CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Muhonen, Riikkamari Johanna |
|---|---|
| Title | "Good Friends" for the Soviet Union: The Peoples' Friendship University in Soviet Educational Cooperation with the Developing World, 1960-1980 |
| Summary | The dissertation looks at Moscow-based Peoples’ Friendship University as a case of Soviet cooperation with the developing world during the Cold War. Founded in 1960 by the order of Nikita Khrushchev, the university was an important part of the new internationalist Soviet foreign policy of the Thaw era, portraying values such as friendship, cooperation and modernity to audiences in the newly-independent countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The dissertation analyzes changes taking place in the university’s activities in 1960-1980, demonstrating transformation occurring in Soviet educational cooperation and the changing position of the university during these years, as the enthusiasm and active networking with local political organizations of the target countries in the 1960s turned into a more stabilized form of state-level bilateral cooperation between the USSR and countries of the developing world in the 1970s. The dissertation analyzes the ways in which the Soviet state administration aimed to fulfill both the educational and ideological goals set for the university activities: educating qualified professionals needed in countries of the developing world that would possess pro-Soviet political views and create Soviet-led global networks. The dissertation follows the study path of foreign students at Peoples’ Friendship University from the process of selecting new students to graduation and returning home. It analyzes how the Soviet state aimed to influence “the hearts and minds” of foreign students through activities taking place in the classrooms and outside them. Activities organized in the leisure time of students both in Moscow and during holiday times in other parts of the Soviet Union had an important pedagogical meaning for the ideological goals of the education project. The dissertation also contextualizes Soviet goals set for the education project by analyzing experiences of students, discussing the features of everyday life in the Soviet Union, and forms of student activism that contested the image of Soviet society and socialist modernity produced during classes and excursions. At the same time, it notices the different backgrounds and interests of students arriving to the Soviet Union that significantly affected outcomes of the project. In conclusion, the dissertation sees this specific case of Soviet educational cooperation as a playground of different interests of the Soviet state, state administrations of the target countries, and the students themselves. While analysis of different activities brings forward the Soviet interests concerning desired outcomes of the project, the realized outcomes are more diverse and demonstrate the influence different interests and political orientations of the target countries had throughout the education process, from student selections to alumni careers after graduation. Key words: Soviet Union, Cold War, Third World, global south, internationalism, transnationalism, education, development aid, Soviet foreign policy, international relations, public diplomacy |
| Supervisor | Shaw, Charles; Rieber, Alfred |
| Department | History PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/muhonen_riikkamari.pdf |
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