Václav Havel
Playwright, dissident and President of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic · 1936–2011
Havel was a Czech playwright and leading dissident who co-founded Charter 77 and was imprisoned by the communist regime. After the 1989 Velvet Revolution he became president and oversaw the move to democracy and integration with Western institutions.
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Estimated from their documented words and actions. A simplification, not a verdict.
He valued civil society and local initiative but opposed the 1993 split of Czechoslovakia.
He spent years in prison for human-rights activism and led the peaceful transition to democracy.
In The Power of the Powerless he argued for 'living in truth' against state control.
As president he led the Czech Republic into NATO and toward the European Union.
He supported NATO's 1999 Kosovo campaign and signed a 2003 letter backing the US on Iraq.
He apologised for the post-war expulsion of Sudeten Germans and spoke for minority rights.
He accepted a market economy but criticised rapid, unregulated privatisation.
He favoured a market economy with social responsibility rather than state planning.
He supported open trade through European integration.
He spoke of a spiritual dimension to politics without belonging to a church.
He supported human rights and an open society.
He criticised impersonal technocratic civilisation and its threat to human responsibility.