Peoples'' Friendship University in Moscow : Soviet Educational Cooperation with the Global South during the Cold War

The Peoples'' Friendship University in Moscow is the first close analysis of the history of the most important educational institute in the USSR for educating students from the Global South. Through her analysis of this key institution of Soviet internationalism during the Cold War, Riikkamari Muhonen provides a unique focus not only on everyday life within the institution, but how it supported the goals of Soviet public diplomacy towards nations affected by decolonization in Africa and the Middle East.

Drawing on archival material and interviews with alumni students, Muhonen’s mixed methodological approach creates a deep and varied view of the institution and contributes to a rapidly growing field of studies on grass-root level connections between the Second and the Third world in the spheres of cultural collaboration, development aid, and international education.

This exploration of Soviet educational programs is important for broader understandings not only of post-war Soviet history, and the aftermath of decolonization and the global Cold War, but Russia’s current and evolving relationship with allies across the Global South.