The rise and fall of the ‘Soviet Model of Development’ in West Africa, 1957–64

Abstract

Between 1957 and 1964 the Soviet Union tried to export to West Africa a model of economic and social development. Moscow's policy was driven by the conviction that socialism was a superior economic system, and could be replicated in Ghana and Guinea. However, Soviet confidence in the project was undermined by the unreliability of local leaders, and by the Congo crisis. Combining Soviet and Ghanaian sources, this article shows the importance of modernisation in the Third World for Moscow's foreign policy during the Khrushchev era. Moreover, the setback in West Africa taught the Soviet leadership crucial lessons: the importance of supporting ideologically reliable leaders and the necessity of building military strength.

Notes

Alessandro Iandolo has recently completed a D.Phil at Oxford University. His main research interest is the history of Soviet relations with the Third World, and in particular with Africa. He currently teaches Soviet history at Cardiff University.

1 Legvold, Soviet Policy in West Africa (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970).

2 Mazov, A Distant Front in the Cold War. The USSR in West Africa and the Congo, 1956–1964, ed. James H. Hershberg, Cold War International History Project (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2010).

3 Aleksandr A Fursenko and Timothy Naftali, Khrushchev's Cold War (New York: W.W. Norton, 2006), 144–49.

4 Robert C. Allen, ‘The Rise and Decline of the Soviet Economy,’ The Canadian Journal of Economics / Revue canadienne d'Economique 34, no. 4 (2001): 861.

5 Fursenko and Naftali, Khrushchev's Cold War, 57.

6 Elizabeth K. Valkenier, The Soviet Union and the Third World. An Economic Bind (New York, NY: Praeger, 1983), 8.

7 United Kingdom National Archives (henceforth, UKNA), FO371/116655.

8 Boris N. Ponomarev, ‘O gosudarstve natsionalnoi demokratii,’ Kommunist 8, no. 33–48 (1961).

9 The only communist party in sub-Saharan Africa was the Communist Party of South Africa, which was declared illegal in 1950. However, since the late 1940s there were communist parties in most of French North Africa and in Sudan, as well as movements and trade unions of socialist inspiration in Egypt and also in French West Africa. See: Stephen Ellis and Tsepo Sechaba, Comrades Against Apartheid. The ANC and the South African Communist Party in Exile (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1992); Guy Pfeffermann, ‘Trade Unions and Politics in French West Africa during the Fourth Republic,’ African Affairs 66, no. 264 (1967); Elizabeth Schmidt, ‘Cold War in Guinea: the Rassemblement Democratique Africain and the Struggle Over Communism, 1950–1958,’ Journal of African History 48, no. 1 (2007).

10 Nkrumah, Axioms of Kwame Nkrumah (London: Thomas Nelson, 1967).

11 UKNA, FO371/125321, A.H.F. Rumbold to F.E. Cumming-Bruce, 7 January 1957.

12 Arkhiv Vneshnei Politiki Rosiiskoi Federatsii (henceforth, AVP RF), fond 573, opis 1, papka 1, delo 3, listy 1–3. In Apollon Davidson and Sergey Mazov, eds., Rossiya i Afrika. Dokumenty i Materialy, XVIII v. - 1960 g., vol. II: 1918 – 1960 gg. (Moscow: IVI RAN, 1999), 179–81. John P. Glennon and Stanley Shaloff, eds., Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), 1955–1957 - Africa, vol. XVIII (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1989), 362–65, 72–74.

13 UKNA, FO371/125294, ‘U.K. High Commission in Ghana, Fortnightly Report for the Period 6^th–20^th March – Part II’, 26 March 1957.

14 For a description of the Virgin Lands campaign and its meaning for the Soviet Union according to Khrushchev himself: Nikita S. Khrushchev, Dva Tsveta Vremeni, ed. A. N. Yakovlev, 2 vols., vol. 2, Rossiya. XX Vek Dokumenty (Moscow: Mezhdunarodniy Fond ‘Demokratiya’, 2009), 56.

15 Nkrumah, Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah (Endinburgh: T. Nelson, 1957), x.

16 UKNA, FO371/125294, ‘U.K. High Commission in Ghana, Fortnightly Report for the Period 6^th–20^th March – Part II’, 26 March 1957. AVP RF, f. 573, op. 1, p. 1, d. 3, l. 9. Ghanaian Public Records and Archive Administration (PRAAD), ADM/13/2/44, 14 January 1958.

