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Dossier. L’Est socialiste et le Sud : coopération éducative et formation des élites

The University of 17 November in Prague: Students from Third World countries in Czechoslovakia, 1961-1974

L’université du 17 novembre à Prague : les étudiants du tiers monde en Tchécoslovaquie, 1961-1974
Marta Edith Holečková
p. 647-668

Résumés

Pendant la guerre froide, la politique de la Tchécoslovaquie en Afrique, en Asie et en Amérique latine ne se réduisait pas à la coopération militaire et économique. Des centaines de bourses étaient accordées aux étudiants étrangers et, en 1961, le gouvernement fondait l’université du 17 novembre spécialement pour les jeunes venant des pays en voie de développement. Inspirée par les politiques internationales de coopération éducative, tant de l’Union soviétique que de certains pays occidentaux, Prague considérait alors que cet établissement formerait une élite socialiste et pro-tchécoslovaque qui occuperait des postes importants dans les pays nouvellement indépendants. L’article retrace la création, les objectifs et le fonctionnement de l’université du 17 novembre. Il examine également ses faiblesses et montre comment le changement dans la politique tchécoslovaque vis-à-vis des pays du Sud amena le gouvernement à fermer l’établissement en 1974. Toutefois, l’article suggère que l’université du 17 novembre incarna les ambitions du pays d’établir une relation étroite avec le tiers monde et eut un impact considérable sur son paysage académique.

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Texte intégral

  • 1 Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (Cambri (...)
  • 2 Maxim Matusevich, “Journeys of Hope: African Diaspora and the Soviet Society,” African Diaspora, 1 (...)

1In the early 1960s, a specialised school for foreign students was established in Prague, the University of 17 November (Univerzita 17. listopadu, USL). Its name was a reference to the day in 1939 when the German occupation authorities closed Czech universities following a series of demonstrations. Since 1941 this day has been commemorated as International Students’ Day. The decision to establish USL was taken in 1960 against the background of a rapidly changing international environment. On the one hand, the transition to independence of Asian and African countries was dramatically changing the political geography worldwide. On the other hand, developed countries had initiated ambitious international cooperation policies to preserve their influence over the newly independent South.1 Educational assistance and the training of postcolonial elites were major components of these policies.2

  • 3 National Archive (NA), fond (f.) Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (ÚV KSČ (...)

2In light of these developments, the Czechoslovak regime also decided to use international education as a means for improving its relations with and promoting its interests in the emerging non-European countries.3 This line of thought was based on the optimistic assumption that by training a new generation of specialists — members of the emerging national elites of postcolonial states — Czechoslovakia would be able to forge international partnerships with a great political and economic potential for the future. These premises lay behind the foundation of USL.

3This article relates the history of this sui generis university. It retraces the political context as well as the views in Czechoslovakia at that time to explain why this small country without any colonial past became, at least for a while, an important partner for non-European states in their state-building endeavours. The concept of a separate university for international students illustrates both the optimism and the pragmatism that characterised Prague’s international policy in this period. However, as this article argues, the expectations placed on the new school failed to materialize for various reasons. Prague’s engagement with Third World countries gradually decreased and by 1974 USL disappeared. Still, even though USL was a short-lived experiment, it did have a significant impact on Czechoslovak academia and society. To some extent, USL contributed to the establishment of new study programmes in area studies. More importantly, it created the conditions for both the hosts and the guests to experience cultural diversity within an international setting, and to witness problems that arose from this cross-cultural encounter.

4The issues raised in this article are different from the common assumptions about this school. Still today, USL has the reputation of an ideologically oriented university, in which prominent foreigners with ties to the secret services studied under the auspices of ideologically committed faculty members. Moreover, even scholarly accounts of the history of individual disciplines that were established at USL and continued to be further developed after USL’s dissolution, do not engage with the impact and legacy of the school. Instead, they avoid any mention of it. The experiences of large numbers of foreign nationals, some of whom settled permanently in Czechoslovakia, have also been ignored. It is therefore safe to argue that USL represents a “blind spot” in the current thinking around Prague’s engagement with the Global South.

5In this project, I used both archival and published sources. The published sources include the press as well as the journal Fórum zahraničních student [The Forum of International Students], which was published by USL. Most of the evidence, however, comes from the collection of USL documents held by the National Archives of the Czech Republic in Prague. This collection, which remains unprocessed, provides a multi-layered picture of the school involving students, faculty members, functionaries, officials, and other actors. However, within the limits of this article I cannot delve into the social and cultural history of the school, nor extend the scope to the memories and recollections of the actors involved. Rather, I focus primarily on USL as an institution in order to provide a comprehensive account of the school’s development over time, recover the views of Czechoslovak officials and faculty members, and highlight the school’s shortcomings. The current state of the USL archive and the gaps within it also account for my cautious approach.

Czechoslovakia, the Third World, and the establishment of the University of 17 November4

  • 4 The term Third World refers to Africa, Asia and Latin America. It was widely used during the Cold W (...)

6After the Second World War, Europe underwent a sweeping transformation which involved the massive relocation of people, establishment of new states, drawing up of new borders and the forging of new alliances and power groups. The first post-war election in Czechoslovakia in 1946 was won by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ). Following a deliberately provoked government crisis in February 1948, the party became the sole ruling political force in the country. Consequently, the country joined the Soviet Bloc. Nevertheless, Czechoslovakia did not become a hermetically sealed space. The country opened its doors to specific groups of foreign nationals who found temporary or permanent refuge there.

  • 5 Michal Zourek, Československo očima latinsko-amerických intelektuálů 1947-1959 [Czechoslovakia thro (...)
  • 6 Jiří Bašta, “Propagandistické využití kauzy amerického emigranta profesora G.S. Wheelera [The propa (...)
  • 7 Pavel Szobi, “Portugalci v ‘komunistické Ženevě’: Praha jako středisko antisalazarovské opozice (19 (...)

7The foreigners who arrived in the country in the late 1940s and onwards can be divided into three unevenly sized groups: war refugees, political exiles and university students. The first group mainly consisted of Greek and Korean children evacuated from their homes during the civil wars of 1946-1949 and 1950-1953, respectively. They represented thousands of people, a large part of whom returned to their homeland after the war. The second group consisted of members of the political opposition in their home countries who temporarily fled to Czechoslovakia, where they continued their political activities aiming to change the regime back home. This group, made up of individual national communities, totalled hundreds of people, being comprised of smaller groups, including Latin American communists,5 Americans,6 Portuguese,7

  • 8 Vladimír Nálevka, “Španělé v poválečném Československu [Spaniards in Post-war Czechoslovakia],” in (...)
  • 9 Karel Bartošek, Zpráva o putování v komunistických archivech: Praha – Paříž (1948-1968) [Report on (...)
  • 10 Ondřej Vojtěchovský, “Soudruzi, nebo vetřelci?: O životě cizinců v ČSSR na příkladu jugoslávské emi (...)
  • 11 Petr Zídek, Češi v srdci temnoty: Sedmadvacet historických reportáží o prvním čtvrtstoletí komunist (...)
  • 12 Ondřej Vojtěchovský, Z Prahy proti Titovi: Jugoslávská prosovětská emigrace v Československu [From (...)
  • 13 By way of comparison, according to the census on 1 March 1950 Czechoslovakia had slightly over 12 m (...)

8Spanish,8 French,9 and Italian communists,10 members of the Tudeh Party of Iran,11 and nearly a hundred Yugoslavs.12 However, unlike the first large group of war refugees – children and illiterate villagers – this second group included political émigrés, who in addition to a secure environment also found a space for their specific political work.13

  • 14 Pavel Urbášek, Jiří Pulec, Vysokoškolský vzdělávací systém v letech 1945-1969 [The higher education (...)

9The third and last group consisted of recipients of international scholarships who came to study at Czechoslovak universities. In the early 1950s, most of the students were from various allied European socialist countries. Yet the numbers gradually shifted in favour of students from non-European regions. During the period under scrutiny here, the number of international students ranged from the hundreds to the lower thousands. In 1963, there was a total of 3500 foreign students in Czechoslovakia, including postgraduate students, of whom 2183 came from Third World countries.14

  • 15 Vladimír Nálevka, Čas soumraku: Rozpad koloniálních impérií po druhé světové válce [Twilight era: T (...)

