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Sounding For Revolution In A New Key:
Discussing Vaclav Havel's Iconic Essay, The Power of the Powerless
Brandon Boccellari
Haverford College, Department of History.
Professors Linda Gerstein and Alexander Kitroeff
December 9, 2014
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Boccellari 2
Abstract
This thesis looks at rebellion and dissidence under Communism in Eastern
Europe. Specifically, it examines the 1978 essay The Power of the Powerless, by Vaclav
Havel, Czech playwright turned political activist. The question can be asked, "Why
choose Havel and this particular essay out of the many Eastern European dissidents and
the many works written?"
Because of his authorship of this iconic essay and his
leadership role in Czechoslovak rebellion against the Communist regime, Havel became
an idol of the dissident movement against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.
However, the Communist Party preferred to view him as an enemy of the state. He was
imprisoned on numerous occasions for his heroic stance and actions, but this only
sharpened his perspective and bolstered his resolve. It resulted in the drafting of this
unique document and strengthened Havel's impact on the nature of this rebellion .
The Power of the Powerless is interesting because of its uniqueness and
understated pervasiveness. It did not have a direct and immediate effect of bringing
about the end of Communism in the region; it had more of an indirect impact, one more
of morals and of ideology. This thesis argues that through The Power of the Powerless,
Vaclav Havel successfully helped create an environment in which revolution would be
successful in Eastern Europe
and turned growing revolutionary thought in
Czechoslovakia into revolutionary action. It achieves this by explaining Havel's
comments on the power of ideology, describing The Power of the Powerless as a unique
document in revolutionary Eastern Europe, and placing it in context as a response to
Charter 77 and, most-importantly, as a call-to-arms .
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Boccellari 3
Contents
Introduction- Pages 5-7
Vaclav Havel- From Playwright to Dissident- Pages 7-13
The Power of Ideology and of the 'Powerless' -Pages 13-17
Charter 77 and The Power of the Powerless- Pages 17-22
A Unique Document in Revolutionary Eastern Europe- Pages 22-24
The Call-To-Arms- Pages 25-29
Conclusion- Pages 29-31
Bibliography- Pages 32-33
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Boccellari 4
Timeline
ebruary 1948- Czechoslovak Communist Party seize power through coup d'etat
January 1968- Central Committee elected Alexander Dubcek to replace Antonin
Novotny as first secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party
Spring 1968- Prague Spring
August 1968- Warsaw Pact/Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia- "Normalization" begins
August 1975 -Helsinki Accords
December 1976-January 1977- Charter 77
October 1978- Vaclav Havel writes The Power of the Powerless
November 1989- Velvet Revolution
December 1989 - Fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia- Havel elected President
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Boccellari 5
Introduction
On October 27, 1989, once again, the police came for Vaclav Havel, the Czech
playwright who had become the face of dissidence in Communist controlled
Czechoslovakia. But this time his incarceration by the Communist regime of Gustav
Husak was one of the shortest ofhis multiple prison stays. On December 29, 1989, after
the successful Velvet Revolution, Havel was elected president of the post-communist
government of the newly freed state of Czechoslovakia.
How does one make the
transition from playwright, to prisoner, to president?
Havel became an idol of the dissident movement against the Communist regime
in Czechoslovakia in part because of his strong sense of honesty to his morals, his
courage to act as he saw right, and because of his authorship of his defining document,
The Power of the Powerless, which became the manifesto of sorts for dissident activity,
not just in Czechoslovakia, but also in other Communist states in Eastern Europe. This
thesis argues that through The Power of the Powerless, Vaclav Havel successfully created
an environment (the moral and spiritual conditions) under which physical liberation from
under the Communist regime was possible .
There are many books that mention Vaclav Havel's, The Power of the Powerless,
in passing and as a periphery note. For the most part, these books are about broader
topics and briefly touch on Havel's comments on the power of ideology. Although, in
the article, "A Voice From Another Place and Time", Jonathan Schell argues that Havel's
discussion of the political and economic systems in democratic and Communist countries
remains relevant in the analysis of existing political and economic systems. Most other
sources that mention the essay come in the form of an obituary or biography on Havel,
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Boccellari 6
such as John Keane's Vaclav Havel: A Political Tragedy in Six Acts. However, nobody
has dissected The Power of the Powerless to determine its impact within the context of
the postwar Eastern Europe that Tony Judt describes in PostWar: A History of Europe
Since 1945. This thesis will explain Havel's perspective on the power of ideology, and
discuss The Power of the Powerless in context as a response to the Czechoslovak Charter
77 document, as a unique and defining document in revolutionary Eastern Europe,
influencing the principles of the Solidarity movement in Poland, and most importantly as
a call-to-arms spurring revolutionary thought and action in Czechoslovakia.
Support for this thesis is laid out in five sections. The first section, Vaclav Havel
- From Playwright to Dissident, discusses how Vaclav Havel's background as a
playwright influenced his views on moral responsibility and what later inspired him to
move from writing social and political commentary to influencing people as a political
activist. The Power of Ideology and of the 'Powerless' discusses how Havel views the
"nature of power" and the pervasive power of the Communist ideology.
His
perspectives-how people living within the Communist system are actually perpetrating
it, and how what he refers to as "living in the truth", provides the people with unspoken
power-form the thematic foundation for The Power of the Powerless. Charter 77 and
The Power of the Powerless explains the emotional and political environment in early
1977, and the genesis of Charter 77, highlighted by the perspectives of a living dissident
and signatory of that document. It explains how the events of that time, specifically the
actions of The Plastic People of the Universe, who were persecuted by the Communist
Party for their music, validated Havel's notion of "living within the truth" and were a key
impetus for his writing The Power of the Powerless. The section, A Unique Document in
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Boccellari 7
Revolutionary Eastern Europe, lays out how Havel's essay reflected views that were
counter to other Eastern Bloc dissidents. He posed that traditional Western democracy
and capitalism was not a panacea.
