The essay was written in October 1978 and officially suppressed, circulated in samizdat form and translated into multiple languages. It became a manifesto for dissidents in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and other communist states.
As Solidarity activist Zbigniew Bujak said of the essay: “When I look at the victories of Solidarity, and of Charter 77, I see in them an astonishing fulfillment of the prophecies and knowledge contained in Havel’s essay.”