10Czechoslovakia’s foreign policy, in the meantime, followed the Soviet line. After Stalin’s death and in light of the developments in the international arena, the Soviet approach to developing nations changed. In April 1955, the Asian-African conference was held in Bandung, Indonesia, with representatives from 23 Asian and 6 African nations. Newly independent Asian and African countries positioned themselves as non-aligned in a bipolar world. Moscow’s turn to the developing countries was confirmed at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in February 1956 and during the international meeting of communist parties in Moscow in November 1957. Exploiting the various sources of tension between the Western powers and the developing world, the socialist countries began to offer preferential loans and military aid to support Third World aspirations and simultaneously promote their interests.15

  • 16 Jan Koura and Mikuláš Pešta, “Československo a studená válka v Africe. Přístupy, interpretace, rovi (...)

11Czechoslovakia became an important player in the international arena during these years. It was a relatively wealthy state with an advantageous geographic position and also had traditional ties to some of these regions from the interwar period. From Moscow’s standpoint, it mattered a lot that Czechoslovakia was a manufacturer of military equipment, which made it a major tool for increasing Soviet and Eastern bloc influence into certain countries. The “Year of Africa” in 1960, when 17 African countries gained independence, was a milestone in the process of decolonization and the development of African-Eastern Bloc ties. It was against this background that an increasing number of students, first from North Africa and the Middle East, and then from Sub-Saharan Africa started to reach Czechoslovakia. Around the same time, close ties were established with Sukarno’s Indonesia and Castro’s Cuba. Altogether, in accordance with Moscow’s foreign policy, Prague took steps to multiply its connections with the emerging Third World.16

  • 17 In 1960, several book series were launched, in particular the long-running Kolombus series at the M (...)
  • 18 In addition to Hanzelka and Zikmund, another popular radio presenter was Věra Šťovíčková-Heroldová, (...)
  • 19 For more information, see Jan Záhořík, “Česká afrikanistika před rokem 1989 [African studies in Cze (...)
  • 20 Ivan Hrbek et al., Dějiny Afriky I, II [History of Africa] (Praha: Svoboda, 1966).

12The growing engagement with non-European regions was reflected in Czechoslovak cultural life as well. In the public sphere and the academia, those years witnessed a growing interest in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Travelogues17 and various accounts from abroad18 were popular and widely published. Radio shows by the Czech adventurers Hanzelka and Zikmund, who had the unique privilege of being able to travel relatively freely anywhere in the world, were particularly successful. In the “Year of Africa”, the Faculty of Arts in Prague established an African Studies programme.19 This was conceived as a multidisciplinary area studies programme combining the history, anthropology, sociology and languages of Sub-Saharan Africa. The first representative publication of this generation of Czech Africanists and Orientalists was the two-volume History of Africa,20 written by a team of eight authors.

  • 21 Hana Čudová, Historická ročenka školství: Stručná ročenka školství v ČR 1953/54–1997/98 [Historical (...)

13Diplomatic relations with non-European countries tended to include agreements on cultural and technical cooperation, involving the provision of scholarships so that international students could attend Czechoslovak universities. After 1956, student applications were processed by the Ministry of Education and Culture. As international students increased, the University of Economics in Prague eventually established a specialised department for the organisation of courses for them. The department carried out various administrative tasks related to the foreigners’ arrival and stay. However, the department constantly struggled with the lack of staff and space, while the number of students kept increasing. According to the available data, in the academic year 1954–1955, 694 foreign students studied in Czechoslovakia, whilst five years later this number had shot up to 1471.21 The growing number of new arrivals meant that there was an urgent need to create better facilities for them. In this context state officials entertained the idea that a new academic institution would be able to address these needs and would also help the students to adapt to their new local conditions. The new institution listed “tailor-made” fields of study for students from developing countries and established a language centre for the teaching of Czech, with French, English and Spanish as the languages of instruction. Officials also collected information on the students’ home regions.

  • 22 Constantin Katsakioris, “The Lumumba University in Moscow: Higher Education for a Soviet-Third Worl (...)

14It was against this background that the Politburo of the Central Committee of the KSČ, the topmost level of the state’s power hierarchy, decided in the spring of 1960 to establish a new independent university for the training of international students, mainly from developing countries. The University of 17 November opened its doors on 1 September 1961 in Prague. The model for this new institution was the Peoples’ Friendship University in Moscow which had been established a year earlier. Named after the Congolese Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, who was murdered in 1961, the Lumumba University in Moscow was conceived as a symbol of the Soviet Union’s solidarity with the Third World.22

  • 23 It should be noted that the date continues to play a strong symbolic role in the Czech national con (...)
  • 24 Tomáš Pasák, 17. listopad 1939 a Univerzita Karlova [17 November 1939 and the Charles University], (...)

15The name of the University of 17 November also had several layers of symbolic meanings.23 It referred to the events that occurred in Prague at the start of the Second World War: in late October 1939, a peaceful demonstration took place in Prague to commemorate the 21st anniversary of Czechoslovakia’s independence, which was violently suppressed. When the demonstrations took place the state of Czechoslovakia had not existed for several months: on 16 March 1939, the country’s post-Munich Agreement remnants were occupied by Nazi Germany and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was declared. The remembrance of lost independence and sovereignty was therefore seen as a political provocation. During the demonstration, a young baker’s apprentice was killed and a medical student was gravely wounded, succumbing to his injuries on 11 November. The memorial event organised in lieu of his funeral was attended by several thousand people and turned into a protest against the Nazi occupation. The occupants used this opportunity as an excuse to close all Czech universities and clamp down on the intellectual elites. Early in the morning of 17 November, Nazi forces occupied the university dormitories in Prague and Brno. On the same day, nine representatives of the country’s student organisation were executed in Prague without trial; hundreds of others were interred in the Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg concentration camp. Most of the imprisoned students were released by late 1942. Czech universities did not reopen until May 1945. Thanks to the efforts of Czech students in exile in London, in cooperation with the government in exile, also in London, the date of 17 November was proclaimed International Students’ Day in 1941. Their aim was to highlight the resistance against fascism and other forms of oppression as a universal value that united young people around the world. The date of the commemoration was meant not only to refer to the victims of Nazi violence. It was also intended as a reminder of the values for which they paid with their lives: freedom, justice and solidarity. Furthermore, another dimension of this symbolic gesture was to show the world that the Czechs under the German Protectorate were a conquered nation that sought freedom and opposed any alliance with Germany. These political and moral values were reiterated in August 1946 when Prague hosted the First World Student Congress and the International Union of Students was established.24

  • 25 10 let University 17. listopadu v Praze [10 years of the University of 17 November in Prague] (Prah (...)

16In archival records there is no evidence of discussions surrounding the name of USL. It is however safe to argue that the name selected for the school was associated with the International Union of Students, which in turn was one of the organisations that provided scholarships and was therefore known outside Europe. The choice may have also been an attempt to highlight the shared social and national aspirations of Czechoslovakia and the Third World. The date symbolised the “struggle against nationalist aggression and exploitation,”25 which was the ideologically coded description of the reality of the decolonising world. The selection of this name for such a specific university may have also implied that higher education makes people free. It nevertheless remains an open question how familiar the events of the early days of the Second World War were to people in geographically and culturally remote regions and how universal the symbol truly was.

17At the same time, the new university cannot be reduced to a simple instrument of Czechoslovak foreign policy. In the framework of the national education system, it can be considered as a scholarly and pedagogical experiment, which was original in its focus on foreign students and the attention it paid to their educational needs.

  • 26 The programme offered an education in the arts with a specialisation in journalism and documentary (...)