In addition, Havel longed for an "existential
revolution" and that, distrustful of existing institutions, he trusted in the power of the
powerless. The final section, The Call-To-Arms, reflects upon how The Power of the
Powerless was meant by Havel to be a stimulus, a call-to-arms that would rally not only
the Czech people, but also those of other Eastern Bloc nations to action behind the
principle of living within the truth. This section contains a large section of background
on Poland's Solidarity movement, which is necessary to argue that Havel's iconic essay
was a timely spark and a put forth a set of revolutionary principles at a time when
Communist Party opposition was calling for governments to stick to the obligations as set
forth in the international declarations and agreements. This type of dissidence was not
easily quelled by violent repression .
Vaclav Havel- From Playwright to Dissident
Before diving into this revolutionist essay, which is the aim of this thesis, it is
valuable to look at Havel's role in the changing socio-political landscape of
Czechoslovakia leading up to him writing The Power of the Powerless .
Vaclav Havel was born in 1936 into a wealthy and well-educated family. Under
German occupation, the Ravels did not suffer greatly, but they undoubtedly fared worse
under the Communist Party who later seized power through a coup in 1948. By the early
1960's, most of their property had been confiscated, and the regime denied Havel and his
brother, coming from a bourgeois family, typical educational opportunities.
Havel
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Boccellari 8
attended an elite boarding school prior, and under the Communist regime, managed to get
a high school education through night classes. Havel began to find pleasure as a writer,
and it is possible that the influence of philosopher Josef Safarik, whose work on moral
responsibility profoundly impressed him, is reflected in Power of the Powerless .
1
From 1957 to 1959, Havel served in the Czech army. He wrote his first play
during his army days, and once Havel was finished with his tour, his father was able to
secure him a job as a stagehand. The theater is where Havel grew and flourished. In the
1960's theaters were springing up across Prague, and Havel was drawn to their allure .
Looking back, he concluded that the theater was a "seismograph" of the era; it was a
celebration of the uncensored life, ofpure enjoyment and contempt for ideology. 2 Czech
society was straining at the bonds placed on it by the Communist regime, and this was
made apparent in the theater. This growing movement caught wind even with the Czech
Communist Party and ultimately manifested itself in the "Prague Spring" in January 1968
when Alexander Dubcek had become the first secretary of the Czech Communist Party
and acknowledged the public urgings for better relations with society, and that the
Communist Party had too often been too harsh .
In April 1968, prior to Dubcek's short-lived "Prague Spring", Havel wrote an
essay demanding that the Communist Party permit the organization of an opposition
Party. He argued for rewarding personal responsibility over party loyalty and insisted
that the Communist Party could only be reformed if there was sufficient outside pressure .
He proposed that there needed to be an opposition party to compete with the Communist
1
Warren I. Cohen Profiles in Humanity: The Battle for Peace, Freedom, Equality, and
Human Rights. (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009.), 26.
2 Warren I. Cohen Profiles in Humanity: The Battle for Peace, Freedom, Equality, and
Human Rights, 26 .
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Boccellari 9
Party for popular support; it was essential to have a two-party system with both parties
committed to democratic socialism in order for 'real socialism' (as opposed to the
ideological socialism that originally won the Communist Party public favor) to truly
benefit the people as advertised.
Of similar mindset, Dubcek and several of his
supporters on the central committee believed in the socialist vision and were also
troubled by the gap between that vision and the reality of the Stalinist state. They sought
to create "socialism with a human face"; the Prague Spring was an 'action programme', a
transition process seeking to grant citizens more freedoms, loosen restrictions on media,
speech, and travel, and create open elections and economic reforms. Dubcek knew that
to be successful, he had to avoid antagonizing the Kremlin and, in tum, assured Moscow
that Czechoslovakia would remain a loyal member of the Warsaw Pact and that the
Communist Party would retain their leading role in Czech politics. 3 However, despite
this, in August of the same year Soviet First Secretary Leonid Brezhnev had enough and
Warsaw Pact forces invaded Czechoslovakia.
The Brezhnev Doctrine informed the
world that the Soviet Union claimed the right to intervene in any Communist country that
strayed. Dubcek was seized and forced to renounce his policies, Gustav Husak became
the First secretary of the Czech Communist Party, and a dark period of 'normalization'
began.
This was the turning point for Havel. This is the point where he turned from a
playwright who involved himself with social and political commentary to a political
activist.
His goal was now to end totalitarianism and create a democratic state in
Czechoslovakia. Havel used his talent as a writer to achieve these ends. He first wrote a
3
Warren I. Cohen Profiles in Humanity: The Battle for Peace, Freedom, Equality, and
Human Rights, 27 .
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Boccellari 10
letter to Dubcek, urging him to publicly denounce the Soviet Invasion. Dubcek agreed
with Havel's sentiment, but was not stupid. He knew full well what punishments the
regime was capable of, should he openly speak against it. By the early 1970's, Havel
was declared an enemy of the state, his writings and plays banned across Czechoslovakia.
However, his essays continued to circulate through samizdat, underground publishing,
which was the main avenue for the spread of dissident literature across the Eastern Bloc
and was so crucial to revolutionary success. A notable piece of his was a letter to Gustav
Husak in April 1975. He contrasted Husak's regime unfavorably with that of Dubcek
and criticized official efforts to control culture and the Czech population, noting that
society under the Communist regime lived under constant threat from a state with
unchecked power to intervene in the individual's life. 4 The regime further evidenced their
attempt to forcibly control culture when they sent the rock group, Plastic People of the
Universe, to prison.
