Soviet Aid to the Gizenga Government in the Former Belgian Congo (1960–61) as Reflected in Russian Archives

Abstract

Documents obtained by the author in the Russian archives offer new details about the Soviet role in the Congo crisis in the 1960s and particularly its policy toward the pro-Lumumba government in Orientale Province (December 1960–August 1961) headed by Antoine Gizenga. Evidence from archival documents suggest that the Soviet Union supported Gizenga's government, but did not want to take the international risks involved in delivering material aid to the blockaded Oriental Province. It did provide Gizenga with financial aid and made every effort to get its allies to run the blockade and thus assisting Gizenga while avoiding a direct conflict with the West on the issue. Soviet behaviour in this crisis is another example of the complicated and flexible relationship between security and ideological imperatives in Soviet foreign policy. Moscow was motivated not only by its values and ideas but also by factors affecting the national interests of the USSR, its power and prestige.

Notes

 [1] Weissman, American Foreign Policy in the Congo, 1960–1964; Kalb, The Congo Cables; Mahoney, JFK.

 [2] De Witte, The Assassination of Lumumba, xvii.

 [3] Namikas, Battleground Africa.

 [4] Rulph Bunche, Under Secretary for Special Political Affairs, 1958 to 1971 and Special Representative of the Secretary General in the Congo, July to August 1960; Heinz Wieschhoff, Bunche's deputy, Hammarskjold's advisor on African affairs; and Andrew Cordier, Hammarskjold's Executive Assistant, 1952 to 1961, Interim UN representative in the Congo from Bunche's departure to 8 September 1960. All were Americans.

 [5] This means that the corresponding decision was taken by the Presidium of the CC CPSU, the highest party organ, on July 1960.

 [6] Rossiya i Africa, Vol. II, 246.

 [7] SSSR i strany Afriki 1946–1962, Vol. I, 633.

 [8] Arkhiv Vnesnei Politiki Rossiiskoi Federatsii (AVP RF), fond (collection – f.) 0590, opis (finding aid – op.) 2, papka (folder – p.) 1, delo (file – d.) 8, list (page – l.) 56.

 [9] Dayal, Mission for Hammarskjold, 76.

[10] AVP RF, f. 590, op. 4, p. 6, d. 19, l. 94.

[11] AVP RF, f. 590, op. 3, p. 1, d. 11, l. 5.

[12] SSSR i strany Afriki 1946–1962, Vol. II, 141.

[13] Kalb, The Congo Cables, 172.

[14] AVP RF, f. 590, op. 3, p. 2, d. 9, l. 38.

[15] AVP RF, f. 590, op. 4, p. 5, d. 11, p. 130. Gizenga to Khruschev, 4 January 1961.

[16] Memorandum from the Department of State to Certain Diplomatic Missions, 15 December 1960; FRUS , 1958–1960. Vol. XIV, 630.

[17] Kalb, The Congo Cables, 169–70.

[18] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 4, d. 1, l. 33.

[19] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 4, d. 1, l. 35.

[20] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 4, d. 1, l. 71. Transcript of the talk between Deputy of Foreign Minister of the USSR V. V. Kuznetsov and Minister of Education and Arts of the Republic of Congo Pierre Mulele, 8 March 1961.

[21] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 4, d. 1, l. 18–20. Transcript of the talk between Deputy of Foreign Minister of the USSR Y. A. Malik and Ambassador of Czechoslovakia in Moscow R. Dvorzhak, 12 January 1961; AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 4, d. 1, l. 57–59. Transcript of the talk between Deputy of Foreign Minister of the USSR Y. A. Malik and Ambassador of Czechoslovakia in Moscow G. R. Dvorzhak, 24 February 1961.

[22] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 4, d. 1, l. 47–48. Transcript of the talk between Deputy of Foreign Minister of the USSR A. A. Sobolev and Ambassador of Czechoslovakia in Moscow R. Dvorzhak, 7 February 1961.

[23] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 4, d. 1, l. 47–48. Transcript of the talk between Deputy of Foreign Minister of the USSR A. A. Sobolev and Ambassador of Czechoslovakia in Moscow R. Dvorzhak, 7 February 1961.

[24] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 4, d. 1, l. 76. Transcript of the talk between Deputy of Foreign Minister of the USSR N. P. Firubin and Ambassador of Czechoslovakia in Moscow G. R. Dvorzhak, 9 March 1961.

[25] Kalb, The Congo Cables, 119.

