Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Václav Benda (August 8, 1946, Prague - June 2, 1999) was a Czech political activist and mathematician. Along with other dissidents in the 1960s and 70s, Benda led the movement for greater political freedom and expression in the communist-dominated nation. His efforts were largely unsuccessful and led to constant harassment from authorities and social exclusion.In 1977, the same year he became a signatory to Charter 77, the Czech dissident movement group, he wrote in "samizdat" (underground publishing) fashion, a short seminal tract called "Parallel Polis" (translated into English in 1978).