Ever since the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU, 1956, Soviet interest in the countries of Africa has steadily increased. This interest has manifested itself in a growing number of books and articles published in the Soviet Union dealing with the peoples and problems of the “Dark Continent.” A prolific contributor to this body of literature has been the noted Soviet Africanist I.I. Potekhin, whose works first appeared in 1932 and continued until his death in 1964. Potekhin survived and continued to publish during the repressive Stalinist years of the thirties, post-World War II Stalin-Zhdanov period of foreign policy, the years of transition, and the period of reassessment and innovation in Third World policy under Khrushchov. This general review of the life and works of I. I. Potekhin is intended to provide information and insights which may prove of value to students of Soviet policy toward the countries of Africa.

Born in 1903 to peasant parents, Ivan Izasimovich Potekhin worked in a Siberian factory at the age of fourteen. From 1921 to 1929 he attended a provincial school and was extremely active in local party activities, becoming a Communist Party member in 1922 at the age of nineteen.

In 1930, following the 1928 Comintern decision to opt for an “independent native republic” in South Africa, Potekhin was sent to study in the African studies program of the University of Leningrad. This opportunity was probably a result of Potekhin's Siberian successes as a party worker, and the party's need for active members with some knowledge of Africa. Potekhin's main area of interest, as reflected in the majority of his works published between 1932 and 1935, was, not unexpectedly, South Africa, more specifically, the problems of class structure and of agriculture. He contributed sixteen pieces to various publications during this period. Six of these were in English and appeared in the Negro Worker (Hamburg). Interestingly enough, he frequently used the pseudonym John Izotla and on one occasion, H. Jordon. Potekhin spent the next several years preparing his doctoral dissertation, submitted in 1939, on the agrarian relations of the eastern Bantu.