By the end of the year, the Velvet Revolution in what was then Czechoslovakia saw dissident playwright Vaclav Havel elected president.

VOA: standard.2009.11.03

Within weeks,the Communist Party leadership resigned, and dissident writer Vaclav Havel, who had spent years in prison, was named president on December 29,1989.

VOA: standard.2009.11.17

Where dissent does have an impact, it tends also to be dangerous: think Alexander Solzhenitsyn or Vaclav Havel.

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The name Charter 88 deliberately echoes that of Charter 77, the Czech dissident movement co-founded by Vaclav Havel.

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The clearest but unkindest explanation for Mr Klaus's conduct is a desire to be noticed more than his predecessor, Vaclav Havel.

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