Cold War Liberation: The Soviet Union and the Collapse of the Portuguese Empire in Africa, 1961–1975

New Cold War History

by Natalia Telepneva

Cold War Liberation examines the African revolutionaries who led armed struggles in three Portuguese colonies—Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau—and their liaisons in Moscow, Prague, East Berlin, and Sofia. By reconstructing a multidimensional story that focuses on both the impact of the Soviet Union on the end of the Portuguese Empire in Africa and the effect of the anticolonial struggles on the Soviet Union, Natalia Telepneva bridges the gap between the narratives of individual anticolonial movements and those of superpower rivalry in sub-Saharan Africa during the Cold War.

Drawing on newly available archival sources from Russia and Eastern Europe and interviews with key participants, Telepneva emphasizes the agency of African liberation leaders who enlisted the superpower into their movements via their relationships with middle-ranking members of the Soviet bureaucracy. These administrators had considerable scope to shape policies in the Portuguese colonies which in turn increased the Soviet commitment to decolonization in the wider region. An innovative reinterpretation of the relationships forged between African revolutionaries and the countries of the Warsaw Pact, Cold War Liberation is a bold addition to debates about policy-making in the Global South during the Cold War.

Genres: History, Africa

288 pages, Hardcover

First published June 6, 2022

Reviews

[Le Maistre Chat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Open access ebook published by University of North Carolina Press
https://uncpress.org/book/97814696658...

This history book is about the anti-colonial wars in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau - Portugal's African colonies - from 1961 to just after the Carnation Revolution. As these were proxy wars between the USA and USSR, the value here compared to older books on the subject is Telepneva's access to the Soviet archives, which Russia had open from 2015 until getting sanctioned for invading Ukraine.

I found it interesting how little Krushchev, Brezhnev and the Politburo cared that a Catholic dictatorship was still practicing colonialism. The African Marxists only had access to mid-level bureaucrats and Czechoslovakia until Cuba sent more than a thousand special forces. I was definitely glad to get these interesting facts about two lesser-known theatres of the Cold War.

[Patrick Link · Rating 5 out of 5]

A concise overview of the lead actors and action of liberation movements in Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and Angola and their support from the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s. Emphasis is placed on the African leaders and the mid-level Soviet bureaucrats (mezhdunarodniki) who played a large role in Soviet policy formation often due to pervious lack of interaction. Ideological considerations were another important factor stressed in the book as many of the actors came from a Marxist perspective of imperialism. The struggle of building up parties and gaining local legitimacy as leaders of national independence included not only dealing with local rivals and splinter groups but in gaining and keeping international support from the Eastern Block. Telepneva's well organized book of a very convoluted story in a fine addition to the New Cold War history series.