[26] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 2, p. 1, d. 2, l. 4, 2–3.

[27] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 2, p. 1, d. 2, l. 34.

[28] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 2, p. 1, d. 2, l. 36.

[29] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 4, d. 1, l. 48. Transcript of the talk between Sobolev and Dvorzhak, 9 March 1961.

[30] Russiya i Africa, 196–7.

[31] AVP RF, f. 0601, op. 2, p. 4, d. 9, l. 6. “O poezdke L. I. Brezneva v Gvineiskyu Respubliku, Ganu i Morocco” (About L. I. Breznev's trip to the Republic of Guinea, Ghana and Morocco), 24 February 1961.

[32] Mahoney, JFK, 168.

[33] AVP RF, f. 0573, op. 5, p. 9, d. 16, l. 23–24. Pervyi secretar' posol'stva SSSR v Gane V. Studenov, korrespondent TASS I. Yanchenko. “K voprosu ob amerikano-ganskich otnosheniyah” (First Secretary of the Embassy of the USSR in Ghana V. Studenov, TASS correspondent I. Yanchenko. “Some Aspects of American–Ghanian Relations”), 8 April 1961.

[34] Held in Casablanca (Morocco) on 3–7 June 1961. Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, UAR and Provisional Government of Algeria participated.

[35] Kalb, The Congo Cables, 181.

[36] Zayavlenie Sovetskogo pravitel'stva v svyazi s ubiyistvom Patrisa Lumumbi (Statement of the Soviet government in connection with the assassination of Patrice Lumumba), February 14, 1961; SSSR I strany Afriki 1946–1962, Vol. II, 197.

[37] Namikas, Battleground Africa, 279.

[38] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 4, d. 2, l. 71. Transcript of the talk between V. V. Kuznetsov and Pierre Mulele, 8 March 1961.

[39] Namikas, History through Documents and Memory.

[40] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 4, d. 2, l. 71.

[41] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 4, d. 2, l. 85. Transcript of the talk between Deputy of Foreign Minister of the USSR N.P. Firubin and Ambassador of Poland in the USSR B. Yashuk, 10 March 1961.

[42] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 6, d. 17, l. 3. Spetsial'nyi korrespondent CTK Dushan Provarnik. “Otchet o prebyvanii v Kongo” (CTK Special correspondent Dushan Provarnik. “Report on staying in the Congo”), 6 March 1961.

[43] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 4, d. 2, l. 4.

[44] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 4, d. 2, l. 16, 19. Transcript of the talk with Minister of Education and Arts of the Republic of Congo Pierre Mulele, 9 March 1961. Participants: P. Mulele, A. Ponsele (Congolese side), V. A. Brykhin, N. I. Gusev, G. S. Sidorovich.

[45] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 4, d. 2, l. 19.

[46] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 4, d. 2, l. 73. Transcript of the talk between V. V. Kuznetsov and Pierre Mulele, 8 March 1961.

[47] FRUS , 1961–1963, Vol. XX, 1.

[48] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 4, d. 1, l. 64. Transcript of the talk with Minister of Education and Arts of the Republic of Congo Pierre Mulele at breakfast, 8 March 1961. Participants: V. V. Kuznetsov, R. Y. Malinovskyi, S. A. Skachkov, V. A. Brykhin, N. I. Gusev, G. S. Sidorovich.

[49] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 4, d. 2, l. 20. Transcript of the talk with P. Mulele, 9 March 1961.

[50] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 3, p. 6, d. 17, l. 8, 10, 11. Dushan Provarnik, “Report on staying in the Congo.”

[51] One of the top figures in Soviet Intelligence Service General Vadim Kirpichenko named Fedyashin as one of Soviet intelligence officers who ‘used to obtain information and establish necessary contacts with the risk to his life … in the Congo enveloped in flames of war’ (Kirpichenko, Iz arkhiva razvedchika, 87).

[52] FRUS, 1961–1963, Vol. XX, 103.

[53] Namikas, Battleground Africa, 292.

[54] AVP RF, f. 0590, op. 4, p. 8, d. 18, l. 6. Spravka II Afrikanskogo otdela MID SSSR “Respublika Kongo” (Information by African Department II of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR “The Republic of Congo”), 8 January 1962.

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Sergei Mazov

Dr Sergei Mazov is senior research fellow at the Institute of Universal History, Russian Academy of Sciences and a former visiting scholar of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Cold War International History Project. He is the author of two books on African history and the Cold War in Africa and large number of articles in Russian and other languages.