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Václav Bartuska

Czech writer, student leader in the Velvet Revolution.

(Czech Republic, 1968). A Czech writer and diplomat, ambassador-at-large for energy security for the Czech Republic, and adviser to the present Swedish presidency of the European Union, he was one of the student leaders of the Velvet Revolution in 1989. After the collapse of the communist regime he was elected as a Member of Parliament where he worked on dismantling the secret police. In 1990, he published his first novel, Polojasno, based on his experiences during the revolution. Some 230,000 copies of the book were sold. He has since been engaged in politics and writing, working in different countries of the world, including the United States, where he was a visiting researcher at Columbia University.

Update: 20 October 2009

Has participated in

1989. Europe, Twenty Years on from the Fall of the Wall