This was the catalyst that marked the beginning of organized
dissident activity in Czechoslovakia, and what sparked the formation of Charter 77 in
December 1976, of which Havel was a leader and primary author.
Charter 77 openly criticized the government for failing to implement the human
rights provisions of a number of international documents it had signed,
"In the Czechoslovak Register of Laws No. 120 of October 13, 1976, texts
were published of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
and of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, which were signed on behalf of our republic in 1968, reiterated at
Helsinki in 1975 and came into force in our country on March 23, 1976 ...
We accordingly welcome the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic's accession
to those agreements. Their publication, however, serves as a powerful
reminder of the extent to which basic human rights in our country exist,
regrettably, on paper alone."
4
Warren I. Cohen Profiles in Humanity: The Battle for Peace, Freedom, Equality, and
Human Rights, 28-29 .
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Boccellari 11
The authors of this document recognized the illusion that the Communist Party put forth
in "agreeing" to the stipulations of these international agreements. It also emphasized
that Charter 77 was not an organization, had no statutes and was not a basis for any
oppositional political activity. This final stipulation was a careful effort to stay within the
5
bounds of Czechoslovak law, which made organized opposition illegal. Regardless of
its proposed non-opposing status, the Communist Party sought to stamp it out completely
before it caught any significant traction. Signatories experienced persecution for signing
Charter 77 because they were perceived as directly opposing the Communist regime. I
conducted an interview on December 13, 2013 with a living Czech dissident and one of
the first signatories of Charter 77. As per his request, I will exclude his name from this
paper and instead refer to him as Mr. D. As both a pastor and a dissident, this man, his
family and his community all suffered under the Communist regime, which limited free
speech and religion; no authority, even god, should come before the Party. In January
1977, he and his wife (about age 40 at the time) were one ofthe first two hundred people
to sign Charter 77. A declassified report from the CIA National Intelligence Daily on
6
January 28, 1977 puts the number of signatories at around 300. I will be using my
interview with Mr. D as a window into the mindset of a dissident in Czechoslovakia, and
to offer otherwise unavailable anecdotes.
Charter 77 didn't have much open public
backing not for lack of support but understandably, just as Dubcek felt when Havel wrote
to him in '69, because of fear of the consequences of openly speaking against the
Charter 77, "Declaration of Charter 77," Making the History of 1989, Item #628,
http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/628
6 Declassified Report. "Czechoslovakia: Deporting Dissidents," CIA National
Intelligence Daily (1977, approved for release 2004) .
5
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB213/usdocs/USDocl.pdf
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Boccellari 12
Communist regime. On January 6, 1977, Havel was sent to prison and was released four
months later when his jailers falsely told him the other signatories had repudiated Charter
77 and he agreed to no longer serve as the movement's spokesperson. Upon finding out
he had been tricked, Havel resumed his efforts and found himself back in prison in
January 1978 for a six-week sentence. 7
In October 1978, he wrote The Power of the Powerless, probably the most
important and most pervasive of his essays. The core idea that the document conveyed
was that dissidents, the powerless, could undoubtedly influence the system. In Tony
Judt's PostWar: A History of Europe Since 1945, in his section titled "Politics in a new
Key", he talks about the rise of citizen politics across Europe in the 1970s and how there
was a sort of malaise, an indifference when it came to citizen participation in politics
because their voices were often not heard or acknowledged. To this point, The Power of
the Powerless served as a call-to-arms. While Charter 77 might have done a job of
sparking the growing revolutionary mindset, this essay sought to spark revolutionary
action. Some of Havel's thinking had changed since 1968. He no longer saw creation of
an opposition political party, of a Western democratic system, as sufficient. He uniquely
sought a deeper "existential revolution".
This type of moral liberation required
individuals to stop living a lie, to stop conforming to that which they did not believe .
Acceptance of the modem dictatorship's ideology forced people to live in conflict with
reality; the system worked only while people were willing to play along.
The
responsibility ultimately lies with the people and their decision to either buy into the lie
that is this blissfully ignorant ideology or to drop the role as accomplice to the oppressive
7
Warren I. Cohen Profiles in Humanity: The Battle for Peace, Freedom, Equality, and
Human Rights, 30 .
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Boccellari 13
system and "live within the truth" as Havel puts it. To "live within the truth" would be to
defy the artifice in any way, big or small: by refusing to put up slogans to humor the
authorities, by refusing to vote in meaningless elections, by speaking out at political
meetings, etc. "Occasionally there are actors- although we are all actors now."8 Who
better to lead a group of actors than a playwright?
The Power of Ideology and of the 'Powerless'
Vaclav Havel described the Soviet Communist system as an anomalous
dictatorship. Unlike other dictatorships the world has witnessed which are locally based,
lacking true historical roots, and legitimized largely by their military power, this
Communist dictatorship behaved more like a "secularized religion". Although long since
alienated completely from the social movements that gave birth to it, Havel states that
this dictatorship nonetheless professed to be rooted in the historical socialist movements
with philosophical godfathers like Marx and Engels as a basis for legitimacy. And while
their military force posed as ultimate trump cards, it was often social pressures and
ideological indoctrination that enabled order to be maintained. 9 Havel begins The Power
of the Powerless with an examination of the 'nature of power', first for the Communist
regime.
He asserts that their power is derived, in majority, from ideology and the
willingness of citizens to live within it. The Communist ideology, he argues, offers
human beings the illusion of an identity, of dignity, and of morality "while making it
easier for them to part with them". Buying into the ideology is like putting on a veil,
Timothy Garton Ash. The Magic Lantern: The Revolution of'89 Witnessed in Warsaw,
Budapest, Berlin, and Prague. (New York: Random House, 1990.), 87.
9
Vaclav Havel and John Keane. The Power of the Powerless: citizens against the state
in central-eastern Europe. (Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe 1985.), 25 .
