Note: Phil Bolton, publisher of Global Atlanta, accompanied Paul Varian, a former CNN writer, editor and senior executive producer, on a recent trip to Prague organized by George Novak, honorary Czech consul general in Atlanta. This is one in a series of stories from the trip. Mr. Bolton’s account follows:
Vaclav Havel is alive and well.
Or so it seemed as an enormous photo of him smiled down from the facade of the Czech Republic’s National Museum upon Wenceslas Square in Prague.
How fitting that his image would grace the facade that suffered machine gun fire from Soviet-led troops who invaded then-Czechoslovakia to suppress the 1968 reformist uprising.
His image also looked down on the equestrian statue of King Wenceslas, Bohemia’s saint and martyr. There is some irony here. The “Good King Wenceslas,” who ruled his kingdom from 921-931, was assassinated by supporters of his brother Boleslaw, “the Cruel.”
By leading the “Velvet Revolution” that chased the communists from power, Mr. Havel continues to be revered, but like any politician has his critics.
An oil painting of him also graces the “Human Rights Defenders Wall” at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta along with paintings of Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Eleanor Roosevelt and Estela Barnes de Carlotto, the less widely-known Argentine human riights activitst.
Doug Shipman, founding chief executive officer of the center, told Global Atlanta that Mr. Havel was “an obvious choice to highlight as a champion of human rights,” citing his “his long push for freedom in Eastern Europe and then the way he tried to fulfill a human rights vision while serving as president all serves as a great example of human rights made real.”
Wenceslas Square, which is more of a long boulevard than an actual square, has provided the stage for many political incidents over the centuries including the launch of the Velvet Revolution and Mr. Havel’s dive into politics.
When he spoke from the balcony of the Melantrich publishing house to more than several hundred thousand people were ready to be galvanized into a movement.
His energy and eloquence energized the crowds, which he emboldened by raising the possibility of a non-violent general strike.
His Civic Forum became the movement that unified the dissident factions together in opposition to the Soviet-dominated government.
Jan Burian, the director of Prague’s historic National Theater, told Global Atlanta in an interview in his office, that many in the crowd didn’t know who Mr. Havel was, but that the speech catapulted him into the fray as the movement’s primary spokesman and leader.
While not a political figure during the communist period, Mr. Havel was known as a dissident playwright and spent five years in and out of communist prisons for the views expressed in his plays and essays.
He also lived for two decades under the watchful eyes of the secret police. Although he didn’t become widely known until his speech from the balcony in November 1989, he came from a prominent family and his youth has even been described as that of a “bourgeois boy who became a bohemian playwright.”
Mr. Burian said Mr. Havel’s uncle had been the owner of Prague’s biggest film studio and his father had been a successful real estate developer. But Mr. Havel soon realized that “he was a theater man,” Mr. Burian added, studying drama at night at a school of fine arts, which he called “my alma mater.”
His plays mocked the communist regime. He was labeled a “counterrevolutionary” by the Czechoslovakian government after the Prague Spring, which sought in 1968 to establish “socialism with a human face,” and received a knock out blow right on the nose from the Soviets.
In January 1977, Mr. Havel showed a political inclination by signing a manifesto named Charter 77 in which he and other dissidents called on the government to respect human rights.
His leadership role at this point took him to prison in the 1980s where he almost died from pneumonia. By the time that the communist regime had collapsed, according to Mr Burian, Mr Havel’s friends knew him as an artist and a writer, but the general populace that elected him as president at the end of 1989 saw him as a politician, and most wanted “a better economy.”
Although Mr. Havel assumed the mantle of politician, he was reluctant to take on the role of business tsar and allowed former members of the Communist Party to take control of aspects of the country’s business life as its economy was denationalized.
Twenty-five years later in honor of his leadership in freeing Czechoslovakia from a communist regime, a ceremony was held in Washington D.C. dedicating a statue of Mr. Havel that now is on view in the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall with busts of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill.
During the ceremony he was praised for his humane and democratic values, prompting an outpouring by admirers and acquaintances to address his legacy.
Carl Gershman, president of the National Endowment for Democracy, in a highly laudatory evaluation of Mr. Havel’s legacy has written about Mr. Havel’s support of freedom throughout the world, not merely at home.
“He used his position, voice and moral authority to advance present day struggles for freedom,” he said, pointing specifically to Mr. Havel’s backing of the Burmese activist Aung San Sun Kyi, the Oswaldo Paya Varoa Project in Cuba and the Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo.
Mr. Gershman praised Mr. Havel for asserting his support of human freedom as more than merely a component of “a Western worldview” by recognizing their common humanity. Mr. Havel’s legacy still resonated on the streets of Prague during the Christmas holiday season when Global Atlanta visited the city.
Biographies of his life graced the shelves of bookstores. There even were a poster or two where he’s holding his ear in an attempt to hear the counsel of Charles IV, the Holy Roman Emperor in the 14th century who made Prague his capital.
