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The Soviet Africa Institute and the Development of African Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

Soviet relations with the countries of black Africa have been of considerable interest to many western scholars. They have examined extensively the history of these relations, their shifting doctrinal bases, and the many formidable problems Soviet policy-makers have encountered in the pursuit of their stated objectives.1 A frequently overlooked aspect is the scholarly research of a group of Africanists whose activities appear to be inextricably linked with overall Soviet efforts in Africa.

Type
Africana
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

Page 247 note 1 There is now extensive literature on these questions. See, for example, Yakobson, Sergius, ‘Russia and Africa’, in Lederer, Ivo (ed.), Russian Foreign Policy (New Haven, 1962)Google Scholar; Morison, David L., The U.S.S.R. and Africa (New York and London, 1964)Google Scholar; Brzezinski, Zbigniew (ed.), Africa and the Communist World (Stanford, 1963)Google Scholar; and Kanet, Roger E., ‘The Recent Soviet Reassessment of Developments in the Third World’, in Shaffer, Harry G. and Prybyla, Jan S. (eds.), From Underdevelopment to Affluence (New York, 1968), pp. 532–42.Google Scholar

Page 248 note 1 Solodovnikov, V. G., ‘Ten Years of the Africa Institute: scientific achievements and tasks of Soviet African studies’, in Studies on Developing Countries (Budapest), 55, 1971, p. 8.Google Scholar

Page 248 note 2 ‘From the History of Studies of African Problems in the Soviet Union’, in Africa in Soviet Studies–1968 (Moscow, 1969), pp. 145–51.Google Scholar

Page 248 note 3 ‘The East’ has been used by the Russians for a long time to include all of the non-western world. Thus Oriental studies is broadly inclusive of the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

Page 248 note 4 Laqueur, Walter, ‘The Shifting Line in Soviet Orientalogy’, in Problems of Communism (Washington, 1956), v, pp. 25–22.Google Scholar For a more extensive review, see Holdsworth, Mary, Soviet African Studies, 1918–1957: an annotated bibliography (London, 1961), pp. 113.Google Scholar

Page 249 note 1 Urban, P., ‘The Aims of Soviet Eastern Studies’, in Bulletin: Institute for the Study of the U.S.S.R. (Munich), IV, 7, 1957, p. 15.Google Scholar

Page 249 note 2 Pravda (Moscow), 15 02 1956, p. 3.Google Scholar

Page 249 note 3 ’XX Z'ezd Kommunisticheskoi Partii Sovetskogo Soyuza i zadachi izuchenia sovremennogo Vostoka’ [‘The 20th Congress of the C.P.S.U. and Problems of Studying the Contemporary East’], in Sovetskoe Vostokovedenie (Moscow), I, 1957, pp. 312,Google Scholar translated in Thornton, Thomas (ed.), The Third World in Soviet Perspective (Princeton, 1964), pp. 7987.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Page 249 note 4 The Institute of Africa is concerned with Africa south of the Sahara, or black Africa; there is a research sector dealing with all Arab countries at the Institute of the Peoples of Asia. See Bondarevsky, G. L., Lutskaya, N. S., and Stuchevsky, I. A., ‘The Study of African Problems at the Institute of the Peoples of Asia of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences’, in Africa in Soviet Studies – 1968, pp. 163–7.Google Scholar

Page 250 note 1 ‘Program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’, in Rivto, Herbert, The New Soviet Society (New York, 1962), pp. 224–5.Google Scholar

Page 251 note 1 Solodovnikov, loc. cit. p. 34.

Page 251 note 2 In this regard, see Whiting, Allen S., ‘The Scholar and the Policymaker’, in World Politics (Princeton), xxiv, Spring 1972, pp. 229–47.Google Scholar

Page 251 note 3 Lodge, Milton, ‘Soviet Elite Participatory Attitudes in the Post-Stalin Period’, in The American Political Science Review (Menasha), LXII, 3, 09 1968, p. 828.Google Scholar See also Joel Schwartz and William Keech, ‘Group Influence and the Policy Process in the Soviet Union’, ibid. pp. 840–51.

