Kathy Wilkes - Work in Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe

Work in Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe

Further information: Jan Hus Educational Foundation

During her time at Oxford, she worked, often in secret, for the education systems of eastern Europe. In 1979 she was the first of Oxford university's philosophers to respond to an invitation from the dissident philosophical community in Prague to conduct secret seminars there. She showed extraordinary courage in conducting secret meetings in crowded flats with groups of philosophers. Despite her large frame and ungainly walk, she would lead the secret policemen who followed her on wild goose chases through Slavic cities, unconcerned by their harassment. She made the difficult and risky trip many times, smuggling in banned books and taking out samizdat manuscripts. With her western friends, she created the Jan Hus Foundation, which was to become a major source of support for the dissident community. She encouraged and financially supported dissident intellectuals, finally bringing the Czech philosopher Julius Tomin and family to England. Having lost her Czech visa, she achieved this by returning to Prague with a new passport in her full name "Vaughan-Wilkes" in order to confuse the authorities. Having never driven there before, she drove the family precariously in a heavily overladen Zhiguli to the west knowing that the slightest traffic infringement would bring down the law. Back in England she arranged housing and paid for the children’s education.