Prague, June 21 (CTK) – A diary of Vaclav Havel, a dissident and former Czechoslovak and Czech president in 1989-2003, he wrote when he spent five months in custody, where the communist sent him when he signed the Charter 77 human rights manifesto, has been found, Lidove noviny (LN) writes yesterday.
It was uncovered in the inheritance of writer and translator Zdenek Urbanek by his grandson David Dusek.
LN writes that Havel (1936-2011) and Urbanek were friends for many years. It is not surprising that Havel donated to him his diary.
The diary contains memoirs, reflections, brief entries and lists which served Havel as a sort of catharsis, a sort of defence against the environment in which he found himself, LN writes.
The lists of what he is to do or what he will have to do when released show Havel in a less known position of a man who almost pedantically insisted on things having their order, LN writes.
At the same time, it is almost moving how the lists of everyday trifles evidently improved his mood, LN writes.
It adds that the diary also contains reflections and plans in which the seeds of his future dramas can be traced.
The unique document will be published in cooperation with the Vaclav Havel Library within the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of his birth in October, LN writes.
The publication will be complete with the articles of several authors who analyse the diary.
Havel’s former spokesman Michael Zantovsky who now heads the library deals with the diary from the point of view of his original profession of psychologist, LN writes.
It writes that the diary is a valuable source of information in this respect, too, because Havel describes in it his experiments with the psychopharmaceuticals which he was prescribed in prison.