18Similtaneously, USL was intended to pursue innovative academic work and to establish new study fields. One of these fields was translation and interpreting. The second field was tropical and sub-tropical agriculture, which was associated with the USL from its inception, but was later transferred to the University of Agriculture in Prague (today the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, under which the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences operates). Even so, the circulation of faculty members between the two institutions continued in subsequent years. It was also significant that at USL it was possible to study in languages apart from Czech and Slovak, namely English and French. Finally, the only other university to cater for foreign students in foreign languages was the Film and Television School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (Filmová a televizni fakulta Akademie muzickych uměni, FAMU). In 1981 FAMU introduced a two-year study programme called FAMU Special, allowing students to study in English.26

USL’s structure and study programme

19USL shared similar objectives with Lumumba University in Moscow. Contrary to Lumumba University, however, its primary mission was to give students from non-European regions the opportunity to integrate into the Czechoslovak education system. Initially, USL consisted of three faculties: the Faculty of Language and Preparatory Studies, the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology. The last one was however was abolished in 1966 with the Tertiary Education Act. This act redefined the school’s position and ordered it to focus exclusively on those subjects that were not taught at any other university in Czechoslovakia. This meant that the school narrowed its scope and, although this affected all incoming students who were at the beginning of their stay, only some a of them remained registered at USL for further study. For other universities, rather than being a partner institution, USL became a support organisation that ensured that the required level of Czech or Slovak language proficiency was achieved and solved all manner of problems related to the stay of foreign students. However, in academic terms it played a secondary role. After the adoption of the Federalisation Act of the Czechoslovak Republic, a Slovak branch of the University of 17 November was opened on 1 September 1969 in Bratislava under the Slovak name Univerzita 17. Novembra. Despite the agreements concluded between the ministries of education of both republics, however, the Slovak branch never became equal to the Czech institution.

  • 27 Ibid., 11.

20The Faculty of Language and Preparatory Studies organised a mandatory one-year course that every incoming student had to take. These courses were taught in various regional training centres all over the country. Here students not only learned the Czech language to a level that was necessary for their further studies, but also received basic information about the cultural, political and social situation in Czechoslovakia. The one-year preparatory course was also designed to even out the differences in terms of the educational background between students coming from countries with vastly different education systems. Students were assigned to various courses depending on the future study track, to ensure that they learned the necessary vocabulary. These tracks were defined as arts and humanities, medicine and natural sciences, technical sciences and economics, and social sciences. The course concluded with a final exam that at the same time served as an entrance exam to a specific university. According to available data, from the late 1960s and early 1970s, roughly six hundred students enrolled at the Faculty of Language and Preparatory Studies every year, coming from 60 countries: the Socialist Bloc, the Third World as well as from capitalist states27, representing the zenith of the university’s ten year existence. The courses were taught by secondary school teachers.

  • 28 “Stručný popis postupného budování University 17. listopadu [A brief description of the gradual dev (...)

21After completing the preparatory course, students either enrolled in one of the programmes offered by the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of 17 November or picked any other programme at a Czechoslovak university. This was a major difference with Lumumba University which used to enrol in its regular faculties most of its students who completed the preparatory programme. In USL’s case, the students transferred to other schools were still assigned to USL, which monitored their studies and was expected to handle any problems. This plan was confirmed by an official document, the Resolution of the Secretariat of the ÚV KSČ of 12 April 1963, which strengthened the role of the university as a teaching and organisational centre for students from developing countries studying at all Czechoslovak universities.28

22During their preparatory courses, the incoming students started to form their first perceptions about how a ‘socialist’ society worked and actually many of them experienced disillusionment. Their ideas about life in socialist Czechoslovakia were often idealised and they struggled with the many shortcomings and problems of everyday life. The clash between their expectations and the reality and the resulting shock may have led some to feel cheated. There is the question, of course, as to what ideas of socialism the students arrived with. It is doubtful that their awareness of the European state socialism was particularly realistic, and it is interesting that in some internal documents the dissatisfaction with the local conditions was considered to be a criticism of socialism itself. Students encountered various obstacles in their daily lives that made it difficult for them to adapt and they saw these as systemic shortcomings. One example of cultural friction was with Czech cuisine, which can be stodgy and poorly digested thanks to its high carbohydrate and protein content.

  • 29 NA, f. USL, k. 147.
  • 30 Ibid., k. 162.

23The students mainly missed fresh vegetables, exotic fruits, rice and quality coffee. Vitamin deficiencies had to be compensated for with tablets.29 The quality of the student accommodation was also low. Students had very little privacy and comfort and had to observe fairly strict rules, such as strictly defined visiting hours and other restrictions. These problems had been perennial since the founding of the university. The construction of its independent dormitory in Kajetánka, in Prague’s Břevnov district, solved these problems, but this happened in late 1973, that is towards the end of the university’s existence.30 The students’ calls for a more varied diet could be perceived by their peers and university staff as an excessive demand, as they expected that the people they had welcomed in solidarity from developing areas would be grateful for the standards offered, leading to misunderstandings. Furthermore, there was a certain indifference on the part of the domestic students and their organisations and they paid little attention to the difficulties their foreign peers had in adapting to their new environment. The image of socialist countries as a place of abundance and friendship quickly took a wrong turn.

  • 31 NA, f. Ministry of Education and Culture (MŠK) – scholarships, k. 168, inventory number (inv. č.) 2 (...)

24The political profile of the incoming students was a particularly complicated issue. The ideological world of enrollees was shaped by many specific circumstances – as they came from diverse social and cultural backgrounds. They had different experiences and opinions and found it hard to establish any common denominator. Students often shared the views of charismatic Third World-leaders including Nasser, Nehru, Sukarno and Nkrumah. But Czechoslovak officials had trouble coming to terms with these views. Reports from the preparatory courses indicate that students did not find particularly attractive the ideology of “proletarian internationalism.” Instead, they tended to imbue this term with various ideas that their Czechoslovak teachers found either impenetrable or unacceptable.31

25The social science programmes offered by the University of 17 November were meant to address the needs of Third World countries, which were in this period defined as fighting illiteracy, expanding the education system, and training national elites. Some of the programmes were therefore aimed at future teachers, public education officials and “broad profile” experts, meaning that the students were expected to gain knowledge in the fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry, general engineering disciplines and technical sciences in general. The social sciences programme was taught also in English and French, which was expected to make everything easier and more efficient. There was also a plan to offer courses in Spanish, but this was never implemented. The study programme took four years. The first two years focused on the “concentrated fundamentals of social sciences,” giving the students an insight into history, social sciences, political science, economics, state and legal theory and international relations. The students then picked one of several specialisations: political international relations, economic international relations, national economy planning, education theory and planning, social sciences, cultural policy, public administration or cooperative agriculture. The original plans for the school also foresaw that it would train doctors for the tropical and subtropical regions. This programme was never established, however, because of strong opposition from the Faculty of General Medicine of Charles University.

  • 32 The best-known Czechoslovak expert active abroad, who is however not related to the University of 1 (...)
  • 33 NA, f. MŠK – Scholarships, k. 1682, inv. č. 26, 1963-1964, General.
  • 34 Evžen Menert, Na západ od Londýna: Nepříliš souvislé vyprávění o Ghaně a okolí, přerušované zcela n (...)

26Although the university had great ambitions from its inception, it never managed to meet all the expectations and often faced unexpected problems. Even though teacher training was a major part of its mission, few students were interested in it. That is why the original intention gradually shifted, ambitions were lowered and the school also started opening to Czechoslovak students, who can generally be divided into two groups. The first were professionals32 who had typically already finished their university education and were preparing to leave Czechoslovakia to serve as advisors in other countries. They enrolled in a two-year distance learning programme in which they learned a foreign language, studied the culture of their chosen region and took a first aid course. These people included doctors, economists, representatives of various technical sciences and geologists, as well as cultural organisers and others. The plan was to enrol more than five hundred such students every year,33 although the exact statistics have not been preserved. This was a very heterogenous group of people, some of whom taught in foreign schools and in some very rare cases they have even left accounts of their activities.34

27Unfortunately, in the archival sources with a USL provenance, little attention has been paid to this group and since USL training was only one rung on their career ladder, they are now difficult to trace. The role of these people and the expertise they received are still neglected by historians, although it is worth noting that some of the contacts that were established at the time are still being cultivated today. For example, the Czech Geological Survey (previously the Central Geological Office), which to this day performs expert fieldwork in former developing countries. One of the employees of this institution in the 1970s was Ctibor Votrubec (1925-1997), a graduate of USL with specialised training. Votrubec lived in Ghana on several occasions and, amongst his other activities, contributed to the first Ghanaian national atlas.

