7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7of 1968 (known as the Prague Spring), and, after the Soviet
clampdown on Czechoslovakia that year, his plays were
banned and his passport was confiscated. During the 1970s
and 1980s, he was repeatedly arrested and served four
years in prison (1979 –83) for his activities on behalf of
human rights in Czechoslovakia. After his release from
prison, Havel remained in his homeland.
Havel’s first solo play, Zahradní slavnost (1963; The
Garden Party), typified his work in its absurdist, satirical
examination of bureaucratic routines and their dehuman-
izing effects. In his best-known play, Vyrozumění (1965;
The Memorandum), an incomprehensible artificial language
is imposed on a large bureaucratic enterprise, causing the
breakdown of human relationships and their replacement
by unscrupulous struggles for power. In these and subse-
quent works, Havel explored the self-deluding
rationalizations and moral compromises that character-
ize life under a totalitarian political system. Havel
continued to write plays steadily until the late 1980s.
These works include Ztížená možnost soustředění (1968; The
Increased Difficulty of Concentration); the three one-act
plays Audience (1975), Vernisáž (1975; Private View), and
Protest (1978); Largo Desolato (1985); and Zítra to Spustíme
(1988; Tomorrow).
When massive antigovernment demonstrations
erupted in Prague in November 1989, Havel became the
leading figure in the Civic Forum, a new coalition of non-
communist opposition groups pressing for democratic
reforms. In early December, the Communist Party capitu-
lated and formed a coalition government with the Civic
Forum. As a result of an agreement between the partners
in this bloodless “Velvet Revolution,” Havel was elected to
the post of interim president of Czechoslovakia on Dec.
29, 1989, and he was reelected to the presidency in July