People of the Revolution and the USSR

Activity(set)
Any Political and party leadership 10 Government and administration 6 Military command 1 Diplomacy and international organization 2 Economy, finance and planning 2 Social movements and organizing 4 Scholarship and theory 2 Science and technology 1 Literature and arts 2
Affiliation

Most people

Any Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) 1

All 1 affiliations

Czechoslovakia

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) 1
Position
Any Dissident 1 Marxism and communism 1
Citizenship
Any Czechoslovakia 2
Background(set)
Any Russia 79 Latvia 6 Ukraine 6 France 5 Germany 5 Poland 5 Belarus 4 China 3 Hungary 3 United States 3 Czechia 2 Czechoslovakia 2 Estonia 2 Georgia 2 United Kingdom 2 Angola 1 Azerbaijan 1 Indonesia 1 Korea 1 Kyrgyzstan 1 Martinique 1 South Africa 1 Spain 1 Trinidad and Tobago 1 Turkey 1 Vietnam 1
Era
Any

People of the wider world

The Cold War and decolonization1945–현재 2
Literature and arts Background: Czechia Clear all

Milan Kundera

Milan Kundera
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) Communism Czechoslovakia Czechia 1929–2023 ○ Natural causes

The Czech novelist who insisted the Prague Spring was a universal attempt to reconcile socialism with freedom

From 'The Czech Fate' in Listy, December 1968: "The Prague Spring moved Czechs and Slovaks to the center of world history… the nation had beheld its own greatness."

A Czech-French novelist. He joined the Communist Party in his youth and was expelled twice; his speech demanding an end to censorship at the 1967 Writers' Congress opened the intellectual prelude to the Prague Spring. After the Warsaw Pact invasion he published 'Český úděl' ('The Czech Fate'), arguing the Prague Spring held universal significance as an attempt to reconcile socialism and democracy, sparking a fierce polemic with Václav Havel, who called it self-centered megalomania. He went into exile in France in 1975, achieved world fame with The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), and died in Paris in 2023.

Career timeline
  • 1948Joins the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
  • 1950Expelled from the party
  • 1952–1970Lectures on world literature at FAMU
  • 1956Readmitted to the party
  • 1967Speech at IV Writers' Congress; intellectual prelude to Prague Spring
  • 1968.12Publishes 'Český úděl'; polemic with Havel
  • 1970Expelled again; books banned
  • 1975Exile in France
  • 1984Publishes The Unbearable Lightness of Being
  • 2019Czech citizenship restored
Scenes The Prague Spring — the menace of a human face

Václav Havel

Václav Havel
Dissident Czechoslovakia Czech 1936–2011 ○ Natural causes

Czech playwright-turned-president whose absurdist theater critiqued the regime and whose dissident leadership ended communist rule

In February 1969, Havel published 'Český úděl?' in the journal Tvář, rebutting Kundera's lyrical nationalism: 'I do not believe in this fate… first and foremost we ourselves are the masters of our fate.'

Czech playwright, dissident, and statesman. His absurdist plays The Garden Party (1963) and The Memorandum (1965) won international acclaim for their satire of the Communist system. After the Prague Spring was crushed in 1968, he answered Milan Kundera's 'Český úděl' with 'Český úděl?', arguing the reforms had merely restored freedoms that existed thirty years earlier, and turned fully to dissident politics. He co-founded Charter 77, endured nearly four years in prison (1979–1983), led the Civic Forum in the 1989 Velvet Revolution, and became the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic.

Career timeline
  • 1963The Garden Party premieres, playwright debut
  • 1968Resists via Radio Free Czechoslovakia during Warsaw Pact invasion
  • 1969Publishes 'Český úděl?' in Tvář, rebutting Kundera
  • 1977Co-founds Charter 77; first spokesperson
  • 1979–1983Imprisoned for dissident activity; writes Letters to Olga
  • 1989Leads Civic Forum in the Velvet Revolution
  • 1989–1992President of Czechoslovakia
  • 1993–2003President of the Czech Republic