Vaclav Havel Dies at Age 75

Former Czech President Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwright who led the peaceful revolution that toppled communism in the former Czechoslovakia, has died. He was 75.

A spokeswoman said Mr. Havel died in his sleep early Sunday at his weekend house in the northern Czech Republic with his wife and a nun at his side. A former chain smoker, he had a history of chronic respiratory problems that physicians traced back to his Cold War years in communist prisons.

Mr. Havel was his country's first democratically-elected president after the 1989 non-violent “Velvet Revolution” that ended four decades of communist repression. On taking office, he oversaw Czechoslovakia's transition to a free-market economy and democracy, as well as its peaceful 1993 breakup into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

U.S. President Barack Obama, in a statement Sunday, praised Mr. Havel's “moral leadership,” saying he “lived with a spirit of hope.” He said the Czech leader's peaceful resistance “shook the foundations of an empire” and “exposed the emptiness of a repressive (communist) ideology.”

In Prague, where black flag flew over Prague Castle, the presidential seat, Czech citizens lighted candles at the monument to the Velvet Revolution.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed Mr. Havel as “a great European” who fought for freedom on the continent, while British Prime Minister David Cameron said all of Europe owes the former president a “profound debt” for bringing freedom and democracy to the continent.

Former Polish President Lech Walesa, who spurred the fall of communism in his homeland, said Vaclav Havel's voice will “be greatly missed” in Europe, “above all now when it is experiencing a great crisis.”

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, in a message posted on Twitter, called the Czech icon “a voice for freedom” and “one of the greatest Europeans of our age.”

Mr. Havel left office in 2003, just months before the Czech Republic and Slovakia joined the European Union. He was credited with laying the groundwork that brought the Czech Republic into the 27-nation bloc, and was president when the republic joined NATO in 1999. But he said his proudest presidential moment was the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact – the Moscow-led military alliance that lasted until 1991.

Mr. Havel first rose to prominence after the 1968 Soviet-led invasion that crushed the “Prague Spring” reforms of Alexander Dubcek and other liberally-minded communists in the former Czechoslovakia. His plays were then banned by hardliners installed by Moscow who sought to crush any traces of those reforms.

However, he continued to write a series of underground essays widely seen as some of the most damning critiques of what communism did to society and the individual in post-World War Two Europe.

Photo by Henryk Prykiel: Václav Havel, 1991.

Final Exits, 22-28 October 2011

Jiří Gruša, Czech writer and politician, at the Book Fair in Ostrava, Czech Republic, 17 June 2011. Photo courtesy of Packa.

Obituaries for 22-28 October 2011

22
* Jan Boye, 49, Danish politician, complications from brain hemorrhage. (Danish)
* Antonio Cassese, 74, Italian international law expert, Yugoslavian war crimes judge, cancer.
* Peter Goldie, 64, British philosopher.
* Barbara König, 86, German writer. (German)
* Cathal O'Shannon, 83, Irish journalist and television presenter.
* Robert Pierpoint, 86, American broadcast journalist, complications from surgery.
* Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, 83, Saudi royal, Minister of Defense and Aviation (since 1962) and Crown Prince (since 2005).
* Roy Smalley, Jr., 85, American baseball player (Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Braves, Philadelphia Phillies).
* Ed Thompson, 66, American politician, Mayor of Tomah, Wisconsin (2008–2010), and gubernatorial candidate, pancreatic cancer.

23
* Nusrat Bhutto, 82, Iranian-born Pakistani First Lady, widow of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and mother of Benazir Bhutto.
* Amílcar Brusa, 89, Argentine boxing trainer, natural causes.
* Joseph Dao, 75, Burkinabé-born Malian Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Kayes (1978–2011).
* Oscar Stanley Dawson, 87, Indian admiral, Chief of the Naval Staff (1982–1984), brain haemorrhage.
* Herbert A. Hauptman, 94, American Nobel Prize-winning chemist (1985).
* Florence Parry Heide, 92, American children's author.
* Sir Frank Holmes, 87, New Zealand economist and government advisor.
* Gene Kurtz, 69, American bassist and songwriter ("Treat Her Right").
* William Franklin Lee III, 82, American music educator, Dean of University of Miami School of Music (1964–1982).
* Bronislovas Lubys, 73, Lithuanian entrepreneur and politician, Prime Minister of Lithuania (1992–1993), heart attack. (Lithuanian)
* John McCarthy, 84, American computer scientist, creator of LISP and the term AI, heart disease.
* Antoine Montant, 30, French extreme skier, BASE jumping accident.
* Henk Pleket, 74, Dutch singer. (Dutch)
* Amnon Salomon, 71, Israeli cinematographer.
* Marco Simoncelli, 24, Italian motorcycle racer, race crash.

