For more information
contact:
Svetlana Savranskaya/Thomas Blanton - 202/994-7000
Czechoslovak Documentation Centre http://www.csds.cz
Washington
D.C., January 6, 2007 - The Czechoslovak
human rights activists who launched the landmark Charter 77
movement secretly gathered their first 240 signatures on handwritten
cards without leaving copies with the signatories, but were
arrested 30 years ago today by the secret police on charges
of "subversion" and "hostility to the socialist
state and social system" before they could deliver the
original Charter to the Federal Assembly, according to Charter
77 and Czechoslovak secret police documents published in English
for the first time on the National Security Archive Web site
(www.nsarchive.org).
But the Chartists had already arranged for publication of their
manifesto in the Western press, where the Charter was featured
in major articles on January 7, 1977 in the Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung, Corriere della Sera, The
Times of London, and Le Monde. The latter featured
a cartoon of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev holding up a sign
labeled "Helsinki," in which a tiny citizen is holding
up his own "Helsinki" sign - neatly encapsulating
the contrast between the Soviet view of the 1975 Helsinki Final
Act as ratifying the boundaries of Europe as imposed by Josef
Stalin and World War II, versus the civil society focus on Helsinki's
human rights commitments (that even U.S. Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger had dismissed as empty rhetoric at the time).
Yugoslav dissident Milovan Djilas subsequently called Charter
77 "the most mature and accomplished program produced by
Eastern Europe from the war up to today" (New York
Times, April 14, 1977).
Charter 77 co-spokesperson Václav Havel, one of those
arrested on January 6, 1977 and subsequently president of Czechoslovakia
and then the Czech Republic from 1989 to 2003, told reporters
this week that Charter 77 could serve as a model for constructive
political culture, because it brought together "people
of diverse opinions, but unlike present-day Czech politicians
they were not always searching for what they could harm the
others with, but they cooperated and pulled all together"
(CTK Czech news agency, January 1, 2007). In Havel's reminiscences
about Charter 77 (prior to the 1989 "velvet revolution")
he prophetically commented that "something had taken shape
here that was historically quite new: the embryo of a genuine
social tolerance" that "would be impossible to wipe
out of the national memory."
"Charter 77 was a bolt from the blue in the otherwise
stagnant political atmosphere of Czechoslovakia," remarked
Professor Vilém Prečan, one of the editors of today's Web posting
and head of the Czechoslovak Documentation Centre in Prague.
"Together with movements for human and civil rights in
other countries of the Soviet bloc, Charter 77 became a vital
factor working from below in the Helsinki process and towards
the democratic revolutions of 1989."
The Web posting includes:
- original drafts of the Charter with handwritten edits
by Václav Havel and Pavel Kohout (who originally
proposed the name "Charter 77");
- typed and handwritten agendas for the conspiratorial meetings
of the nascent Chartists in December 1976 and January 1977
to organize the gathering of the first signatures;
- the original signature cards of Václav Havel and
other leading Chartists;
- the January 5, 1977 letter to the Federal Assembly signed
by Charter's three spokespersons that was confiscated by
the secret police from Havel and his companions January
6 on their way to present the Charter to the authorities;
- the first secret police report from January 6, 1977 calling
the Charter a "crude attack" by "hostile
elements" who "have been winning over other anti-socialist
elements";
- the January 14, 1977 legal opinion by the Czechoslovak
Communist authorities finding Charter 77 to be "untrue
and grossly slanderous… clearly pursuing the aim of
evoking hatred and hostility towards, or at least distrust
of, the socialist social and state system of the republic";
- the secret police report from April 1977 recording the
decision of the Communist Party Presidium not to prosecute
anyone solely on the basis of signing the Charter, but on
other grounds;
- contemporary reporting on Charter 77 in previously secret
documents by the CIA, the U.S. State Department;
- Professor Prečan's 1978 commentary on the impact of Charter
77;
- contemporary U.S. official statements about Charter 77
from the Congressional Record and presidential documents;
- Václav Havel's own reminiscences about Charter
77, courtesy of Paul Wilson, who translated (from the Czech)
Havel's answers to questions from Karel Hvídala
for the 1990 book Disturbing the Peace (New York:
Alfred A. Knopf).
Electronic
Briefing Book
Note: The following documents are in PDF format.
