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SpecialVáclav Havel: from "bourgeois reactionary" to president
Václav Havel was born in 1936 into a family that the communists with their
love of labels used to describe as "bourgeois-reactionary". There
is certainly no denying that the family was bourgeois. For several
generations they were one of the wealthiest and most influential Prague
dynasties. Václav's grandfather built the famous Lucerna Ballroom and his
uncle was the founder of the Barrandov Film Studios, which laid the
foundations for the Czech film industry. But in describing the family as
"reactionary", the communists were doing the Havels an injustice. More
Top StoryFormer Czech president Václav Havel dies aged 75
Former Czech president Václav Havel died on Sunday morning at the age of
75, an assistant to Mr Havel told the news agency ČTK. The former
dissident, playwright and politician passed away in his sleep at his
beloved country house Hrádeček, in northern Bohemia, tended to by his
wife Dagmar.
More
Czech HistoryCzech-US relations: like a 20-year-old marriage without sex, envoys say
In this edition of Czech history, we look at the development of
Czech-American relations over the past two decades. Ever since the fall of
the Iron Curtain, they have been the pivot of Czech foreign policy. But
after the euphoria of the Velvet Revolution and the era of Washington’s
fascination with Václav Havel, these relations today are like a 20-year
old marriage with no sex – at least according to some current and former
diplomats who appeared in Friday’s debate hosted by the Foreign Ministry. More
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