Havel, Václav

Václav Havel (1936−2011) – playwright, essayist, dissident, critic of the communist régime, leading representative of the so-called Velvet Revolution in 1989. He co-founded the Civic Forum, on behalf of which he ran for the presidency, to which he was elected on 29 December 1989. After the break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1992, he resigned and served two terms as President of the newly established Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003.