Václav Havel 5 October 1936 18 December 2011 was a Czech statesman author poet playwright and former dissident Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia on 31 December 1992 and then as the first president of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003 He was the first democratically elected president of either country after the fall of communism As a writer of Czech literature he is known for his plays essays and memoirs