COMPARISON OF THE FIRST PRESIDENTS OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND SLOVAKIA AFTER THE “VELVET DIVORCE”: A PROSOPOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

This article analyzes the life path of the first two presidents of the Czech and Slovak Republics – V. Havel and M. Kovacs. With the help of prosopographic, as well as comparative methods, the author analyzed the activities of the first two future presidents of the Czech and Slovak Republics. In this article, the principle of historicism is significant, in particular, the conditions for the formation of both future presidents as personalities and specialists in their fields during the post-war occupation Soviet regime on the territory of Czechoslovakia. The article notes that the activities of the occupying Soviet administration, especially after the introduction of troops into Czechoslovakia in 1968, further encouraged, rather than reduced, the politicization of public sentiments, of which V. Havel was an active exponent in Prague, and later M. Kovács in Bratislava. V. Havel's creative activity in the field of dramaturgy increasingly acquired a political character, in particular after the events of 1968 in Prague. His underground struggle against the occupying Soviet authorities was more radical and frank after these revolutionary events, for which he was subsequently sentenced to five years in prison. After the “Velvet Revolution” of 1989, V. Havel was elected president of the joint Czech and Slovak Federal Republics, and after their divisions, he became the first President of the Czech Republic twice in a row (1993–2003). M. Kováč, being a professional banker and lecturer, was elected Chairman of the Federal Assembly after the parliamentary elections in 1992. The following year (after the division of one state into two), he became the President of the Slovak Republic (1993–1998). The first elected presidents of the Czech Republic (V. Havel) and the Slovak Republic (M. Kováč) took a course towards building sovereign democratic republics with market economies and an external political orientation towards the EU and NATO.