checked against public sources such as Wikidata and is shown only after you answer.

Facts

Known for: Last president of Czechoslovakia and first president of the Czech Republic, influential dissident and playwright.
Listed under: World Leaders of the 80s

About Václav Havel

Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia on 31 December, before he became the first president of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003. He was the first democratically elected president of either country after the fall of communism. His educational opportunities having been limited by his bourgeois background under the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Havel first rose to prominence as a playwright. In works such as The Garden Party and The Memorandum, Havel used an absurdist style to criticize the Communist system. After participating in the Prague Spring and being blacklisted after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, he became more politically active and helped found several dissident initiatives, including Charter 77 and the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted. His political activities brought him under the surveillance of the StB secret police, and he spent several periods as a political prisoner, the longest of his imprisoned terms being nearly four years, between 1979 and 1983. Havel's Civic Forum party played a major role in the Velvet Revolution that toppled the Communist system in Czechoslovakia in 1989. He assumed the presidency shortly thereafter, and was re-elected in a landslide the following year and after Slovak independence in 1993.

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Frequently asked questions

What is Václav Havel known for?

Václav Havel is known for Last president of Czechoslovakia and first president of the Czech Republic, influential dissident and playwright.

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Václav Havel appears in World Leaders of the 80s.

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