Africa in World History: Interpretations of Soviet Historiography

Abstract

In Soviet historical science from the very beginning of its formation in the 1920’s, Western pro-colonial historiography's claims that Africa is a continent without a history have been heavily criticized. Back in the late 1920’s USSR, a program was developed for the study of the history of Black Africa from the ancient history and onwards. It was an absolutely innovative program for world African studies, for the first time making the history of African peoples, and not the white man in Africa, the subject of study in the context of world history. Soviet Africanists have priority in the study of such problems of African history as the colonial exploitation of the African peoples and their struggle against colonialism. They drew attention to the study of the pre-colonial history of the peoples of the continent in all its diversity. Despite the fact that Soviet scientists were practically deprived of the opportunity to work in foreign archives of both the West and Africa itself, and even, even briefly, visit the Black Continent, they managed to collect extensive material on the history of the peoples of the continent, comprehend it, open a number of new areas of historical research and go beyond the official Marxist-Leninist understanding of history in the country. Soviet historical African studies did not represent a single array. We can talk about the research of the Leningrad school, which is characterized by complex historical and ethnological research, and the school of Davidson with its opposition to ideological dominants and the search for new topics and directions, as well as sources for their research.