| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The encounters between Soviet citizens and African students studying in the Soviet Union in the sixties inevitably generated problems of acclimation, social and political conflict, and racial strife. The article illuminates the ways the cultural clash affirmed Russians' and Africans' sense of cultural superiority. The African presence in Russia confirmed Soviet altruism in rearing Africans into cultured and scientifically endowed people. Similarly, African encounters with Soviet daily life reaffirmed their identity as culturally superior to Russians by emphasizing aspects of the individual that directly conflicted with Soviet notions of collectivism. The conflict over culturedness had direct ramifications on the Cold War as it strengthened Africans' pragmatic stance toward Soviet patronage and their reluctance to embrace Soviet ideology and values.
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