I was a cold war courier – the British leftists who smuggled books into the eastern bloc

The Guardian

28-02-2025

Further to your account of Janusz Bogucki and other heroes who smuggled banned books into communist Poland in the 1950s and 1960s ('It allowed us to survive, to not go mad': the CIA book smuggling operation that helped bring down communism, 22 February), there was also a smuggling operation of books, literature and other banned material from the UK into communist Czechoslovakia in the 1970s. It was organised by the Czech exile Jan Kavan, who went on to become a senior Social Democratic politician and foreign minister of the Czech Republic after the collapse of communism in 1989.
I am proud to say that I was one of maybe dozens of British anti-Stalinist leftists posing as ordinary tourists who smuggled banned literature, documents and even illegal movie cameras across the heavily policed Czech border during that period. These nerve-racking trips were undertaken in an adapted camper van, fitted with cleverly designed secret compartments. Once in Prague we met various brave oppositionists, mainly at night, to hand over the banned materials. Jan Kavan was our liaison man in London who organised these trips, and as far as I know none of Kavan's couriers were ever detected. Sadly my companion on the trip I made in 1974, Peter Gowan, an academic in eastern European studies, died several years ago.
I am now 76, and if asked to undertake a similar trip today to a repressive regime, I would do it again – although I have obviously now blown my cover. I would love to meet up with other couriers who undertook similar journeys, to share our experiences.Carl GardnerLondon
Your report of the CIA smuggling the Guardian Weekly along with books into eastern Europe during the cold war (Report, 22 February) brought to mind my father's efforts to the same end. In defiance of the censors, for three years after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia he engaged in an intense and sustained correspondence with a Czech doctor. In June 1970, the doctor thanked him for the Guardian Weekly and 'your hilarious letters sandwiched into its pages'.
A few weeks later, acknowledging the arrival of a some saxophone reeds for his son, he noted 'how carefully and skilfully you are always wrapping the packet with the Guardian'. Fortunately the flow of letters, newspapers and a judicious selection of books, intended to offer some hope and relief from isolation, were never cut off, although sometimes opened by the censors. My father of course had nothing to do with the CIA, being a member of the British Communist party.David ParkerHolmfirth, West Yorkshire
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