Letters to Olga: Exhibition showcases Havel’s prison correspondence
Among events in Prague marking the imminent 90th anniversary of Václav Havel’s birth is an exhibition showcasing letters the then dissident sent his wife during a lengthy spell in a communist jail. The often philosophical correspondence was collected in the book Letters to Olga, which became one of Havel’s best-known publications
Václav Havel wrote 161 missives to his wife Olga Havlová when he underwent his first serious jail term between 1979 and 1983, when he was let out early due to dangerously poor health.
Curator Petr Kotyk says this is more than the number that later appeared in the book Letters to Olga, a key publication in the oeuvre of the then dissident writer.
“Fourteen were published in abridged form, and 14 others weren’t published at all. These were letters in which they discussed their most private matters, or letters that could have harmed someone. Václav Havel knew that those letters would be read. They were read by censors, who heavily edited them, and then they were read by members of his family and by friends, before being published.”
The letters on show feature tiny handwriting, reflecting the fact Havel had to cram information and ideas into the allotted four sheets of paper. Infringements, such as penning correspondence for illiterate fellow prisoners, led to solitary confinement – and were seized upon by the communist prison authorities as a pretext for denying him early release.
“Václav Havel’s 1,351 days in jail were an ordeal, a living hell. And he didn’t have to go – he could have taken advantage of a scholarship in the US. But because he stood in solidarity with people like Ivan Martin Jirous – who served seven and a half years, from 1976 to 1989 – and other prisoners, he rejected the regime’s offer and went to prison for activities that it considered subversive. Meaning, he spoke his mind and lived in truth.”
Though formally addressed to his wife, Havel knew that the letters would be read by a wider group of people – and shaped them accordingly.
And he was still behind bars when they were first collected in book form as Letters to Olga by his editor friend Jan Lopatka, says Petr Kotyk.
“Here in this display case you can see a samizdat edition published in 1982, which consisted of 16 letters. It focused on the philosophical core of his message, in which Václav Havel reflected on what lies beyond the universe and on the responsibility of human beings. Later the book Letters to Olga was brought out by the exile publisher Josef Škvorecký in Canada. Then in 1990 it was issued by the Atlantis publishing house, which was founded by former dissidents.”
The small but illuminating exhibition also boasts an array of international editions of Letters to Olga, attesting to the impact of the book, which was seen in the 1980s as having cemented Havel’s moral leadership, at home and abroad.
Museum of Czech Literature
Pelléova 22/44, Prague 6
Until September 30, 2026