17 Glennon and Shaloff, FRUS, 1955–1957 - Africa, 373.

18 FRUS, 1955–1957 - Africa, 373, 378.

19 AVP RF, f. 573, op. 1, p. 1, d. 3, l. 9–14; f. 573, op. 1, p. 1, d. 4, l. 1–15; f. 573, op. 2, p. 1, d. 3, l. 1–10. PRAAD, ADM/13/1/26, 30 August 1957; ADM/13/2/40, 30 August 1957; ADM/13/1/27, 14 January 1958. UKNA, FO371/131187, M.E. Allen to H.F.T. Smith, 25 June 1958; FO371/131188, J.R.A. Bottomley to J.H. Ellis, 22 August 1958. Harriet D. Schwar and Stanley Shaloff, eds., Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), 1958–1960 - Africa, vol. XIV (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1992), 652.

20 Glennon and Shaloff, FRUS, 1955–1957 – Africa, 383. UKNA, FO371/131187, ‘From Foreign Office to Khartoum’, 28 February 1958; FO371/135273, M.E. Allen to P. Hayman, 25 March 1958;

21 Rossiskiy Gosudartvenniy Arkhiv Noveishei Istorii (henceforth, RGANI), fond 5, opis 30, delo 336, list 69. Extracts in Apollon B. Davidson, Sergey Mazov, and Georgiy Tsypkin, eds., SSSR i Afrika, 1918–1960: dokumentirovannaia istoriia vzaimootnoshenii (Moscow: IVI RAN, 2002), 176.

22 AVP RF, f. 573, op. 2, p. 1, d. 6, l. 2–29, 49–51; f. 573, op. 2, p. 1, d. 8, l. 3–8. Last document in Davidson and Mazov, Rossiya i Afrika, Tom II, 181–85.

23 AVP RF, f. 573, op. 3, p. 1, d. 10, l. 1–7; RGANI, f. 5, op. 30, d. 336, l. 69. In Davidson, Mazov, and Tsypkin, SSSR i Afrika, 176–77. ‘Vneshnyaya Torgovlya SSSR za 1959–1963 gody,’ ed. Ministerstvo Vneshnei Torgovli SSSR (Moscow: Vneshtorgnzdat, 1965), 430–33. PRAAD, ADM/13/1/28, 5 June 1959; 9 June 1959; ADM/13/2/61, 5 June 1959.

24 AVP RF, f. 573, op. 3, p. 2, d. 3, l. 1–16; d. 4, l. 1–6; f. 573 d. 5, l. 2–41, 100–103; f. 573, op. 3-a, p. 3, d. 4, l. 1–46; f. 573, op. 3-a, p. 3, d. 6, l. 4–6; f. 573, op. 3-a, p. 3, d. 7, l. 1–7.

25 AVP RF, f. 575, op. 1, p. 1, d. 2, l. 19. In Davidson, Mazov, and Tsypkin, SSSR i Afrika, 200.

26 V.A. Brykin, ed. SSSR i Strany Afriki, 1946–1962 gg. Dokumenty i Materialy, 2 vols., vol. 1: 1946 g.–Sentyabr 1960 g. (Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe Izdatelstvo Politicheskoi Literatury 1963), 383. AVP RF, f. 575, op. 1, p. 1, d. 2, l. 1–2. In Davidson and Mazov, Rossiya i Afrika, Tom II, 198–99.

27 AVP RF, f. 575, op. 1, p. 1, d. 2, l. 22–39. In Rossiya i Afrika, Tom II, 200–04. RGANI, f. 4, op. 16, d. 583, l. 91; AVP RF, f. 575, op. 2, p. 1, d. 6, l. 3–5; d. 10, l. 1–6. Extracts in Davidson, Mazov, and Tsypkin, SSSR i Afrika, 204–07.

28 Schwar and Shaloff, FRUS, 1958–1960 - Africa, 670–83.

29 AVP RF, f. 575, op. 1, p. 1, d. 2, l. 22–39, in Davidson and Mazov, Rossiya i Afrika, Tom II, 200–04. Schwar and Shaloff, FRUS, 1958–1960 - Africa, 687–706.

30 Brykin, SSSR i Strany Afriki, Tom 1, 460–62. RGANI, f. 5, op. 30, d. 305, l. 289. In Davidson, Mazov, and Tsypkin, SSSR i Afrika, 208.

31 RGANI, f. 5, op. 35, d. 79, l. 79–137.

32 RGANI, f. 5, op. 30, d. 305, l. 116–288.

33 PRAAD, ADM/13/1/27, 27 June 1958.

34 See W. Arthur Lewis, ‘Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour,’ Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies 22(1954). Gustav Ranis, ‘Arthur Lewis’ Contribution to Development Thinking and Policy,’ in The Lewis Model after 50 years: Assessing Sir Arthur Lewis’ Contribution to Development Economics and Policy (Manchester School, 2004).

35 RGANI, f. 5, op. 30, d. 305, l. 289-293; d. 309, l. 86–90. In Davidson and Mazov, Rossiya i Afrika, Tom II, 208–11, 22–25.

