A Distant Front in the Cold War: The USSR in West Africa and the Congo, 1956-1964 (Cold War International History Project)

by Sergey Mazov (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-0804760591

ISBN-10: 0804760594

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A Distant Front in the Cold War reveals West Africa as a significant site of Cold War conflict in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Although the region avoided the extreme tensions of the standoff in Eastern Europe or in the Cuban missile crisis, it nevertheless offers a vivid example of political, economic, and propagandistic rivalry between the U.S. and the USSR.

For Africa, this was a critical period characterized by decolonization and the formation of African countries' first foreign policies. The United States and the Soviet Union both hoped to win the sympathies of the newly established states, and Sergey Mazov's book is the first account of that competition, which the Soviet Union lost, largely through ignorance of the region.

Mazov presents evidence from previously inaccessible or unknown documents in Russian and U.S. archives, as well as an international sampling of recent scholarly works. The rich historical account pays particular attention to the repercussions of Soviet West African experience on future Soviet foreign policy, especially in the Third World.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"For the first time, this book uncovers flaws in Soviet policy toward Africa, inherent weaknesses relating to the lack of resources and imagination, bureaucratic impediments and ignorance, which led eventually to failure to compete with the United States for the 'hearts and minds' of Africans." -- Ilya Gaiduk, Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences

"This book addresses a subject on which almost nothing is available on the Russian side, and so it covers a very important 'blank spot of history'." -- Dr. Svetlana Savranskaya, George Washington University

About the Author

Sergey Mazov is a professor and chief research fellow at the Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences, in Moscow.

Product details

Publisher : Stanford University Press (October 15, 2010)
Language : English
Hardcover : 256 pages
ISBN-10 : 0804760594
ISBN-13 : 978-0804760591
Item Weight : 1.54 pounds
Dimensions : 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,889,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #740 in West African History
- #1,248 in African History (Books)
- #4,487 in International Relations (Books)

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H. Campbell

Insight into Soviets in Post-Colonial Africa

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2020

This book examines the extent of the USSR's involvement in several west African nations in the late 50s and early 60s. Emphasis is on Ghana and its mercurial narcissistic leader Nkrumah, Guinea and its pragmatic opportunist Toure, Congo and its phlegmatic leader Lumumba and to lesser extent Mali. As the first African state to acquire independence in 1957, Ghana began its birth leaning heavily to the socialist bloc, routinely denouncing the west and cooing up the USSR and its generous support. That did not prevent Nkrumah from cozying up to the US when he preferred American support for his ambitious Volta aluminum smelting project, which became a yo yo between him and JFK. Though irritated by the constant bashing of the west and the US by the Ghanaian press, eventually the US committed to that ambitious project which Ghana knew the Soviets could not provide. But Ghana continued with its pro-Soviet behavior, instituting socialism in commerce and agriculture with predictable calamitous results. The Russians were not hoodwinked with the pretensions of socialism but felt they had to keep their skin in the game, while the Americans cautiously let Nkrumah twist in the wind with his economic fiascoes,, After a couple of failed assassination attempts (which he naturally blamed on the CIA), Nkrumah's once soaring popularity soured when the economy collapsed, resulting in his ouster in 1966. Guinea began along similar lines, with Toure rejecting any French interference in his country while flirting with the east bloc. But his patience was less ideological and more performance oriented, and in this area the Russians were a failure. So Guinea eventually tilted hard right. The Congo's well known civil war found Khrushchev trying to square the circle of feeble long range support for an embattled Lumumba on the cheap, with part bluster and anti-UN harangues and token contributions of hard cash, trucks and small arms. The US, UK and Belgium were just too strong and too "there" for Moscow to do much more than whine and moan and silently concede defeat after Lumumba's Belgian assassination. Mali began its independence from France as a union with Senegal which lasted two months before France enticed Senegal away. Mali's solo experimentation with socialism with Moscow's support like wise led to nowhere. The author discusses the experience of African students in the USSR, who regularly complained of discrimination, bad food, long lines for commodities, non-existent entertainment and teachers at Patric e Lumumba University who could not communicate with their audience. The Russians finally snapped to the reality that the majority of these students were not poor peasants fresh from the jungle but came from well off bourgeoisie families accustomed to western amenities they could not obtain in the strapped USSR. After Khrushchev's fall in 1964, the USSR took a hard look at support for the ss called "African socialists" and decided that future support would be more hard-eyed and realistic, with less handouts and fewer commitments to grandiose projects that turned into white elephants. For Cold War and African history fans.

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