You will need to download and install the free Adobe
Acrobat Reader to view.
Section I: Charter 77
– The First Publication
January 6, 1977: “The Charter 77 Declaration” was unsuccessfully
presented to the Czechoslovak authorities, and the would-be
presenters were detained by the secret police.
January 7, 1977: “The Charter 77 Declaration” (dated 1 January
1977) reached the public in four daily newspapers abroad – the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The Times,
Le Monde, and Corriere della Sera. (Le
Monde had, as usual, already gone to press the afternoon
before the date written on the newspaper, but the organizer
of the simultaneous publishing of the Declaration, Hans-Peter
Riese, a German journalist and friend of Pavel Kohout's, had
failed to note this. The oversight turned out, however, to be
very useful, keeping publication all on the same day.)
January 8, 1977: The New York Times and The Washington
Post published their first stories on Charter 77, focusing
on the detention of the Chartists. The Times included
the quotation from the Communist Party newspaper Rudé právo
warning dissidents that “those who lie on the rails to stop
the train of history” must expect to get their legs cut off.
January 27, 1977: The full text of “The Charter 77 Declaration”
was published in The New York Times as well as the
U.S. Congressional Record.
Vilém
Prečan’s introduction to Charter 77 from
The Right to Know the Right to Act: Documents of Helsinki
Dissent from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Compiled
and edited by the staff of the Commission on Security and Cooperation
in Europe, Washington, D.C., May 1978.
Václav
Havel’s reminiscences about Charter 77,
reproduced with the kind permission of Paul Wilson, who translated
(from the Czech) Havel’s answers to questions from Karel Hvížďala
for the 1990 book Disturbing the Peace (New York: Alfred
A. Knopf). This excerpt is from pages 125-145.
Section II: The Czechoslovak Documents
A.
The Charter 77 Founding Documents
[Source: The
Czechoslovak Documentation Centre, Prague - Note: The originals
of most of the Czechoslovak documents published here are deposited
in the Security Services Archive (archiv bezpečnostních složek),
at the Ministry of the Interior, Prague]
Document
1. “Pavel Kohout Card.” Circa December 20, 1976
[Translation
by Derek Paton]
This notecard typed by Václav Havel summarized the plan for
how the organizers would proceed to organize the collection
of signatures for the Charter 77 Manifesto. This “Pavel Kohout
card” was prepared not later than on December 20 together
with the final version of the Charter 77 Declaration. Every
collector had an envelope with instructions on how to sign
a signature card, and their own signed card as an example.
The group of collectors was about ten people, who were instructed
not to leave the statement with anybody until after the publication.
After the publication the text of the Charter with all the
signatures would be distributed to every person who signed
it. Another provision defined how signatures would be checked
at the meeting scheduled for December 29, 1976 (the deadline
for collecting signatures) at 4 p.m. In the interview/memoirs
Disturbing the Peace, Havel mentions how surprised
he was when Mlynář came in with more than 100 signatures from
former Communists.
Document
2. Original drafts of Charter 77 text
These early drafts of the Charter 77 manifesto include handwritten
edits by Havel and Kohout. All the drafts were dated ten days
after the actual document date—a decision made by the organizers
to mislead the police. For example, the date proposed for
the publication was noted as January 17, 1977, whereas it
was actually set to be January 7. The draft dated December
27 was actually written on December 17. The handwritten page
is by Kohout. The two drafts were discussed at meetings on
December 16 and 17, and the final draft was agreed on December
18. The first draft was proposed by Havel. Kohout proposed
the name Charter 77, which was adopted on December 18, 1976.
Petr Uhl proposed to have three spokespersons instead of one.
Document
3. Draft agenda for January 3, 1977 meeting in Václav
Havel’s apartment
[Translation
by Derek Paton]
Václav Havel wrote and presented this draft agenda at the
January 3, 1977 meeting at his apartment, and the document
was later confiscated by the police during the house search
on January 6, 1977. Fifteen people participated in the meeting
(the room was overcrowded): all three spokespeople (Jan Patočka,
Jiří Hájek, Václav Havel), Zdeněk Mlynář, Václav Černý, Ludvík
Vaculík, Pavel Landovský, Jaroslav Šabata, Jan Tesař, Jiří
Němec, and some other organizers. This was for a very long
time the last quiet gathering of the Chartists undisturbed
by the police.