8
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Boccellari 14
enabling people to deceive their conscience and conceal their true positions and beliefs
from the world, and more importantly, themselves. As Havel colorfully puts it,
"This ideology inevitably has a certain hypnotic charm. To
wandering humankind it offers an immediate available home: all one has
to do is accept it, and suddenly everything becomes clear once more, life
take on new meaning, and all mysteries, unanswered questions, anxiety,
and loneliness vanish. Of course, one pays dearly for this low rent home:
the price is abdication of one's own reason, conscience, and responsibility,
for an essential aspect of this ideology is the consignment of reason and
conscience to a higher authority. The principle here is that the center of
power is identical with the center of truth."
While the metaphor is evocative and captures his point well, the key here is the last
sentence; "the center of power is identical with the center of truth". Havel sees both the
problem and the solution as having to do with truth and lies. The regime is intent, at all
costs, to craft an ideology, a pseudo-reality to fill in any and all cracks of doubt or dissent
from its citizens. Fear has proven throughout history to be a relatively successful way to
maintain order for totalitarian systems, such as that of Stalin. But Stalin was dead and
this was a new era.
To this point and the one above, Havel coined the term post-
totalitarian to describe this anomalous dictatorship. If people are orderly because they
are fearful, that is unstable and unsustainable because fear breeds resentment, and
resentment ultimately breeds revolt. 10
Instead, by crafting a world of lies, rituals, and ideology, a regime can lull its
citizens and possibly even convert them to the 'cause'.
Under the pretense of this
grandiose lie, the Communist system, while promising to serve the people, ruthlessly
demands that the people serve it; the hypocrisy is rampant.
10
Vaclav Havel and John Keane. The Power of the Powerless: citizens against the state
in central-eastern Europe, 25 .
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Boccellari 15
"The lack of free expression becomes the highest form of freedom;
farcical elections become the highest form of democracy; banning
independent thought becomes the most scientific of world views; military
occupation becomes fraternal assistance. Because the regime is captive to
its own lies, it must falsify everything. It falsifies the past. It falsifies the
present, and it falsifies the future. It falsifies statistics. It pretends not to
possess an omnipotent and unprincipled police apparatus. It pretends to
respect human rights. It pretends to persecute no one. It pretends to fear
nothing. It pretends to pretend nothing."
The most powerful part of this elaborately constructed lie is that people do not need to
believe all these mystifications, but just behave as though they did, tolerate them in
silence, or get along well with those who work with them. They do not need to accept the
lie - it is enough for them to have accepted their life with it and in it. Individuals confirm
the system, fulfill the system, compose the system, and essentially are the system. So if
ideology, and individuals buying into it, constitutes its power, then at the same time, they
also ensure its continuity. The pillar that is the Communist ideology is built on a very
unstable foundation (lies), and works only as long as people are willing to live within the
lie. 11
This fact represents both the danger and the potential salvation from the
Communist system, as it is up to the individual to 'live within the lie', becoming both
victim and accomplice. The other option, and the one Havel opts for, is to 'live within the
truth'. To "live within the truth" is to defy the unreality in any way, directly or indirectly,
big or small.
To demonstrate living within the truth, Havel uses an example of a green-grocer
who places in his window, among all of the produce, a propaganda poster. Why does he
do it? Is his enthusiasm genuinely so great that he feels an irrepressible impulse to
acquaint the public with his ideals? Has he really given more than a moment's thought to
11
Vaclav Havel and John Keane. The Power of the Powerless: citizens against the state
in central-eastern Europe, 31-41 .
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Boccellari 16
it anyway? To answer those questions would be to seek living within the truth. It can
safely be assumed that the overwhelming majority of shopkeepers never think about the
slogans they put in their windows. The sign was given to the green-grocer from the
enterprise headquarters along with his produce, and he put them all in the window simply
because that's what has been done for years, because everyone does it, and because that
is the way it has to be. If he were to refuse, he could be called out for not having the sign
in his window, and possibly even be accused of disloyalty. It is one of the thousands of
details, not normally considered, that guarantee him a relatively tranquil life but that also
perpetrate the success of the regime and its ideology. To live within the truth, the greengrocer could actively do so by fully embracing his moral honesty and organize an
underground opposition group for example. At the same time, simply not putting the sign
in the window would still be living within the truth. Havel emphasizes that one just
needs the courage to reject the pseudo-realities put forth by the regime in any way, "by
his action, the greengrocer has addressed the world. He has enabled everyone to peer
behind the curtain. He has shown everyone that it is possible to live within the truth .
Living within the lie can constitute the system only if it is universal. . .If the main pillar of
the system is living a lie, then it is not surprising that the fundamental threat to it is living
the truth." 12
During my studies abroad in Prague I was fortunate enough to meet Mr. D, a 75
year-old retired Presbyterian minister and original signatory of Charter 77.
He was
willing to speak with me, so I made my way to the outskirts of the city to interview him
in his home. Mr. D commented on the power of ideology, and how many people were
12
Vaclav Havel and John Keane. The Power of the Powerless: citizens against the state
in central-eastern Europe, 27-40 .
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Boccellari 17
fooled by the Communist Party's constructed pseudo-reality in the first few years of the
Communist Party's rise to power. He said that early on, immediately following the 1948
coup d'etat, many people believed in the system, even the to-be Chartists.
The
Communist Party accomplished this illusion due to their strategic positioning over the
course of 20 years. Eventually, in the Czech people grew wise to what was truly going
on, a termination of their rights. The dissident continued, "Later, everyone realized that it
was not really like that, it was different. So it was changing, the product of this sobering
up was Prague Spring."
