Sadly Vaclav Havel passed away this morning. He was an inspirational figure who chose to stay in Czechoslovakia after the 1968 Russian invasion rather than go into exile in the West where he would undoubtedly have been able to pursue a lucrative career as a celebrity dissident and playwright.
He was uncompromising in his fight for a democratic society despite the pressure he faced from the authorities to conform and the personal privations he faced. His stature amongst the Czech people was confirmed when after they eventually rose up he became the figurehead of the velvet revolution and the first freely elected president since the second world war.
Unlike many East European political figures he never embraced the ultra free market forms of capitalism that was imposed on most of the former Soviet ruled countries.
He was uncompromising in his fight for a democratic society despite the pressure he faced from the authorities to conform and the personal privations he faced. His stature amongst the Czech people was confirmed when after they eventually rose up he became the figurehead of the velvet revolution and the first freely elected president since the second world war.
Unlike many East European political figures he never embraced the ultra free market forms of capitalism that was imposed on most of the former Soviet ruled countries.