The USSR in Portuguese Africa

In this episode, I interview Professor Natalia Telepneva. She is a Lecturer in International History at the University of Strathclyde. Her specialty is the Cold War-era Soviet Union and socialism, with a specific focus on Africa. And today we will discuss her first book, "Cold War Liberation: The Soviet Union and the Collapse of the Portuguese Empire in Africa, 1961-1975," in which she details the roles of Soviet and even Czechoslovak bureaucrats and spies in the anti-colonialist wars in Portugal's African colonies of Guinea-Bissau, Angola, and Mozambique. We will talk about what connected the Soviet Union with the local independence movements, how the Communist Soviet government supported Marxism-inspired leaders in Portuguese Africa, and how the anti-colonial wars played out. You may download Professor Telepneva's book as a free e-book at this link.

Image: Portion of a 1987 Soviet stamp remembering the 10th anniversary of a Friendship and Cooperation agreement between the Soviet Union and Mozambique. The time of this stamp is outside the scope of this podcast, but I thought it was an appropriate image. Credit: Wikipedia.

Note: We did experience some connection issues during the interview, so I apologize for that. Between timestamps 11:49-55, Prof. Telepneva meant to mention the Central Committee (of the USSR's Communist Party) and its International Department.