Document
4. Original signature cards: Václav Havel, Jiří Hájek,
Pavel Kohout, Zdeněk Mlynář, Jan Patočka, Rudolf Slánský,
Ludvík Vaculík, and Prokop Drtina
Document
5. Charter 77 Letter to the Czechoslovak Federal Assembly
signed by the three spokespersons (Jan Patočka, Jiří Hájek,
Václav Havel), January 5, 1977
[Translation
by Derek Paton]
This letter was meant to transmit the formal Charter 77 Declaration
to the authorities, but on the morning of January 6, Czechoslovak
State Security forces surrounded the car carrying Havel, Ludvík
Vaculík, and Pavel Landovský, who were on their way to present
the signed text to the Assembly and to the CTK news agency,
as well as mail the Charter to all the signers. The police
seized all the documentation, detained and interrogated not
only the three but other co-signers, and searched their houses.
But the process of releasing the Charter publicly, coordinated
by Kohout’s friend Hans-Peter Riese with help from Czechoslovak
émigrés who visited Prague for Christmas, had already put
the text in the hands of journalists in Munich and elsewhere
over the holidays, so the January 7 publication target was
achieved despite the efforts of the state security forces.
B. The Authorities
Respond to Charter 77
Document
6. Department of the National Security Corps, City of
Prague. “Decision,” January 6, 1977
[Translation
by Derek Paton]
This order from the Czechoslovak Secret Police (StB) began
criminal proceedings of Charter 77 activists, accused of the
crime of “subversion” (section 98 of the penal code) for their
“hostility towards the socialist social and state system of
the republic” in sending out “a crude attack” on the system.
Remarkably, the document notes that these “hostile elements”
actually “have been winning over other anti-socialist elements.”
Document
7. Department of Investigation, State Security Forces
(StB). “Decision,” January 11, 1977
[Translation
by Derek Paton]
This StB order adds yet more charges against the Chartists,
now accused of damaging the interests and reputation of Czechoslovakia
abroad (section 112 of the penal code) by disseminating abroad
“untrue reports on conditions in the republic.”
Document
8. Statement on “The Charter 77 Declaration.” January
14, 1977
[Translation
by Derek Paton]
This legal opinion by the Prosecutor General and the head
of the Supreme Court of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic,
with their colleagues the Czech Minister of Justice and the
chief prosecutor, concludes that the Charter 77 movement not
only violates sections 98 and 112 of the penal code, as the
StB already alleged, but also section 100 on “sedition.” These
top legal authorities call Charter 77 “untrue and grossly
slanderous… clearly pursuing the aim of evoking hatred and
hostility towards, or at least distrust of, the socialist
social and state system of the republic.”
Document
9. Information on the current results of the investigation
into the case of “Charter 77,” about April 1, 1977
[Translation
by Derek Paton]
This StB document notes that the criminal proceedings against
the Chartists started on January 6, and by April 1, 1977,
251 persons had been interrogated. Most interestingly, the
report refers to a decision made by the Czechoslovak Communist
Party Central Committee Presidium that nobody should be charged
specifically on the grounds of signing the Charter, but only
on other grounds. This is the only known documentary reference
to that Presidium decision.
Section III: U.S. Documents
Document
1. CIA National Intelligence Daily. January 28, 1977
[Source: Carter Presidential Library, CIA CREST database]
This CIA summary of current intelligence, circulated daily
to top U.S. policymakers, reports speculation that the Czechoslovak
regime might try to deport dissidents who signed Charter 77,
especially Václav Havel, Pavel Kohout, Jiří Hájek, Jiří Lederer,
Ludvík Vaculík. 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.
Document
2. CIA National Intelligence Daily. February 8, 1977
[Source: Carter Presidential Library, CIA CREST database]
The daily CIA summary mentions that the Czechoslovak authorities
are reluctant to issue indictments against dissidents directly
linked to Charter 77, but at the same time are maintaining pressure
on the supporters and trying to downplay its significance. The
CIA also notes the Charter’s potential to create serious problems
for the USSR with the approach of the Belgrade Conference.
