Events: March 2025
February 2025
April 2025
The Gulag and Czechoslovakia: War
March 4, 2025, 19:00
The book Gulag a Československo: Válka (The Gulag and Czechoslovakia: War), which explores Soviet repression of Czechoslovak citizens and expatriates during World War II, was written by leading Czech experts drawing on years of research in Ukrainian, Russian and Czech archives as well as interviews with witnesses. The team of authors will present selected stories of the victims, topics previously unknown in the Czechoslovak context (camp escapes, cannibalism, imprisoned children), detailed statistics on distribution to Gulag camps, ongoing research in Ukraine, and three forthcoming further volumes in the series summarising the history of Soviet repression from a Czechoslovak perspective. More
Beatrice Landovská: While Mum Was Sleeping
March 5, 2025, 19:00
In her memoir Když máma spala (While Mum Was Sleeping) the writer Beatrice Landovská brings to life the years 1976 to 1979, revisiting her family and Czech society in the period when the regime’s crackdown on Charter 77 began. She describes the events through the eyes of a girl who has just left the relative safety of primary school and is unable to get a grasp on what is happening around her. Both parents disappear from the horizon at one point, leaving only the curse of her father’s fame and his general reprobation to contend with. The author’s appearance by Beatrice Landovská will be moderated by Jáchym Topol.
Václav Havel: Care for the State
March 6, 2025, 19:00
Ceremonial presentation of the book Václav Havel: Péče o stát (Václav Havel: Care for the State), which compiles speeches from his first years as president of the independent Czech Republic. The collection shows how Václav Havel was “building” a modern democratic state, on what he based his presidency and how he attempted to connect the threads of individual areas of society so that the country could prosper. Thus, between the lines, the author presents the fundamental problems of Czech politics in the 1990s in a dramatic arc – from the disillusionment of the collapse of Czechoslovakia to the disillusionment of the political crisis that preceded his Rudolfinum speech. More
Debate N: The Future of Germany
March 11, 2025, 19:00
The country, which is key both for the Czech Republic and for the whole of Europe, is facing early elections at the end of February. What will the result tell us about Germany’s future? What will the elections mean for us, and ultimately for the rest of the European Union? And will they break the Germans’ post-war taboo over governing with the far-right? Deník N editor Filip Zajíček and his guests will discuss these questions and more.
The Free Academcy: Václav Bělohradský – Will Democracy Survive the Anthropocene Epoch?
March 13, 2025, 19:00
The political religion of the past two centuries has been the belief in unlimited economic growth, based on ever faster technological development, which was to bring about the “emancipation of man from all the constraints and obligations” imposed by his spatio-temporal location on planet Earth. In the Anthropocene Epoch, democratic constitutions need to be based on a declaration of dependence on our earthly home, on a new social contract that will enshrine humanity’s obligation to respect planetary limits in its activities as a new global categorical imperative. In the post-factual environment of digital shallows, why is it not possible to form – through democratic means – a majority of opinion capable of politically representing our dependence on the Earth and subordinating economic growth to the planetary limits of human activity? Why are we so powerless in the face of the tyranny of the growth economy? More
The VHL at Knižní Lázně
15/03/25 – 16/03/25 Participation on local events
Knižní lázně (Book Spa) is a gathering of small publishers and booksellers and readers. This year for the first time also in Brno. At the Kumst creative hub, right under Špilberk, stands will include one offering new and proven titles from the Václav Havel Library.
Debate With Respekt
March 18, 2025, 19:00
Discussion featuring editors from the weekly Respekt and their guests. For more information visit www.vaclavhavel.cz prior to the event.
Book Presentation: Hi, Citizens!
March 19, 2025, 17:00
Karel Kryl’s work reacted intensively to developments in the social situation and was publicly engaged. For more than two decades, it was also closely linked to the singer’s work at Radio Free Europe. The artist sharply criticised the occupation in August 1968 and the pragmatism of normalisation society, and later – from similar positions – also opposed Czechoslovakia’s transformation after 1989. He consistently called for the establishment of a responsible civil society. The book Ahoj občani! (Hi, Citizens!) is a companion publication to an exhibition of the same name organised by the National Archives and the Museum of Prague at the House at the Golden Ring. It is the most extensive Kryl exhibition to date, including a number of documents from his personal archive that were previously inaccessible to visitors or readers. More
Big Book Thursday
March 20, 2025, 17:00
We cordially invite you to the 26th Big Book Thursday, where we will present the most notable spring offers from Czech publishers. Many of the selected titles lie beyond the contemporary mainstream, but still ought not to be missed by book lovers. Authors Jakub Szántó, Pavla Horáková, Dalibor Vácha and Lenka Vrtišková-Nejezchlebová are set to participate, while international titles will be presented via video greetings from writers, the books’ editors and other guests. More
Upcomming events
Books Between Censorship and Sensitivity
March 25, 2025, 19:30
A debate on Czech book culture and its clashes with political and social power in recent decades. More
Playing Havel. Václav Havel’s Theatre Plays – New
March 27, 2025, 14:00
Dramaturges and directors will discuss Václav Havel’s plays, their experiences of staging them, what interventions they can bear and which they can no longer bear, whether their themes are still topical and how they can attract today's audience. This gathering is intended for theatre school students and the general theatre-going public and is intended as a reminder of the upcoming 90th anniversary of Václav Havel’s birth. Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with Jakub Škorpil and Vladimír Mikulka, editors with the magazine Svět a divadlo. More
Little Big Oldřich Černý
March 27, 2025, 19:00
Oldřich Černý was among Václav Havel’s closest collaborators in the early years of his presidency. However, since the Czech Studies graduate and translator turned his focus to the security agenda, he is virtually unknown to the general public. When the Czech Republic became independent, he founded the Office for Foreign Relations and Information at the recommendation of the president and established important contacts with services in other countries. How was Czech intelligence service born, and how is he remembered by some of the actors of the changes at that time? Guests will include Jan Paďourek, Michael Žantovský and Petr Kaňák, while friends and collaborators from abroad will send recorded messages. Journalist Ondřej Kundra will moderate. More
Max van der Stoel’s Legacy: Standing with Dissidents Then and Now. With a special guest: Frans Timmermans
March 28, 2025, 16:00
Max van der Stoel, who was the Dutch foreign minister at that time, met on March 1st 1977 with Jan Patočka, philosopher and spokesperson for Charter 77. This historic encounter was a turning point for the anti-Communist movement. As the first Western minister to engage with organized dissent in Czechoslovakia, Van der Stoel’s bold move gave Charter 77, previously unknown in the West, publicity and international recognition. More
Ukraine as Task
March 31, 2025, 19:00
The Ukrainian Institute in Prague presents the Week of Ukrainian History, which will kick off on 31 March at the Václav Havel Library. The guest speaker will be historian Olexandr Zinchenko, writer of the screenplay for the film Collapse and author of How Ukrainians Destroyed the Evil Empire, published in Ukraine in 2023, which he will present at the event. The evening will be hosted by Rostislav Prokopjuk. Interpretation into Czech provided.