The Soviet Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee (, abbreviated СКССАА, SKSSAA) was an organization in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, 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 (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 discourse of SKSSAA was centered on two positions: support of the right of self-determination 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. SKSSAA published, jointly with the Institute of Oriental Studies, the sociopolitical and scientific journal ''Aziia i Afrika Segodnia''. As of 1968, Mirzo Tursunzoda 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, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Southern Cone, NATO, Western European countries and oth ...

countries.

Southern Africa

A part of the SKSSAA aid to African liberation movements was channelled through the

Organization of African Unity The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; , OUA) was an African intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 33 signatory governments. Some of the key aims of the OAU were to encourage political and ec ...

. SKSSAA was active internationally in the struggle against

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

. SKSSAA provided the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

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

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

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; ) is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people in both the occupied Pale ...

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

Yasser Arafat Yasser Arafat (4 or 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), also popularly known by his Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004, Presid ...

visited

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

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 Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of Nationalities, Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. :s: ...

. 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.

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