Although his moral bearing has remained an important part of his legacy, the reality is more multilayered even in the memories of some of his closest friends and supporters.
Jiri Rusnok, a former prime minister and current member of the board of the Czech National Bank, recalled for Global Atlanta the economic realities that Mr. Havel faced once he assumed power and his difficulty in handling them.
Because of Czechoslovakia’s history as one of Europe’s stronger economies prior to World War II. Mr. Rusnok said that “some genes were still in the blood” providing memories of the benefits of a market economy.
“We had an easier time going back to the market economy from that crazy command system because of our past,” he said, comparing to the difficulties faced by other Eastern European and Central Asian countries that had been under the Soviet sphere of influence.
Michal Chour, the general manager of the Radisson Blue Alcron Hotel just off from Wenceslav Square, remembered the cliches people used to describe the mentality during the communist times such as “You pretend to work because they are pretending to pay.”
More disheartening, he told Global Atlanta, was the mentality that “Who does not steal is depriving and damaging his own family.”
When Mr. Havel was first elected president, “the enthusiasm was enormous,” Mr. Rusnok said, as everyone hoped for better times, both politically and economically. But Czechoslovakia’s economy had suffered greatly due to the comprehensive nationalization of all economic activity.
“We had the most nationalized economy compared to all the others in the region…small crafts, small shops, everything had been nationalized.” Once Mr. Havel was in charge, he seized the day and privatization of small enterprises “was done very quickly and effectively.”
Larger enterprises presented bigger challenges including ethical challenges. “Always with capitalism there are going to be ethical problems,” Mr. Rusnok said somewhat philosophically.
Meanwhile, however, grumblings such as “Why is the revolution so velvet?” could be heard, expressing anger that those formerly in power were able to benefit because of their connections and wealth under the supposedly reformed system.
Without a regulatory framework, large pools of funds were able to acquire shares of companies through a voucher system and the process of taking funds out of the acquired firms, a process known as “tunneling,” became rampant.
Despite these setbacks, some of the acquisitions have turned out well, Mr. Ruznok admitted, such as Volkswagen Group’s acquisition of the Skoda Auto Co.
Nationalized Skoda cars didn’t benefit from Western technological advances and were derided for their poor quality. Once VW acquired a stake in the company, Skoda was transformed into a mass market car brand. The Czech Republic’s economy today fares well enough since it is closely tied to its export markets in Germany and Austria.
Mr. Ruznok also said that he feels the Czech Republic due to its history as a crossroads and the strength of its educational systems provides “a good atmosphere for entrepreneurship.” He considers the country’s dependence on nuclear energy a plus, protecting it from over dependence on Russian oil and he takes pride in the republic’s fulfillment of the European Union economic requirements.
And he has adopted the controversial position of favoring the republic’s entry into the eurozone because of his country’s close relations with Europe‘s largest trading partners.
A week’s visit, of course, only provided a glimpse into Prague’s circumstances. But the streets teeming with tourists, and shops and malls overflowing with shoppers, indicated lively consumer activity.
More importantly from the perspective of Mr. Havel’s legacy were some of Global Atlanta’s encounters with several beneficiaries of the new order.
For instance, the hotel manager Mr. Chour recalled that under communism no matter how poorly or how well you did job it made no difference in terms of the remuneration you received.
“Incentives were at zero,” he said. “People lived one life and then to survive lived another life through barter, by helping your neighbor. You stole something from work and then did something with it, sold it to someone else.”
Listening to Mr Chour in the lobby of the Alcron Hotel with its upbeat art deco décor and humming with activity, it was hard to recapture the mood of despondency that he evoked.
Yet recollection of his grandfather’s 16 years imprisonment “for coming into conflict with the communist regime” and the inability of his father to study due to the regime’s squashing of the country’s educational system put everything in perspective.
From this perspective, Mr. Havel’s leadership played a role in motivating Mr. Chour’s generation and served as a sort of antidote to the oppression of the past, though, of course, the republic still has a sector of the population that misses the old, controlled ways and many remain communists though the Communist Party has hardly any influence today.
To free himself from his parents suppression of his every desire to improve his life, Mr. Chour fled to Germany and worked his way through business school as a waiter.
He seemed delighted with his current circumstances at the hotel having become increasingly successful in his career, and he demonstrated his capabilities by providing acute insights into the hotel business, which suffered during the recession that took hold in the later part of 2008 when business unexpectedly fell off by 30 percent.
With the recession, corrupt ways with the practices of under-the-table payments, and shoddy recording of financials returned, he said, reminding him of the former practices. The upshot was among many, he added, a revulsion with politics.
While these feelings were common enough and easy to detect, the return of a more buoyant economy apparently keep them from spiraling into overt hostility.
Even Mr. Havel in his exit speech at the end of his political career in 2007 expressed some disappointment with his performance.