Havel cites the Prague Spring as another example of his
assertion that the power of ideology could be used by both the Communist regime and the
individuals it oppressed; the Soviet response only illustrated their fear of individuals
living within the truth. Even in the most oppressive of circumstances the power of the
powerless was evident. 13
Charter 77 and The Power of the Powerless
Havel wrote The Power of the Powerless in part, in response to the Charter 77
movement a year earlier.
Why did the imprisonment of The Plastic People of the
Universe, an underground psychedelic rock band named after a Frank Zappa lyric, spark
Havel and fellow like-minded intellectuals to write Charter 77, a document that openly
criticized the Communist regime and put all its signatories at risk? It was a small act of
defiance with big implications. At first, Havel did not much care for the vulgar and
unusual rock group, nor they for him and the highbrow class of which he was a member .
It was only after he listened to a recording of the Plastic People of the Universe that
13
Vaclav Havel and John Keane. The Power of the Powerless: citizens against the state
in central-eastern Europe, 43 .
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Boccellari 18
Havel understood their significance. In The Power of the Powerless, he writes, "There
was a strange magic in the music, and a kind of inner warning. Here was something
serious and genuine . . . Suddenly I realized that, regardless of how many vulgar words
these people used or how long their hair was, truth was on their side." This group wanted
no more than to play the music they enjoyed, sing songs that were relevant to their lives,
and to live and act freely. They embodied Havel's notion of living within the truth. 14
The group was arrested just before the performance Havel was going to attend .
Why did the Communist Party police set out arrest a music group instead of those who
openly opposed the regime as they normally did? The reason has to do with fear. There
is significance in the fact that The Plastic People of the Universe were named after a
Frank Zappa lyric. It did not have so much to do with Frank Zappa himself, but more so
about rock groups in general and how the Communist Party saw them as representing the
"wild" influence of Western culture. The emergence of technology and new avenues of
media during this time period allowed for Western culture to influence society in Eastern
Europe, and this scared the Communist Party into setting an example through their
imprisonment of the Plastic People. Contrary to what Communist Party might have
perceived to be the their intentions, The Plastic People of the Universe were simply doing
what they loved to do, indifferent to politics or buying into ideologies. But it was also
the indifference that caused the fear. The Communist Party police were not as much
frightened by dissidents as they were of a rock group such as The Plastic People of the
Universe.
At this point the Communist Party saw dissidents as the Inquisition saw
heretics. Dissidents gave meaning to these defenders of ideology, and by nature of the
14
Vaclav Havel and John Keane. The Power of the Powerless: citizens against the state
in central-eastern Europe, 46-49 .
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Boccellari 19
term "dissident", did not yet represent the prevailing mindset. But the Plastic People of
the Universe were simply living within the truth, abiding to their own morality. They
were coming from somewhere else, not heretics like the dissidents, but more like pagans .
Charter 77 was Havel's enlistment of the heretic in the service of the pagan.
15
Havel,
through Charter 77, opposed the Communist Party's precedent for imprisoning anyone
who dared to think independently. The result was his own imprisonment and proof of the
idea that led him to write The Power of the Powerless .
In the essay, Havel shares a few thoughts on the title, "dissident", "A 'dissident',
we are told in our press, means something like a 'renegade' or 'backslider'.
But
dissidents do not consider themselves renegades for the simple reason that they are not
primarily denying or rejecting anything." Rather, the subtle difference is that they try to
affirm their own identity; if they are rejecting anything, then it is merely the lie under
which they had been living. The term "dissident" also implies that their philosophy/goal
is not commonly held in the society, when in fact the opposite is true, "It is truly a cruel
paradox that the more some citizens stand up in defense of other citizens, the more they
are labeled with a word that in effect separates them from those 'other citizens' ."
16
As I mentioned in the introduction, signatories of the Charter experienced
persecution because they were perceived as directly opposing the Communist regime .
Mr. D was one of those who faced the punishments that came with signing Charter 77,
"We, me with my wife, weren't sure whether we would be allowed to stay in the village
15
Michael Weiss, "Vaclav Havel: Rock 'n' Roll and the Power of the Powerless," World
Affairs Journal. Online feature http://www.worldaffairsjoumal.org/article/vaclav-havelrock- 'n' -roll-and-power-powerless
16 Vaclav Havel and John Keane. The Power of the Powerless: citizens against the state
in central-eastern Europe, 58-60 .
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Boccellari 20
where we lived. We weren't sure if we would have a roof above our heads. We just
believed that somehow we would manage. And that for the children it would mean that
they would have to acknowledge that they would not be allowed to enter normal studies
and so on and so forth." Because he chose not to be exiled, Mr. D had to check-in with
Communist Party officials at least once a week and once returned to his home to find
microphones planted in various places throughout his house. He also recalled a time
when an older man came to him and told him that if he ever traveled in the Prague Metro
(which began operation in May 1974) he should try to stand so that there was no one
behind him so that members of the Communist Party could not push him in front of a
train. As a Presbyterian minister, Mr. D should have faced some of the most extreme
oppression from the Communist Party who sought to eliminate any authority above its
own, even that of god. However, much to my surprise, he told me that he was allowed to
continue giving services to his community. Mr. D did not tell me details about what he
preached during this time (most likely to avoid admitting to abandoning his morals for
freedom in this case), just as I chose not to ask. However, judging from the fact that he
did not face severe punishment for his actions, I believe it is safe to assume that the deal
he had with the Communist Party made sure to stipulate that he would not preach about
or against the regime. Sensing my interest, Mr. D chose to elaborate a little bit, "They
[Communist Party] expect a minister to represent the community, you are a public figure
to relate to the system." Mr. D inferred that the Party let him continue as a way to keep
people appeased and not vocal about their criticisms of the government.
