Reprint: The Flying University in Poland, 1978–1980

Drawing on her experience as a teacher in the most recent Polish clandestine or “flying” university, Hanna Buczynska-Garewicz describes the organization and purpose of an underground university in a totalitarian state. Polish teachers and scholars have a long history of responding to repression and curtailment of academic freedom by organizing flying universities. With the censorship and the restrictive interpretation of such subjects as history, philosophy, and literature in the state universities, clandestine teaching has provided an alternative source of information and enlightenment. It is fitting to begin this article with a translation of the flying university's original declaration.