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Václav Havel
Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia on 31 December, before he became the first president of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003. He was the first democratically elected president of either country after the Revolutions of 1989, fall of communism. As a writer of Czech literature, he is known for his plays, essays and memoirs. His educational opportunities having been limited by his bourgeois background, when freedoms were limited by the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Havel first rose to prominence as a playwright. In works such as ''The Garden Party (play), The Garden Party'' and ''The Memorandum'', Havel used an Theatre of the absurd, absurdist style to criticize the Communist system. After participating in the Prague Spring and being blacklisted a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
President Of The Czech Republic
The president of the Czech Republic, constitutionally defined as the President of the Republic (), is the head of state of the Czech Republic and the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic. The presidency has largely been shaped by its inaugural holder, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who assumed the office after the Czechoslovak declaration of independence was proclaimed in 1918. The 1920 Constitution granted the president substantial powers and Masaryk's political strength and popularity enabled the presidency to exert considerable influence over the Czech public life. In modern times, the president is largely a ceremonial figure with limited powers as the day-to-day business of the executive government is entrusted to the prime minister, and many of the president's actions require prime ministerial approval. Nevertheless, as the bearer of the nation's " Truth prevails" motto, the presidency is widely viewed to be a significant source of prestige, power ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vinohrady Cemetery
Vinohrady Cemetery () is a large cemetery in Vinohrady in Prague 10 which contains Strašnice Crematorium. It is the second largest cemetery in Prague and is registered in the state list of cultural monuments. The remains of two Czech presidents are in this cemetery. History The cemetery dates from 1885 although it was at first smaller than its current size of . Over time the land has been extended three times. It ranks second by number of persons buried there. In terms of area, Ďáblice Cemetery is the largest in Prague. In 1897 the municipal architect Antonín Turek designed the simple chapel here which is near the entrance. This chapel is dedicated to St. Wenceslas and should not be confused with the more modern St. Wenceslas Church in nearby Vršovice. In front of this chapel are the graves of those who were killed in the Prague Uprising of May 1945 as well as a memorial to the children killed during the German occupation of Prague during the Second World War. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charter 77
Charter 77 (''Charta 77'' in Czech language, Czech and Slovak language, Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members and architects were Jiří Němec, Václav Benda, Ladislav Hejdánek, Václav Havel, Jan Patočka, Zdeněk Mlynář, Jiří Hájek, Martin Palouš, Pavel Kohout, and Ladislav Lis. Spreading the text of the document was considered a political crime by the Czechoslovak government. After the 1989 Velvet Revolution, many of the members of the initiative played important roles in Czech and Slovak politics. Founding and political aims Motivated in part by the arrest of members of the rock band the Plastic People of the Universe, the text of Charter 77 was prepared in 1976. The first preparatory meeting took place on 10 December 1976 in Jaroslav Kořán's apartment, and initial signatures were collected. The charter was published on 6 January ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warsaw Pact Invasion Of Czechoslovakia
On 20–21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four fellow Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and the Hungarian People's Republic. The invasion stopped Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring liberalisation reforms and strengthened the authoritarian wing of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ). About 250,000 Warsaw Pact troops (afterwards rising to about 500,000), supported by thousands of tanks and hundreds of aircraft, participated in the overnight operation, which was code-named Operation Danube. The Socialist Republic of Romania and the People's Republic of Albania refused to participate. East German forces, except for a small number of specialists, were ordered by Moscow not to cross the Czechoslovak border just hours before the invasion, because of fears of greater resistance if German troops were involved, due to public perception of the previous German oc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prague Spring
The Prague Spring (; ) was a period of liberalization, political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected Secretary (title), First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), and continued until 21 August 1968, when the Soviet Union and three other Warsaw Pact members (People's Republic of Bulgaria, Bulgaria, Hungarian People's Republic, Hungary and Polish People's Republic, Poland) Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, invaded the country to suppress the reforms. The Prague Spring reforms were an attempt by Dubček to grant additional rights to the citizens of Czechoslovakia in an act of partial decentralization of the economy and democratization. The freedoms granted included a loosening of restrictions on the freedom of the press, media, freedom of speech, speech and freedom of movement, travel. After national discussion of dividing the country into a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Memorandum
