Václav Havel’s Letter to Gustáv Husák on the State of (Normalisation) Society
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: June 19, 2025, 19:00 – 21:00
A debate featuring experts from the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes held in connection with the 50th anniversary of Václav Havel's letter to General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Gustav Husák.
In the letter, Havel analyses the situation in which society finds itself six years after the start of so-called normalisation, describing the humiliation, fear and hypocrisy of people in communist society. The document was conceived as an open letter and was therefore also made available to the news agencies that had official representation in the then socialist Czechoslovakia: DPA, Reuters, AFP and Bavarian Radio’s correspondent of in Prague. The original of Václav Havel’s letter was confiscated by the State Security during a search on 6 January 1977; it is now held at the Security Services Archive.
Ladislav Kudrna, director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, will chair the debate.