28The second group were students of the Interpreting and Translation programme, which opened at USL on 1 September 1963. Translation studies constituted a recently established discipline even in the global context and experienced a major boom in the 1960s, alongside important developments in linguistics. Students always picked one major language, either English, French or Spanish, and a secondary language, either German or Russian. This programme was established at USL so as to give international students the opportunity to meet local students and establish a community together. These idealistic expectations may have had another, purely pragmatic reason – this was an easy way to give local students the opportunity to be in contact with native speakers of another language, which was certainly more convenient and cheaper than sending them abroad. The Czechoslovak state needed people with language skills who would later help its efforts in non-European regions.

  • 35 Prague City Archives (AHMP), f. KSČ, City Committee (MV) Praha 1950-1990, a. j. 766, 4 February 197 (...)

29While the university’s structure changed slightly over time, its original mission to focus on foreigners, experts and interpreters and translators remained unchanged. The two rectors of the university pursued these goals. The first one was Jaroslav Martinic, a lawyer, translator of French poets Guillaume Apollinaire, Arthur Rimbaud and others, erstwhile politician and diplomat.35 After 1969, the position was held by Otakar Taufer, also a lawyer and former Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at ULS. Taufer remained at the helm until the university closed its doors in 1974.

30The organisational structure of the university also included student unions which were self-governing. Their activities were coordinated with specific embassies while their domestic partner organisation was the Czechoslovak Union of Youth (ČSM). Throughout the university’s existence, there were 39 such national unions, 19 student groups and 2 federations, namely, the Federation of African Students and the Federation of Latin American Students. In 1962, the Youth Friendship Club was established in the historical centre of Prague by a decree of the university’s rector. This club was intended as a space where local and international students could meet, to which end it organised leisure time activities such as various trips, exhibitions of the work of foreign students, film screenings etc. The university staff hoped that such meetings would help resolve the problems of mutual distrust as well as the isolation of the international students.

  • 36 The period of the Prague Spring and the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops on 21 August 1968 was fo (...)
  • 37 Barbora Buzássyová, “Socialist Internationalism in Practice: Shifting Patterns of the Czechoslovak (...)

31The space for a more open debate concerning various social and political issues increased in the months preceding the Prague Spring. Czechoslovak presence in the Third World started to be criticized. It was pointed out, in particular, that the overall trade balance was not in Czechoslovakia’s favour and that the benefit from these relations was questionable. The idea that Czechoslovakia was incurring material losses from its relationships with developing countries and that foreign students were “eating from our pot” was very widespread in society. These doubts had already started to arise in the early 1960s, but, in conjunction with other international political developments after 1968, were to prove fatal for the university. The extensive political staff purges of the late 1960s and early 1970s also took their toll.36 The university lost much of its staff and the effectiveness of Czechoslovak diplomacy was significantly undercut. For a long time, international confidence in the people representing normalisation-era Czechoslovakia remained extremely low. Eventually, the university was abolished in 1974.37

  • 38 NA, f. USL, k. 187.
  • 39 “Plán rozvoje fakulty jazykové a odborné přípravy [Development plan of the Faculty of language and (...)

32There were three reasons for USL’s dissolution. Interest in Third World countries had waned at the time and did not rise again until after the second half of the 1970s, by which time the optimism of the late 1960s had faded. Even though foreign university students still came to Czechoslovakia, a special university catering for them seemed outdated. Secondly, from the perspective of Czechoslovak interests USL did not fully meet expectations. In many cases graduates did not return to their home countries for various reasons and, even when they did, it was not guaranteed that they would become part of their country’s local elite. In the sending countries, frequent regime changes and instability jeopardized Prague’s efforts to make long-term plans and relations. The final main issue was the “cleansing of the school”, which was so thorough and consistent that it practically crippled the school’s activities. A report from the end of 1970 stated that twenty full-time and fourteen part-time employees of the Faculty of Social Sciences were fired and further contracts with external employees were terminated.38 A total of forty-six employees left the university, of whom twenty-seven were not members of the KSČ.39 Checks continued and so the lack of qualified and reliable people and absence of political will meant that the previous confidence in the value of the project faded away.

Faculty members: Positions and profiles

  • 40 These years were a major milestone because, after the invasion by Warsaw Pact countries on 21 Augus (...)

33The permanent faculty members of the university were very few. The management’s task was to coordinate the work of external guest professors to ensure the best conditions for international students. Most of the teachers came from other universities, the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, scientific institutions under various ministries and bodies such as the Central Committee of the Science and Technology Association or the Central Agriculture Cooperative Committee. In general terms, faculty members can be divided into the following groups. First, the regular professors were selected by the Central Committee of the KSČ and were ideologically reliable. Second came a number of selected regular professors who were employed mainly because of their expertise rather than any strong ties to the KSČ. Finally, the external faculty members who were experts in a particular field that was to some degree prone to ideological interpretations. After 1969/1970, this categorisation essentially disappeared and only representatives of the first group remained.40 This does not apply to lecturers in the interpreting and translation studies department, which generally maintained its high level of expertise even after the purges. Some lecturers of this group were reported to maintain informal and friendly relationships with international students, inviting them to their homes and helping to adapt in Czechoslovakia.

34There was however a specific minority of lecturers or instructors whose “cadre profile” or political-ideological credentials were seen as questionable at best, but whose expertise was desperately needed. The university therefore often offered even these people full-time employment. A “cadre profile,” in the parlance of the time, was the umbrella term for an individual’s overall professional skills, political views and personality, focusing in particular on class background and attitude towards communism. It is worth reminding that cadre profiles were used to assign people to various jobs in the centrally planned economy. Anyone whose biography contained something that deemed them “unreliable” found that their cadre profile had a major impact on their life. This could include affiliation with a church, membership in a political party that had been abolished after February 1948 or extended stay in Western Europe during the Second World War. Foreigners who either temporarily or permanently lived in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s and 1960s were generally distrusted by the authorities.

  • 41 After the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was established, the army in the Czech lands was diss (...)

35Still, despite being a school with a political identity, USL gave a chance to qualified people who had unconventional cadre profile. Its teaching staff included the wife of a pilot of the British Royal Air Force who had served in the Czechoslovak Foreign Army during the war, a former soldier in the Czechoslovak Foreign Army during the war, the daughter of Spanish political exiles, a Greek political exile and a person who had fallen victim to the repressions of the early 1950s, i.e. the period when the KSČ was consolidating its power and liquidating its enemies.41 The university maintained their loyalty by giving them the opportunity to take up these highly qualified jobs, even though the lecturers themselves must have been all too aware of how fragile their position was.

International students and Czechoslovak society

  • 42 Daniela Hannová, “Problémoví elegáni: Arabští studenti v Praze v 50. a 60. letech 20. století [The (...)

36International students in Czechoslovakia could draw funds from several sources. One key factor for why the number of students increased significantly after the establishment of the University of 17 November is that the school started offering its own scholarships. This was in addition to scholarships provided by other institutions such as the United Nations, the International Union of Students, the World Federation of Democratic Youth or the International Agriculture and the Cooperative Union. The students could also pay for their studies out of their own pocket. Scholarships covered travel expenses, a contribution to clothing, a recreational stipend for the vacation period and a regular monthly income for accommodation and basic life expenses. In some cases, students came from the prominent families of the emerging national elites, as was the case of the Arab community documented by Daniela Hannová42, but more often they were ordinary youths with links to communist or other “progressive” forces, who had completed their secondary education and apparently had the appropriate personal profile: they were sufficiently motivated and ambitious enough to go and study in a distant and in many ways foreign country. Selecting the students was the responsibility of the local authorities in the home countries, in conjunction with the Czechoslovak embassy, which set quotas for individual areas of study such as technical subjects, art, education or economics. The students’ personal files, if preserved, are not accessible, and the university did not compile data on the social composition of the student body. Internal documents contain little information on the social background of the foreign students. It is clear, however, from the documents relating to student accommodation that the foreign students started their studies at a later age than their Czech peers. In some cases, the students had a married life in their home countries, but it was undesirable for them to go to Czechoslovakia with their partners as it was not possible to provide them with comfortable living conditions. If they married a local citizen during their studies, similar difficulties arose.

  • 43 NA, f. USL, k. 159; NA, f. USL, k. 160.

