Effective Solidarity with the Postcolonial World : The Educational Assistance of the Socialist Countries during the Cold War
Abstrakt
This paper examines the history of educational cooperation between the socialist countries and the postcolonial world during the Cold War. It analyzes the ideas, aspirations and motives that governed the cooperation in both sides of the connection and draws a distinction between different actors, such as governments, opposition parties, national liberation movements and student organizations.
Contrary to many assumptions and stereotypes, the paper downplays the importance of Marxist-Leninist indoctrination and argues that the training programmes aimed to educate not only "friends" of the socialist countries, but notably qualified specialists who would both embody and defend the superiority of socialism and of the universities of socialist countries in the postcolonial world.