Mr. D explained signing Charter 77 as an action "to declare our goodwill. We
knew there could be action taken against us, but the practical idea was there. We are,
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Boccellari 21
declaring ourselves free." When Mr. D and his wife signed, "The number was something
around 200. I believed the number should grow steadily. If number had grown steadily,
police wouldn't have chance to liquidate easily. So we signed immediately." He did
acknowledge, mirroring the point above, that some didn't physically sign the Charter, but
supported it. In fact, he spoke of a great number of friends who were unwilling to put
themselves out there by signing but were ready to do something. I asked Mr. D about the
risk involved and his decision to sign Charter 77. He responded by saying that everybody
who signed the Charter knew full well the risk they were taking.
So why would
somebody risk so much and be labeled openly as a dissident? He signed Charter 77 not
so much for himself, but more for his principles. He felt couldn't stand certain things that
were happening in Czechoslovakia. It was clear that he felt strongly about signing the
Charter on principle. I pushed a bit further, wanting to know what he ideally wanted to
accomplish through signing the Charter 77. He responded, "Thinking of the situation, I
didn't really think we could make a change. But [signing it] was really a way to release
the pressure within us - to extricate ourselves from the idea of servitude to the system
that was ... Here we are, and here is a document we fully agree with and have the courage
to sign." It was as if there was a weight upon his chest that would not be lifted until he
declared himself, not hiding his face but showing himself clearly against that which was
against his principles. This is exactly what Havel was talking about when he urged
people to "live within the truth" in The Power of the Powerless .
Finally, he told me a story of an older colleague of his, "He fled to Vienna, and
the Czech police organized an abduction and they kidnapped him and brought him back."
In a declassified report from the CIA National Intelligence Daily on January 28, 1977 is
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Boccellari 22
the CIA summary of current intelligence, circulated daily to top U.S. policymakers. It
reports speculation that the Czechoslovak regime might try to deport dissidents who
signed Charter 77, especially Vaclav Havel, Pavel Kohout, Jiri Hajek, Jiri Lederer,
Ludvik Vaculik. The item notes that out of nearly 300 signatories, 200 were harassed by
the police but it is unlikely that they would agree to leave the country voluntarily,
"speculation is reportedly increasing in Prague that the regime may try to deport some of
the most prominent dissidents who launched the Charter 77 human rights manifesto. A
new media campaign appears to be urging that the dissidents be 'sent to their capitalist
friends and breadgivers' ... The Czechoslovak ambassador in Vienna on Tuesday asked
for and received confirmation of an Austrian offer of asylum for the dissidents." 17
Vaclav Havel chose to face persecution and prison time over exile so as not to detract
from his influence in Czechoslovakia. 18 He felt he could not effectively convince the
Czech people to live within the truth without doing so alongside them. Besides, Havel
did not want to be with his "capitalist friends and breadgivers". To him, the problems
that Czechoslovakia was facing could not be so simply solved by the Western model.
A Unique Document in Revolutionary Eastern Europe
Many dissidents from other Eastern Bloc countries saw everything that was
Western as the right way; the allure of capitalist markets was quite strong. But Havel
was different.
Instead of simply looking at Communism or capitalism from the
perspective of the other, he considered both systems to be two versions of the same crisis
17
Declassified Report. "Czechoslovakia: Deporting Dissidents," CIA National
Intelligence.
18 Tony Judt. Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945. (New York: Penguin Press,
2005.), 572 .
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Boccellari 23
of civilization. His criticisms of the Communist system are apparent, but what is unique
about The Power of the Powerless, is Havel's denouncing of traditional western
democracy and capitalism. He asserts that, "There is no real evidence that western
democracy, that is, democracy of the traditional parliamentary type, can offer solutions
that are any more profound .. .It would appear that no fundamental opposition to the
automatism of technological civilization and the industrial-consumer society, for they,
too, are being dragged helplessly along by it." 19 Western resistance movements such as
draft resistance in the United States during the Vietnam War, Gandhi's campaigns against
the British, and other law-breaking western movements rely on the possibility that rulers
will respond to such appeals to the public conscience. This possibility is absent in
Communist controlled Eastern Europe. 20 Havel notes in his essay, as I noted in my
section, Vaclav Havel- From Playwright to Dissident, that in 1968 he felt that forming
an opposition party that would compete publicly for power with the Communist Party
could solve the problem in Czechoslovakia. In fact, he also expressed that if certain
conditions were to be created, then democracy could help to "restore the devastated sense
of civic awareness, to renew democratic discussion, to allow for the crystallization of an
elementary political plurality, an essential expression of the aims of life" in some Eastern
Bloc countries. But to cling to the notion of traditional parliamentary democracy as the
19
Vaclav Havel and John Keane. The Power of the Powerless: citizens against the state
in central-eastern Europe, 90-91.
20 Vaclav Havel and John Keane. The Power of the Powerless: citizens against the state
in central-eastern Europe, 20 .
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Boccellari 24
political ideal and accept the illusion that only this "tried and true" form is capable of
guaranteeing a system for its individuals would be shortsighted. 21
Then what was to be done? Havel longed for an "existential revolution," he was
distrustful of institutions and trusting in the power of the powerless. Havel asserted that
there must be structures that placed limits on the genesis of other structures to limit
accumulation of power, "They would be structures not in the sense of organizations or
institutions, but like a community." The authority ofthese structures of course could not
be based on long and empty traditions, but rather on how they enter into a given situation.
This means that Havel sees these structures as being most effective not as a strategic
formalized institutions, but rather springing up ad hoc as a result of the situations the
state faces and its citizens living within the truth. The authority of the leaders in this
system should "derive from their personalities and be personally tested in their particular
surroundings and not from their position in any nomenklatura." Havel makes sure to
note that he could definitely develop his thoughts further on this, but sees it as
"presumptuous, however, to try to foresee the structural expressions of this new spirit
without that spirit actually being present and without knowing its concrete physiognomy
[its features]." 22 That was not Havel's goal in writing The Power of the Powerless. The
importance of this document was that it was a call-to-arms for revolutionary thought and
action, not just in Czechoslovakia, but also in other Eastern Bloc countries such as
Poland.