37A glimpse into the students’ experiences comes from Fórum zahraničních studentů, the students’ journal dealing with the life of international students in Czechoslovakia from their own perspective.43 This was first published in January 1968 but was forced to close in October 1969 by a decree of the Ministry of Education, effective immediately. Its existence therefore largely coincides with the Prague Spring, a period of overall liberalization in society that enabled at least some discussion on topics that had previously been taboo. The journal was the first platform where students could talk about their experiences with xenophobia and racism. The Fórum zahraničních studentů was greatly welcomed by the students as they felt that it allowed them to express what they really thought about life in

  • 44 [abc], “Případ Jarov [The Jarov Case],” Fórum zahraničních studentů 1, 3 (1968).

38Czechoslovakia.44 It gave students the space to share their experiences and it is clear from the issues covered in the journal and from the preserved archival materials of the editors that the students made extensive use of this opportunity. For example, students criticized the negative stereotypes, which usually stemmed from ignorance about the alleged backwardness of their countries. Through sharing their own experiences, they attempted to deconstruct these stereotypes and project a fuller image of the situation in their home countries.

39The Fórum was relatively non-conforming and open to various opinions, even though the University of 17 November originally expected it to be used as an educational tool for spreading the dogmas of communist ideology. The content covered many different genres including poetry, short stories, news reports, op-eds, essays, feuilletons and, surprisingly, often also obituaries. Some foreign students passed away because of a “severe illness”, such as a stroke, heart disease or traffic accidents. The number of student obituaries is surprising, and we can only speculate about the reasons. Given how thorough the mandatory medical examination was for all incoming students, the causes may have been neglected, long-untreated diseases from the past. The Rector of the University of 17 November was informed about the content of each issue in advance.

40Shortly before the first issue was published, the editors of Fórum reached an agreement with the student expedition to Lambaréné in Gabon, which was supposed to regularly send back news and reports from their journey. The expedition’s destination was the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Gabon, which found itself in a financial and material crisis after the death of its founder in 1965. The expedition, which had the dual purpose of travel and charity work, was sponsored by the Rector of Charles University Oldřich Starý, a physician and head of the neurology clinic at the Faculty of General Medicine. The group consisted of students and recent graduates of Charles University and the Czech Technical University. Many of the participants later became leading figures in academic or public life. The expedition left Prague on 1 January 1968 and returned to Czechoslovakia on 13 September of the same year, that is after the occupation by Warsaw Pact countries. On their journey, the travellers were often invited as guests to various events organised by Czechoslovak embassies, local universities and other official bodies. Their mission, given to them by the USL rector, was to establish contacts with graduates of Czechoslovak universities and report back.

  • 45 Fórum zahraničních studentů 1, 9 (1968).
  • 46 In the German original Zwischen Wasser und Urwald.
  • 47 Fórum zahraničních studentů, 2, 1 (1969).
  • 48 Fórum zahraničních studentů, 2, 2 (1969).

41The expedition was both highlighted and questioned in Fórum’s pages in a discussion between a student from Trinidad, a representative of the university, and another member of the expedition.45 The Czechoslovak public generally agreed that the expedition was meaningful. The foreign student, however, saw Schweitzer as a “colonial servant.” He did not find the fact that Schweitzer did his work for free and at great personal cost to be of any consolation. He also quoted several passages from Schweitzer’s book On the Edge of the Primeval Forest.46 Here Africans were described as lazy people who wanted money and profits but were unreliable and unable to work independently. The student concluded: “I used to wonder why so many people here in Czechoslovakia, including students of the social sciences, have such distorted views and confused ideas about Black people. But when I realise that Dr Schweitzer is celebrated here as the saviour of Africans and that his book has been republished seven times in 40,000 copies, I wonder no longer.” The teacher at the University of 17 November criticized the student’s approach, pointing out that he was guilty of the same kind of generalisations that he had criticised. In the next part of the polemic, the student pointed out that even in Gabon, Schweitzer’s mission was seen as quite controversial, because many of the diseases that he fought there were first brought to Africa by the colonisers, and hence it was unsurprising that the local population did not know how to combat them. But there is such a thing as traditional African medicine that is effective against local diseases and if “white man” never came to Africa, then Africa would not need European hospitals.47 Albert Schweitzer was defended by one of the members of the expedition, Luboš Kropáček, later an interpreter, scholar of Arabic and an expert on Africa, who explained Schweitzer’s activities as being in the context of the period prior to the First World War and pointed out that his motivations were exclusively ethical.48

  • 49 For example: Dagmar Vaněčková, “Exotika dálek na vlastní kůži [Exotic distances at first hand],” Vl (...)
  • 50 These examples include well-known Czech personalities such as the actress Martha Issová, who has Sy (...)

42This brief example of discussions in Fórum indicated that from the very beginning, the mutual relations between international students and Czechoslovak society kept running into many problems that were difficult to resolve. Even long before the journal was created, the state authorities and the university were working on various tools that aimed to promote at least a somewhat harmonious coexistence. Their efforts were, however, not very successful. I now turn my attention to several cases of conflict situations and try to interpret them, but with the necessary caveat that the coexistence was generally quite complicated and information in the archives only comes from one side of the conflict. Even though I deliberately speak of conflict and misunderstanding, it should be remembered that in many cases, coexistence was friendly and untarnished by any issues. Many international students established mixed families in Czechoslovakia. Precise data is not available, but from the university’s internal documents and from the contemporary press it is clear that this was not exceptional. In the 1960s the weekly magazine Vlasta regularly published stories reflecting on the experiences of multi-ethnic relationships.49 In Czech public life it is still possible to trace the life stories of the descendants of these mixed families, including through people in the public eye who speak openly about their foreign roots.50 For many graduates, Czechoslovakia became a new home when they found that they could not return to their own country for political reasons or when they came back several years later because of war or crisis in their home country.

  • 51 “Studenti z ciziny – naši přátelé: Beseda s posluchači University 17. listopadu [Students from abro (...)
  • 52 Daniela Hannová, “ʻVětšinu času věnují planým řečem a flirtu s děvčatyʼ: Arabští studenti v Praze ( (...)

43For obvious reasons, reports of conflicts are more common in the archives than reports of normal everyday life. The students visited various evening entertainment establishments and organised parties in the dormitories. Through these contacts with the Czechoslovak society, they often learned more about how the Czechoslovaks perceived their presence and how they felt about it. Archived reports of the disciplinary committee and various other administrative bodies make it difficult to tell exactly who was at fault in cases of conflicts. With respect to the surrounding context, however, it can be said that many conflicts had racist or xenophobic motivations. Racism of course did not apply only to African students, but these feature in the reports most often. Other oft-mentioned causes of conflicts were relationships with women and the use of alcohol. Conflicts related to these issues appear frequently not only in the university’s internal documents, but also in the contemporary press,51 mainly in relation to Arab students.52 Some students were apparently attractive to local girls, behaved gallantly and walked around elegantly dressed, arousing the envy and jealousy of their Czech counterparts. Foreign students enjoyed the nightlife in pubs and nightclubs and irritated the locals with their presence. The academic authorities were also annoyed by the way they spent their leisure time, as they saw it as uncultured and pointless. Studying, organised sports and activities in organisations, such as the ČSM and the student unions, were considered to be more suitable ways for students to spend their free time. Conflicts are also mentioned in the small surviving sample of archival documents of the Secret Police (Státní bezpečnost, StB).

  • 53 Hannová, “Problémoví elegáni.”
  • 54 Tuzex vouchers were used in Czechoslovakia to purchase luxury or foreign goods from Tuzex, a specia (...)

44Generally, cases of conflict can be grouped into several categories. The first category included clashes between Czechoslovak and international students, typically in dormitories, restaurants and other places. In some cases, the foreign students were accustomed to a higher standard of living, whilst those foreign students who came from poor backgrounds could make additional money on top of their scholarship as interpreters or in work brigades.53 Significantly, when foreign students received money from abroad, this money came to them in the form of Tuzex vouchers,54 which entitled them to buy exclusive goods that were unavailable through regular retail networks. The relative wealth and privileges of some of the students were obvious. In the popular perceptions it was easy to extend this image to the entire foreign student community. The second fact that reinforced the stereotypical image of the rich student was that they showed their dissatisfaction with the student meals by going to restaurants, which was seen as an inappropriate luxury and self-indulgence. Meetings in informal circumstances boosted by alcohol gave the Czechoslovak students an opportunity to vent their frustration.