Page 252 note 1 For a particularly strong Statement of this view, see Letnev, A. B., ‘The Neo-Colonialists as Interpreters of Socialism’, in Africa in Soviet Studies –1968, pp. 5667.Google ScholarPotekhin, emphasises in African Problems (Moscow, 1968), p. 142,Google Scholar that this effort ‘has not only a scientific but a political aspect… The truth about the historical past of the African peoples is a powerful means for exposing the ideological camouflage used for covering up the “latest” forms of colonialism.’

Page 252 note 2 Senior, D. A., ‘The Organization of Scientific Research’, in Survey: a journal of Soviet and East European affairs (London), 52, 07 1964, pp. 1835.Google Scholar

Page 252 note 23 Juviler, Peter and Morton, Henry (eds.), Soviet Policymaking (New York, 1967), p. 134.Google Scholar

Page 253 note 1 ‘Program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’, loc. cit. p. 89. See also Semenov, V. S., ‘Perspectives on Africa's Economic Development’, in Narody Azii i Afriki (Moscow), 2, 1961, pp. 313.Google Scholar

Page 253 note 2 Ansprenger, Franz, ‘Communism in Tropical Africa’, in Hamrell, Sven and Widstrand, Carl G. (eds.), The Soviet Bloc, China, and Africa (Uppsala, 1964), pp. 75100.Google Scholar

Page 253 note 3 Potekhin, Ivan, Africa Wins Freedom (Moscow, 1958).Google Scholar

Page 254 note 1 ‘Program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’, loc. cit. p. 93.

Page 254 note 2 Khrushchev, N. S., Report of the Central Committee of the 20th Party Congress. The Disintegration of the Imperialistic Colonial System (Moscow, 1956).Google Scholar

Page 254 note 3 For an extensive discussion of Sino-Soviet disagreements on this subject, see Zagoria, Donald, The Sino-Soviet Conflict (New York, 1964), pp. 245–60.Google Scholar For the Chinese position, see The Polemic on the General Line of the International Communist Movement (Peking, 1965), pp. 83–9.Google Scholar

Page 254 note 4 A number of useful analyses of the national democratic state have been made by both Soviet and western scholars. See Ponomarev, Boris, ‘O gosudarstvo natsionalnoe democratii’ [‘On the State of National Democracy’], in Kommunist (Moscow), 8, 1961, pp. 3348Google Scholar; Shinn, William Jr, ‘The National Democratic State: a communist program for less developed areas’, in World Politics, xv, 3, 04 1963, pp. 177–89Google Scholar; and Lowenthal, Richard, ‘On National Democracy: its function in communist policy’, in Survey, 04 1963, pp. 110–33.Google Scholar

Page 254 note 5 For extensive discussions of revolutionary democrats and their role in the new African countries, see Ul'yanovsky, R. A., ‘The Emergent Nations: certain aspects of non-capitalist development’, in Internationalism, National Liberation, and Our Epoc (Moscow, n.d.), p. 83Google Scholar; Khrushchev, N. S., ‘Replies to Questions of Editors of Ghanaian Times, Alger Republicain, Le People, and Botatuang’, in Izvestia (Moscow), 22 12 1963, pp. 12,Google Scholar translated in Current Digest of the Soviet Press (Columbus, Ohio), xxv, 51, 15 01 1964, pp. 1116.Google Scholar

Page 255 note 1 Theen, Rolf H. W., ‘Political Science in the U.S.S.R.: “To Be, or Not to Be”’, in World Politics, XXIII, 4, 07 1971, p. 693.Google Scholar

Page 255 note 2 For example, Shippee, John S., ‘Empirical Sociology in the Eastern European Communist Party States’, in Triska, Jan F. (ed.), Communist Party States: comparative and international studies (Indianapolis, 1970), pp. 252336Google Scholar; and Powell, David and Shoup, Paul, ‘The Emergence of Political Science in Conununist Countries’, in The American Political Science Review, LXIV, 2, 07 1970, pp. 572–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Page 256 note 1 Desai, Ram, ‘The Explosion of African Studies in the Soviet Union’, in African Studies Bulletin (Stanford), xi, 3, 12 1968, Pp. 248–58.Google Scholar See also, ‘From the History of Studies of African Problems’, loc. cit. p. 150; and Okhotina, N. V., ‘The Study of African Languages at the Institute of Oriental Languages of Moscow State University and at the Institute of Linguistics of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences’, in Africa in Soviet Studies1968, pp. 168–74.Google Scholar

Page 256 note 2 See, for example, Problems of Economic Regionalization in the Developing Countries (Moscow, 1968).Google Scholar

Page 256 note 3 This Institute was the first research centre in the Soviet Union to demonstrate concern for contemporary economic and social issues. It is the source of the most sophisticated scholarly research into problems of socio-economic development in Africa, most of which is published in its journal, Mirovaya ekonomika i mezhdunaronye otnoshenia (Moscow).

Page 257 note 1 Morison, op. cit. pp. 67–9.

Page 257 note 2 ‘Napravleniakh raboti instituta Afriki’ [‘On the Direction of the Work of the Africa Institute’], in Vestnik Akademii Nauk S.S.S.R. (Moscow), 5, 1965, p. 17.Google Scholar

Page 257 note 3 There is, as yet, no major western study of Ivan Potekhin's contribution to Soviet African studies; for some comments, see Legvold, Robert, Soviet Policy in West Africa (Boston, 1970), pp. 1922,CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Morison, op. cit. pp. 59–72.

Page 257 note 4 ‘O Napravleniakh raboti instituta Afriki’, loc. cit. p. 20.

Page 258 note 1 Solodovnikov, op. cit. p. 29.

Page 258 note 2 Tokareva, V., ‘The Africa Institute of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences’, in Africa in Soviet Studies1968, pp. 153–4.Google Scholar

Page 259 note 1 Solodovnikov, loc. cit. p. 27.

Page 260 note 1 Valkenier, Elizabeth K., ‘Recent Trends in Soviet Research on the Developing Countries’, in World Politics, xx, 07 1968, p. 646.Google Scholar

Page 260 note 2 See Schwartz, Solomon, ‘Populism and Early Russian Marxism on Ways of Economic Development of Russia (The 1880s and 1890s)’, in Simmons, Ernest J. (ed.), Continuity and Change in Russian and Soviet Thought (Cambridge, Mass., 1955), pp. 4062Google Scholar; and Alexander Gerschenkron, ‘The Problem of Economic Development in Russian Intellectual History of the, 9th Century’, ibid. pp. 11–39.

Page 260 note 3 Glezerman, Grigory, The Laws of Social Development (Moscow, n.d.), pp. 170–82Google Scholar; and Potekhin, Ivan, ‘Africa: ways of development’, in African Problems, pp. 3543.Google Scholar

Page 260 note 4 After a long and deliberate silence on the subject, the entire question of modes of development has become the subject of extensive re-examination by Soviet historians, especially since 2964. See Vasilev, L. S. and Stuchevskii, I. A., ‘Three Models for the Origin and Evolution of Pre-Capitalist Societies’, in Voprosy istorii (Moscow), 5, 1966, pp. 7790,Google Scholar translated in Soviet Studies in History (White Plains, N.Y.), v, 3, Winter 19661967, pp. 24–7.Google Scholar An extensive discussion focusing on ‘The Asiatic Mode of Production’, in Vestnik drevnei istorii (Moscow), 3, 1965,Google Scholar is translated in Soviet Studies in History, iv, 4,Google Scholar Spring 1966, pp. 3–45. See also Schiebel, James, ‘National Liberation Movements, Historical Materialism and Soviet Philosophy’, in Studies in Soviet Thought (Dordrecht), VI, 1966, pp. 105–23.Google Scholar

Page 261 note 1 Valkenier, loc. cit. pp. 644–59. See also her ‘New Trends in Soviet Economic Relations with the Third World’, in World Politics, XXII, 3, 04 1970, pp. 455–32.Google Scholar

Page 261 note 2 ‘Immediate Problems of the National Liberation Movement’, in International Affairs (Moscow), 05 1967, p. 51.Google Scholar

Page 262 note 1 Y. M. Zhukov, ‘Contemporary Pace of Development of National Liberation Revolutions’, ibid. p. 57.

Page 262 note 2 See in this regard, Morris, Milton D., ‘The Development Process in Soviet Perspectives: the non-capitalist path in tropical Africa’, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maryland, 1970, pp. 174208.Google Scholar

Page 262 note 3 For an example of these studies, see Solodovnikov, V. G., Letnev, A. B., and Manchka, P. I., Polilicheskiye Partii Afriki (Moscow, 1970).Google Scholar

Page 262 note 4 Solodovnikov, loc. cit. p. 31.

Page 263 note 1 Legvold, Robert, ‘Moscow's Changing Views of Africa's Revolutionary Regimes’, in Africa Report (Washington), xiv, 3, 0304 1969, P. 54.Google Scholar

Page 263 note 2 For some extensive reports on this development, see Skilhing, Gordon, ‘In Search of Political Science in the U.S.S.R.’, in Canadian Journal of Economics and Politics (Toronto), XXIV, 4, 11 1963, pp. 519–27Google Scholar; Churchward, L. G., ‘Toward a Soviet Political Science’, in The Australian Journal of Politics and History (Brisbane), xii, 1, 05 1966, pp. 6675Google Scholar; Revesz, Laszlo, ‘Political Science in Eastern Europe: discussion and initial steps’ in Studies in Soviet Thought, vii, 3, 09 1967, pp. 585–209Google Scholar; and Powell, David and Shoup, Paul, ‘Emergence of Political Science in Communist Countries’, in The American Political Science Review, LXIV, 2, 06 1970, pp. 572–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Page 263 note 3 The Soviet Political Science Association is made up primarily of jurists; its only clear function is that of liaison with the International Political Science Association. See Powell and Shoup, loc. cit. pp. 574–5.

Page 263 note 4 Burlatsky, Fedor, ‘Politics and Sciences’, in Pravda, 10 01 1965, translated in Soviet Law and Government (White Plains, N.Y.), iv, 1, Summer 1965, pp. 52–5.Google Scholar Burlatsky has since advocated the development of empirical research techniques similar to those used by western scholars. See his Lenin, Gosudarstvo, Politica (Moscow, 1970).Google Scholar

Page 263 note 5 Powell and Shoup, loc. cit. pp. 576–7. For a summary of a discussion of the question in the S.P.S.A., see Ostroumov, A. S., ‘Soviet Political [State] Science Association Center Attention on the Scientific Foundations of Polities’, in Sovetskoe gosudarstvo i pravo (Moscow), 7, 1965,Google Scholar translated in Soviet Law and Government, iv, 3, Winter 1965-1966, pp. 53–7.Google Scholar

Page 264 note 1 Powell and Shoup, loc. cit. p. 573.

Page 264 note 2 Chkikvadze, V. M., ‘Ob osnovakh nepravleniakh raboti instituta gosudarstva i prava’ [‘Main Trends in the Scientific Research of the Institute of State and Law’], in Vestnik Akademii Nauk S.S.S.R., I, 1965, p. 11.Google Scholar

Page 264 note 3 N. I. Krasnov, Secretary of the Institute of State and Law, defined one of its prominent topics during 1968 as ‘questions pertaining to the founding and development of national statehood and political thought in the young independent states of Asia and Africa’. See ‘Results and Prospects: work of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences' Institute of State and Law in 1968’, in Sovetskoe gosudarstvo i pravo, IV, 1969,Google Scholar translated in Soviet Law and Government, VIII, 1, Summer 1969, p. 22.Google Scholar

Page 265 note 1 See, for example, Sivs, S. L., ‘Stanovlenie natsionalnogo pravo i ego rol’ v obespechenii sotsialnogo progressa’ [The Establishment of National Law and its Role in Assuring Social Progress’[, in Ul'yanovsky, R. A. (ed.), Nekapitalisticheskii put razvitia stran Afriki (Moscow, 1967).Google Scholar

Page 265 note 2 For a very useful review of Soviet scholarship in this area, see Morison, David, ‘Soviet Work on African Law: some initial steps’, and ‘Soviet Views on Customary Law in Tropical Africa’, in Mizan (London), ix, 6, 1967, pp. 245–50,Google Scholar and XI, 2, 1969, pp. 100–4.