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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Liberation of Zimbabwe: a Soviet Factor
| Panel |
19. New Perspectives on Liberation in Southern Africa
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| Paper ID | 604 |
| Author(s) |
Shubin, Vladimir
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | The search for the roots of the current crisis in Zimbabwe draws the attention of scholars to history of the liberation struggle in that country. A number of books and articles on this subject appeared in recent years but one theme is often missing or distorted, that is the involvement of the Soviet Union in the support of this struggle.
The paper will attempt to trace a history of Moscow relations with the Zimbabwe liberation movements in various fields from the early 1960s. It will analyse political, human and military assistance to ZAPU, including training of its combatants in the USSR and activities of the Soviet military attached to ZIPRA in Angola and Zambia. It will assess to what end the Soviet involvement influenced the strategy and tactics of ZAPU.
The paper in based primarily on archive documents, including the author’s personal archive. However, since many of the Russian archives are still “sealed off’, oral history sources proved to be invaluable for painting a veritable picture of the Soviet involvement.
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