"It's not hard to stand behind one's successes. But to accept responsibility for one's failures... That is devishly hard! But only thence does the road lead... to a radically new insight into the mysterious gravity of my existence as an uncertain enterprise and to it transcendental meaning. "

Vachlav Havel is the last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic.

Havel grew up in a well-educated family that was connected to the politics of Czechoslovakia from the 1920's until the 1940's. In the early 1950's Vaclav Havel joined a four-year apprenticeship in a chemical laboratory and took classes to complete his secondary education. His family's political connections prevented him from being accepted into any post-secondary institutions; rather, he studied briefly at the Faculty of Economics of Czech Technical University.

Havel was always very interested in humanitarian values, particularly of the Czech culture. He worked in the Czech military as a stage technician at Divadlo ABC and Divadlo Na zabradli. He also studied Drama at the Faculty of Theatre of the Academy of Musical Arts.

The suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968 banned him from the theatre and inspired his political activity, which sent him to prison multiple times. He is recognized for much of his political writing, particularly his plays and essays; "Post-Totalitarianism" is one of his most known essays. His non-violent resistant philosophies helped him become a leader in the Velvet Revolution of 1989. He became president by an unanimous vote of the Federal Assembly. His presidency continued through the 1990 elections. Havel strongly supported the retention of the Czechs and Slovaks during the the Velvet Divorce. Because of tension around his views, the federal parliament did not re-elect Havel due to lack of support from Slovak MPs, even though he was the only candidate for president. With the creation of the Czech Republic, he ran for election, and won on January 26, 1993.

Havel was diagnosed with lung cancer in December of 1996, as a result of smoking. His surgery to remove the cancer; however, it returned two years later. His wife, Olga, died in 1997; he remarried actress Dagmar Veskrnova the same year.

He was re-elect president in 1998 then left office after his second term on February 2, 2003. Vavlav Klaus, one of his greatest political opponents, succeeded him on February 28, 2003.

Samuel Bechett's play, Catastrophe, is dedicated to him. Havel's books include, Letters to Olga, Open Letters, Disturbing the Peace, Summer Meditations, The Power of the Powerless, and The Art of the Impossible. His poetry is Anticodes.