ABSTRACT
According to Vaclav Havel, Charter 77 was solely concerned with seeking the truth. Havel's remarks were made in a debate about Charter 77 conducted by four dissidents in Prague under the moderation of their fellow dissident Petr Uhl. They were, in addition to Havel, Ladislav Hejdanek, Vaclav Benda, and Jiri Hajek. All the discussants agreed that the individual signatories of Charter 77 were fully entitled to hold their own political views, right-wing or left. Benda spoke of the art required for Charter to survive, to keep being innovative, and to remain relevant. To mark ten years of its existence, Charter 77 appealed to the Czechoslovak public to stand up for democratization, reform, and civil rights. While nowhere referring to Mikhail Gorbachev's reformist designs, the document obviously noted them and the pressure that they exerted on the Czechoslovak establishment.
