Prague Winter

Lightning Rods

On the other hand, Vaclav Benda (four years) is a Catholic intellectual, though his current occupation, stoker, does not make this immediately apparent. But the 32-year-old Benda had been a mathematician/computer designer and a samizdat philosopher before he was forced to find himself a new job. That was when he volunteered to become one of the three persons who serve as Charter 77’s official spokesmen—and as lightning rods for the government’s ire.