36 Sergey Mazov, Politika SSSR v Zapadnoi Afrike, 1956–1964: Neizvestnye Stranizy Kholodnoy Voiny, ed. Apollon Davidson (Moscow: Nauka, 2008). 75.

37 AVP RF, f. 575, op. 2, p. 2, d. 18, l. 2–11. In Davidson and Mazov, Rossiya i Afrika, Tom II, 213–20.

38 ‘Vneshnyaya Torgovlya SSSR za 1959-1963 gody,’ 432–35.

39 See Guy Laron, ‘Cutting the Gordian Knot: The Egyptian Quest for Arms and the Czechoslovak Arms Deal,’ in Cold War International History Project Working Paper 55 (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2007).

40 AVP RF, f. 575, op. 3, p. 3, d. 7, l. 8, 23; f. 575, op. 3, p. 4, d. 17, l. 15–19; f. 575, op. 4, p. 6, d. 6, l. 15. Extracts in Davidson, Mazov, and Tsypkin, SSSR i Afrika, 212–14. AVP RF, f. 575, op. 3, p. 5, d. 23, l. 54–56. In Davidson and Mazov, Rossiya i Afrika, Tom II, 227–28. Brykin, SSSR i Strany Afriki, Tom 1, 622–29. ‘Vneshnyaya Torgovlya SSSR za 1959-1963 gody,’ 432–35.

41 PRAAD, MFA/4/83, ‘Agreement for Economic and Technical Cooperation between the Republic of Ghana and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics’, 4 August 1960.

42 AVP RF, f. 573, op. 4, p. 4, d. 12, l. 26–31; f. 573, op. 4, p. 5, d. 16, l. 12–15; f. 573, op. 4, p. 5, d. 21, l. 1–3; p. 6, f. 573, op. 4, p. 5, d. 28, l. 1–10. AVP RF, f. 573, op. 4, p. 5, d. 25 (whole ‘delo’). RGANI, f. 5, op. 30, d. 336, l. 32–39, 56–57, 96–107. AVP RF, f. 573, op. 4, p. 3, d. 12, l. 51–53; f. 573, op. 4, p. 4, d. 15, l. 5–17, 20–21. In Davidson and Mazov, Rossiya i Afrika, Tom II, 192–96. AVP RF, f. 573, op. 4, p. 3, d. 12, l. 48–81. In Davidson, Mazov, and Tsypkin, SSSR i Afrika, 182–84. PRAAD, ADM/13/1/29, 16 August 1960, 30 August 1960, 1 November 1960, 30 December 1960; ADM/13/2/74, 30 August 1960. ‘Vneshnyaya Torgovlya SSSR za 1959-1963 gody,’ 430–33.

43 UKNA, AVP RF, f. 573, op. 4, p. 5, d. 21, l. 1–3.

44 UKNA, FO371/146801, A.W. Snelling ‘Ghana: Relations with the Soviet Union’, 18 August 1960.

45 Ambassador Gerasimov had met Lumumba in Conakry in 1959, and remained positively impressed. AVP RF, f. 590, op. 1, p. 1, d. 1, l. 4–5. In Davidson and Mazov, Rossiya i Afrika, Tom II, 232–33. RGANI, f. 11, op. 1, d. 372, l. 30–32. In Davidson, Mazov, and Tsypkin, SSSR i Afrika, 258–59.

46 Brykin, SSSR i Strany Afriki, Tom 1, 549–50, 52.

47 Brykin, SSSR i Strany Afriki, Tom 1, 553–63. AVP RF, f. 590, op. 4, p. 6, d. 16, l. 10. In Davidson, Mazov, and Tsypkin, SSSR i Afrika, 269.

48 Bruce D. Porter, The USSR in Third World Conflicts. Soviet Arms and Diplomacy in local wars, 1945-1980 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984). 19–20, 36–59.

49 UKNA, CAB159/34, JIC(60)55, 22 July 1960. FRUS, 1958–1960 - Africa, 315–16, 347.

50 PRAAD, SC/BAA/149, 30 July 1960, 4 August 1960.

51 FRUS, 1958–1960 – Africa, 443–46, 56–57, 65.

52 FRUS, 1958–1960 – Africa,, 460–62.

53 V.A. Brykin, ed. SSSR i Strany Afriki, 1946-1962 gg. Dokumenty i Materialy, 2 vols., vol. 2: Sentyabr 1960 g. – 1962 g. (Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe Izdatelstvo Politicheskoi Literatury, 1963), 194–98.

54 For an overview of Soviet policy towards Congo after Lumumba's death, see: Sergey Mazov, ‘Soviet Aid to the Gizenga Movement in the Former Belgian Congo (1960–61) as Reflected in Russian Archives,’ Cold War History 7, no. 3 (2007).

