The passing of the modern Czech Republic’s first President, Vaclav Havel, will be mourned the world over, for the legendary leader of the Velvet Revolution was no ordinary politician—he was a world statesman. Few others were as passionate or gifted in articulating a vision of a free and open Czechoslovakia throughout the communist years. Havel gave voice to the ideals of individualism, human rights, and democratic accountability. Written in 1978 to inspire fellow freedom fighters across Europe, “The Power of the Powerless” will remain in the annals of literary political …
The cause of freedom lost a passionate advocate with the death of former Czech president, dissident and playwright Vaclav Havel. President Havel inspired freedom-loving peoples throughout Europe in 1989, the “year of miracles.” Defying one of the most brutal and repressive regimes in history, Havel led Czechoslovakia from the darkness of Soviet totalitarianism to the light of democracy. Small wonder that he was one of the first recipients of the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom, awarded by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. In the years that followed, Mr. Havel became …
It has been over two decades since Albania escaped the iron grip of communism, yet it is still struggling to sustain democracy. Since 2009, the same year it joined NATO, its elections have been marred by violence, with the Socialist Party using intimidation and mob rule to try to gain or maintain power. Sadly, Washington does not appear to be paying attention. Albania is a small country of about 3 million mainly Muslim people bordering Kosovo, Macedonia, and Greece in the Balkan Peninsula. It is one of the poorest countries …
This Sunday, people around the world will honor the 66th anniversary of D-Day, when over 160,000 troops from the United States, Britain, France and Canada bravely stormed the beaches of Normandy, marking a turning point in World War II. In Bedford, Virginia, a memorial to the invasion will be unveiled with statues of western Allied leaders, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Harry Truman. The memorial will also include a bust of dictator Joseph Stalin. Residents of Bedford are rightfully outraged. Annie Pollard, a Bedford County supervisor, and a …
During his State of the Union Speech President Obama underscored his goal of “getting to zero” nuclear weapons by citing Ronald Reagan’s aspirations for a world without nuclear weapons: I have embraced the vision of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan through a strategy that reverses the spread of these weapons, and seeks a world without them. With all due respect, this statement was misleading and disingenuous. Ronald Reagan’s long-term vision of a world without nuclear weapons presupposed a robust missile defense—the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)—that would render offensive nuclear …
How did the European left rationalize communism’s crimes and transform itself into a viable political force after the fall of the Soviet Union? It’s all explained in “Last Exit to Utopia: The Survival of Socialism in a Post-Soviet Era.” First published in 2000, the book by the late French intellectual Jean-Francois Revel is only now available in English. But given Revel’s insights into today’s leftist movements, it couldn’t be more timely. The old left’s attempt to “excommunicate” modernity, as Revel describes it, is as alive today as it ever was. …
“The Gulag Collection,” 50 compelling paintings of life and death inside the Soviet Union’s notorious prison camps, will be on view at The Heritage Foundation beginning this morning, Sept. 30. The exhibit opens as part of “The Year of Miracles: The Fall of the Berlin Wall,” a Heritage-sponsored event marking the approaching 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Gulag survivor Nikolai Getman created “The Gulag Collection,” an unparalleled visual record of the hundreds of penal camps that held more than 14 million political prisoners — many of …
For years, he worked tirelessly to tell the stories of the courage shown — and horrors endured — by the tens of millions who lived and died under tyrannical regimes. He honored those who resisted, those who were silenced and those whose names never would be known to the wider world. Now, though, Heritage Foundation scholar Lee Edwards is the one being saluted. And it’s gratifying to see the plaudits aren’t only from friends and allies in the conservative movement, but the peoples of former communist nations. In recognition of …