''The Memorandum'' is the common name in English for the 1965 play ''Vyrozumění'', by Czech playwright Václav Havel. The first English translation, by Vera Blackwell in 1967, used this title. In 2006, Canadian translator Paul Wilson published a new translation, titled ''The Memo'' at Havel's request. The play is a black comedy that parodies bureaucracy and conformity. Havel wrote it prior to the Prague Spring of 1968 as an ironic satire dissenting against communist rule. Despite its veiled themes, the play was approved by government censors and published. ''The Memorandum'' centers on the introduction of a new language, "Ptydepe", that is meant to make work more efficient despite having the opposite effect. Sam Walters considers ''The Memorandum'' to be Havel’s masterpiece. Plot Josef Gross (Andrew Gross in the Wilson translation), a director of an unnamed organization, receives a memorandum written in Ptydepe, a constructed language, about an audit. He finds out that Ptyd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Garden Party (play)
''The Garden Party'' () is a 1963 play by Václav Havel. Plot The protagonist is Hugo Pludek, an average person from a middle-class Czech family. His parents are worried about his future, so they arrange an appointment for him with the influential Mr. Kalabis. Kalabis cannot show up because he is going to a garden party held by the Liquidation Office, so Hugo's parents send him there. Hugo does not find Kalabis, instead starting a sequence of absurd encounters. All of the functionaries of the Liquidation Office speak in a degenerate, ideological, content-free language, as is expected for their role in the bureaucratic system. Hugo is intelligent and adaptive, and is therefore able to adjust his behaviour. He learns to speak platitudinally, using clichés that do not mean anything real, and finally becomes the head of the newly created Central Inauguration and Liquidation Committee. As a result, he completely loses his identity. At the end of the play, Hugo comes home so changed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, (Czech language, Czech and Slovak language, Slovak: ''Československá socialistická republika'', ČSSR) known from 1948 to 1960 as the Czechoslovak Republic (''Československá republika)'', Fourth Czechoslovak Republic, or simply Czechoslovakia, was the Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak state from 1948 until 1989, when the country was under Marxist-Leninist state, communist rule, and was regarded as a satellite state in the Soviet Union, Soviet sphere of interest. Following the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état, coup d'état of February 1948, when the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia seized power with the support of the Soviet Union, the country was declared a "people's democratic state" when the Ninth-of-May Constitution became effective. The traditional name (''Czechoslovak Republic''), along with several other state symbols, were changed on 11 July 1960 following the implementation of the 1960 Constitution of Czechoslovakia as a symbol of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted with the proletariat by their wealth, political power, and education, as well as their access to and control of Cultural capital, cultural, Social capital, social, and financial capital. The bourgeoisie in its original sense is intimately linked to the political ideology of liberalism and its existence within cities, recognised as such by their urban charters (e.g., municipal charters, town privileges, German town law), so there was no bourgeoisie apart from the Burgher (social class), citizenry of the cities. Rural peasants came under a different legal system. In communist philosophy, the bourgeoisie is the social class that came to own the means of production during modern industrialisation and whose societal concerns ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Czech Literature
Czech literature can refer to literature written in Czech language, Czech, in the Czech Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia, earlier the Lands of the Bohemian Crown), or by Czech people. Most literature in the Czech Republic is now written in Czech, but historically, a considerable part of Czech literary output was written in other languages as well, including Latin language, Latin and German language, German. Middle Latin works Bohemia was Christianized in the late 9th to 10th centuries, and the earliest written works associated with the kingdom of Bohemia are Middle Latin works written in the 12th to 13th centuries (with the exception of the Latin ''Legend of Christian'', supposedly of the 10th century but of dubious authenticity). The majority of works from this period are chronicles and hagiographies. Bohemian hagiographies focus exclusively on Bohemian saints (Sts. Ludmila, Wenceslas, Procopius of Sázava, Procopius, Cyril and Methodius, and Adalbert of Prague, Adalbert) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Revolutions Of 1989
The revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, were a revolutionary wave of liberal democracy movements that resulted in the collapse of most Communist state, Marxist–Leninist governments in the Eastern Bloc and other parts of the world. This revolutionary wave is sometimes referred to as the Autumn of Nations, a play on the term Spring of Nations that is sometimes used to describe the revolutions of 1848 in Europe. The revolutions of 1989 were a key factor in the dissolution of the Soviet Union—one of the two global superpowers—and in the abandonment of communist regimes in many parts of the world, some of which were violently overthrown. These events drastically altered the world's Balance of power (international relations), balance of power, marking the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the post-Cold War era. The earliest recorded protests which led to the revolutions began in Polish People's Republic, Poland on 14 August 1980, the massive gener ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
