EN
Using recently released record groups in the National Archives, Prague, the author considers the history of the University of 17 November (Univerzita 17. listopadu), focusing on the lives of foreign students amongst the local inhabitants of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in the 1960s and early 1970s. The University of 17 November operated in Prague and then in Bratislava from 1961 to 1974 as an educational institution for students from the ‘Third World’, but also as training centre for Czechoslovak experts heading out to developing countries. Its existence was also linked with Czechoslovak attempts to gain a foothold in Africa, motivated ideologically, politically, and economically. It was established with the expectation that graduates from the university would become emissaries of Czechoslovak interests in their home countries.