Although Václav Hlavatý himself considered his achievements in differential geometry, especially in connection with relativity theory and unified field theory, more important, he was one of the few mathematicians who were closely involved in politics. This did not come out of the situation created in emigration, where he was deeply involved in the activities of Czechoslovak emigré community in the USA (1948-1969), but is apparent also in the earlier period. In this contribution, I will pay attention especially to the changes in the style of education of doctoral students in the turbulent years after WWII, when Hlavatý was in strong opposition to mass breeding of doctoral students in mathematics.