24
* Margit Brandt, 66, Danish fashion designer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. (Danish)
* Robert Bropho, 81, Australian indigenous rights activist and convicted criminal, natural causes.
* Liviu Ciulei, 88, Romanian actor, writer and director, after long illness.
* Kjell Johansson, 65, Swedish table tennis player.
* Morio Kita, 84, Japanese novelist, essayist and psychiatrist.
* Sarantis Michalopoulos, 72, Greek journalist and news anchorman. (Greek)
* Alan Morgan, 71, British Anglican prelate, Bishop of Sherwood (1989–2004).
* Peter Rhodes, 90, British football referee, Parkinson's disease. (death announced on this date)
* Crescênzio Rinaldini, 85, Italian-born Brazilian Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Araçuaí (1982–2001).
* Kirtanananda Swami, 74, American excommunicated Hare Krishna leader and convicted felon, kidney failure.
* Oleh Vitovych, 44, Ukrainian politician, MP (1994–1998) and Leader of UNA-UNSO (1994–1999). (Ukrainian)
* Bruno Weber, 80, Swiss artist and architect. (German)

25
* Leonidas Andrianopoulos, 100, Greek footballer (Olympiacos F.C.). (Greek)
* Perkins Bass, 99, American politician, U.S. Representative from New Hampshire (1955–1963).
* Bert Cueto, 74, Cuban baseball player (Minnesota Twins).
* Héctor López, 44, Mexican boxer, Olympic silver medal-winner (1984), heart attack. (Spanish)
* Tom McNeeley, 75, American boxer.
* Howard Wolpe, 71, American politician, U.S. Representative from Michigan (1979–1993).
* Norrie Woodhall, 105, British stage actress.

26
* Salvador Bernal, 66, Filipino designer, National Artist of the Philippines.
* Daniel Burke, 82, American television executive, President of ABC (1986–1994), complications of diabetes.
* Dave Cole, 81, American baseball player (Braves, Cubs, Phillies).
* Yaropolk Lapshyn, 91, Ukrainian-born Russian film director, long illness. (Russian)
* Janko Messner, 89, Austrian writer, pulmonary infarction. (German)
* William A. Niskanen, 78, American economist, member of the Council of Economic Advisors (1981–1985), chairman of the Cato Institute (1985–2008).

27
* Sergei Govorukhin, 50, Ukrainian-born Russian film director, brain hemorrhage. (Russian)
* James Hillman, 85, American psychologist, proponent of archetypal psychology.
* Ron Holmes, 48, American football player (Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Denver Broncos).
* Sirazhudin Israfilov, 57, Russian Islamic leader, shot. (Russian)
* Eduard Kojnok, 78, Slovak Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Rožňava (1990–2008). (Slovakian)
* Robert Pritzker, 85, American billionaire industrialist, Parkinson's disease.

28
* Ricky Adams, 52, American baseball player (California Angels), cancer.
* Campbell Christie, 74, Scottish trade unionist.
* Willy De Clercq, 84, Belgian politician. (Dutch)
* Jiří Gruša, 72, Czech dissident, diplomat and writer. (German)
* Bernardo Jablonski, 59, Brazilian actor, theatre director and writer. (Portuguese)
* Roger Kerr, 66, New Zealand public policy and business leader, executive director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable, metastatic melanoma.

Czech Anti-Communist Activist Masin Dies at 81

Ctirad Masin, a Czech anti-communist fighter who shot his way to freedom in a daring escape in 1953, died Saturday in a war veteran's residence in the U.S. midwestern city of Cleveland, Ohio. He was 81.

Masin, his brother Josef and another man, Milan Paumer, were part of the Masin brothers resistance cell established after the communists seized power in 1948 in the then Central European nation of Czechoslovakia. The group carried out raids in Czechoslovakia, killing several people, before fleeing to the West in 1953.

Two members of the five-person cell were captured during the escape and executed but the other three reached West Berlin after a month-long manhunt involving thousands of East German police and soldiers.

The three later settled in the United State and served in the U.S. army. Paumer returned home following the fall of communism in 1989 and died last year. The Masin brothers never returned to Czechoslovakia, which split in 1993 into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, saying it has not fully rid itself of its communist past.

Many Czechs consider the fighters to be heroes but others say they were criminals. In 2008, the group was awarded a prime minister's medal.

Photo: Ctirad Masin, 1950, courtesy of Barbara Masin, digitized by Don Rumata.