Václav Havel—Vilém Prečan: Korespondence [1983-1989] (review)

This collection of secret letters exchanged between the renowned Czechoslovak dissident (and later Czechoslovak and Czech president) Václav Havel and the historian and archivist Vilém Prečan was published several weeks before Havel died in mid-December 2011. Havel and Prečan met for the first time in 1976 before the State Security organs forced Prečan to leave Czechoslovakia for exile in West Germany because of his part in documenting the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. From 1983, when Havel was set free after four years of imprisonment, until the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the pair kept up frequent correspondence.

Even though the two men met just once before 1990, they became very close friends, informing each other about personal matters and their thoughts and feelings about both global and domestic events as well as more concrete information and plans. The editor of the collection, historian Vojtech Čelko, used Prečan's personal archive, in which all the letters written by Havel and copies of letters written by Prečan are preserved.

With the help of West German diplomat Wolfgang Scheur, and later also Canadian diplomat Peter Bakewell, both based in Prague, the correspondence between Prečan and Havel could flow in both directions through the Iron Curtain. From 1983 to 1989, the two men exchanged more than 240 letters via diplomatic channels. In addition, they mailed several postcards by regular post and exchanged phone calls that were monitored by the Czechoslovak secret police.

The book also includes a few documents and additional correspondence between Havel and Josef Škvorecký (whose "68 Publishers" based in Toronto put out Havel's book Letters for Olga—Dopisy Olze as well as books by exiled Czechoslovak dissidents such as Pavel Tigrid and Jiří Pelikán). Seven chapters contain, in total, 244 letters between Havel and Prečan in addition to a preface, supplementary documentation, explanatory notes, an epilogue, and photographs.

The final chapter, titled "Together for Charter 77, Independent Culture, and Free Czechoslovakia," written by Jiří Suk, presents an insightful analysis of the situation in Czechoslovakia throughout the 1980s. As Suk stresses, from the Prečan-Havel correspondence we can learn a great deal about the vital connections between the exiled opposition and dissidents within Czechoslovakia after the signing of Charta 77.

As a founder and director of the Czechoslovak Documentation Centre, which was set up in 1986 at Schwarzenberg Castle in Scheinfeld, West Germany (owned by Karel Schwarzenberg, who became Czech foreign minister in 2007), Prečan monitored Czechoslovak dissident activities; notified Western media, including Radio Free Europe and Voice of America, about dissident events (particularly concerning the Charta 77 movement); and archived and promoted the work of Czechoslovak dissident writers. Last but not least, he established an information channel by enabling the distribution of letters to and from Czechoslovakia.

The Czechoslovak Documentation Centre's publishing house disseminated prohibited authors' texts and scripts that were smuggled behind the Iron Curtain. The Documentation Centre became a crucial hub for the exile and dissident communities both abroad and in Czechoslovakia. Prečan served as a valuable conduit for Havel to convey his messages abroad.

The Havel-Prečan correspondence covers a broad set of issues including everyday problems and tasks in Czechoslovakia, discussions about activities and persons related to Charta 77, other community initiatives and political exile actions, mutual coordination, and even disputes about Czechoslovak history. However, the majority of letters concerned the "current Czechoslovak agenda," including pending activities, the problems of dissent and exile, legal strategies and negotiations, and assistance for individuals and groups inside Czechoslovakia. Exile groups raised funds to support opposition activities both abroad and in Czechoslovakia, including by sending photocopying/ mimeograph machines, printers, typing paper, and other materials required by the dissidents.

The book alternates between examining history and discussing dissident and exile personalities.Many of the former dissidents and exiles remain politically or socially active. One such person is the eminent sociologist Jirina Šiklová, who...