The Power of the Powerless

The Power of the Powerless (Czech: Moc bezmocných) is an expansive political essay written in October 1978 by the Czech dramatist, political dissident and later politician, Václav Havel. The essay dissects the nature of the communist regime of the time, life within such a regime and how by their very nature such regimes can create dissidents of ordinary citizens. The essay goes on to discuss ideas and possible actions by loose communities of individuals linked by a common cause, such as Charter 77. Officially suppressed, the essay was circulated in samizdat form and translated into multiple languages. It became a manifesto for dissent in Czechoslovakia, Poland and other communist regimes.

Under the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, there was an omnipresent pressure exerted by the political apparatus on culture. Various methods were utilized to pressure citizens into compliance. Havel's philosophical mentor, Jan Patočka, who was also the co-spokesman of the human rights petition, Charter 77, died of a stroke in March 1977, after an eleven-hour interrogation by the Czechoslovak secret police regarding his involvement in the Charter.

After the launch of Charter 77, which coincided with the release of The Power of the Powerless, Havel was put under continuous pressure by the secret police. He was under constant government surveillance and they interrogated him almost daily. When he didn't cave, Havel was imprisoned. He was arrested in May 1979 and remained imprisoned until February 1983.

The Power of the Powerless was originally written by Havel in October 1978. It had its genesis in a planned book of Polish and Czechoslovak essays on the nature of freedom. Each of the contributors was to have received a copy of Havel's essay and then to respond to it. However only the individual Czechoslovak essays were "published" and distributed in samizdat form in 1979 after Havel was arrested along with other members of the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted (Výbor na obranu nespravedlivě stíhaných or VONS); an organization that Havel co-founded in 1979. An English translation by Paul Wilson was published in 1985 in a volume of essays edited by John Keane.

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