Project lead
Derya Bozat
Abstract
Between the late 1950s and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, more than 43,500 students from Sub-Saharan Africa were awarded scholarships to study at Soviet universities. This charm offensive, involving all-inclusive scholarships, was a component of Soviet internationalism and cultural diplomacy. It is also of vital importance for understanding how the Soviet Union helped shape postcolonial Africa, especially given its lack of former colonies. Despite recent growth in research in this field, there still is a significant gap when it comes to the perspective of people of color and their migration to, within, and out of the USSR. Surprisingly little attention has been paid to their personal experiences behind the so-called Iron Curtain, such as their encounters with Soviet citizens or other students from the postcolonial world and their experiences of racism.
This project aims to address these shortcomings by focusing on the experiences of female and male students from three Sub-Saharan African countries—Nigeria, Madagascar, and Mauritius—which differed in terms of geographical location, area and population, ideological orientation, and the number of students they sent to the USSR. An agency-centered approach will be adopted in this study, focusing on the biographical trajectories of former Sub-Saharan African students in the USSR.
The micro-level analysis will decenter the Soviet perspective, shedding new light on the postcolonial world’s views on the USSR and the effects of Soviet educational politics in the “Global South” during the Cold War and beyond.
Discipline
History
Supervision
Prof. Dr. Julia Richers, University of Bern
Link
Project link
