The Cambridge History of Communism

Until the end of the 1980s, historiography and its counterpart, political science, had to rely on official documents, press reports and autobiographies. As a rule, communist relations with the Third World were interpreted through Cold War lenses. Exemplary accounts include, among others, Rubinstein, Alvin Z., Moscow’s Third World Strategy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988); Valkenier, Elizabeth Kridl, The Soviet Union and the Third World: An Economic Bind (New York: Praeger, 1983); Geyer, Dietrich (ed.), Sowjetunion. Aussenpolitik 1955–1973 (Cologne: Böhlau, 1976). The end of the USSR was accompanied by a remarkable decline in interest in socialist–Third World relations in general. In recent years, by using stimuli from modernized history of international relations and new Cold War history as well as by integrating approaches from postcolonial studies, historians are rediscovering, extending and partially reinventing the field. New evidence from previously inaccessible archives in former socialist or Third World countries lends additional impetus, although declassification processes are still incomplete or may even appear to be erratic. Latest important editions of documents are Krasovitskaia, T. Yu. (ed.), “Vozvratit’ domoi druz’iami SSSR …” Obuchenie inostrantsev v Sovetskom soiuze 1956–1965 [To Return Home as Friends of the USSR: The Education of Foreigners in the Soviet Union 1956–1965] (Moscow: Demokratiia, 2013); Tomilina, N. G. (ed.), Naslediniki Kominterna. Mezhdunarodnye soveshchaniia predstavitelei kommunisticheskikh i rabochikh partii v Moskve (noiabr’ 1957 g.) [Heirs of the Comintern. International Conference of Representatives of Communist and Workers’ Parties in Moscow (November 1957)] (Moscow: ROSSPĖN, 2013). Most recent bibliographical overviews are included in Engerman, David C., “The Second World’s Third World,” Kritika 12 (2011), 183–211; Hilger, Andreas (ed.), Die Sowjetunion und die Dritte Welt. UdSSR, Staatssozialismus und Antikolonialismus im Kalten Krieg 1945–1991 (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2009); and Smith, Stephen A. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014). The seminal post-1989 study (with emphasis on the period since the late 1960s) is Westad, Odd Arne, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007). In addition, many in-depth studies of bilateral relations and biographies of relevant actors on both sides are available. Unfortunately, a comprehensive study on general Comecon–Third World relations until the late 1960s remains a desideratum.

Under these general conditions, entangled histories of Cold War and decolonization developments in the economic, diplomatic, military, cultural and propaganda spheres will remain an important aspect of research. In this context, they will continue to integrate case studies about bilateral relations of an increasing number of socialist and Third World countries into a broader picture. Detailed descriptions of the contradictory interplay between superpower competition, splits within the communist (and capitalist) camp, and differentiation of the Third World significantly enhance understanding of the importance and multidimensionality of corresponding interdependencies. They underline the ability of Third World representatives to pursue their own domestic as well as foreign-policy agendas. Likewise, they actively shaped designs and outcomes of cultural and economic interactions. The following selection may illustrate the diversity and main directions of research: Filatova, Irina and Davidson, Apollon, The Hidden Thread: Russia and South Africa in the Soviet Era (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 2013); Hilger, Andreas, Die sowjetisch-indischen Beziehungen 1941–1965/1966. Kommunismus, Dekolonisierung und Kalter Krieg (2017); Rupprecht, Tobias, Soviet Internationalism After Stalin: Interaction and Exchange Between the USSR and Latin America During the Cold War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015); Beliakova, E. I., “Russkii” Amadu i brazil’skaia literatura v Rossii [The Russian “Amadu” and Brazilian Literature in Russia] (Moscow: Institut Latinskoi ameriki, 2010); Sanchez-Sibony, Oscar, Red Globalization: The Political Economy of the Soviet Cold War from Stalin to Khrushchev (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015); Aust, Martin (ed.), Globalisierung imperial und sozialistisch. Russland und die Sowjetunion in der Globalgeschichte 1851–1991 (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2013); Kemper, Michael and Conermann, Stephan (eds.), The Heritage of Soviet Oriental Studies (London: Routledge, 2011); Mishkovich, Natasha, Fischer-Tiné, Harald and Boshkovska, Nada (eds.), The Non-Aligned Movement and the Cold War: Delhi–Bandung–Belgrade (London: Routledge, 2014). Finally, general accounts of history of communism or of Soviet history include chapters on Third World dimensions; see, for example, Pons, Silvio, The Global Revolution: A History of International Communism 1917–1991 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).

In taking into account the perceptible impact of Third World societies and states on both international relations as well as on world metropolises, current studies widen historical perspectives on the relations between Second and Third World countries. In doing so, they allow for the integration of twentieth-century history of communist international relations into questions and interpretations that cover global interconnections and processes beyond Cold War dichotomies, such as modernization and urbanization, developmental and population policy, and youth protest and culture – future research will add other fascinating themes.