Václav Havel

Havel, Václav (1936– ), Czech playwright and political leader, elected president of Czechoslovakia in 1989. A resistence leader under the Communist regime from the mid- 1960s until 1989, he was repeatedly jailed, and his works (such as the play The Memorandum, 1965) were banned. Following the split of Czechoslovakia in December 1992, he became president of the Czech republic.