The Dissident
Invasion - Normalisation - Letter to Gustáv Husák - Dissent (1968 - 1976)

"Dissent" springs from motivations far different from the desire for titles or fame. In short, they do not decide to become "dissidents," and even if they were to devote twenty-four hours a day to it, it would still not be a profession, but primarily an existential attitude.

Václav Havel, The Power of the Powerless, 1978

Lecture´s Summary

In this lesson students will become acquainted with the notion of the Prague Spring 1968 and will find out where Vaclav Havel stood in this period when Czechoslovakia is occupied by the Warsaw Pact armies in August 1968. Vaclav Havel became an open critic of the regime which, in turn, banned him from publishing and introducing his plays and put him into social isolation. In mid-1980s Havel decided to break through the silence and isolation and wrote an open letter to Gustav Husak, the President. Havel was not alone in this fight against the regime, however, and a group of opponents, called dissidents, formed and jointly opposed the regime, tried to secretly publish banned literature and nurture an unofficial culture. The students learn the term “dissident” and find out about activities which were of crucial importance for this group of people in the totalitarian period.

Lesson 2 - The Dissident

Aims of the Lecture

Understand the political events of 1968
Show Vaclav Havel’s attitude to the occupation and normalisation and its reasons
Show the practices used by the totalitarian regime when trying to restrict human rights
Place Vaclav Havel’s life in the context of Czech dissent and sketch out the activities the dissent was involved in from the mid-1970s, including the development of alternative culture