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A temporary memorial to mark the anniversary of the Charter 77 human rights manifesto was unveiled in Prague 6 on Thursday at a place where dissidents Václav Havel, Ludvík Vaculík and Pavel Landovský were arrested by the Communist secret police 40 years ago while trying to bring the text to the Federal Assembly. The memorial, designed by students from the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Arts in Pilsen, consists of old post boxes where people can reach for their own copy of Charter 77 manifesto. It will remain in place until the end of the month.

Part of a 100-page personal report on the Charter 77 period written by Václav Havel is set for publication on Friday as part of events marking the 40th anniversary of the launch of the Charter 77 protest document. After being lost for many decades, the valuable text was recently discovered in the papers of another leading Chartist and friend of Havel’s, the late Zdeněk Urbánek. Michael Žantovský is the director of the Václav Havel Library, which is issuing the facsimile of the major find. He told me more about it.

A text written by Václav Havel on the first days of Charter 77 that he himself believed lost is to be published in connection with Friday’s 40th anniversary of the launch of the protest document. The 100-page text was found recently in the papers of Zdeněk Urbánek, a friend who like Mr. Havel was a leading dissident in communist Czechoslovakia. The first chapter is being published by the Václav Havel Library in a run of 500 numbered copies. The publication will be launched at a gathering on Friday outside Mr. Urbánek’s former home in Prague 6, where much of Charter 77 was written. A conference and other events are also taking place in connection with the anniversary.

Czechs will mark the upcoming 40th anniversary of the Charter 77 human rights manifesto. The text, signed by dissidents such as playwright Václav Havel, philosopher Jan Patočka and writer Pavel Kohout in January 1977, criticized Czechoslovakia’s communist regime for failing to implement human rights provisions of agreements it itself had signed. These included the Czechoslovak Constitution and the Helsinki Accords.

Václav Havel is probably the single most important figure in modern Czech history. Havel was born here in Prague and spent virtually his entire life in the capital. In this programme we will visit a number of spots in the city closely associated with the playwright, dissident and president. And for that we absolutely couldn’t have a better guide than the architect and writer Zdeněk Lukeš, who served under Havel at Prague Castle in the 1990s and in 2016 brought out the excellent guidebook Václav Havel’s Prague.

Sunday was the fifth anniversary of the death of Václav Havel, the Czech dissident who led the Velvet Revolution and went on to spend nearly 13 years as president. But before he became a politician, Havel was, of course, a playwright, and it is just his literary work that is the focus of the book Reading Václav Havel by David S. Danaher, a Slavic Studies expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. When he visited our studios recently, we discussed, among other things, Havel’s legacy and relevance today. But I first asked Danaher what had led

Commemorations have been held across the Czech Republic for former dissident and president Václav Havel. Havel died five years ago to the day at the age of 75. A commemorative mass was held at St. Vitus’ Cathedral by Prague archbishop Dominik Duka. Duka paid tribute to Havel saying that he did not seek power but did seek to restore freedom to the country. Havel took the lead of the Velvet Revolution in 1989 which toppled the Communist regime from power after more than four decades. A public reading of Havel’s works and plays was held in the centre of Prague. Candles were also lit in the centre of the capital and at the Prague cemetery where his ashes rest. An illuminated heart was lit at a small square near the national theatre in Prague which now bears Havel’s name.

Commemorative events are being held around the Czech Republic on Friday and at the weekend to honour the late president Václav Havel on the fifth anniversary of his death. The former dissident, playwright and one of the first spokesmen of Charter 77 died on December 18, 2011, at the age of 75. One of the main events, a two-day screening of films related to Václav Havel, gets underway in Prague on Friday afternoon:

A tapestry bound for a new Václav Havel building in Strasbourg has just been placed on display at the DOX art centre in Prague. A smaller version of the French-made artwork – based on a pictorial tribute to the late Czech president by artist Petr Sís – hangs at Václav Havel Airport. The man behind both is Art for Amnesty founder Bill Shipsey, who has raised funds for numerous memorials linked to Havel over the years. The Irishman explained that the tapestry is currently half-way through an international “tour”.

A “marathon” of films relating to the late Václav Havel is set to take place at Prague’s National Technical Library on Friday and Saturday. Organisers say viewers can look forward to previously unseen materials, including a recording of Havel speaking on Czechoslovak Television following the 1969 self-immolation of Jan Palach and an interview with the then dissident in a Prague hospital in late October 1989. The event has been timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the playwright and president’s death on December 18.