  • 55 “Koncepce hospodářských styků s hospodářsky málo vyvinutými zeměmi na období 3. pětiletky a generál (...)

45Conflicts also arouse with various groups of foreign students because of political differences, personal animosities or disappointments. The polemic on the Lambaréné student expedition highlights another source of tension: international students, often Africans, did not approve of the way their continent was portrayed in the Czechoslovak media. In this light, the information used in the media to increase awareness among Czechoslovak citizens did not achieve the expected result. The students often felt insulted by the dominant rhetoric and not even the high-ranking political representatives knew how to approach these issues without falling into the trap of exoticizing and sensationalism.55 The negative stereotype of Africa as a backwards continent that had pinned its hopes on “progressive national liberation movements” alternated with the seemingly positive stereotype that constructed Africans as careless people who live happily in their naïve ignorance. Stereotypes in the Czechoslovak media as well as the attitude of the university staff also promoted the paternalistic approach which saw Third World students as people who were friends or comrades, but still somewhat backward.

  • 56 Petr Zídek, Karel Sieber, Československo a subsaharská Afrika v letech 1948-1989 [Czechoslovakia an (...)
  • 57 Ibid.
  • 58 NA, f. USL, k. 207.
  • 59 Julie Hessler, “Death of an African Student in Moscow: Race, Politics and the Cold War,” Cahiers du (...)

46Mention should also be made of many other reports of violent conflicts. The situation of students from Northern Rhodesia who were involved in lengthy discussions with the management of the University of 17 November concerning mutual relations between Czechoslovakia and their home country was particularly difficult. These students often complained of racism, prejudice and distorted information about Africa in the media. The conflict flared after 20 February 1964, when Frank Chibeza, a student of electrical engineering at the Czech Technical University originally from Northern Rhodesia, was found injured near the train tracks leading from Prague to Poděbrady, a spa town in Eastern Bohemia some 50 km away from the capital. It was never established whether he had jumped from the train or had been pushed. This very unclear case had a major impact on the relationship between Czechoslovakia and Northern Rhodesia, which in the autumn of that year declared independence and was renamed Zambia.56 Chibeza’s compatriots requested a thorough investigation of the case and considered leaving Czechoslovakia in protest because they felt threatened in the country.57 They did eventually leave in April because they believed that Chibeza had been pushed off the train. The Czechoslovak authorities, on the other hand, were convinced that the student was “mentally unstable” as he had been hospitalised two days before the accident and on the fateful day had left the hospital of his own accord and boarded the train. The severely wounded student was visited by an employee of the University of 17 November in the hospital. According to the employee’s report, Chibeza claimed that he had been accidentally pushed off the train by students whom he knew casually from Poděbrady as they were chatting and joking during the journey. The investigation also considered the possibility that the student had attempted to commit suicide because his attending physician affirmed that he was mentally ill. The case was eventually closed and recorded as an accident. Chibeza’s compatriots, however, refused to believe this.58 No other case of major injury to an international student is known from Czechoslovakia, although a similar case with fatal consequences was documented in Moscow.59

  • 60 “Prohlášení zahr.[aničních] studentů bydlících na Koleji 5. května [Statement of foreign students a (...)

47Of all the incidents of conflict, the one that was most extensively covered by the media was a brawl that occurred in June 1967. The incident itself was not particularly different from many other pub brawls that were relatively common at that time. By sheer coincidence, however, it involved the extremely popular singer Václav Neckář, who happened to be at the pub, which made it far more prominent than others. When the students who had witnessed the event called Public Security (Veřejná bezpečnost, VB), they were largely ignored, but after Neckář himself called them, the officers quickly arrived. The international students saw this as unacceptable. The events can be reconstructed from the archival sources as follows: On 9 June, international students were celebrating having successfully passed their exams in a pub near their dormitory when they were assaulted by people who had been sitting at the neighbouring table. One of the students quickly ran to the dormitory and asked the receptionist to urgently call Public Security. The receptionist did so and was told that no one would come unless someone had been injured, and that the students should handle it themselves. A patrol arrived only after Václav Neckář called Public Security as well. The officers, however, immediately went on a raid of foreign students at the dormitory and then merely stood by and watched as the international students were beaten by the Czech students. They also interrogated the international students who had nothing to do with the whole incident. The international students repeatedly protested against the coverage of the case in the media.60

  • 61 “Rozbor situace týkající se vzájemného vztahu naší veřejnosti a našich studentů k zahraničním stude (...)

48Relations between international and Czechoslovak students deteriorated following this incident. Various posters took place in the dormitory, urging the African students to go home, while accusations were thrown at them. In January 1968, the board of the University Committee of the KSČ ordered an analysis of the integration of international students into Czechoslovak society.61 The twelve-page report briefly summarised the history of coexistence and the measures that had been adopted with the aim of improving the situation. It also stated that the problem was difficult to resolve. As evidence, the report quoted the minutes of two discussions organised by the University of 17 November on 20 October and 9 November 1967, with Czechoslovak and international students. Representatives of the press, radio and TV had been invited, but they did not appear. The criticism voiced by the international students was largely similar to what had been said at the aforementioned debates five years earlier. Once again they described how lax and uncaring the Public Security was whenever they were asked to resolve an altercation or assault involving international students. When officers did intervene, they were reportedly always on the side of Czechoslovak citizens, even in cases where it was clearly they who had provoked the incident. African students were a particularly common target, resulting in their increasing frustration and a feeling of being unwelcome in Czechoslovakia.

  • 62 NA, f. MŠK – Scholarships, k. 1682, inv. č. 26, 1963-64, General.

49Conflicts could also be related to the bad academic performance of some international students. USL and other universities where foreigners studied repeatedly had to address the low academic level of some of them pointing out that any Czech student with a similar attitude regarding their studies would have been expelled a long time ago. This special treatment of international students led to various clashes. Complaints about the lax approach of some international students, their pretence at political activity and their access to disproportional and unacceptable benefits were voiced not only by Czechoslovak students and the public, but even by some of the foreign students themselves.62

Conclusion

50A forgotten institution for most Czechs and Slovaks, the University of 17 November embodied Czechoslovakia’s international ambitions in the emerging Third World. It provided scholarships and training to hundreds of international students who were expected to become both socialist-minded specialists and friends of Czechoslovakia.

51In many respects, USL was meant to promote and reinforce the relations with newly independent countries serving Prague’s and the Eastern bloc’s political and economic objectives. The legitimate question that arises is whether USL fulfilled its political mission. There is little doubt that from the point of view of the state apparatus, it did not. This is why the communist leadership decided to close the school in 1974.

  • 63 Marta Edith Holečková, “Sukarno’s students” in Czechoslovakia. A brief contribution to Czechoslovak(...)
  • 64 Obonete S. Ubam, Náš černobílý svět. České rozhovory o afrických kořenech a splněných snech [Our bl (...)

52However, from another perspective and especially from the standpoint of international students, the school did achieve plenty of important goals. Hundreds of young people received university education free of charge. They had the chance to increase and develop their skills and to gain valuable experiences through living in another country. All those who found themselves at USL when the school was closed were transfered to other universities to complete their studies on Czechoslovak scholarships. Thanks to the training they received in Czechoslovakia, they found qualified employment and created alumni unions back home. For some students, their stay in Prague saved their lives, as was the case of Indonesians studying at USL between 1965 and 1966 when the Indonesian Communist Party was eliminated and the socialist president Sukarno ousted.63 Some graduates gained a new home in Czechoslovakia because of marriage or after they returned fleeing wars or coups in their home countries. Thanks to the mixed families of former students, the Czech society became more diverse than it was sixty years ago.64

53When it comes to the Czechoslovak university, the establishment of translation studies and tropical agricultural studies, as well as the methodological advances in the teaching of Czech as a foreign language, can all be considered as important achievements of USL. Those USL faculty members who were not forced to leave during the purges of the early 1970s but remained at the school until 1974 pursued their academic careers in other universities and pedagogical institutes, or joined research institutions like the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. The entire story how these academics built on their USL experience and shaped the Czechoslovak academia remains to be written. It is however safe to argue that, despite its problems and shortcomings, the University of 17 November left important legacies in Czechoslovakia and changed the lives of hundreds of students.