21
Vaclav Havel and John Keane. The Power of the Powerless: citizens against the state
in central-eastern Europe, 91-92.
22 Vaclav Havel and John Keane. The Power of the Powerless: citizens against the state
in central-eastern Europe, 92-94 .
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Boccellari 25
The Call-To-Arms
The Power of the Powerless was created as the centerpiece to a collection of
eighteen essays published in 1979 samizdat. The collection, originally titled On Freedom
and Power, was intended as a joint Czechoslovak-Polish venture, the beginnings of
projected collaboration across states. In a letter on November 18, 1978 from Vaclav
Havel to Adam Michnik, leader of the Workers Defence Committee (KOR) and advisor
Poland's eventual Solidarity movement, Havel provides the instructions on publishing
The Power of the Powerless within the collection. In typical Havel fashion he writes,
Dear Adam, I have finally finished writing that essay of mine which I
promised to write as an introduction to our planned collection and so I am
sending it to you with the request that you give it to the person who will be
taking care of this matter on your side. It is a bit longer, and I am sorry for
that, but I am that kind of person who is at first too lazy to write, but when
I do start writing, I am then too lazy to stop. But if the collection is a bit
fatter, I hope nothing will happen (in the extreme case it can be divided
into two volumes). Here is some information on how we imagine it on our
side: I) My Piece is only an introduction to the problem, it outlines the
theme, meant as a stimulus. Therefore contributions do not at all have to
react to it or be concerned with it, it would be enough if they touch it in
23
one way or another on the general theme that we are concerned with.
Havel saw his piece as an introduction to the problem, the single defining document in a
collection of revolutionist essays from both Czechoslovakia and Poland. The Power of
the Powerless was the defining text, and presented the problem and theme about which
the others based their works. The works were never published as a collection, as in 19791980 Michnik and Poland were busy with their own revolution, but The Power of the
Powerless was circulated through samizdat separately. Regardless, all of the essays that
were to be published in this collection are all reflections upon the links between morality
23
Elzbieta Matynia. Uncanny Era Conversations between Vaclav Havel and Adam
Michnik. (Yale University Press, 2014.), 23-24 .
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Boccellari 26
and politics. In fact, while it cannot be said that The Power of the Powerless necessarily
directly influenced the revolutionary movements in Poland, it was definitely reflected in
the principles and virtues of Poland's Solidarity movement.
As a bit of background, in June 1976, the Polish Communist government
introduced a radical price increase on basic goods sparking an immediate nationwide
wave of strikes. The government backed down and repealed the price rises. In 1976 a
group of intellectuals led by Jacek Kuron and Adam Michnik founded the Workers'
Defence Committee to assist the worker victims of the 1976 repression. This marked the
rise in support from the intellectuals to the workers in their opposition to the regime. As
an aside, as one of the last distinctly Catholic countries in Europe, the election of a Polish
Pope in October 1978 had an immense impact on Poland's already turbulent relationship
with their Communist oppressors. In 1980, the Polish government again attempted to
raise consumer prices, knowing that it very well would likely spark another worker
rebellion. It did, and the leadership was now faced with a choice between repressing the
rebellion on a massive scale or creating an agreement that would give the workers what
they wanted, and thus pacify for the time being the aroused population. They chose the
latter, and signed the Gdansk Agreement on August 31 of that year.
The Gdansk
Agreement led to the formation of "Solidarnosc", the Polish Solidarity movement, in
September 1980. "Solidarity" was a union of workers and intellectuals and, in time,
became a major Polish political force in opposition to the regime. Further, after its
success with the Polish elections in June 1989, Solidarity set an example for all of the
anti-communist movements that came after it (the Velvet Revolution in Prague took place
six months after Solidarity's triumph in Poland). There are clear virtues in Poland's
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Boccellari 27
Solidarity movement that reflect the defining principles of The Power of the Powerless .
Initially, following the tradition of the KOR (of which Michnik was a leader), Solidarity
was a non-political movement aiming at reconstruction of civil society. Over the course
of the 1980s, it shifted to a political role, out of necessity, and helped form a broad antiruling system social movement, with members ranging from people associated with the
Catholic Church to non-communist leftists24 . Just as Havel outlined how the revolution
he called for was "existential" and not political, Solidarity put these principles into
practice .
Havel's call-to-arms asserted that, "it is only with the full existential backing of
every member of the community that a permanent bulwark against 'creeping
totalitarianism' can be established. The post-totalitarian system, as Havel coined, is only
one aspect, albeit a large aspect, of the general inability of modem humanity to be the
master of its own situation. The solution cannot be sought in some external proposal for
change; it had to start with the people. The "existential revolution" Havel calls for must
come from a basis in human existence, an ethical and, later, ultimately political
reconstitution of society?5
Tony Judt, in PostWar: A History of Europe Since 1945, in the section titled
"Politics in a new Key", talks about the rise of citizen politics across Europe in the
1960s-70s. He points at the fact that the The Power of the Powerless was a successful
call-to-arms in part due to its timing in history. At the time, "The proliferation of singleissue parties and programs, and their steady absorption into mainstream public life, took
24
David Ost. Solidarity and the Politics ofAnti-politics: Opposition and Reform in
Poland since 1968, (Temple University Press, 1990), 1-6
25 Vaclav Havel and John Keane. The Power of the Powerless: citizens against the state
in central-eastern Europe, 90-93 .
