Paper short abstract:

This paper introduces new perspectives on the influence and impact of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union on aspects of the history of West and South Africa in the years of African decolonization in the late twentieth century.

Paper long abstract:

Building on the new work by Jocelyn Alexander and JoAnn McGregor on the role of the Soviet Union in the making of the armies of the Zimbabwean liberation movements, this paper introduces new research on the involvement of the Soviet Union in the Nigerian Civil War and on Soviet Bloc connections with Southern African liberation movements, including the African National Congress of South Africa and the main opposition party in Lesotho, the Basutoland Congress Party. These connections included, besides the supply of military equipment, educational scholarships and other forms of material assistance. In the cases of Namibia and South Africa, this support was crucial to the armed struggles waged by SWAPO and MK, but the paper will go on to argue that this does not mean that Soviet Bloc support was key to the ending of apartheid. Apartheid ended first in Namibia, then in South Africa itself, in different ways. Paying close attention to chronology, the paper will analyse and challenge some of the writings by Russian historians on Soviet policy in the late 1980s and will argue that the main impact of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union on the end of apartheid in South Africa was negative: the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 provided an opportunity for the apartheid regime to abandon previous policy and accept the idea of a negotiated settlement. The abandonment of the remaining apartheid laws was a necessary part of that settlement.