Friday, December 23, 2011

Václav Havel (1936-2011)

In the news, Communist Czechoslovakia's foremost dissident, first post-1989 president, and the first president of the Czech Republic, Václav Havel passed away this past week.

I don't have much to add to what has been said or written, other than to underline again how important he was to the dissident cause, providing a moral voice and then actual leadership. He was, if I may loosely paraphrase Joe Biden, "a B.F.D."

However, what I really want to post about is what I found on my return to Moscow on Tuesday evening. I may not have mentioned it before, but the Czech Republic's embassy is literally right around the corner from my apartment building. I pass it about half the time I leave, as it is one one of the two main routes to the Metro I take.


This is the wall in front of the embassy, I took this picture on Wednesday evening.

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