The Soviet Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee (russian: Советский комитет солидарности стран Азии и Африки, abbreviated СКССАА, SKSSAA) was an organization in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, which mobilized solidarity efforts to national liberation movements in Africa and Asia.
Soviet Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee (SKSSAA) / Sovetskii komitet solidarnosti stran Azii i Afriki
' SKSSAA was founded in May 1956.Dzasokhov, A.
Loyalty to solidarity principles
' SKSSAA was a member of the

Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organisation The Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organisation (AAPSO) is an international non-governmental organization dedicated to the ideals of national liberation and Third World solidarity. The organization is based in Egypt and has around 26-50 staff. The ...

(AAPSO). SKSSAA functioned as a Soviet semi-official foreign policy organ. SKSSAA was funded through the Soviet Peace Fund. It worked in close coordination with the

International Department of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union The International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was a department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union that oversaw the Party's relationships with foreign Communist Par ...

. The discourse of SKSSAA was centered on two positions: support of the

right of self-determination The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a ''jus cogens'' rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It stat ...

and

anti-racism Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate ...

.Amos, Jennifer.
Soviet Diplomacy and Politics on Human Rights 1945-1975
' The SKSSAA was also one of the founders of the

Patrice Lumumba University The Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (russian: Российский университет дружбы народов), also known as RUDN University and, until 1992, Patrice Lumumba University in honor of the hero Patrice Lumumba, is a ...

. SKSSAA published, jointly with the Institute of Oriental Studies, the sociopolitical and scientific journal ''Aziia i Afrika Segodnia''. As of 1968,

Mirzo Tursunzoda Mirzo Tursunzoda ( tg, Мирзо Турсунзода, 2 May 1911 — 24 September 1977) was an important Tajikistani and Soviet poet and a prominent political figure, full member (academician) of the Tajik Academy of Sciences, a member of ...

was the chairman of SKSSAA. Vladimir Shubin was secretary of SKSSAA at one point. Members of minority populations (such as Caucasian and Central Asian ethnic groups) were highly represented in SKSSAA. Often SKSSAA portrayed the experience of peripheric Soviet regions as models of development towards

Third World The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...

countries.

Southern Africa

A part of the SKSSAA aid to African liberation movements was channelled through the Organization for African Unity. SKSSAA was active internationally in the struggle against

apartheid in South Africa Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

. SKSSAA provided the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...

in exile with material resources, such as food, clothes and vehicles. The SKSSAA and other Soviet

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

s (NGOs) received South Africans in need of medical treatment, and arranged stays for them at Soviet hospitals. The organization also coordinated activities for South African students in the Soviet Union.

Middle East

Until 1974, all visits of the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...

was hosted by the SKSSAA (which was an 'unofficial' representative of Soviet foreign policy), rather than government representatives.

Fatah Fatah ( ar, فتح '), formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...

leader

Yasser Arafat Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...

visited

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

at the invitation of SKSSAA in 1970. SKSSAA also had contacts with PFLOAG.

Post-Soviet period

The SKSSAA survived the

fall of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

. In 1992 the organization was renamed Society of Afro-Asian Peoples' Solidarity and Co-operation. It has since mainly focused its work towards the Middle East and Asia. In 2003 Mikhail Margelov was elected president of the Society. The archives of the SKSSAA are held by the

State Archive of the Russian Federation The State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) (russian: Государственный архив Российской Федерации (ГАРФ)) is a large Russian state archive managed by Rosarkhiv (the Federal Archival Agency of R ...

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

Statement of the Soviet Afro-Asian Solidarity CommitteeJoint Communique of the Soviet Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee and the African National Congress
Civic and political organizations based in the Soviet Union Foreign relations of the Soviet Union 1956 establishments in the Soviet Union