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Boccellari 28
its toll upon the traditional organizations of the left in particular. Communist parties in
Western Europe undermined by the steady erosion of their proletarian constituency and
discredited by the invasion of Czechoslovakia, were most vulnerable." 26
With
Communist parties in Western Europe such as in France and Italy experiencing this
weakening, it would seem as if Eastern Europe needed just a spark for the fire to catch in
their region. This spark was the 1975 Helsinki principles and the Soviet denial of the
human rights granted in them. Within a year of the signing of the Helsinki Accord, many
Communist Party leaders across Eastern Europe were faced with a growing and
ultimately uncontrollable rise of opposition clubs, networks, charters, and individuals,
with a simple demand - they wanted their governments to stick to the letter of the
Helsinki agreement, to "fulfill their obligations as set forth in the international
declarations and agreements in this field."
Against this sort of opposition, violent
repression could only be so effective and in fact was self-defeating. 27 In other words, the
stage was set and the spark was there; Havel's The Power of the Powerless served as the
call-to-arms to rally people to action behind the principle of living within the truth and
seeking the rehabilitation of values like trust, openness, responsibility, solidarity, and
love. It called forth individuals to help build structures not aimed at the technical aspect
of the execution of power, but to live within the truth and allow the system to construct
itself based newly on the people it represented? 8
Judt qualifies by noting that the intellectual opposition in Eastern Europe had little
immediate impact; there were limits on what could be asked of people. In his Essay on
26
Tony Judt. Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945,494 .
Tony Judt. Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945, 502-503.
28 Vaclav Havel and John Keane. The Power of the Powerless: citizens against the state
in central-eastern Europe, 93 .
27
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Boccellari 29
Bravery, Czech writer Ludvik Vaculik argued that most ordinary people were struggling
enough simply to get through their daily lives. "Most people lived in a moral 'grey
zone', a safe if stifling space in which enthusiasm was replaced by acceptance." It was
hard to justify active resistance because it almost always involved risk, and widely
appeared unnecessary. 29 In The Power of the Powerless, Havel modestly urges people to
live within the truth by denying the lie that was the Communist regime's ideology in any
capacity one could. For some this meant active dissidence, for others it simply meant
refusing to put up a propaganda sign in their shop window .
Conclusion
Ultimately, in 1989, the fall of Communism in the Soviet Union can most directly
be attributed to Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost policy and economic restructuring as well
as his relationship with Ronald Reagan and the west. In Poland, the revolution was most
directly achieved by the workers' Solidarity movement.
So if it did not have an
immediate, direct, discernable impact, why was Vaclav Havel's essay, The Power of the
Powerless important? Havel's commentary on the power of ideology, and how it can
give power to the powerless, helped create an environment in which revolution would be
successful in Eastern Europe
and turned growing revolutionary thought
in
Czechoslovakia into revolutionary action. As a response to Charter 77, this document
was unique within the context of dissidence in the Eastern Bloc on the grounds that it
denounced both the Communist and Western Democratic models that were the two
existing competing ideologies at that time. This movement had to be one of morality, an
29
Tony Judt. Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945,576 .
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Boccellari 30
"existential revolution", and The Power of the Powerless was the call-to-arms that
brought people together under this unique revolutionary logic not just in Czechoslovakia,
but also in other Soviet Bloc countries such as Poland. In a letter to Adam Michnik,
Vaclav's counterpart in Poland, he makes a point of letting the advisor of their Solidarity
movement know that he is not a political scientist, nor a philosopher, nor a historian .
And so while Havel briefly discusses what is to be done and the outcomes of this
'existential revolution', he also makes sure to note that he is not the proper authority on
that aspect (maybe related to the lukewarm success of his presidency and the pull that
ultimately became too heavy to hold Czechoslovakia together) .
But what is to be done is not what matters most in The Power of the Powerless .
What matters, is the significance of the document and the message it conveys: to live
within the truth by denying the ideological lie put forth by the Communist regime. This
message became the backbone for the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, which
ultimately found success in December 1989. Prior, in May 1989 Adam Michnik wrote a
piece published in the ninth issue of Gazeta Wyborcza, the first independent daily
newspaper published officially in Poland and the region. It was clearly meant for Havel's
eyes, as Michnik reflected on The Power of the Powerless and the message he took from
it, "don't succumb to hatred; don't give in to despair. So that we can protect spiritual
freedom, and build- even in prison, as Vaclav did- some foundation for a community of
'those who were not indifferent'." The principles outlined in The Power of the Powerless
are clearly reflected in other anti-communist revolutions throughout Eastern Europe .
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Boccellari 31
Michnik closes the letter by saying, "Welcome to freedom, Vaclav!" 30 I can interpret
this statement in two ways: One, after his success in Poland, he knew change was
imminent in Prague and that Havel had earned it.
Two, he saw the people in
Czechoslovakia as already spiritually and morally liberated from under the Communist
ideology and all that was left was their inevitable physical emancipation.
30
Elzbieta Matynia. Uncanny Era Conversations between Vaclav Havel and Adam
Michnik, 29-30 .
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Boccellari 32
Bibliography
Primary
Boccellari, Brandon. A Personal Interview with a Czech Dissident, December 14, 2013
Charter 77, "Declaration of Charter 77," Making the History of 1989, Item #628,
http:! /chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/628
Declassified Report. "Czechoslovakia: Deporting Dissidents," CIA National Intelligence
Daily 1977, approved for release 2004.
http://www2.gwu.edu/-nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB213/usdocs/USDoc 1.pdf
Havel, Vaclav and John Keane. The Power of the Powerless: Citizens against the State in
Central-eastern Europe. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1985 .
Matynia, Elzbieta. Uncanny Era Conversations between Vaclav Havel and Adam
Michnik. Yale University Press, 2014 .
Secondary
Bilefsky, Dan, and Jane Perlez. "Vaclav Havel, Former Czech President, Dies at 75." The
New York Times. December 18,2011.
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