New Yorker editor and writer David Remnick captured this sentiment at the end of a masterful essay…“On Sunday night, February 2nd, Czech radio and television broadcast Havel’s farewell address. He took pains to thank his wife and his supporters. To all those who felt disappointed ‘or have simply found me hateful, I sincerely apologize and trust that you will forgive me’”
Mr. Havel lived on until the morning of Dec. 18, 2011 when he died at age 75,
A chance meeting with Kamila Mouckova near Prague Castle, which has served as the seat of power since it was first built in the ninth century, provided an unusual insight.
Ms. Mouckova, already a well-known news anchor in Czechoslovakia at the time of the 1968 invasion and somewhat of a celebrity today, epitomized the mood that even with the creation of the republic and the new order, the ideals of the revolution have not been fully achieved.
When asked to describe the political situation in the republic today, instead of a verbal answer, she replied with such an avalanche of negative facial expressions that what was lost in verbal content was clearly evident in her emotional state.
Knowing the deepseated skepticism of the Czechs generally on a wide variety of topics including both politics and religion, Mr. Havel may not have been surprised by Ms. Mouchkova’s response.
But he could only be thrilled by our interview with Roman Paulus who is the executive chef at the Alcron where he has raised the standard of his kitchen so that it has been awarded Michelen stars three times. In fact, Mr. Havel’s wife, we were told, comes by regularly.
“I could never imagine that we would have one star,” Mr. Paulus said, describing the secret process by which the evaluation teams come unexpectedly and judge the quality of the food and presentations based on recurring visits to ensure consistency.
“Since then I believe in everything,” he continued. “We set a target to keep getting better, to serve the food that makes the people happier.”
Aside from being genuinely enthusiastic, he was astonishingly frank. “What we know now, we didn’t know three years ago,” he said. “When I think back I can’t believe that we were as bad as we were. We make a huge progress every year.”
Mr. Paulus said that he had to leave Prague to be exposed to great cooking, but that upon his return he feels that “Prague is the best place” because it is growing and reasserting its importance as a commercial and artistic center in Europe.
Surprisingly, he cited his exposure to food in the United Kingdom as “the best culinary place in Europe,” exploding the common perception that it is the worst.
“Our mentality is closer to the British than even to the Germans,” he said. “They have beautiful ingredients, very good sea food, great lamb from Scotland, great beef. They have discovered their culinary side and it is so competitive. Every time I go there I find a new restaurant, a different one and I see something that I haven’t seen before.”
Mr. Chour and Mr. Paulus may have been the fortunate ones with enough ambition to create their own luck, but the sense that opportunities existed wasn’t limited to the hotel.
Global Atlanta detected the same passionate sense of optimism on a cab ride with a driver, Michael, probably in his 20s who spoke English very well indeed. “Was he familiar with the U.S.?”
“Yes, I lived in Short Hills, N.J., for a while,” he replied.
“What do you think of Mr. Havel?”
Somewhere in the conversation the word “inspirational’ came up, but so did his skepticism about politics. His ambition is to become a leader, a position he didn’t think was beyond his capabilities. His only reservation was that in view of the country’s history, he felt that it would be better off with a king than a president.
Immediately upon being elected president, according to the New Yorker’s Mr.Remnik, signs appeared around town proclaiming “Havel Is King,” and “Havel to the Castle.”
Who would remember those days better than Ivo Mathe, who was head of Mr. Havel’s office from 1999-2003?
“You must recall that we had no legal framework,” he recalled during a luncheon at the Teresa U Zlate studne in the Golden Well Hotel, which overlooks the city’s landscape composed of its many spires and refurbished tile rooftops.
“There was no leadership of any sort,” Mr. Mathe recalled, referring to the political and professional vacuum that the communists had left behind, “No leadership in finances, no banking system, no security.”
His own qualifications for the position, essentially of a gatekeeper, policy maker and scheduler, were his degree from the Academy of Performing Arts, Film and Television Department. His professional background was primarily in television, producing art programs.
A legal framework for ruling the country didn’t exist, he said. “Our task was to create a space for a free country.”
Soon the heady days of newly acquired freedom cooled down forcing Mr. Havel to focus on the nuts and bolts of governing.
While Mr. Havel himself acknowledged his shortcomings, there is no questioning the republic’s current vitality despite its continued disaffection with politics of all sorts.
A prime example is Mr. Mathe, who is devoting himself to teaching and counts on upcoming generations to realize the form of open, celebratory democracy that Mr. Havel endorsed.
Another more mundane example is that of the Botas 66 company, a manufacturer of sneakers. Originally launched in 1948, the sneakers were brought back to life by two students in the mid-1960s at Prague’s Academy and Art Design who have launched a global business in the competitive world of designers sneakers.
Mr. Havel would have been proud of their accomplishment.
But Mr. Burian, the National Theater’s director, fears that Prague and the republic have strayed from the original goals of the Velvet Revolution and wandered away from the ideals that Mr. Havel espoused in his creative work.
He told Global Atlanta that he was mounting a French play titled “Absolute Happiness” that was performed at the time of the French Revolution to reawaken the country’s idealistic underpinnings.
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