Korespondence 1978-2001 – Janouch František (2007)

The mutual correspondence between Václav Havel and František Janouch represents a unique source for understanding the domestic anti-communist opposition from 1977 to 1989. During this period, the activities of Charter 77 formed around Václav Havel and other representatives of Czechoslovak dissent, significantly supported and facilitated from abroad by Czech émigré and nuclear physicist František Janouch, who founded the Charter 77 Foundation in 1978 and has been its chairman ever since. The letters, traveling various routes typically between Prague or Hrádeček and Stockholm or Björknäs in Sweden, capture not only the emergence of a personal relationship between the two writers and their mutual friendly and creative support but also the practical dimension of this support: administrative matters, work instructions, mediation of contacts, purchases of technical equipment – computers, video cameras, tape recorders, digital radios – or financial support that was sent from abroad to those persecuted in their socialist homeland. Over 210 collected documents summarize all known correspondence from the years leading up to 1989. In the appendix, the reader will find several examples of letters from the post-1989 period that document significant social and personal changes that occurred...