Julius Tomin

Who is Julius Tomin?

Julius Tomin is a Czech philosopher. He became known in the 1970s and 1980s for his involvement with the Jan Hus Educational Foundation, which ran an underground education network in the former Czechoslovakia, offering seminars in philosophy in people's homes.

Barbara Day writes that Tomin studied English and Russian in the 1940s and 50s. He agreed with Tolstoy's and Gandhi's views on non-violence, and refused to do military service, for which he served a prison sentence. He then tried to leave the country for Sweden, but was caught and served an additional year. He took a job as a forrester when released, and worked as a ward assistant in a psychiatric hospital, where he met his first wife, a therapist, whom he married in 1962.

He was interested in philosophy, and wrote to Milan Machovec of Charles University, Prague, who arranged for him to register for a doctorate. He obtained his PhD and became a junior fellow in the university's philosophy department from 1966 to 1970. In 1969–1970 he held a visiting professorship at the University of Hawaii. Day writes that he was refused an academic position when he returned, after associating himself with the reform Communists. He worked instead as a turbine operator, but according to Day was sacked when he was discovered teaching philosophy to his colleagues. He then worked as a nightwatchman in a zoo.