Nationalismes dans la patrie du socialisme. Mobilisations nationales des étudiants du tiers-monde en Union soviétique

• Main Author: Constantin Katsakioris
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Presses Universitaires du Midi 2019-11-01
• Series: Diasporas: Circulations, Migrations, Histoire
• Subjects: student movement; Leninism; nationalism; separatism; civil war; Soviet Union
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/diasporas/4387

This paper explores the political movement of students from Africa and the Middle East in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It suggests that, beyond anti-imperialism and Communism, several national groups or members of national minorities defended first and foremost their national cause. The Kurds quitted the Iraqi student union to create a Kurdish one, Somalis supported the annexation of territories in Kenya and Ethiopia, while Biafrans fought for secession during the Nigerian Civil War. The national cause was very often much more important than the cause of socialism.