V�clav Havel (5. 10 1936 - 18. 12. 2011) - Czech writer and playwright, opponents of the communist regime, one of the main faces of the Velvet Revolution, the last Czechoslovak and the first Czech president.

V�clav Havel was born in Prague in a family of architects and builders Vaclav Havel M.. After the Communist regime was perceived as a person bourgeois origin, and consequently had problems with the choice of further studies. Finally, in 1951 he joined the apprenticeship as a chemical laboratory, simultaneously studied at night school, which in 1954 completed graduation. Since 1955, contributed to the culturally oriented periodicals and began studying at the Faculty of Economics of Czech Technical University. After two years he tried to transfer to film Academy of Performing Arts, but was not accepted and, moreover, could continue even at CTU.

After military service in 1959, he joined the intercession of John Wericha as a stage technician in the ABC Theatre. He then worked at the Theatre on the Balustrade, first as an assistant director and after the completion of distance learning at Academy of Performing Arts in 1966 as a dramaturg.

Havel's first stage play has become a one-act Family night (1959) and in 1963 reported Theatre on the Balustrade his Garden Party (one year later, in the premiere and said Schiller Theater in West Berlin). Absurdly conceived comedy in which the main character, an ambitious young man Hugo Pludek achieves social advancement use the pay system, but at the core of meaningless phrases.

In 1964, Vaclav Havel, after several years of acquaintance he married Olga �pl�chalov� (1933-1996), a year later, he became editor of the literary magazine The Face. After the ban, sought to restore the issue, which first came into conflict with the communist regime. In the same year he lived to see the launch of its next game Notification .

Significantly to Havel himself again drawn attention to IV. Congress of the Czechoslovak Writers, where he criticized the censorship in contemporary publications. During the Prague Spring actively promote the deepening of the democratization process in society. For example, in an article published in the journal Literary leaves demanded the introduction of multi-party system. A year after the Warsaw Pact invasion that brought twenty years of normalization, Havel was accused of sedition and had to leave the theater. At home, his work could have come only in samizdat, the more publicity he received, however, behind the Iron Curtain.

Vaclav Havel in 1977 co-founded the Charter 77, a year later helped establish the Committee on the Protection of the Unjustly Persecuted (VONS). Already in 1977, spent five months in custody, he left with a conditional sentence.

In 1979, for sedition sentenced again, this time unconditionally, to four and a half years. For him illness authorities in 1983 early release from prison. To participate in the demonstration and preparation of industrial action Palach week in January 1989 again found himself behind bars. After mitigating the original sentence, however, was already released in May. Last safety briefly detained him on the eve of the Velvet Revolution in October 1989.

V�clav Havel was present for the Civic Forum movement, in December 1989, he became president of Czechoslovakia after the collapse of the first president of the Czech Republic (1993-2003).

From the creative V�clav Havel was known primarily as a playwright and writer, but also wrote poems, essays, political speeches and occasionally gave theatrical criticism. According to their games Leaving made late in life feature film, in which she starred as his second wife Dagmar. V�clav Havel died after a long illness at his cottage in Hr�de�ek u Trutnova 18. December 2011.