* 5. 10. 1936 Prague ✝ 18. 12. 2011 Hradecek
Writer and Dramatist; One of the first Spokesmen for Charter 77; Leading Figure of the Velvet Revolution of 1989; Last President of Czechoslovakia; and First President of the Czech Republic
March 30, 2011
We discovered three letters from 1989 written by Olga Havlová to her imprisoned husband. You can find more about these documents in the Digital Archive here.
Due to the private character of the correspondence, it is possible to read the texts only after agreement and only when personally visiting the Archive (Kateřinská 18, Prague 2).
„If I consider the problem as that which the world is turning me into – that is, as a tiny screw in a giant machine, deprived of human identity – then there is really nothing I can do. Obviously I cannot put a stop to the destruction of the globe, the growing stupidity of nations and the repoduction of thousands of new thermonuclear bombs. If, however, I consider it as that which each of us originally is, or rahter what each of us – irrespective of the state of the world – has the basic potential to become, which is to say an autonomous human being, capable of acting responsibly to and for the world, then of course there is a great deal I can do.“
Václav Havel:
Letters to Olga – essays written in prison, letter, March 6, 1982