Document
3. CIA Directorate of Intelligence, Intelligence Memorandum.
“Dissident Activity in East Europe: An Overview.” April 1, 1977
[Source: Carter Presidential Library NLC-7-17-5-4-7]
This CIA overview notes the effects of the Soviet détente policy
and the Helsinki accords as new factors in Eastern Europe. It
emphasizes that “the Czechoslovaks have taken center stage among
East European dissident intellectuals by their direct challenge
to regime practices regarding civil rights, as outlined in ‘Charter
77,’” and the surprisingly large number of the “Chartists.”
Document
4. CIA National Intelligence Daily. July 14, 1977
[Source: Carter Presidential Library, CIA CREST database]
The CIA daily notes a new release of Charter 77 documents on
cultural and literary censorship in Czechoslovakia, and reports
that since the original manifesto was published, many dissidents
have been silenced by official harassment, but that Zdeněk Mlynář,
who took asylum in Austria, continues to work on behalf of Charter
77 by helping to organize Western pressure on the Czechoslovak
authorities.
Document
5. Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research.
Weekly Highlights of Developments in Human Rights. “Hajek to
give up leading Charter 77 role.” April 12, 1978
[Source: FOIA release to National Security Archive]
The State Department’s intelligence bureau reports that Jiří
Hájek is considering resigning from his post as spokesman for
Charter 77 as a result of internal factional disagreements in
the movement and because of the growing strength of the more
militant wing of the movement.
Document
6. Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research.
Weekly Highlights of Developments in Human Rights. “Dissidents
draft statement.” August 16, 1978
[Source: FOIA release to National Security Archive]
The report mentions the first instance of cooperation between
the Czechoslovak and Polish dissidents in issuing a joint statement
of Charter 77 and the Polish Workers Defense Committee (KOR)
on the anniversary of the Soviet-led military intervention of
1968.
Document
7. Department of State Bureau of Intelligence and Research.
Weekly Highlights of Developments in Human Rights. “Polish-Czechoslovak
dissident cooperation.” September 13, 1978
[Source: FOIA release to National Security Archive]
The INR weekly reports another case of cooperation between
the Charter 77 and KOR, when Czechoslovak dissidents asked the
Polish Committee to publish a statement on the harassment of
Chartists by Prague authorities. According to information from
the U.S. Embassy in Prague, as many as 50 Chartists might be
considering emigrating as a result of constant police surveillance
and harassment.
Document
8. Department of State Bureau of Intelligence and Research.
Weekly Highlights of Developments in Human Rights. “Police move
to prevent contacts with Polish dissidents.” October 12, 1978
[Source: FOIA release to National Security Archive]
INR reports that Charter 77 spokesman Jaroslav Šabata was arrested
in connection with his efforts to organize cooperation between
the Czechoslovak and Polish dissidents. The report mentions
that the Czechoslovak police might have penetrated the Charter
77 movement and decided to move against the Charter activists
to prevent wider contacts between dissidents of the two countries.
Document
9. Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research.
“The Human Rights Movement in Czechoslovakia.” October 11, 1979
[Source: FOIA release to National Security Archive]
This detailed eight-page report traces the accomplishments
of Charter 77 movement and the obstacles it had to face on the
eve of its third anniversary. Charter activities are said to
have focused Western attention on the repressive character of
the Czechoslovak regime. The latter’s crackdown on the dissidents
has opened a new breach between Communist parties in the East
and West, set back the regime’s attempts to gain international
acceptability, and caused some embarrassment to Moscow in its
attempts to pursue détente policy with the West. However, the
report describes the Charter’s prospects in accomplishing its
goals as “bleak,” because “the regime has all the necessary
levers of power and coercion at its disposal and will not hesitate
to use them if threatened,” and due to a lack of popular support
outside the intelligentsia circles. “Despite these bleak prospects,
the movement deserves respect, admiration, and sympathy for
its ability to survive thus far and for its willingness to confront
the regime in the face of overwhelming odds.”
Document
10. Office of Public Liaison Submission from the Czechoslovak
National Council of America. “Czechoslovakia since Belgrade:
Compliance with the Provisions of the Helsinki Final Act.” April
17, 1980
[Source: Carter Presidential Library, Office of Public Liaison
Files]
The Czechoslovak émigré organization provided the Carter White
House with this report documenting recent police harassment
of the Charter 77 movement activists and their family members.
