Václav Havel

Václav Havel was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia on 5 October 1936. He grew up in a well-known and wealthy entrepreneurial and intellectual family. His family was active in culture and politics in Czechoslovakia from the 1920s to the 1940s. His father owned part of the suburb of Barrandov. This is the highest part of Prague. Havel's mother came from a well-known family. Her father was an ambassador and journalist. Havel completed his required education in 1951. However, the Communist government did not allow him to continue to study formally because of his bourgeois family background.

In the early 1950s, the young Havel entered a four-year apprenticeship as a chemical laboratory assistant. He took evening classes at the same time and completed secondary education in 1954. None of the colleges or universities with humanities programs would accept Havel for political reasons. So, he chose to study at the Faculty of Economics of Czech Technical University in Prague. He dropped out after two years.[2] In 1964, Havel married Olga Šplíchalová. His mother was against the marriage.[3]

Václav Havel and Karol Sidon (left), his friend and later chief Czech rabbi

Flag of the president of the Czech Republic

Havel was already leader of the Civic Forum, and on 29 December 1989, he became president. He left office after his second term as Czech president ended on 2 February 2003. Every member of the Federal Assembly voted to make him president. This was a surprising change because Havel had always said that he was not interested in politics. He and other dissidents had said that change should come from groups of people directly, not from the government.[4][5]

Czechoslovakia had free elections in 1990. Havel won and continued to be president. Havel wanted to keep the federation of the Czechs and the Slovaks together during the breakup of Czechoslovakia. He supported keeping the country together even though this was difficult and there was a lot of pressure. On 3 July 1992 the federal parliament did not elect Havel — the only candidate — because Slovak MPs did not support him. Havel resigned as president on 20 July after the Slovaks issued their Declaration of Independence. He stood for election as president of the new Czech Republic in 1993. He won and became president of this new, separate country.

Havel was quite popular throughout his career. However, some of his actions caused controversy and criticism. One of his first acts as a president was to pardon many people. He wanted to reduce the number of people in overcrowded prisons and release people who had been put in prison during the Communist era even though they were innocent. He did not trust the decisions of a corrupt court of the previous government. He thought the courts had been unfair to most people in prison.[6] Critics said that this amnesty caused more crime. In his memoir, To the Castle and Back, Havel wrote that most of the people he released had less than a year left to stay in prison. Statistics about this are not clear.

Havel said that the most important thing he did as president was breaking up the Warsaw Pact. Ending this group of countries was very complicated because the association was a deep part of how the countries worked. It took two years before the Soviet troops finally left Czechoslovakia completely.

Havel was very important to changing NATO. He helped change it from an anti-Warsaw Pact alliance to a group that includes former-Warsaw Pact members. Havel spoke very strongly for expanding of the military alliance into Eastern Europe, including the Czech Republic.[7][8]

Václav Havel (2010)

In memory of Václav Havel – Prague Dec.19th, 2011

He has received many awards, including:

• The Philadelphia Liberty Medal
• The freedom medal of the Four Freedoms Award
• The Ambassador of Conscience Award

State awards

Country	Awards[9]	Date	Place
Argentina	Order of the Liberator San Martin Collar	09/1996	Buenos Aires
Austria	Decoration for Science and Art	11/2005	Vienna
Brazil	Order of the Southern Cross Grand Collar Order of Rio Branco Grand Cross	10/1990 09/1996	Prague Brasília
Canada	Order of Canada Honorary Companion	03/2004	Prague
Czech Republic	Order of the White Lion 1st Class (Civil Division) with Collar Chain Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk 1st Class	10/2003	Prague
Estonia	Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana The Collar of the Cross	04/1996	Tallinn
France	Légion d'honneur Grand Cross Order of Arts and Letters Commander	03/1990 02/2001	Paris
Germany	Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Special class of the Grand Cross	05/2000	Berlin
Hungary	Order of Merit of Hungary Grand Cross with Chain	09/2001	Prague
India	Gandhi Peace Prize	08/2003	Delhi
Italy	Order of Merit of the Italian Republic Grand Cross with Cordon	04/2002	Rome
Jordan	Order of Hussein ibn' Ali Collar	09/1997	Amman
Latvia	Order of the Three Stars Grand Cross with Collar	08/1999	Prague
Lithuania	Order of Vytautas the Great Grand Cross	09/1999	Prague
Poland	Order of the White Eagle	10/1993	Warsaw
Portugal	Order of Liberty Grand Collar	12/1990	Lisbon
Republic of China	Order of Brilliant Star with Special Grand Cordon	11/2004	Taipei
Slovakia	Order of the White Double Cross	01/2003	Bratislava
Slovenia	The Golden honorary Medal of Freedom	11/1993	Ljubljana
Spain	Order of Isabella the Catholic Grand Cross with Collar	07/1995	Prague
Turkey	National Decoration of Republic of Turkey	10/2000	Ankara
Ukraine	Order of Yaroslav the Wise	10/2006	Prague
United Kingdom	Order of the Bath Knight Grand Cross (Civil Division)	03/1996	Prague
USA	Presidential Medal of Freedom	07/2003	Washington D.C.
Uruguay	Medal of the Republic	09/1996	Montevideo

1. "Prague Declaration - Declaration Text". 3 June 2008. Archived from the original on 29 September 2008. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
2. Vaclav Havel — Biography. The official website of Vaclav Havel. Retrieved 4 June 2008.
3. David Remnick, "Exit Havel", The New Yorker 10 February 2003, accessed 29 April 2007., http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/vhavel.htm Archived 2008-01-04 at the Wayback Machine. Petri Liukkonen (author) & Ari Pesonen. Kuusankosken kaupunginkirjasto 2008. 4 December 2008.
4. Stanger, Richard L. "Václav Havel: Heir to a Spiritual Legacy" Archived 2005-08-27 at the Wayback Machine. The Christian Century (Christian Century Foundation), 11 April 1990: 368–370. Rpt. in religion-online.org ("with permission"; "prepared for Religion Online by Ted & Winnie Brock"). ["Richard L. Stanger is senior minister at Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims in Brooklyn, New York."]
5. Tucker, Scott. "Capitalism with a Human Face?". The Humanist (American Humanist Association), 1 May 1994, "Our Queer World". Rpt. in High Beam Encyclopedia (an online encyclopedia). Accessed 21 December 2007. ["Vaclav Havel's philosophy and musings."]
6. Havel's New Year's address
7. Václav Havel, "NATO: The Safeguard of Stability and Peace In the Euro-Atlantic Region", in European Security: Beginning a New Century, eds. General George A. Joulwan & Roger Weissinger-Baylon, papers from the XIIIth NATO Workshop: On Political-Military Decision Making, Warsaw, Poland, 19–23 June 1996.
8. Žižek, Slavoj. "Attempts to Escape the Logic of Capitalism" Archived 2009-04-15 at the Wayback Machine. Book review of Vaclav Havel: A Political Tragedy in Six Acts, by John Keane. the London Review of Books, 28 October 1999. Retrieved 21 December 2007.
9. "State Decorations". Retrieved 17 August 2010.