Charter 77

Charter 77 (Charta 77 in Czech and in Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in communist Czechoslovakia from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members and architects were Václav Havel, Jan Patočka, Zdeněk Mlynář, Jiří Hájek, and Pavel Kohout. Spreading the text of the document was considered as a political crime.[1] After the 1989 Velvet Revolution, many of its members played important roles in Czech and Slovak politics. The group was linked to the National Endowment for Democracy.