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Notes

1 Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007); Leslie James and Elisabeth Leake, eds., Decolonization and the Cold War: Negotiating Independence (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015).

2 Maxim Matusevich, “Journeys of Hope: African Diaspora and the Soviet Society,” African Diaspora, 1 (2008): 53-85; Monique de Saint Martin, et al. eds., Étudier à l’Est. Trajectoires d’étudiants africains et arabes en URSS et dans les pays d’Europe de l’Est (P.: Karthala, 2015); Monique de Saint Martin and Patrice Yengo, eds., “Élites de retour de l’Est. Quelles contributions des élites ‘rouges’ au façonnement des États post-coloniaux ?,” Cahiers d’Études africaines, 226, 2 (2017): 231-258; Constantin Katsakioris, “Creating a Socialist Intelligentsia: Soviet Educational Aid and Its Impact on Africa, 1960-1991,” Cahiers d’Études africaines, 226, 2 (2017): 259-286; Idem, “Students from Portuguese Africa in the Soviet Union, 1960-1974: Anti-colonialism, Education, and the Socialist Alliance,” Journal of Contemporary History, 56, 1 (2021): 42-65; Eric Burton, “Journeys of education and struggle: African mobility in times of decolonization and the Cold War,” Stichproben, 34, 18 (2018): 1-17.

3 National Archive (NA), fond (f.) Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (ÚV KSČ) 02/2, file (sv.) 306, archival unit (arch. j.) 389/11. The pages in the files held by the NA are not numbered.

4 The term Third World refers to Africa, Asia and Latin America. It was widely used during the Cold War for countries that were neither part of the First World (Western capitalist states) nor of the Second World (the Socialist bloc) and all of which were economically less developed.

5 Michal Zourek, Československo očima latinsko-amerických intelektuálů 1947-1959 [Czechoslovakia through the eyes of Latin American intellectuals, 1947-1959] (Praha: Runa, 2018).

6 Jiří Bašta, “Propagandistické využití kauzy amerického emigranta profesora G.S. Wheelera [The propaganda use of the case of the American immigrant Professor G.S. Wheeler],” Securitas Imperii, 8, 7 (2001): 224-249.

7 Pavel Szobi, “Portugalci v ‘komunistické Ženevě’: Praha jako středisko antisalazarovské opozice (1948-1974) [The Portuguese in ‘Communist Geneva’: Prague as a centre of the anti-Salazar opposition, 1948-1974],” Soudobé dějiny, 21, 4 (2014): 609-634. Even though the Prague-based Portuguese anti-Salazar opposition was small in numbers, it included Cândida Ventura, a senior figure in the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), who settled in Prague in 1965 and edited the international communist magazine entitled Problems of Peace and Socialism, and Flausino Correia Torres, historian and writer, PCP and National Antifascist Unity Movement (MUNAF) activist, who taught at the Department of Portuguese Studies at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University.

8 Vladimír Nálevka, “Španělé v poválečném Československu [Spaniards in Post-war Czechoslovakia],” in Martin Kovář, Vladimír Nálevka, eds. Dvacáté století: Ročenka Semináře nejnovějších dějin Ústavu světových dějin Filozofické fakulty Univerzity Karlovy v Praze [The twentieth century: Yearbook of the newest history seminar at the Institute of World History, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague], (Praha: FF UK, 2005), 77-95.

9 Karel Bartošek, Zpráva o putování v komunistických archivech: Praha – Paříž (1948-1968) [Report on wanderings in the communist archives: Prag – Paris (1948-1968)] (Praha-Litomyšl: Paseka, 2000).

10 Ondřej Vojtěchovský, “Soudruzi, nebo vetřelci?: O životě cizinců v ČSSR na příkladu jugoslávské emigrace [Comrades or intruders?: On the life of foreigners in Czechoslovakia through the case of Yugoslav immigrants],” Paměť a dějiny, 11, 3 (2017): 24-32.

11 Petr Zídek, Češi v srdci temnoty: Sedmadvacet historických reportáží o prvním čtvrtstoletí komunistů [Czechs in the heart of darkness: Twenty-seven historical reports from the first twenty-five years of Communism] (Praha: Knižní klub, 2013), 99-110.

12 Ondřej Vojtěchovský, Z Prahy proti Titovi: Jugoslávská prosovětská emigrace v Československu [From Prague against Tito: Yugoslav pro-Soviet immigration in Czechoslovakia] (Praha: Filozofická fakulta UK, 2012).

13 By way of comparison, according to the census on 1 March 1950 Czechoslovakia had slightly over 12 million inhabitants. At the next census on 1 March 1961 the number of inhabitants was a little under 14 million.

14 Pavel Urbášek, Jiří Pulec, Vysokoškolský vzdělávací systém v letech 1945-1969 [The higher education system in the years 1945-1969], (Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, 2012).

15 Vladimír Nálevka, Čas soumraku: Rozpad koloniálních impérií po druhé světové válce [Twilight era: The collapse of colonial empires after the Second World War] (Praha: Triton, 2004), 78-79.

16 Jan Koura and Mikuláš Pešta, “Československo a studená válka v Africe. Přístupy, interpretace, roviny zkoumání [Czechoslovakia and the Cold War in Africa. Approaches, interpretations, and research fields],” Paměť a dějiny, 14, 3 (2020): 3-13. 

17 In 1960, several book series were launched, in particular the long-running Kolombus series at the Mladá fronta publishing house and Cesty at Orbis, both of which specialised in travelogues. The genre was often featured in various sections of the weekly papers Literární noviny, Kultura and Kulturní tvorba, the magazines Květy, Svět v obrazech and Zápisník and the specialised popularising magazine with a high circulation Lidé a země, which had been published since 1952. Travelogue fiction was mainly published in the Svět kolem nás series of the Československý spisovatel publishing house.

18 In addition to Hanzelka and Zikmund, another popular radio presenter was Věra Šťovíčková-Heroldová, the Czech Radio correspondent in Africa since 1959 and who wrote several books about her experiences: Africké perokresby [Drawings from Africa], 1960; Afrika rok jedna [Africa: Year one], 1963; Prostor pro naději [Room for hope], 1967; Bouře nad rovníkem [A storm over the Equator], 1967.

19 For more information, see Jan Záhořík, “Česká afrikanistika před rokem 1989 [African studies in Czechoslovakia before 1989],” Nový orient, 61, 4 (2006): 59-61. The African Studies programme at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University is unfortunately no longer taught, presumably because of a lack of both resources and staff. It is currently only possible to obtain a PhD or a habilitation thesis in this field.

20 Ivan Hrbek et al., Dějiny Afriky I, II [History of Africa] (Praha: Svoboda, 1966).

21 Hana Čudová, Historická ročenka školství: Stručná ročenka školství v ČR 1953/54–1997/98 [Historical yearbook of education: A brief yearbook of education in the Czech Republic, 1953/54-1997/98] (Praha: Ústav pro informace ve vzdělávání, 1998).

22 Constantin Katsakioris, “The Lumumba University in Moscow: Higher Education for a Soviet-Third World Alliance, 1960-91,” Journal of Global History, 14, 2 (2019): 281-300.

23 It should be noted that the date continues to play a strong symbolic role in the Czech national consciousness to this day. A demonstration organised on the fiftieth anniversary of these events started a wave of unrest that eventually led to the downfall of the communist regime in November 1989.

24 Tomáš Pasák, 17. listopad 1939 a Univerzita Karlova [17 November 1939 and the Charles University], (Praha: Karolinum, 1997).

25 10 let University 17. listopadu v Praze [10 years of the University of 17 November in Prague] (Praha: Universita 17. listopadu, 1971).

26 The programme offered an education in the arts with a specialisation in journalism and documentary filmmaking to students whose home countries did not have a national film school. During its existence, 56 students from 23 countries took part in the course, with Third World students making up a significant proportion. See: Jitka Poledňáková, Analýza FAMU Special [An analysis of the FAMU Special], Masters’ dissertation (Praha: FAMU, 1987).

