The Anticharter (Czech/Slovak: Anticharta or officially, Za nové tvůrčí činy ve jménu socialismu a míru / Za nové tvorivé činy v mene socializmu a mieru [For New Creative Actions in the Name of Socialism and Peace]) was the 1977 reaction of the Communist Czechoslovak ruling power under Gustáv Husák, combined with a signature campaign by prominent cultural figures, condemning Charter 77, a civic initiative drawn up by Václav Havel and Pavel Kohout, among others, in 1976.
In 1976, a number of individuals from the artistic scene, including Jiří Němec, Václav Benda, Ladislav Hejdánek, Václav Havel, Jan Patočka, Zdeněk Mlynář, Jiří Hájek, Martin Palouš, Pavel Kohout, and Ladislav Lis put together a document critical of the Communist government, titled Charter 77, partly in response to the arrest of the rock band Plastic People of the Universe.
Government retaliation was swift and included dismissal from work, denial of educational opportunities for children of signatories, forced exile, loss of citizenship, and imprisonment.
[5] Others, including Bohumil Hrabal and Vladimír Neff, by signing the Anticharter, regained certain publishing opportunities that the regime had deprived them of due to their public opposition to the 1968 Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia.
[13] Film director Jiří Menzel, on the other hand, stated in an interview that the majority of people in Czechoslovakia served the regime at the time, and that he was not ashamed of his signature; rather, it was a disgrace to those who forced him to sign.