55 FRUS, 1958–1960 – Africa, 497.

56 PRAAD, ADM/13/1/29, 28 July 1960; SC/BAA/149, 30 July 1960, 4 August 1960. AVP RF, f. 573, op. 4, p. 2, d. 9, l. 1–3; f. 601, op. 1, p. 1, d. 6, l. 1. In Davidson and Mazov, Rossiya i Afrika, Tom II, 196–97, 246–47.

57 United Nations General Assembly, Official Records, Fifteenth Session (New York, 1960). 68–84. PRAAD, SC/BAA/403. RGANI, f. 3, op. 12, d. 1011, l. 24–27. In Aleksandr A. Fursenko, ed. Prezidium TsK KPSS 1954–1964: Chernovye Protokolnye Zapisi Zasedanii Stenogrammy Postanovleniya, 3 vols., vol. 1, Arkhivy Kremlya (Moscow: Rosspen, 2004), 445, 1078–79. Kwame Nkrumah, Challenge of the Congo: A Case Study of Foreign Pressures in an Independent State (New York, NY: Independent Publishers, 1967).

58 Schwar and Shaloff, FRUS, 1958–1960 - Africa, 654–69. PRAAD, SC/BAA/490, 22 February 1961; SC/BAA/79, 14 December 1961.

59 UKNA, CAB158/41, JIC(61)73, 5 January 1961. Nina Davis Howland, ed. Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), 1961–1963 - Africa, vol. XXI (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1995), 354, 59.

60 Brykin, SSSR i Strany Afriki, Tom 2, 358. AVP RF, f. 573, op. 5, p. 7, d. 16, l. 72–73, 127; f. 573, op. 5, p. 8, d. 10, l. 31. PRAAD, ADM/13/1/30, 31 January 1961, 15 February 1961, 12 September 1961, 19 December 1961; ADM/13/2/78, 31 January 1961; ADM/13/2/80, 18 April 1961; ADM/13/2/85, 12 September 1961; SC/BAA/381, 26 September 1960, 20 July 1962.

61 SSSR I Strany Afriki, Tom 2, 443–48. PRAAD, ADM/13/1/30, 29 March 1961, 11 April 1961; ADM/13/2/80, 29 March 1961, 11 April 1961. PRAAD, MFA/4/153, 4 November 1961. “Vneshnyaya Torgovlya SSSR za 1959–1963 gody,” 432–33.

62 SSSR I Strany Afriki, Tom 2, 441–43. PRAAD, MFA/4/154, 4 November 1961.

63 RGANI, f. 5, op. 30, d. 371, l. 162–163, 221–226.

64 Howland, FRUS, 1961–1963 - Africa, 392–98.

65 Legvold, Soviet Policy in West Africa: 125–29.

66 AVP RF, f. 573, op. 6, p. 10, d. 16, l. 3, 25–26, 50, 68–70; f. 573, op. 6, p. 10, d. 22, l. 1–5, 6–28, 38–40, 135–136; f. 573, op. 6, p. 10, d. 15, l. 1–13. PRAAD, SC/BAA/66, 28 July 1962.

67 PRAAD, ADM/13/1/31, 14 February 1962, 17 April 1962; ADM/13/2/89, 14 February 1962; ADM/13/2/91, 17 April 1962.

68 PRAAD, ADM/13/1/32, 15 October 1963; ADM/13/2/109, 15 October 1963.

69 PRAAD, SC/BAA/381, 20 July 1962.

70 ‘Vneshnyaya Torgovlya SSSR za 1959-1963 gody,’ 430–33. and ‘Vneshnyaya Torgovlya SSSR za 1964 god’.

71 AVP RF, f. 573, op. 8, p. 13-A, d. 7, l. 1–2.

72 AVP RF, f. 573, op. 6, p. 10, d. 22, l. 6–28.

73 RGANI, f. 5, op. 33, d. 181, l. 93–125. PRAAD, SC/BAA/90.

74 Brykin, SSSR i Strany Afriki, Tom 2, 534–35.

75 RGANI, f. 3, op. 16, d. 941, l. 1–44. In Fursenko, Prezidium TsK KPSS 1954–1964, Vol 1, 753–54.

76 ‘Vneshnyaya Torgovlya SSSR za 1959–1963 Gody,’ 432–435.

77 RGANI, f. 5, op. 30, d. 371, l. 162–163, 221–226.

78 RGANI, f. 5, op. 33, d. 181, l.100.

79 RGANI, f. 5, op. 55, d. 56, l. 92–118. The Americans were indeed considering a military buildup in Africa. See Howland, FRUS, 1961–1963 - Africa, 310–14.

80 In N.S. Simonov, Voenno-promyshlennyi Kompleks SSSR v 1920–1950-e gody: tempy ekonomicheskogo rosta, struktura, organizatsiya proizvodstva i upravlenie (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 1996). 299. Cited in Jonathan Haslam, Russia's Cold War: from the October Revolution to the fall of the wall (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011), 200.