Abstract
Documents obtained by the author in the Russian archives offer new details about the Soviet role in the Congo crisis in the 1960s and particularly its policy toward the pro-Lumumba government in Orientale Province (December 1960–August 1961) headed by Antoine Gizenga. Evidence from archival documents suggest that the Soviet Union supported Gizenga's government, but did not want to take the international risks involved in delivering material aid to the blockaded Oriental Province. It did provide Gizenga with financial aid and made every effort to get its allies to run the blockade and thus assisting Gizenga while avoiding a direct conflict with the West on the issue. Soviet behaviour in this crisis is another example of the complicated and flexible relationship between security and ideological imperatives in Soviet foreign policy. Moscow was motivated not only by its values and ideas but also by factors affecting the national interests of the USSR, its power and prestige.
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