Václav Havel | Václav Havel was the last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic. He is also known as an influential author, poet, playwright, and public intellectual. He was the co-founder of Charter 77, an organization dedicated to the promotion of human rights and democracy in the face of Soviet occupation. In 1979, he was sentenced to four years at a labor camp for subversion as a result of his human rights activism. Havel was instrumental in the Velvet Revolution – the peaceful uprising that overthrew the communist regime in Czechoslovakia in 1989 – and was elected as the country's first non-communist leader in four decades. Though now retired from public office, Havel continues to be an important voice for democracy, human rights, and liberty worldwide.
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