Author: Vaclav Havel

Václav Havel (born Oct. 5, 1936, Prague, Czechia; died Dec. 18, 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright and dissident during the Cold War. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia on 31 December, before he became the first president of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003.