27 Ibid., 11.

28 “Stručný popis postupného budování University 17. listopadu [A brief description of the gradual development of the University of 17 November],” undated, NA, f. Universita 17. listopadu (USL), box (k.) 137.

29 NA, f. USL, k. 147.

30 Ibid., k. 162.

31 NA, f. Ministry of Education and Culture (MŠK) – scholarships, k. 168, inventory number (inv. č.) 26, 1960-1962, general.

32 The best-known Czechoslovak expert active abroad, who is however not related to the University of 17 November at all, was Valtr Komárek, a prominent politician of the period after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. In 1964-1967, he served as advisor to the Cuban Minister of Industry, Ernesto Che Guevara.

33 NA, f. MŠK – Scholarships, k. 1682, inv. č. 26, 1963-1964, General.

34 Evžen Menert, Na západ od Londýna: Nepříliš souvislé vyprávění o Ghaně a okolí, přerušované zcela nesouvislými úvahami a doplněné ódou na bridž, anglický kolonialismus pivo a armádu [West of London: A not-so-coherent narrative about Ghana and its Surroundings, punctuated by completely incoherent reflections and accompanied by an ode to bridge, English colonialism, beer and the army] (Praha: Československý spisovatel, 1967).

35 Prague City Archives (AHMP), f. KSČ, City Committee (MV) Praha 1950-1990, a. j. 766, 4 February 1970.

36 The period of the Prague Spring and the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops on 21 August 1968 was followed by the era of normalisation, which from 1970 was accompanied by “purges” from the Communist party and public institutions (trade unions, artists’ unions, in education, the army and ministries) of people who were considered to be an ideological threat and unreliable for the Communist regime.

37 Barbora Buzássyová, “Socialist Internationalism in Practice: Shifting Patterns of the Czechoslovak Educational Aid Programmes to Sub-Saharan Africa, 1961-1989,” PhD thesis, Comenius University, 2021, 111-116.

38 NA, f. USL, k. 187.

39 “Plán rozvoje fakulty jazykové a odborné přípravy [Development plan of the Faculty of language and preparatory studies],” 2 June 1970, NA, f. USL, k. 29.

40 These years were a major milestone because, after the invasion by Warsaw Pact countries on 21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak regime became far more rigid. Many Czechoslovak citizens fled the occupied country and those who remained underwent political screenings, the aim of which was to make them express at least formal consent with the Soviet occupation. Those who did not, lost their jobs and were reassigned to other, unqualified work.

41 After the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was established, the army in the Czech lands was dissolved and Slovakia was declared an independent fascist state. Many former soldiers fled the country to fight for the Allies. Czechoslovak pilots made a major contribution to the Battle of Britain in the Czechoslovak RAF squadron. Fighters of the Czechoslovak Foreign Army were also involved in fighting in the territory of the Soviet Union.

42 Daniela Hannová, “Problémoví elegáni: Arabští studenti v Praze v 50. a 60. letech 20. století [The restless dandies: Arab students in Prague in the 1950s and 1960s],” Acta Universitatis Carolinae – Historia Universitatis Carolinae, 54, 2 (2014): 105-125.

43 NA, f. USL, k. 159; NA, f. USL, k. 160.

44 [abc], “Případ Jarov [The Jarov Case],” Fórum zahraničních studentů 1, 3 (1968).

45 Fórum zahraničních studentů 1, 9 (1968).

46 In the German original Zwischen Wasser und Urwald.

47 Fórum zahraničních studentů, 2, 1 (1969).

48 Fórum zahraničních studentů, 2, 2 (1969).

49 For example: Dagmar Vaněčková, “Exotika dálek na vlastní kůži [Exotic distances at first hand],” Vlasta (26. 4. 1967): 15 and several other articles.

50 These examples include well-known Czech personalities such as the actress Martha Issová, who has Syrian roots; the model Lejla Abbasová who has Sudanese roots; and Ray Koranteng, who in the 1990s was a popular television presenter and has Ghanaian roots. The fathers of all three went to the former Czechoslovakia as students.

51 “Studenti z ciziny – naši přátelé: Beseda s posluchači University 17. listopadu [Students from abroad – our friends: Discussions with students from the University of 17 November],” Svobodné slovo 7 July 1963: 3.

52 Daniela Hannová, “ʻVětšinu času věnují planým řečem a flirtu s děvčatyʼ: Arabští studenti v Praze (1958-1967) [ʻThey Spend Most of Their Time Talking and Flirting with Girlsʼ: Arab Students in Prague (1958-1967)],” Dějiny a současnost, 36, 5 (2014): 40-43.

53 Hannová, “Problémoví elegáni.”

54 Tuzex vouchers were used in Czechoslovakia to purchase luxury or foreign goods from Tuzex, a specialised store. The vouchers could only be obtained in exchange for “valuty” – western foreign currency which could not be converted into Czechoslovak crowns.

55 “Koncepce hospodářských styků s hospodářsky málo vyvinutými zeměmi na období 3. pětiletky a generální perspektivy do roku 1980, II. část, V. Koucký: Některé aktuální otázky vývoje v rozvojových zemích [The concept of economic relations with economically poorly developed countries in the third five-year plan and general outlook for 1980, Part II, V. Koucký: Some current issues of developing countries],” 13 December 1967, NA, f. ÚV KSČ, Antonín Novotný I, k. 158.

56 Petr Zídek, Karel Sieber, Československo a subsaharská Afrika v letech 1948-1989 [Czechoslovakia and Subsaharan Africa in 1948-1989] (Praha: Ústav mezinárodních vztahů, 2007), 226-227.

57 Ibid.

58 NA, f. USL, k. 207.

59 Julie Hessler, “Death of an African Student in Moscow: Race, Politics and the Cold War,” Cahiers du monde russe, 47, 1-2 (2006): 33-63; Constantin Katsakioris, “Burden or Allies? Third World Students and Internationalist Duty through Soviet Eyes,” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 18, 3 (2017): 539-567.

60 “Prohlášení zahr.[aničních] studentů bydlících na Koleji 5. května [Statement of foreign students accommodated at the 5 May Dormitory],” 14 June 1967, NA, f. USL, k. 137. “Generální prohlášení afrických studentů pod vedením jejich Federace Svazů afrických studentů v ČSSR k incidentu mezi některými českými občany a některými africkými studenty dne 9. června 1967 [General statement of African students associated in the Federation of Unions of African students in Czechoslovakia on the incident between certain Czech citizens and certain African students on 9 June 1967],” 29 June 1967, NA, f. USL, k. 137.

61 “Rozbor situace týkající se vzájemného vztahu naší veřejnosti a našich studentů k zahraničním studentům v Praze [Analysis of the situation concerning the mutual relationship between our public and our students and international students in Prague],” undated, NA, f. USL, k. 25, inventory unit (inv. j.) 174.

62 NA, f. MŠK – Scholarships, k. 1682, inv. č. 26, 1963-64, General.

63 Marta Edith Holečková, “Sukarno’s students” in Czechoslovakia. A brief contribution to CzechoslovakIndonesian Relations in the 1950s and the 1960,” Securitas Imperii, 39, 2 (2021): 2-16.

64 Obonete S. Ubam, Náš černobílý svět. České rozhovory o afrických kořenech a splněných snech [Our black and white world. Czech discourse about African roots and fulfilled dreams], (Praha: Prostor, 2021).

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Marta Edith Holečková, « The University of 17 November in Prague: Students from Third World countries in Czechoslovakia, 1961-1974 »Cahiers du monde russe, 63/3-4 | 2022, 647-668.

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Marta Edith Holečková, « The University of 17 November in Prague: Students from Third World countries in Czechoslovakia, 1961-1974 »Cahiers du monde russe [En ligne], 63/3-4 | 2022, mis en ligne le 04 janvier 2025, consulté le 08 novembre 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/monderusse/13282 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/monderusse.13282

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Marta Edith Holečková

Marta Edith Holečková is Postdoctoral Fellow at The Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Contemporary History. The postdoctoral fellowship was supported by the Program for the support of promising human resources of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

The Czech Academy of Sciences
Institute of Contemporary History
holeckova[at]usd.cas.cz

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