The report describes the trial of six signatories of the Charter
in October 1979 as “only a small sample of the violations by
the Czechoslovak authorities of their international obligations
and accepted standards of justice.” All six were found guilty
of the crime of subversion of the republic and were sentenced
to prison terms ranging from two to five years. The report also
deals with police actions against young people, discrimination
in education, and severe limitations on freedom of information.
Section IV. U.S. Official
Statements on Charter 77
Document
1. Department of State Comments on Subject of Human Rights
in Czechoslovakia. Department of State Bulletin, January 26,
1977
In this first official U.S. statement on Charter 77, Fredrick
Brown, Director of the Office of Press Relations, reads a statement
to the press noting the signing of Charter 77 – “some 300 individuals
[in Czechoslovakia] have petitioned the government to guarantee
the rights accorded them by the Czechoslovak Constitution, the
international covenants on civil and political and on economic,
social and cultural rights, and by the Helsinki Final Act.”
He called on all the signatories of the Final Act to “strongly
deplore the violations of such rights and freedoms wherever
they occur.” The diplomatic cables from the U.S. Embassy in
Prague that provided the basis for this statement are the subject
of current Freedom of Information Act requests by the National
Security Archive but are not yet declassified.
Document
2. The Helsinki Spark. Remarks by Hon. Dante Fascell, House
of Representatives, January 26, 1977
Congressman Fascell talks about the wave of dissent in the
countries of Eastern Europe and calls it “the thirst for liberty.”
He notes the repressive response of the Communist authorities
throughout the region and the resolve of Charter 77 signatories
in Czechoslovakia. “In the context of the Helsinki agreements—whose
implementation the Congress formed the Commission on Security
and Cooperation in Europe to evaluate—the campaign against freedom
and human rights amounts to a breach of a crucial promise.”
He asks for the full translation of the Charter 77 Manifesto
to be reprinted in the Congressional Record.
Document
3. Czechoslovakia and Charter 77. Remarks by Hon. James
Blanchard, House of Representatives, February 2, 1977
Congressman Blanchard informs the House about his protest to
the Czechoslovak ambassador against the harassment of the dissidents
by the authorities. A full translation of the Charter 77 Manifesto
is included in the remarks.
Document
4. Statement by the President of the United States Ronald
Reagan. Czechoslovak Human Rights Initiative. December 31, 1986.
Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, vol. 22, no. 53
p. 1681
Ronald Reagan gives high praise to the accomplishments of Charter
77 movement on the eve of its tenth anniversary. He emphasizes
that “Charter 77, Eastern Europe’s longest lasting human rights
initiative, served for ten years as a champion of civil and
human rights, a repository for national values, and a cultural
and publishing network at home and abroad.... By their activities,
Charter 77 signers have in countless small and large ways pushed
back the gloom over Czechoslovakia’s barren political landscape.”
Document
5. The 10th Anniversary of Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia.
Remarks by Hon. Steny Hoyer, House of Representatives, January
7, 1987
Congressman Hoyer introduced a resolution to commend the Charter
77 human rights organization on the tenth anniversary of its
establishment, and emphasized its contribution to the achievements
of the Helsinki Act: “Ten years after the birth of Charter 77,
the quiet, relentless push for dialog has found partners—in
likeminded movements throughout Eastern Europe.”
Document
6. Human Rights and Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia. Remarks
by Hon. Dante Fascell, House of Representatives, January 29,
1987
Congressman Fascell commends highly the achievements of Charter
77 as “the beacon of hope and light, not just for the people
of that unfortunate country, but throughout Eastern Europe.”
He informs the House that the members of the U.S. Helsinki Commission
had nominated Charter 77 as a candidate for the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1987.
Document
7. Helsinki Commission Chairman Nominates Czechoslovak Human
Rights Activist for Nobel Peace Prize. Remarks by Hon. Dennis
DeConcini, U.S. Senate, February 7, 1989
Senator DeConcini notes that the whole world is watching Czechoslovakia,
where Václav Havel remains in prison. “In spite of relentless
harassment by the authorities, including imprisonment, repeated
detentions, house searches and confiscations of property, Havel
has remained active in the struggle for human rights.” Senator
DeConcini and Representative Hoyer have nominated Václav Havel
for the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize.