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Soviet Union [USSR] Sub-Saharan Africa
Although the Comintern previously had made low-level contacts
with local communist parties, sub-Saharan Africa was an area of
limited concern to the Soviet Union until Khrushchev's reassessment
of the Third World in the mid-1950s. Although Khrushchev initiated
economic "show projects" in several African countries, Soviet
efforts to foster socialism in Africa foundered in the Congo in the
early 1960s, in Guinea in 1961, and in Kenya in 1965 partly because
the Soviet Union was unable to project military power effectively
into Africa.
During the first few years of the Brezhnev period, the amount
of economic assistance to Africa declined from the levels of the
Khrushchev period, although it increased greatly in the mid-1970s.
During the Brezhnev period, the Soviet ability to project power
grew, enabling it to take advantage of several opportunities in
Africa during the 1970s.
Because of the deteriorating economic situation in the Soviet
Union in the 1980s, economic assistance to Africa declined.
Military assistance was maintained or increased in some instances
in the face of insurgencies against so-called revolutionary
democracies. Angola, Ethiopia, and Mozambique, all of which were
fighting insurgencies, were major recipients of arms throughout the
1980s.
At the Twenty-Seventh Party Congress, Gorbachev called for a
reorientation of relations with the Third World. He stressed the
need to improve relations with the more developed, Westernoriented , Third World states while maintaining existing relations
with other African states. In Africa the Soviet Union pursued
closer relations with relatively more developed African states such
as Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Gorbachev also reiterated Soviet support
for the overthrow of the government of South Africa and support for
the "frontline" states (states near or bordering South Africa)
opposing South Africa: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique,
Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. As part of a Soviet attempt to
coordinate Soviet policy toward southern Africa, a new office of
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was created to deal with the
frontline states. In 1988-89 Soviet hostility toward the South
African regime softened, and the two countries worked together
diplomatically in resolving regional conflicts and issues such as
negotiations over the independence of Namibia.
Data as of May 1989
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