Премьер-министр Лесото Леабуа Джонатан: динамика изменения образа в советской прессе в 1960-е — 1980-е гг. (по материалам газет «Правда» и «Известия»)

Электронный научно-образовательный журнал "История". 2025. Т. 16.

Voevodskiy A.

The article analyses the dynamics of changes in the image of Lesotho Prime Minister Leabua Jonathan (1966—1986) in the Soviet press. The significance of this topic is due to the historical context of the period under study — in the 1960s — 1980s. Lesotho was an important center of the national liberation struggle in Southern Africa. Many members of the ANC and PAC found refuge on its territory in the 1960s, and from here the activities of the ANC underground were coordinated in the second half of the 1970s — mid-1980s. The figure of Leabua Jonathan naturally occupied a central place in these events, which is confirmed by his posthumous award of the Order of the Companions of Oliver Tambo in 2007 — one of the highest awards of South Africa. An analysis of the main newspapers of the USSR, Pravda and Izvestia, also allows us to study strategies for forming Soviet readers’ ideas about the national liberation struggle in Africa, adopted in the Soviet press.

Keywords: Лесото, lesotho, советско-африканские отношения, Soviet-African relations, Leabua Jonathan, national liberation struggle in Southern Africa, Леабуа Джонатан, национально-освободительная борьба на юге Африки