WASHINGTON — A bust of Vaclav Havel, playwright, dissident and first president of the Czech Republic, was unveiled amid grand pageantry and high emotion Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol.
The ceremony marked the climax of a weeklong celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, a peaceful student-led march that triggered an avalanche of protests and paved the way to establishing democracy in the former Czechoslovakia, a communist country then dominated by the Soviet Union.
Some at the event even linked Havel’s willingness to stand up to a totalitarian regime with resisting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s appetite for expansion.
Gail Naughton, president and CEO of the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids, was among the honored guests at the ceremony. Naughton previously had said it felt “as if one of our own is being honored” due to Cedar Rapids’ “extensive historical and cultural ties with Czech and Slovak republics.”
“Being here in Washington, D.C., for the ceremonies and hearing the words of Vaclav Havel quoted throughout our nation’s capital has been nothing short of amazing and has created memories that will be forever etched into my mind,” she said Wednesday through a spokesman.
“The entire experience has sent chills down my spine.”
Dagmar Havlová, Havel’s widow, unveiled the bust, and a crescendo of applause followed.
The bust was created by Czech-American Lubomir Janecka, who emerged as an artist after the 1968 Soviet suppression of a rebellion in Czechoslovakia.
Congressional leaders celebrated the life and legacy of Havel, whose bust will join those of Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington in the Capitol’s Freedom Foyer.
“This is a man whose life story defines the transformations of which he spoke, from noted playwright to celebrated political icon, freedom of expression in art and government, from imprisoned dissident to the father of the revolution, to a president of a nation,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said.
Havel rose to national leadership only after spending five years in and out of prisons and enduring the suppression of his plays and essays, which won international recognition for their criticisms of communist rule.
Havel died Dec. 18, 2011, at age 75.
Czech Republic Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, in Washington for the event, said Havel himself had used the most appropriate words to describe such a ceremony: that no one who paid the price for freedom should be forgotten.
“While unveiling the bust, we do not make homage to him, but to each and every one who did not bend down before oppression and fought for freedom despite the fright of imprisonment, suffering or death,” he said.
Back in Prague, however, Czech President Milos Zeman was pelted with eggs Monday and confronted by an angry crowd demanding his resignation.
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., expressed concerns about Zeman’s “realignment” with Putin during a panel discussion earlier Wednesday at the Library of Congress.
“What we need to do is to think about how can we best counter this vast propaganda machine Putin has set up,” McCain said. “It’s time that we all went back to Havel’s principles, those guiding the pursuit of democracy for free and open societies.”
Political concerns aside, Albright praised Havel for using his moral authority not only to help those in his own country, but also for acting as a human rights spokesman in the international community.
“There was not a time he did not speak about the derogation of human rights anywhere in the world, and we should be doing more of that, that is where a new generation of leaders come from,” she said.
“This 25th anniversary provides a remarkable opportunity to help each other get through this difficult period.”
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