Czech writer and politician. A widely known playwright whose works include The Garden Party (1963) and The Increased Difficulty of Concentration (1968), Havel became a civil rights leader after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968). He was elected president of Czechoslovakia in 1989 after the collapse of the Communist government, but resigned in 1992. He served as president of the newly formed Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003.