The Hidden Thread. Russia and South Africa in the Soviet Era

Johannesburg , Cape Town : Jonathan Ball Publishers SA, 2013.

Irina Filatova, Apollon Davidson

The book covers the history of relations  between Soviet Russia and South Africa, which, for many decades, remained hidden even from those who were a part of it. It is devoted mostly to the Soviet period, although the first, introductory, chapter presents the history of relations between the two countries in the previous three hundred years, and the last one  the relations after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the establishment of the diplomatic relations. In the first part of the book the reader will find a detailed analysis of close ties between the Communist Party of South Africa and the Communist International, the activities of the  South African NGO Friends of the Soviet Union, trade relations in in the 1930s and the cooperation and diplomatic relations during the Second World War. The second part of the book is devoted to the relations between the USSR, South African communists and the African National Congress during the cold war era: Soviet assistance to the ANC's armed struggle, its ideological influence on the anti-apartheid movement, as well as the analysis of both Soviet and South African ideological constructs concerning one another and their mutual policies towards one another. The last part of the book covers Gorbachev's perestroika period and the infuence of the changes in the USSR and of its collapse on the situation in South Africa and on the relations between the two countries. 

Keywords: холодная война, Южная Африка, Cold War, апартеид, Африканский национальный конгресс, Южно-Африканская Коммунистическая партия, African National Congress, South African Communist Party, South Africa, Коммунистический интернационал, Communist International, Apartheid