Curriculum vitae of the first president of the Czech Republic.

Newsmaker Profiles
http://www.cnn.com/resources/newsmakers/world/europe/havel.html

Biography examining the Czech president's career as a writer, with access to related news stories.

Vaclav Havel
http:// http://abcnews.go.com/reference/newsmakers/newsmakers_index.html

ABC News profile of Havel's evolution from playwright to political dissident, to the leader of the "Velvet Revolution."

BIOGRAPHY
Vaclav Havel (b. 1936). Havel was born in Prague and finished his compulsory schooling in 1951. The son of wealthy businesspeople who had lost their fortune, Havel was denied access to higher education. He instead took evening classes while studying as an apprentice to a chemical laboratory technician. At nineteen, he began publishing articles in literary and theater magazines, which were denounced and banned by the government. He later found work as a stagehand in a Prague theater company, and his experience there afforded him the opportunity to produce his first play,The Garden Party, and later The Memorandum and The Increased Difficulty of Concentration-dramas that dealt with Czech culture and society. When Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, Havel protested against the extensive oppression. In 1989, in what is known as the Velvet Revolution, he and his supporters demanded the resignation of President Gustav Husak, who ultimately stepped down. Havel was elected president soon after and resigned in 1992 when the Slovak parliament passed its own constitution, explaining that he could "no longer fulfill commitments necessitated by the oath of allegiance to the Czech and Slovac Republic in a way that would harmonize with his convictions." After his resignation, Havel left public life for two months and returned to find agreement with the new government. In 1993, he was elected the first President of the Czech Republic.