RIP Vaclav Havel 1936-2011

Vaclav Havel rose to become president of Czechoslovakia after leading a peaceful anti-Communist revolution.

Havel, a playwright and essayist by trade, rose to prominence with a band of liberal reformers who challenged the authority of Czechoslovakia’s hard-line Communist government in the late 1970s and 1980s, at the height of the Cold War. The government’s decision to arrest Havel over his dissident activities in 1988 fueled opposition within the country and drew international criticism, forcing authorities to reverse course and release him, an Associated Press obituary noted. It was only eight days after the Berlin Wall was torn down, after Czechoslovakian authorities cracked down on a student protest, that Havel’s movement coalesced and took to the streets.

Known as the “Velvet Revolution” because of its non-violence, it led to Havel becoming the first democratically elected president after four decades of repression.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.